Blogs

I am excited and honored to be giving two free online sessions next week. Both events are sponsored by the fine folks over at Quest Software. Why is That Data Wrong? How Choosing the Wrong Isolation Level Causes Bad Results Tuesday, June 12, Noon Pacific 24 Hours of PASS, Sponsored by Quest Software If you haven’t thought much about isolation levels in SQL Server, chances are your applications can return inconsistent data to your users: data that looks completely wrong.

Row Width Impact on Version Store Usage under Snapshot Isolation

in isolation-levels

May 28, 2018

A question came up in my webcast today on the topic of Snapshot and Read Committed Snapshot Isolation - what impact will enabling these have on my SQL Server instance?

Code: Fixing a Filtered Index Which is Causing Data Modifications to Fail

in index-tuning

May 23, 2018

This question came up in a webcast recently: if a filtered index is causing data modifications to fail, does disabling the filtered index fix the problem?

Free Session! DBA vs Deadlock: How to Out-Index a Deadly Blocking Scenario

May 22, 2018

DBA vs Deadlock: How to Out-Index a Deadly Blocking Scenario June 14, 2018 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PST <- This is past, but no worries, it was recorded Deadlocks strike fear into the hearts of even seasoned DBAs — but they don’t have to! In this session, you’ll get the code to cause a sample deadlock in SQL Server. You’ll see how to interpret the deadlock graph to find out where the conflict lies, and how to design an index to make the deadlock disappear.

What is Deferred Name Resolution, and How Can It Go Wrong?

May 21, 2018

I got a question recently about why a particular bit of code was failing when running.

My first thought: oh, that’s probably related to… whatsitcalled.

Dear SQL DBA: Dealing With a Lack of Control

in dear-sql-dba

May 18, 2018

This week I discuss a question that I’ve gotten in many forms over the years - a lot of the scenarios are so specific that it’s hard to keep them anonymous, but they can be generalized as a bigger problem: how do I deal with being responsible for things that I can’t fully control?

Fake News about Auto Parameterization/Simple Parameterization

in query-tuning

May 4, 2018

I saw a question on Twitter today that took me down a little rabbit hole. And when I go down rabbit holes, I like to blog about it! There’s a TLDR at the bottom of this post if you’re short on time.

Dear SQL DBA: Do DBAs Need a College Degree?

in community, dear-sql-dba

May 3, 2018

Our question this week comes from a database administrator who’s excited to be on a healthy career path, building their work experience, getting certified, and working with a more experienced mentor.

But they’re worried: will lacking a college degree block their career growth down the line?

Dear SQL DBA: How Do I Prepare for Certification Exams? (video)

in dear-sql-dba

April 23, 2018

In this episode, I talk about how to strategize for and prepare for Microsoft Certification exams, using the Database Fundamentals exam as an example.

Query Store Cleanup Can be Part of a Blocking Chain

in query-store, sql-server-technical-posts

April 18, 2018

Forgetfulness can lead to learning something new. This is a bit of a nightmare when it happens in production, but a treat when it happens in an isolated test system– and that’s how I learned this.

I left a bit of blocking open on my test VM, and forgot about it.