What Can AI Really Do?
Steve asks you what you think AI can do for you today, with a few suggestions of what he sees.
Why Your Index Isn't Being Used? - Reading Execution Plans to Find the Real Culprit
Built the index, but SQL Server still scans the whole table? Learn how to read execution plans and find exactly why your index is being ignored.
Improve Query Performance in the Fabric Warehouse with Clustering
Learn how to improve performance issues in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse and leverage cloud-based data analytics effectively.
We Are Eating Our Own Seed Corn
Last week I stood in front of a classroom at Washington State University and looked out at a room full of students who had done everything right. They had studied hard, were earning their degrees, built their portfolios, and showed up with genuine enthusiasm for careers in technology. They wanted to know what the industry […]
Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines That Don't Break at Scale
A few lessons learned in building ETL pipelines and tricks to ensure you can easily maintain these over time.
Why I Don’t Like Shared Development Databases
Today, Kendra explains why she doesn't like shared development databases.
When, and when not, to use LLMs in your data pipeline
LLMs should be used in data pipelines for unstructured text, semantic search, and natural language queries – but avoided for deterministic, high-volume, or regulated tasks. Drawing on my real-world experience building large-scale ML systems, in this guide I’ll explain exactly where LLMs belong in your data pipeline and, just as importantly, where they don’t.
Restoring Azure Key Vault Keys and Validating SQL Server TDE Recovery: Level 7 of the Stairway to TDE
Learn about restoring your keys from an Azure Key Vault in the event of a DR situation.
Writing Before Reading
We often learn to write code before we really learn to read it, which seems like a problem to Steve.
There Are Days When I Feel Like Giving Up on the Plan Cache and Query Store.
In theory, SQL Server performance monitoring is pretty simple: 1. Review the server’s top wait types, 2. Find the queries causing those wait types, 3. Fix those queries, or improve the way the server reacts to them (indexes, settings, etc.). But in practice, step 2 is awful because:
Blogs
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
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...
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 specify only the Resource Database?
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