Lessons Learned from Six Years of Agile Database Development

Alex Kuznetsov describes the agile principles, techniques and tools that allowed his development team to make frequent database refactoring a...

19 November 2013 26 min read

.NET

David Berry in .NET

ASP.NET MVC Performance Monitoring: Custom Metrics, Performance Counters, and Application Insights Integration

Building performance monitoring into ASP.NET MVC applications - adding custom metrics, using Windows performance counters for request timing and throughput,...

29 October 2013 24 min read

Nigel Rivett

The ETL from Hell – Diagnosing Batch System Performance Issues

Too often, the batch systems that underlie a lot of database processing just grow without conscious design. When runs start...

15 October 2013 17 min read

Seth Delconte

Introduction to SQL Server Filtered Indexes

SQL Server filtered indexes can save space and improve performance if they are used properly. Under what circumstances can they...

19 April 2013 13 min read

Erin Stellato

Managing SQL Server Statistics

Accurate statistics about the data held in tables are used to provide the best execution strategy for SQL queries. but...

03 April 2013 31 min read

Fabiano Amorim

Join Reordering and Bushy Plans

Normally, the query Optimiser won't consider 'bushy' plans, where both operands to a join operator could be intermediate results from...

05 March 2013 17 min read

Eugene Philipov

Comparing multiple rows insert vs single row insert with three data load methods

The performance of 'extract, transform, load' (ETL) processes for large quantities of data can always be improved by objective testing...

21 February 2013 15 min read

Grant Fritchey

SQL Server Statistics Questions We Were Too Shy to Ask

If you need to optimise SQL Server performance, it pays to understand SQL Server Statistics. Grant Fritchey answers the 18...

12 February 2013 17 min read

Database Administration

Feodor Georgiev in Database Administration

How come the Hourglass? Why database applications slow down

It is frustrating when you hit 'submit' and you get the hourglass big-time. Is it the database to blame? It...

28 November 2012 12 min read

SQL Server

Louis Davidson

Tim Ford in SQL Server

SQL Server Index Tuning with DMVs: sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats, Missing Index Details, and Operational Stats

Using SQL Server DMVs to tune your indexing strategy - identifying unused indexes (sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats), finding operational hotspots including latching and...

11 October 2012 43 min read

Grant Fritchey

Why is that SQL Server Instance under stress?

There are several reliable indications, using SQL Queries, of the what is causing SQL Server performance problems. Some of these...

11 September 2012 14 min read

SQL Server

Grant Fritchey in SQL Server

Seven T-SQL Performance Anti-Patterns: Wrong Data Types, Non-Sargable WHERE, Multi-Statement UDFs, NOLOCK, Query Hints, RBAR, Nested Views

Seven classic T-SQL performance anti-patterns that cause slow queries: wrong data types forcing implicit conversions, functions in ON/WHERE clauses blocking...

31 July 2012 16 min read

Alex Kuznetsov

Developing Low-Maintenance Databases

Alex's team of developers are geared to doing rapid development of database applications in a busy corporate setting, yet take...

12 June 2012 21 min read

Fabiano Amorim

SQL Server Prefetch and Query Performance

Prefetching can make a surprising difference to SQL Server query execution times where there is a high incidence of waiting...

21 May 2012 11 min read

Jonathan Kehayias

Troubleshooting SQL Server: A Guide for the Accidental DBA

Three SQL Server MVPs, and stalwarts of the SQLServerCentral and MSDN community forums, provide fascinating insight into the most common...

29 September 2011 2 min read

Performance

Jonathan Kehayias in Performance

SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting: Wait Statistics, Virtual File Stats, Performance Counters, and Plan Cache

A systematic methodology for troubleshooting SQL Server performance issues using wait statistics (sys.dm_os_wait_stats), virtual file statistics (sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats), Windows performance counters,...

28 September 2011 45 min read

Chris Farrell

The Top 5 WPF and Silverlight Gotchas

As WPF and Silverlight sit on the .NET framework, they're subject to the rules of the Garbage Collector. That means...

10 August 2011 13 min read

Clive Tong

The Top 5 .NET Memory Management Misconceptions

.NET Memory management is an impressive and comprehensive system, but it's not flawless, and it's occasionally a little anti-intuitive. As...

27 July 2011 26 min read

Joe Celko

Improving Comparison Operators and Window Functions

It is dangerous to assume that your data is sound. SQL already has intrinsic ways to cope with missing, or...

01 April 2011 12 min read

Feodor Georgiev

SQL Server Default Trace: Auditing Guide with Scripts

Complete guide to the SQL Server default trace. Covers database events, security auditing, object changes, and error tracking with ready-to-use...

14 March 2011 18 min read