Tag: spills

Testing SQL Server 2025 Resource Governor tempdb Limits with a Query that Spills a Terabyte

By Kendra Little on January 12, 2026

Category: query-performance , sql-server

SQL Server 2025 introduces a new Resource Governor capability to manage tempdb usage, along with making Resource Governor available in Standard Edition.

I wondered: can Resource Governor’s new tempdb feature help contain queries that don’t use temporary tables, but which spill massive amounts of data to tempdb? The docs say yes, but I always like to get hands-on experience when I can.

I’ve got an awful query that spills like a soft-serve machine choosing violence. Let’s test drive the new tempdb governance features in SQL Server 2025.

How to Cause a Simple Spill to tempdb

By Kendra Little on August 22, 2018

Category: query-performance

Tags: tempdb , spills , execution-plans , table-variables , sql-operations-studio

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.