Blogs

Error 1204: When SQL Server Runs Out of Locks

Error 1204: When SQL Server Runs Out of Locks

on April 26, 2017

I recently did a Dear SQL DBA episode answering a question about lock timeouts and memory in SQL Server. I really enjoyed the episode, and thought it would be fun to follow up and show what it looks like if SQL Server doesn’t have enough memory to allocate locks.

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Run perfmon.exe /sys to Remember Your Counters in Windows Perfmon (free video)

Run perfmon.exe /sys to Remember Your Counters in Windows Perfmon (free video)

on April 24, 2017

The problem: by default, the Performance Monitor application in Windows doesn’t remember which counters you like to use.

This can mean a lot of clicking every single time you open perfmon.

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Are Bad Statistics Making My Query Slow? (Dear SQL DBA Episode 39)

Are Bad Statistics Making My Query Slow? (Dear SQL DBA Episode 39)

on April 20, 2017

An important query is suddenly slow. Is it because statistics are out of date? This is tricky to figure out, and updating statistics right away can make troubleshooting even harder. Learn how to use query execution plans to get to the heart of the question and find out if stats are really your problem, or if it’s something else.

In this 35 minute episode:

  • 00:39 SQL Server 2017 Announced
  • 01:10 New video from Microsoft’s Joe Sack demonstrating Adaptive Query Processing
  • 03:05 This week’s question: Are bad stats making my query slow?
  • 05:26 Demo of finding plan in cache and analyzing stats begins
  • 28:17 What to do when stats ARE the problem

Code samples are at the bottom of the page

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Trace Flag 4199: No Per-Session Override if You Enable it Globally

Trace Flag 4199: No Per-Session Override if You Enable it Globally

on April 19, 2017

You can enable and disable trace flags either globally or per-session in SQL Server.

This makes it seem like perhaps if you enable optimization trace flag 4199 globally for all sessions, you might be able to disable it per-session.

But that’s NOT how it works.

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Index Maintenance and Performance (Dear SQL DBA Episode 38)

Index Maintenance and Performance (Dear SQL DBA Episode 38)

on April 13, 2017

They made their index maintenance job smarter, and their queries got slower in production afterward. Could the index maintenance have harmed performance?

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Will Optimize for Adhoc Workloads Save Memory?

Will Optimize for Adhoc Workloads Save Memory?

on April 12, 2017

A while back, I got a question about enabling SQL Server’s ‘Optimize for Adhoc Workloads’ setting. The gist of the question was whether or not enabling this setting might free up extra memory on their SQL Server instance.

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Poster in the works: SSMS Shortcuts Explained by Cats

Poster in the works: SSMS Shortcuts Explained by Cats

on April 10, 2017

I had a fun highlight recently that I wanted to share. I’ve got a new poster idea I’m crazy about.

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