Should You Rebuild or Reorganize Indexes on Large Tables? (Dear SQL DBA Episode 19)
Category:
indexing
, sql-server
The bigger your indexes are, the harder your index maintenance falls. Is it better to rebuild big indexes? Or should you reorganize?
Category: sql-server
Setting up Free Blocking Alerts and Deadlock Monitoring (Dear SQL DBA Episode 17)
Category:
query-performance
, sql-server
What tools in SQL Server will notify you about blocking and help track the queries behind your toughest blocking and deadlocking problems?
Deadlock Code for the WideWorldImporters Sample Database
Category:
monitoring-troubleshooting
, sql-server
If you haven’t checked out Microsoft’s new WideWorldImporters sample database for 2016, it’s a pretty cool new little database. The database makes it easy to play around with new 2016 features, and it even ships with some cool little executables to run inserts in the “workload-drivers” folder.
Unique Constraints vs Unique Indexes
Category:
query-performance
, sql-server
Unique constraints and unique nonclustered indexes have a lot in common: unique constraints are implemented with a unique index behind the scenes.
While unique nonclustered indexes have a couple of additional features, I can still think of a scenario where it might be best to use unique constraints.
Estimated vs. Actual Number of Rows in Nested Loop Operators
Category:
query-performance
, sql-server
This is one of those little details that confused me a ton when I was first working with execution plans.
One problem with learning to work with plans is that there’s just SO MUCH to look at. And it’s a bit spread out. So, even when looking at a single tooltip, things can be confusing.
Let’s talk about the nested loop operator, who can be particularly weird to understand.
Do Clustered Index Columns Count Against Max Nonclustered Key Size?
Category:
indexing
, sql-server
SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database have a lot of little perks. One little thing that changed is that the maximum key size allowed for nonclustered indexes was raised from 900 bytes to 1700 bytes.
Teach Yourself SQL Server Performance Tuning (Dear SQL DBA Episode 12)
Category:
query-performance
, sql-server
You’d love to have a job tuning SQL Servers, but you don’t have an environment to practice in. Here’s how to teach yourself performance tuning and prepare yourself to land and succeed in job interviews.