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SQL Server Patches for Meltdown and Spectre Attacks
The Meltdown and Spectre attacks are newly announced ways of hacking CPUs. They affect both Windows and Linux. If you’re running under virtualization or cloud IaaS, any other running guest can try to...
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The Perils Of VSS Snaps
So much, so often Ah, backups. Why are they so tough to get right? You start taking them, you find out you’re not taking enough of them, or that they’re not the right kind, or that you’re not using...
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Automating Complacency
There’s no Latin word for Robot I’m all for automation, especially when it comes to the boring stuff. As awesome as the automation routines we have for that are, I still see people messing it up. Right...
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[Video] Office Hours 2018/1/3 (With Transcriptions)
This week Brent and Richie discuss the latest big Intel CPU security flaw, distributed transactions, rebuilding indexes, SQL Server health check, GDPR regulations, Availability Groups issues, improving...
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The 2018 Data Professionals Salary Survey Results
How much do database administrators, analysts, architects, developers, and data scientists make? We asked, and 3,113 of you from 73 countries answered this year. I make my query bucks the hard way...
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SQL Server 2017 CU3 adds execution statistics for scalar-valued, user-defined...
Estimated Plans Need Not Apply This is, of course, only available in actual plans. All together now: If a query uses one or more user-defined scalar functions (such as T-SQL functions or CLR...
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First Responder Kit Release: It’s Too Cold Not To Do A Release
You look just like a snake when you crawl like a worm. You can download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip here. sp_Blitz Improvements #1310: @CferMN reported quite an odd conversion error! Turns out,...
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SQL Server 2017 CU3 adds CXCONSUMER waits, doesn’t mention it
The revolution will not be documented At the PASS 2017, Pedro Lopes (don’t call him low-pez) from Microsoft mentioned that a new parallelism wait was getting added soon. That wait, if you’re too darn...
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SQL Server 2017 CU3 adds tempdb spill diagnostics in DMVs and Extended Events
Where have you been all my life? Whenever I’m teaching people about query tuning, two things come up almost without fail: parameter sniffing and tempdb spills. They’re not mutually exclusive — some...
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SQL Server 2017 CU3 adds optimizer row goal information in query plans
Row Whats? Like it or not, the optimizer has row goals. We’re not going to go terribly in-depth here, because the point is just to make you aware that this is in executions plans, and I’ll be adding it...
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[Video] The Junior DBA Workout Plan
Squat, deadlift, overhead press, and bench press. In the gym, it’s easy to figure out what you need to be doing to get stronger. When you show up to work, you’re overwhelmed by all the things happening...
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How Much Can One Row Change A Plan, Part 3
All The Rage We’ve asked how much one column and even one row can change a plan before. The doctor says I’m not allowed to read blog comments anymore on account of my blood pressure, but the AI I wrote...
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How Much Can One Row Change A Plan, Part 4
Monte Carlo Or Bust In Part 3, I showed you how two queries with TOP clauses can produce wildly different plans. To figure some stuff out about why the plans changed, let’s focus on the Nested Loops...
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When Does Index Size Change Index Choice?
Size Matters? One thing I hear a lot is that the optimizer will take the size of an index into account when choosing which one to use. The tl;dr here is that it may make more of a difference when it...
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Updated (and Smaller!) Stack Overflow Demo Databases
The place that saves your job The nice folks over at StackOverflow.com (shout out, @onlybluefeet) updated their public data dump last month. This time around, I’m giving you two options: Full size...
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What Students Said About My New Hands-On Mastering SQL Server Classes
In my new 3-day Mastering Index Tuning, Mastering Query Tuning, and Mastering Server Tuning, you get remote access to a SQL Server where you get a series of lab assignments. There’s a real-world style...
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Computed Columns: Reversing Data For Easier Searching
During Training We were talking about computed columns, and one of our students mentioned that he uses computed columns that run the REVERSE() function on a column for easier back-searching. What’s...
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Two Code Patterns That Don’t Virtualize Well
Virtualization used to be a really Big Deal for database admins: we had to do a lot of careful planning to get a virtualization project done right. These days, virtualization is more and more of a...
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New Speed Controls for Training Videos
All of our training classes include Instant Replay, the ability to watch a recorded version of your training class as soon as you buy. This lets you start learning right away, prepping for the live...
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[Video] The Junior DBA Workout Plan
Squat, deadlift, overhead press, and bench press. In the gym, it’s easy to figure out what you need to be doing to get stronger. When you show up to work, you’re overwhelmed by all the things happening...
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