Improved Support for Parallel Statistics Rebuilds
Jonathan Kehayias takes a closer look at a new trace flag that allows you to process multiple concurrent statistics updates on the same table.
SQL Server 2016 is Just Faster
SQL Server 2016 runs faster, sometimes without you changing anything.
What SQL Statements Are Currently Using The Transaction Logs?
This article presents a utility that will show you what SQL statements are using the transaction logs, in terms of log space used and transaction duration.
How to version a SQL Server Master Data Services model
In SQL Server Master Data Services all the entities are organized in a model. Once a model is ready to be released to subscribers, it should be frozen and marked as ready for subscribers. Until a model is marked as ready, a model is typically deemed as work in progress. In this article, Siddarth Mehta covers the standard process that's required to release a completed version of the model to subscribers.
Master Data Management (MDM): Help or Hindrance?
Knut Jürgensen shares his experiences, both positive and negative, with regard to the function that Master Data Management fulfils within a company. Too often this critical aspect of a business is overlooked or pushed aside without paying it the attention it deserves based on the cost benefits available.
Stretch Pricing
The Stretch database feature in SQL Server 2016 is fantastic, but is it too expensive?
Row Level Security Part 3 – Disabling Row Level Security for DBAs and Database Owners
In the third part of his series on Row Level Security (RLS), Greg Larson shows how to disable RLS for database administrators, sysadmins, and database owners.
The Internals of WITH ENCRYPTION
Paul White discusses the internals of SQL Server's WITH ENCRYPTION clause, and explains why it is not as safe as you might think.
The PoSh DBA: Accessing SQL Server from PowerShell
The worst part for a DBA of getting started with PowerShell is often just figuring out the best way of working with SQL Server. The most suitable approach to accessing SQL Server depends on the sort of task you need to produce a script for. Laerte Junior aims at a simple guide to the most common approaches and when to use them.
Blogs
Who Are You Doing It For?
By Brian Kelley
But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
Forums
DB Design Methods
I've read a few posts regarding what we use to design DB models and...
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers