I recently attended SQLCon and FabCon Europe in Barcelona, and as you would expect, there was a LOT of talk about Fabric, Azure, AI, agents, Copilot, and where the Microsoft data platform is headed next. But one thing from the keynote really stood out to me: SQL Server is not standing still. With all the excitement around newer technologies, it can sometimes feel like our good old friend SQL Server isn’t getting the attention it used to. We’ve all complained about it, in recent years, as the magic word seemed to constantly be “FABRIC”. That was definitely not the message I walked away with in Barcelona. In fact, one statement…
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If there’s one thing every Scooby-Doo episode teaches us, it’s that solving mysteries is a team skill. The gang doesn’t stumble onto answers by luck (well… except when Scooby and Shaggy fall into secret passages). They solve the case because they know how to spot the clues and put them together. Performance tuning in SQL Server works the same way. If you don’t know where to look—or how to interpret the trail of breadcrumbs—you’ll spend more time running from shadows than unmasking the real villain. I see this practically every day. SQL Server Always Leaves Clues Just like Velma dropping and leaving her glasses behind, SQL Server leaves clues all…
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No Scooby-Doo story is complete without footprints leading to a hidden passage. In SQL Server 2025, those footprints point us straight toward the next big feature: optimized locking. And like any good sleuth, we’re going to follow the trail step by step. But first, flip the levers that open the secret door: Turn on ADR before you hunt. Think of Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR) as the latch that unlocks the passage. You must enable ADR before you can enable optimized locking. (And if you ever need to turn ADR off, you’ll have to disable optimized locking first—no sneaking out the window!) RCSI = brighter flashlight. For the biggest win, enable…
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If there’s one thing I’ve learned in consulting, it’s that SQL Server, and other database performance tuning isn’t just about faster queries—it’s directly tied to your bottom line in the cloud. Databases, because of their large memory and IO footprint are some of the most expensive cloud resources. Every extra read, every bloated execution plan, every oversized tier you’re running? That’s money disappearing faster than Scooby Snacks at a midnight ghost chase. So, grab your Scooby-Doo hat, because it’s time to solve the mystery of runaway cloud costs. Clue 1: Start with Query Store – Your Map of Clues Every good mystery starts with clues, and in SQL Server (and…
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Over the years, I’ll admit, SQL Server has come a long way in making life easier for database administrators and with each version it keeps getting better and better. The installation process bakes in more best practices than ever, default settings are smarter, and cloud offerings like Azure SQL and managed instances take a lot of the heavy lifting off our plates. Backups, high availability, patching—all of these are more streamlined than they used to be. It’s tempting to think this means DBAs don’t need to know the “nuts and bolts” or “how things work under the hood” anymore. But here’s the problem: I am seeing a real gap in…
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Occasionally, we must resize or realign our Tempdb log file (.ldf) or data files (.mdf or .ndf) due to a growth event that forces the file size out of whack. To resize we have three options, restart the SQL Server Service, add additional files, or shrink the current file. We most likely have all been faced with run away log files and in an emergency situation restarting the SQL Services may not be an option but we still need to get our log file size smaller before we run out of disk space for example. The process of shrinking down that file can get tricky so I created this flow…
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I didn’t know about this little gem, so I shared it with my team and they didn’t know about it either. Then I tweeted about it and found others who didn’t know about it, so I decided I should write a short little blog. Denny Cherry (B|T) posted a blog on twitter telling everyone to blog as much as possible no matter how small the topic, so I figured why not do this one. So What Is It? Windows PSR “Problem Steps Recorder”. It’s a nifty tool that helps you trouble shoot a computer problem by recording step by step what the user is doing. How to: Go to Start…
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We have all made mistakes in our careers, I thought I’d share one of mine as a quick tip to others so that you don’t make the same one. Everyone has their SQL Alerts setup right? If not, I have included the script below and here is the MSDN link to find out more (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180982.aspx). For those who have setup their alerts, how many of you have remembered to set the DELAY BETWEEN RESPONSES setting? When I worked at the Port of Virginia, I was a little less experienced in SQL and didn’t notice this lovely little option. I of course failed to set it. Can anyone guess what happened?…
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Ever had users come to you and request another version of a report just to add another field and group data differently? Today, was such the day for me. I really don’t like have multiple versions of the same report out there. So, I got a little fancy with the current version of the report and added a parameter then used expressions to group the data differently and hide columns. For those new to SSRS I’ve embedded some links to MSDN to help you along the way. Current Report The report gives summarized counts by invoice date. It currently has a ROW group using date_invoiced and the detail row is…
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My life for the last 2 years has been a constant battle of putting out fires with system performance; finally user complaints have moved getting this resolved as my top priority. Let’s see how I tackled the problem… Symptoms: Very High Disk Latency as high as 300,000 milliseconds (ms) is not unusual Average: 900 – 15,000ms Memory Pressure Slow User Experience Problem: Bad hardware Over-provisioned VM Hosts (what happens on one VM effects the other) Old NetApp SAN No infrastructure budget for new hardware Challenge: Make the system viable with no hardware changes or tweaks Step 1: Brain Storming (in no particular order) Reduce I/O I can probably tune a ton…
