Performance of the SQL MERGE vs. INSERT/UPDATE
The SQL MERGE statement offers convenience, safety and elegance, but how does it perform compared to other methods?
Your Favorite Feature that Needs Work
This week Steve Jones asks what parts of SQL Server would you improve and why.
PowerShell Invoke-SQLCmd outputs DataTables you can INSERT into SQL Server
Aaron Nelson explains how you can take an existing SQL query, run it against a SQL Server and then take the results and save them to a different SQL Server without using Linked Servers.
A Failed Jobs Monitoring System
One DBA's tale of how to monitor jobs for failure and ensure that the DBA is alerted to the fact that there is a problem. (from Feb 2008)
Adding Slicers to a Reporting Services Report
This article shows you how to create dynamic slicers from a data set in an SSRS report
DBA Morning Check List
This article helps the DBA find and fix issues quickly by creating a DBA Morning Checklist.
Execution Plans
How many of you use Execution Plans to tune your queries? Do you understand the impact of different indexes? Mr. Vijayakumar looks at his experiments with different types of indexes and their effects on the execution plan use. A great article for those of you that want to learn more about how you can tune your server for better performance.
Monitoring Drive and Database Free Space
SQL Server will autogrow your databases as they run out of space. But the process doesn't manage space, nor does it check the free space on the drive. Allowing autogrow to grow unchecked and unmanaged will eventually use up all the free disk space and potentially crash your server. New author Mark Nash brings you his system for monitoring space usage and generating a report that eases this process.
Performance Monitoring - Basic Counters
What counters should you monitor to baseline your servers? Which ones for checking performance? It's an interesting question and one that always leads Steve Jones to a wide range of sources in print and on the web. Steve compiled his own list and finally has put some words around the list to give some justification of why they are chosen. Read on and see how this compares to your list (you do have a list don't you?).
Blogs
Programmatically Retrieving MLV Lineage and Refresh Times
Materialized lake views (MLVs) in Microsoft Fabric are an effective way to implement medallion...
Upgrading SQL Server Containers on the Laptop
By Steve Jones
I don’t have SQL Server installed on my laptop. In an effort to keep...
Forums
Increase Deadlock Detection
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Increase Deadlock Detection
A Tool is Better than a Script
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Tool is Better than...
Understanding Deadlock Victim Selection in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Understanding Deadlock Victim Selection in...
Question of the Day
Increase Deadlock Detection
How can I alter the deadlock detection interval to 2 seconds instead of 5 seconds on my SQL Server 2025 instance?
See possible answers