What Counts for a DBA: Laziness
Louis Davidson is willing to bet that a relatively small handful of lazy people have done more for the world than all of the hard working people combined.
Data Science Laboratory System - Instrumentation
It is sensible to check the performance of different solutions to data analysis in 'lab' conditions. Measurement by instrumentation makes it easier to develop systems that are efficient.
Toggle Switches
SQL Server has grown and expanded to provide administrators and developers with a great deal of information on how it processes queries. However Steve Jones asks if you want more information and options for tuning.
Use of Identity Property to Resolve Concurrency Issues
This article describes how the identity property was used to resolve contention in a database
Creating Custom T-SQL Conditions and Policies for SQL Server Policy-Based Management
In SQL Server, the built in conditions and policies are a great place to get started with monitoring your environment, but there are no facets for some aspects of SQL Server I want to monitor. How can I check on my environment using Policy Based Management? Check out this tip to learn more.
SQLServerCentral Runs sp_Blitz - Performance Part 2
The second part of our performance examination on the SQLServerCentral database servers using the sp_Blitz script from Brent Ozar, PLF.
Zettabytes and Beyond
The growth of data, and the sheer scale of data we store and manage is stunning. Steve Jones looks at the rates of growth these days.
Query Tuning, Encryption, and more at SQL Intersection
Grant Fritchey is speaking about query tuning, Steve Jones talking about Encryption, Paul Randal telling you how to make SQL Server faster. All at SQL Intersection. Join us in April.
Using Optimizer_WhatIF and StatsStream to Simulate a Production Environment
SQL Server's Query optimiser judges the best query plan from the data in the relevant tables and the server's hardware. How, then, can you investigate the query plans being generated for slow-running queries on a customer's production server when you can neither access the server, nor recreate the database from a backup?
Populating a Vertically Filtered Replicated Table
Vertical filtering of a large replicated table introduces the potential for unwanted transactions to be pushed to the subscriber. This article talks about how you might avoid this.
Blogs
A bespoke reporting solution doesn’t have to cost the earth
By ChrisJenkins
You could be tolerating limited reporting because there isn’t an off the shelf solution...
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
Forums
Lots of FKs
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Lots of FKs
Real-time On-prem SQL Server Data in Excel – Over the Internet
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Real-time On-prem SQL Server Data...
Can You Let Go of Determinism
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Can You Let Go of...
Question of the Day
Lots of FKs
In SQL Server 2025, what are the most outgoing and incoming FK references a table can have?
See possible answers