Baselines
It can be hard to analyze performance without a baseline. This week, Steve Jones asks how you might use your baseline to better determine what problems you are having with your SQL Server.
Join Operations – Nested Loops
This is part I of III in a series on the physical join operators in SQL Server.
Silent Truncation of SQL Server Data Inserts
There are certain circumstances where SQL Server will silently truncate data, without providing an error or warning, before it is inserted into a table. In this tip we cover some examples of when this occurs.
A New Type of Colocation Facility
Microsoft is working on their generation 4 data centers, which might be a great idea for companies if they can implement a private cloud.
Custom Metric - Indexes with Excessive Writes
A new custom metric is available at SQL Monitor Metrics. This tracks indexes that have more writes than reads. Use this code if you want to find out if you might be over indexing your tables.
SQL Server 2012 Integration Services - Introduction to Managing SQL Server with PowerShell
Marcin Policht presents the fundamental principles of PowerShell in the context of SQL Server 2012. Join him as he steps through its initial setup and configuration, and reviews specific management areas where its advantages can be realized.
Stairway to XML: Level 9 - Creating XML-Based Functions
In this Level, we’ll look at how to use XML methods within user-defined functions to return XML fragments and values from your target XML instance.
The Knowledge Graph
Google has a new project to use a "database of everything" to help you learn more.
SQL Server Performance Tuning – Index Tuning
In earlier installments of this series we looked at T-SQL Performance optimizations along with different T-SQL practices, we can now turn our attention to the second part of this series which is index Tuning
Blogs
Monday Monitor Tips: Virtual Machine Usage and Cost
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve been requesting for a number of years is cost...
Advice I Like: Respect
By Steve Jones
“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” –...
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
SQL Server Still Wins
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Still Wins
DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
Question of the Day
DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
When running DBCC CHECKDB on SQL Server 2025, can I include the Resource Database?
See possible answers