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?
I recently posted on LinkedIn that I was interviewing for a SQL Server database administrator role for the first time in a long time. I invited folks: “Ask me your favorite interview question!”
Stephen Vakil had a great one: “when should you use SQL Server to store your data?”
For situations where SQL Server is already in use and there’s a relatively low barrier to entry, I think it’s simpler to turn this question around and ask, “When is SQL Server not a good choice for storing your data?”
This post is also available as a podcast episode, and on YouTube.
One thing I enjoy about AI chatbots is that they can help me recognize when I’ve missed something obvious.
We’ve just published a new article in the SQL docs, Tune nonclustered indexes with missing index suggestions . The article explains what the missing index feature is, limitations of the feature, and how to use missing index DMVs and missing index suggestions in Query Store to tune indexes.
During a discussion of troubleshooting query timeouts in Azure SQL Database recently, I wondered: can you find queries that timed out in Query Store?
You can.
We’ve recently updated the SQL Server and Azure SQL index architecture and design guide. This article is an in-depth guide to indexing in databases using the SQL Server engine, including SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and Azure Synapse Analytics.
Our recent update adds a table to categorize the types of indexes discussed in the article, clarifies B-trees vs B+ trees, and describes how row locators (aka “secret columns”) are used in nonclustered indexes.
Have you ever tried to create an object in SQL Server, but it failed due to a missing table, column, or other dependency? If so, you’ve hit a case where SQL Server doesn’t offer ‘deferred name resolution’.
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