ROWS is (almost ?) ALWAYS offers MUCH better performance than RANGE! Try your best to use ROWS when possible.

ChrisM@Work (9/12/2016)

---

From memory Phil, if you explicitly drop...

I have a STRONG vote for OPTION (RECOMPILE). That way you always get the best chance for the "optimal" plan no matter what your input(s) are.

That should not be needed on modern versions of SQL...

Which query is slower?

sp_whoisactive to find currently-running stuff that is waiting/blocked.

Get a copy of Glenn Berry's SQL Server Diagnostic Scripts and use the goodness therein to find bad things.

sp_whoisactive can be put into a table and track/trend

Glenn Berry's SQL Server Diagnostics scripts have lots of things you can store in a table and track/trend (file IO stalls and...

Honestly you simply stop using it....

gary789 (9/5/2016)

---

Hi again,

I think i've just worked this out... its spills.

I've not noticed in the past but on checking some execution plans there are spill warnings for tempdb.

This points to...

mikes84 (9/2/2016)

---

Ok great advice. Thank you!

One more question -- If I plan to use Ola Hallengren's maintenance scripts for full, differential, and transaction log backups (or even if I create...

1) Insert the data into a table on the linked server and access it directly from there with the local sproc.

2) Use a table valued parameter to pass the data...

mikes84 (9/2/2016)

---

Thanks, Kevin! I've seen your sessions at SQL Saturdays before -- always very informative.

And just to clarify, you would recommend Log Shipping over mirroring or replication? Also, I assume...

1) What metric you gave do you think indicates that SQL Server has lots of free RAM do devote to temp objects?

2) TSQL ad hoc queries can create explicit temp...

1) If you put indexed views on top of an OLTP database you can DESTROY that application's performance and concurrency!! And by destroy I mean make absolutely unusable.

2) There are...

I don't know about the issue, but I will say PLEASE DON'T USE DTA unless you REALLY REALLY know what you are doing!!!! And if you do, then you won't...

ScottPletcher (8/31/2016)

---

TheSQLGuru (8/31/2016)

---

The optimizer can and often does (in my experience) introduce a SORT into the query plan on a small table to facilitate a merge join against a larger...