Before using SQL server 2008, in order to capture a deadlock, we had to create a server side/profiler trace or use trace flags 1204, 1222. If you were lucky enough to work with SQL 2008/2008R2 you could have tried using XEvents (which were introduced...

In SQL 2012 the BOL (Books Online) are only located on the internet. When you press F1, you are redirected to the web, so what can we do in a closed environment, where my production server is not connected to the internet and I need the F1? Checking for...

Once we encounter a few problems with the SQL 2012 and we need to analyze it, what will be the first recommended step to start with? During my last post I have discussed the default trace in SQL and its benefits. SQL 2008 introduced a new option called...

Have you ever wanted to execute specific query with specific trace flag turned on, without affecting the session or the server level ? If the answer is yes, now you have a hint to support it – "QUERYTRACEON". It been out there for a while, but...

Every installation of SQL has a default trace. The default trace was introduced in SQL 2005, It is the same trace that we know from the profiler or server but it is a preconfigured trace that is enabled as default. The default trace create five *.TRC...

  In one of our previous posts we saw how different set options can affect execution plans and result sets. Now let's see how to write our code in order to avoid text-to-date conversion mismatches. In this example we can see one string being converted...

The other day, my colleague and a good friend called me and told that her SQL Server gone nuts. One of developers launched a query and it run for ages, once she executed the same query it returned results in a few seconds. So how something like this can...

Introduction While working on a customer request, I faced the question what is the SQLIO? how to operate it and how to analyze its outputs? The customer has read about the tool and was also able to run it but wanted more information on how to do...

Snippets In SQL 2012 we have a new feature called snippets; So what are this snippets? Lots of DBAs, when required to create a new T-SQL command, check out the syntax in BOL, they try to remember on how to do it, Or sometimes we need a repeating T-SQL...

One of the best Performance tools that I use is the PERFMON. PERFMON is a tool that exists out of the box on every windows machine and has lots of counters for almost every application. Perfmon provides current, accurate information on thousands of...

  With all the innovation that SQL 2012 bring to us in the T-SQL area we have the offset command. What is the offset command? I early version of SQL (before 2012) when we wanted to select out of a table a number of row we all have used the TOP command...

SQL Server Auditing is useful for auditing the usage of your database operations. We've got quite a bit of new features and enhancements in SQL Server 2012. First, server level auditing is now available in all SQL Server 2012 editions. Database level...

Along with Organization growth and databases growth we need more specific permissions for DBAs, operations and development teams. Starting SQL Server 2005 we can grant server permissions on a more granular level, for example “view server state” and...

  I had recently received a question form one of my customers asking what is the recommended Queue Depths value for the HBA adapter. This question was intriguing and drove me to do a little research on the subject; I’d like to share the information...

    One of the focal points in SQL Server Tuning for SharePoint is around the TEMPDB. A lot of performance issues are caused by the performance of the TEMPDB. TEMPDB is one of the four system databases. Master is the database that contains all...

Recently I’ve created a new database on my SQL Server 2012 instance. I reviewed the new database options before creating. One of the options that I’d like to share today is “Target Recovery Time” in seconds or TARGET_RECOVERY_TIME...

Installing SQL Server 2008, 2008R2 and 2012 on failover cluster has been significantly changed from SQL Server 2000 and 2005. Installation is performed separately on each node in order to avoid failures and downtime and much more. One of improvements...

SQL 2012 brings us new options and cool features, one of these features is the startup parameters. On previous versions; when we needed to update a startup parameter for the database, we needed to go to the configuration manager and then in under the...

Recovery model is our way to instruct SQL Server how to maintain the log file. We have 3 recovery models in SQL Server – SIMPLE, BULK_LOGGED and FULL. We’ll review them and describe the differences between them. SIMPLE recovery model...

SharePoint DB’s - To shrink or not to shrink the data file, this is the question: SQL Server provides you the ability to shrink the DB or shrink the files [MDF, NDF & LDF]. Shrinking the log file/LDF is quite different from shrinking the...

See below SQL Server Service Packs and Cumulative Updates List. It will be updated monthly.

Service SID and Or ice age Sid Lately I was asked about service SID during the installation of SQL 2008 Cluster. So I thought about it and wrote this blog post: During the times of SQL 2005, while installing SQL in a cluster configuration we...

Lately I have been thinking about some of my latest work; mainly I have focused on an one day work shop with one of my colleagues, Amir, who is a SharePoint PFE. Now I’d like to share with you some of the SQL Best Practices for SharePoint. ...

PFE delivers onsite, remote and dedicated support services for Premier customers around the world to promote health in their IT environments. We are currently two SQL PFEs in the team with infrastructure and development specialties. We whish to...