It is also possible to have perfectly good backups, but then loose the keys. For example, iIf TDE is enabled on a database, then backups are encrypted by default, so...

When participating in an interview, I'll often ask the candidate open ended questions similar to this. It's a lot more telling than a simple question about "What is a clustered...

The data management view [sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats] aggregates statistics like total reads / writes, last read / write datetime, etc. However, the counters do get reset whenever the server is restarted. The...

A substantial profiler trace, logging a lot of data for which you're unsure what to do with; that may cause more problems than it helps. It can consume CPU or...

Perhaps the operating system debate is just a needless distraction. Expanding on the existing SQLOS subsystem, the SQL Server database engine could theoretically run on bare metal and do all...

Of course you should avoid rebuilding indexes. However, if for whatever reason you do need to periodically rebuild indexes on TB sized tables, then definately parition the indexes and REBUILD...

.. Finally we get to cost. Linux gets adopted a lot because it’s free. I looked on Azure at the time I wrote this and a D15 v2 instance...

As database professionals we should not feel obliged to "toe the line" or "jump on the bandwagon" when it comes to IoT, Social Media, or even Big Data. Other professions...

The index process may not be slow but rather stalled in some type of blocked state. Use SP_WHO2 while it's running to confirm.

For traditional RowStore tables, it depends on the column definition, data types, and other factors like compression, page fill, and fragmentation. I once say a table with only about 150,000...

From a performance, security, usability, and maintainability perspective; stored procedures clearly have an advantage over embedded or ad-hoc SQL. My approach to answering this questions would be to think of...

Back in the early 2000's, many of us were still using Windows Remote Desktop across a 56 Kbps dial-up modem connection, but what constitutes a slow internet connection today is...

Transactions represents your user table which I'm loading with mockup rows.