Max Mem setting varies depending on numberous factors including all stuff running on the server, server RAM, network needs, etc. It should also be altered by watching pages/sec setting...

It is true that Lock Pages in Memory only works for Enterprise Edition of SQL Server. However, you should be aware that not allowing memory to be trimmed can...

This actually makes sense if you think about it. Accessing hard drives for data (physical I/O) is SIX orders of magnitude slower than that same data flying through the...

I second Jeff - rewrite the code to not use a cursor at all. Failing this, wouldn't a FAST_FORWARD cursor be best with NOLOCKs in the SELECT?

Is this an HP box? They have a very nasty bug in their iLO driver that causes RAM flushing too, just like the large file copy bug.

In Enterprise Edition only Lock Pages in Memory can keep the OS from flushing SQL Server data pages out of RAM. This can be a good thing, obviously, since...

Turn what on Steven?

Nice article! One minor point is that I believe it is technically more correct in this case to use UNION ALL instead of UNION since there are no distinct...

I took it that if there was an identity column and the Nth record was absent then that Nth record shouldn't be returned. 😛

Visio is definitely better than the diagramming tool that comes with SSMS. You can also get a VERY nice modeller from Embarcadero called ERStudio for a really good price...

If you have an identity column then % operator should be the quickest mechanism to get every N records back.

I think it is better said that if you don't set the maximum memory you WILL have problems. For an 8GB server with nothing else running on it but...

One thought: if the various raid partitions don't have many ACTIVE spindles you could have more files/file groups that would be optimal. Sounds like you have a pleathora...

1) different hardware?

2) different memory allocation, server settings?

3) fragmented indexes/data/os files?

4) out of date statistics?

5) bad query plan from parameter sniffing?

1) with 20GB RAM, do not use /3GB, just /PAE and enable AWE. Also consider upgrading to 64 bit sql server.

2) Colin, can't sql 2005 std use more than...