One of the first things you learn when working with SQL Server, and other transactional based SQL systems, is that set based operations perform best. If you are querying data, a cursor pulling individual rows doesn’t perform as well as a single query. It doesn’t matter if that cursor is on the client side or … Read more
I used to believe this option was something almost absolute: it should be enabled as best practice. I was in some way happy when all my demos for SQL Server 2022 started to fail, and I discovered it was because this option was enabled by default. This weekend I attended a technical session which caught … Read more
My initial goal of documenting and exploring SQL Server Row Level Security (RLS) was to show the basic functionality and focus on a few performance and administrative items. I also wanted to confirm my base assumption that it is very secure. This security makes it useful in many situations to segregate data by user groups, … Read more
In order to test graph structures, I needed a large set of random data. In some ways, this data will resemble the IMDB database I will include later in this chapter, but to make it one, controllable in size and two, random, I created this random dataset. I loaded a set of values for an … Read more
Many years ago, in the company I was working for, one junior DBA started a reindex operation in a SQL Server Standard Edition on the most busy day of the month. Do I need to explain what happened next? It’s easy to use the imagination on this one. What’s the option to solve this? Online … Read more
Many DBA skills transfer when moving to the cloud, but you'll have to make some adjustments in many cases. In this post, Dennes Torres explains one of the differences when setting up Extended Events sessions in Azure SQL Database.… Read more
How to make conditional decisions in a package It may seems strange the lack of a decision task for the control flow. However, there is a work around to allow us achieve the same effect we would have with a “decision task”. The precedence control between tasks can be based on an expression. Building the … Read more
Instant file initialization can speed up database creation, file growth, and restores. Greg Larsen explains how to configure it and how it works.… Read more
Almost every environment now a days need to source data from different source system. Here is how you can establish connection using Attunity Connector from Microsoft SQL Server to Oracle Database from SSIS. This method is extremely fast if you want to land millions and millions of records on the fly from Oracle to SQL Server. … Read more
To be efficient and save money, many organizations are looking at hyperconverged infrastructures for SQL Server. In this article, Robert Sheldon explains what to consider for SQL Server and hyperconvergence.… Read more
The only way to derive meaning from the massive amounts of data collected today is to develop innovative high-performing, high-capacity storage solutions. In this book, Robert Sheldon explains the many types of storage currently available and what's on the way.… Read more
The Malta Data Saturday is finishing. I still need to compile the numbers, but the comments and feedback are great. Let’s talk a bit about the story of this conference and I hope this story can provide it’s 2 cents to the build of our new era, at least starting many discussions about do’s and don’ts … Read more
Last Friday I appeared in the middle of a Brazilian Twitch live made by a friend and while they were talking and studying, I provided some links full of content to them. Nowadays, there are a lot of free content on internet. Not only free content, but also content well organized in a good sequence … Read more
In my last blog, I built some Powershell to take a graph that I had modelled and bring that into SQL Server in a format that could be imported into SQL Server node and edge tables. I have started on a tool to take that imported data and create a set of graph tables to … Read more
SQL Server tech interview questions must be well crafted to make sure the candidate actually knows the topic. In this article, Sergey Gigoyan provides his favorite questions for interviewing SQL Server developers.… Read more
When inserting rows into a heap, SQL Server must sometimes update the PFS page which can PFS contention and affect performance. In this article, Uwe Ricken demonstrates how to measure PFS contention.… Read more
SSDT (SQL Server Data Tools) is really great to manage database schema changes. However, due to a disappeared feature, SSDT can make you go mad very easily. The schema compare has a lot of configurations. A really lot of configurations. You start the schema compare using the right-click on the SSDT project. Before starting the … Read more
Temporary tables are used by every DB developer, but they're not likely to be too adventurous with their use, or exploit all their advantages. They can improve your code's performance and maintainability, but can be the source of grief to both developer and DBA if things go wrong and a process grinds away inexorably slowly. We asked Phil for advice, thinking that it would be a simple explanation.… Read more