Jer and Kendar Explore Optimized Locking

SQL Server has a new feature that’s currently only available in Azure SQL Database: Optimized Locking.

Jeremiah Peschka joins Kendra (aka Kendar) to talk through the docs and nerd out on locks, blocks, and how to pronounce the acronym “LAQ”.

Prefer to explore optimized locking with a diagram? I’ve also got a little sketchnote for ya.

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Dear SQL DBA - Performance Tuning with Erik Darling

SQL Server performance tuning expert Erik Darling joins the podcast today to chat about how good queries can go bad and how bad queries can get better.

He also answers the question on everyone’s mind: if he was a database, what database would he be?

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My Performance Tuning Precon and Git Session at PASS Data Community Summit 2023

I’m thrilled to be heading to Seattle in November for the PASS Data Community Summit. My favorite things about the PASS Summit are making connections, learning from folks, broading my horizons, helping build a vibrant community, and teaching.

Teaching is a great privilege, and I’m excited to be giving both a pre-conference session and a regular session. I chat about the sessions in this ~4 minute video.

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Learner's Guide to SQL Server Query Tuning

Following on from my Learner’s Guide to SQL Server Performance Triage, I’m tackling Query Tuning. In this guide, I’m experimenting with an outline style rather than expanding each paragraph.

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Should Release Cadence Be Slowed If You Don't Have Database Load Testing?

I got a question recently about a panel discussion on Database Development Disasters at SQL in the City Streamed. I had framed a question as, “how fast should development go without load or performance testing?”

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How to Cause a Simple Spill to tempdb

Sometimes it’s useful to know how to cause a problem.

Maybe you’ve never encountered the problem, and want to get hands-on experience. Maybe you’re testing a monitoring tool, and want to see if a condition flags an alert. Maybe you’re testing out a new client tool, and want to see how it displays it.

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Take the SQLChallenge: Tuning a Stored Procedure

I’ve just published a new SQLChallenge course, and I think it’s one of the best ones yet.

Your mission is to:

1. Identify which statement is slowing down our stored procedure the most
2. Tune the code to speed it up. You can change the query that is slow as well as anything else in the procedure that will help you make that statement faster.

In the solution videos, I’ll step through multiple strategies to figure out which statement in the procedure is slowing it down the most – because in real life, you need to have a whole bag of tricks in different situations. 

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