Performance Counter DMV sys.dm_os_performance_counters
By querying a single DMV, sys.dm_os_performance_counters to be precise, you can collect counter information that you would receive from PerfMon for the various SQL Server counters.
How the Resource Governor Helped Our Report Server
Trying to manage the load in a reporting server can be hard. Roy Ernest shows that Resource Governor might be a great solution that has worked in his environment.
Kudos to the Community
Steve Jones takes a day to thank everyone that donates their time to help others in the community.
The Great Forum Debate
Phil discusses the pros and cons of the traditional versus stack overflow-style model for forum debate, and wonders whether there is a database model that would support all these different forms of discussion, or cooperative work, so that we can simply fit the 'visualization' to the nature of the particular discussion.
TSQL Challenge 33 - Calculate list of bookings fully paid on the book
This problem is related to a reservation system where customers book a service and pay it in one or more transactions which may happen on different dates.
Operator of the Week - Lazy Spool
Continuing to illuminate the depths of SQL Server's Query Optimizer, Fabiano shines a light on the sixth major Showplan Operator on his list: the Lazy Spool. What does the Lazy Spool do that's so special, how does the Query Optimizer use it, and why is it so Lazy? Fabiano Amorim explains all.
The Phantom DBA
This week Steve Jones has a poll about the difficulties in getting the DBA position into companies. What's your current opinion of this profession?
SSAS: Explaining the State Transitions Viewer for Sequence Clustering
In SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008, Microsoft has added some fantastic visualizations around data-mining algorithms. These visual aids allow us to see exactly what a particular algorithm is predicting or describing—making a difficult subject easier to understand.
Concurrent processing in SSIS – Part 2
The second part of a series that looks at two additional techniques for processing data in parallel in Integration Services.
Dinosaur Databases
Do you work on a database system that's a dinosaur? A recent article called out RDBMSse as dinosaurs, but Steve Jones doesn't think that's correct.
Blogs
A New Word: los vidados
By Steve Jones
los vidados – n. the half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago, who you might...
In-Person CISA Training – April 13-16, 2026
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB 2026
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
Forums
query to track time spent on individual tasks in SSIS
Hi everyone I am looking at building a query to determine how much time...
SQL Server Transactional Replication from Always On Availability Groups to Azure SQL Database
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Transactional Replication from...
Hidden Heroes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Hidden Heroes
Question of the Day
Identities and Sequences I
When thinking of the Identity property for auto incrementing columns and sequences for the same action, which are explicitly linked to increment a number in a table when a new row is added?
See possible answers