Using Microsoft DiskSpd to Test Your Storage Subsystem
Glenn Berry gives a thorough guide on using DiskSpd, a command-line tool that measures the performance characteristics of your storage subsystem.
Live Query Statistics in SQL Server 2016
SQL Server 2016, which at the time of writing is in preview release CTP 2.1, has a great new feature called Live Query Statistics. In this article, Koen Verbeeck introduces the new feature which allows you to view a live execution plan of an active query, giving a fantastic opportunity for troubleshooting and debugging.
Your Portfolio
Putting together a portfolio allows you the chance to showcase what you're good at doing. Steve Jones thinks this might be a good thing for technical people.
Getting the Measure of Your Application
The idea of ‘instrumenting’ an application often seems to puzzle application developers. Modern IDEs are so full of code-tracers, debuggers and profilers that developers seem to resent the idea that applications should be designed and developed so as to be measurable. Tony Davis looks at the issue.
Mission Critical Deployments
Is a software deployment responsible for a plane crash? That's a scary thought.
Nope to NoOps, No way to NoDBA
Phil Factor suspect the NoOps movement is dressing up some old mistakes in fancy new clothes.
MySQL Error Handling using the Signal and Resignal Statements
MySQL introduced the SIGNAL and RESIGNAL statements in version 5.5 to allow you to raise your own error conditions from stored procedures, triggers, and events. Rob Gravelle demonstrates how to utilize both.
Blogs
Advice I Like: Knots
By Steve Jones
Learn how to tie a bowline knot. Practice in the dark. With one hand....
Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
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How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
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Upgrading Admin Queries
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Question of the Day
Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
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