Blogs

Desktop Wallpapers and Webcasts on Isolation Levels and Memory

Desktop Wallpapers and Webcasts on Isolation Levels and Memory

on July 28, 2017

I’ve been having lots of fun drawing and doing webcasts this summer. I’ve got four SQL Server themed desktop wallpapers to share, and I’ve got lots more coming– along with a new chunk of free webcasts.

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Downloadable SQL Server Desktop Wallpapers

Downloadable SQL Server Desktop Wallpapers

on July 26, 2017

I’ve set things up so you can quickly download desktop wallpapers featuring cartoons and SQL Server concepts.

Get ’em here

Grab wallpapers atΒ https://github.com/LitKnd/littlekendracomments/tree/main/SQLWorkbooks-Wallpaper-and-Posters.

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Did that Query Eliminate Partitions? (videos)

Did that Query Eliminate Partitions? (videos)

on July 19, 2017

Table partitioning makes execution plans a bit more confusing.

Free Course

I have a free online course which walks you through decoding execution plans, including whether or not partition elimination occurred.

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IF Statement Branching and Parameter Sniffing

IF Statement Branching and Parameter Sniffing

on July 12, 2017

It can be tricky to remember that SQL Server doesn’t short circuit on IF statements in stored procedures. Even when you know this, sometimes it’s hard to recognize the impacts.

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Index Rebuild, Reorganize, and Statistics in Maintenance Plans in SQL Server 2016

Index Rebuild, Reorganize, and Statistics in Maintenance Plans in SQL Server 2016

on July 5, 2017

Working with maintenance plans is supposed to be easy, but I find it to be quite difficult.

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New Free Webcasts on Interviewing and Indexing

New Free Webcasts on Interviewing and Indexing

on June 29, 2017

Sharpen your performance tuning and indexing skills this summer, for free, one week at a time!

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Using sp_WhoIsActive with Temp Tables to Limit Data Collected

Using sp_WhoIsActive with Temp Tables to Limit Data Collected

on June 28, 2017

The free sp_WhoIsActive procedure by Adam Machanic can be very useful for monitoring SQL Server: I’m a big fan.

But I’ve learned the hard way that it’s easy to collect too much information with sp_WhoIsActive, particularly if you set up jobs where you have the procedure log data to a table for later review. Collecting the text of SQL Server queries, their execution plans, and more, can take up a lot of room, and I’ve managed to fill up a server drive or two with a little over-eager collection. Whoops!

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