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Blog Post: SQL Server–Storage Spaces/VHDx and 4K Sector Size

SQL Server Support Content

This blog outlines a new twist to my previous blog outlining issues with 4K sector sizes. SQL Server - New Drives Use 4K Sector Size: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2011/01/13/sql-server-new-drives-use-4k-sector-size.aspx In the previous post ...read more

on15 May 2013
Blog Post: SQLIOSim Checksum Validations

SQL Server Support Content

I had a very specific question asked of me related to the SQLIOSIM.exe, checksum validation logic. It is pretty simple logic (on purpose) but effective so here are the basics. The key is that there are multiple memory locations used to hold the ...read more

on5 Apr 2013
Blog Post: AppDomain unloading messages flooding the SQL Server error log

SQL Server Support Content

This blog is built directly from a customer reported issue. As I helped investigate the source of the issue I thought it would be of interest to a broader audience – hopefully you find this interesting, as well. Allow me to provide some history ...read more

on30 Jan 2013
Blog Post: How It Works: CMemThread and Debugging Them

SQL Server Support Content

The wait type of CMemThread shows up in outputs such as sys.dm_exec_requests. This post is intended to explain what a CMemThread is and what you might be able to do to avoid the waits. The easiest way to describe a CMemThread is to talk about ...read more

on20 Dec 2012
Blog Post: How It Works: SQL Server (NUMA Local, Foreign and Away Memory Blocks)

SQL Server Support Content

The NODE an operating system page, physically belongs to can be acquired using the QueryVirtualMemoryEx Windows API. SQL Server uses this API to track locality of memory allocations. This blog is a very high level view of SQL Server behavior but ...read more

on13 Dec 2012
Blog Post: How It Works: Gotcha: *VARCHAR(MAX) caused my queries to be slower

SQL Server Support Content

The scenario: Table has a NTEXT column that the customer wanted converted to NVARCHAR(MAX) Data has both small and large storage for different rows Issued ALTER TABLE … ADD COLUMN …NVarCharColumn… NVARCHAR(MAX) Issued update MyTable set NVarCharColumn ...read more

on3 Dec 2012
Blog Post: How Can Reference Counting Be A Leading Memory Scribbler Cause?

SQL Server Support Content

The concept of the memory scribbler comes up quite a bit in support. The term can often be over used but I ran into a specific example that commonly fools people, including support engineers. The random nature and even the resulting ...read more

on12 Nov 2012
Blog Post: T-SQL Update Takes Much Longer Than The Matching Select Statement

SQL Server Support Content

I realize the title is generic and that is because the problem is generic. On the surface it would not surprise me that an update takes longer than a select. (A little bit anyway.) There is logging, updates to index rows, triggers, replication ...read more

on21 Sep 2012
Blog Post: SQL Server: Correlating Timestamps From Various Data Points

SQL Server Support Content

I was looking at data from a customer, in a different time zone (UTC+1) from mine, this week involving SQL Server AlwaysOn (HADRON) and found that lining up the timestamps in the various logs was challenging. Some times are local to the SQL ...read more

on11 Sep 2012
Blog Post: How It Works: SQL Server AlwaysOn Lease Timeout

SQL Server Support Content

The lease is used between the SQL Server resource DLL and the SQL Server instance to prevent split-brain from occurring for the availability group (AG). The lease is a standard signaling mechanism between the SQL Server resource DLL and the SQL Server ...read more

on7 Sep 2012
Blog Post: How It Works: Online Index Rebuild - Can Cause Increased Fragmentation

SQL Server Support Content

SQL Server Books Online alludes to the fragmentation possibility but does not fully explain that the Online Index rebuilding may increase fragmentation when it is allowed to run with MAX DOP > 1 and ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = OFF directives . The process of ...read more

on5 Sep 2012
Blog Post: Strange Sch-S / Sch-M Deadlock on Machines with 16 or More Schedulers

SQL Server Support Content

Since it took me several days to track down this bug, and I did learn a couple of new things along the way, I thought I would share some of my work. 16 or More CPUS When a system presents SQL Server with 16 or more CPUs, and you are using a high end SQL ...read more

on31 Aug 2012
Blog Post: Product Update Feature in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server Support Content

A new feature introduced in SQL Server 2012 setup is "Product Update". Product Update searches for the latest product updates and integrates it with the main product installation.It can search for the latest or applicable updates in Microsoft Update ...read more

on11 Jun 2012

SQL Server KBs and Blogs

Browse by Tags

Blog Post: SQL Server–Storage Spaces/VHDx and 4K Sector Size

Blog Post: SQLIOSim Checksum Validations

Blog Post: AppDomain unloading messages flooding the SQL Server error log

Blog Post: How It Works: CMemThread and Debugging Them

Blog Post: How It Works: SQL Server (NUMA Local, Foreign and Away Memory Blocks)

Blog Post: How It Works: Gotcha: *VARCHAR(MAX) caused my queries to be slower

Blog Post: How Can Reference Counting Be A Leading Memory Scribbler Cause?

Blog Post: T-SQL Update Takes Much Longer Than The Matching Select Statement

Blog Post: SQL Server: Correlating Timestamps From Various Data Points

Blog Post: How It Works: SQL Server AlwaysOn Lease Timeout

Blog Post: How It Works: Online Index Rebuild - Can Cause Increased Fragmentation

Blog Post: Strange Sch-S / Sch-M Deadlock on Machines with 16 or More Schedulers

Blog Post: Product Update Feature in SQL Server 2012

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