SQL Server 2005 collects statistical information about indexes and column data stored in the database. These statistics are used by the SQL Server query optimizer to choose the most efficient plan for retrieving or updating data. Good statistics allow...

Database queries should be able to execute concurrently without errors and within acceptable wait times. When they don't, and when the queries behave correctly when executed in isolation, you will need to investigate the causes of the blocking. Generally...

PAE (Physical Address Extension) PAE is the added ability of the IA32 processor to address more than 4GB of physical memory. The following OS's can use PAE to take advantage of physical memory beyond 4GB: Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server...

DBCC CHECKDB checks the logical and physical integrity of all objects in the specified database by performing the following: Runs DBCC CHECKALLOC on the database Runs DBCC CHECKTABLE on every table and view in the database Runs DBCC CHECKCATALOG...

The host node in the failover cluster performs a "looks alive" check every 5 seconds. An IsAlive check is performed every 60 seconds using SELECT @@SERVERNAME. If this fails the IsAlive retries 5 times and then attempts to reconnect to the instance of...

SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition introduced support for the use of Windows 2000 Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) to address 8GB of memory on Windows 2000 Advanced Server and 32GB of memory on Windows 2000 Datacentre. With AWE, SQL Server can reserve...

Locking is a mechanism used by the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine to synchronize access by multiple users to the same piece of data at the same time. Before a transaction acquires a dependency on the current state of a piece of data, such as...

A programming error in an open source security project introduces profound vulnerabilities in millions of computer systems. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20801/?a=f

Regional Meetings of the UK SQL Server User Group coming up in the next couple of weeks: LEEDS AREA SQL SERVER USER GROUP: THURSDAY 29TH MAY 18:30 - 21:00 : LEEDS http://sqlserverfaq.com/?eid=116 Martin Bell - Whats New in SQL Server 2008...

Hyper-V Release Candidate 1 for Windows Server 2008 was released on the 20th May. This is a full functionality release and provides improvements to security, stability, performance, user experience, forward compatibility of configurations, and the programming...

Paul Randall has started a new SQL Q&A column in TechNet magazine, which is definitely worth a read. As expected, there is some great advice regarding Database Mirroring, corruption and database fragmentation. http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul...