Avoiding Parameter Sniffing in SQL Server
Parameter sniffing is when SQL Server compiles a stored procedure’s execution plan with the first parameter that has been used and then uses this plan for subsequent executions regardless of the...
View ArticleExport to XML Using SSIS
Recently I was given a task to export data in XML format using SSIS. I initially thought it should be straight forward – just dump it in a flat file and give it a name xml type, however SSIS has no XML...
View ArticleUsing The System Monitor Tool For Measuring SQL Server Performance
System Monitor, a program to measure the performance of SQL Server allows you to view the objects of SQL Server and performance counters in addition to the behavior of other objects, including threads,...
View ArticlePackage and MSDTC Transaction Configuration
Introduction Once application development is complete, we need to move deployment packages to the production environment. To simplify the deployment process Microsoft has provides a utility tool called...
View ArticleGuide to SQL Server Table Indexes – Part 1
Overview One of the most important tasks for every database administrator (DBA) is to ensure that query times are consistent with service-level agreement (SLAs) or within user expectations. One of the...
View ArticleGuide to SQL Server Table Indexes – Part 2
In the first part of this article series, you learned about the basics of SQL Server database table’s indexes, the difference between the clustered and non-clustered indexes, and how the leaf nodes,...
View ArticleGuide to SQL Server Table Indexes – Part 3
In the first part of this article series, you learned about the basics of SQL Server database table’s indexes, the difference between the clustered and non-clustered indexes, and how the leaf nodes,...
View ArticleGuide to SQL Server Table Indexes – Part 4
In the first part of this article series, you learned about the basics of SQL Server database table’s indexes, the difference between the clustered and non-clustered indexes, and how the leaf nodes,...
View ArticleControlling Growth of a msdb Database
I recently encountered a situation where the drive hosting Sharepoint Databases in a Staging environment ran out of space. I logged onto the server and found that the msdb database has itself occupied...
View ArticleUnderstanding SQL Server Query Optimization – Part 1
In the first of this four part series I will give an overview of the tools and techniques of query optimization in SQL Server Most of the activity of the database server is related to queries. Because...
View ArticleTransactional Replication – Violation of Primary Key Constraint
Recently, I encountered a case where the Transactional Replication between our Production OLTP server named XYZ and Reporting database server named PQR went out of sync. Both the servers were located...
View ArticleReplicating A Volume Of Large Data via Transactional Replication
During weekend maintainence, members of the support team executed an UPDATE statement against the database on the OLTP Server. This database was a part of Transactional Replication and the database on...
View ArticleA Journey from OLTP to OLAP- Part 2
In my last article we saw the basics of the data warehousing in which we saw looked at how OLAP and OLTP technologies differ in their functionalities, what were the models being used to develop the...
View ArticleRestoring a SQL Server Database – A Practical Example
Performing a Database Restore is a part of a DBA’s daily life. A DBA may need to perform a Restore due to various reasons such as recovery, refreshing a database for testing purpose etc. Many times it...
View ArticleExtended Events in SQL Server 2012
Extended Events were introduced in SQL Server 2008 as a light-weight monitoring mechanism. Most DBAs typically use SQL Profiler to monitor and analyse SQL Server events. However, SQL Profiler is not a...
View ArticleHow to Optimize SQL Server Query Plans – The Devil is in the Detail
When dealing with the performance database any detail should can never be neglected, because even the smallest thing can turn out to be a great opportunity for query optimization. Generally, one needs...
View ArticleA Primer on Log Shrinking and Truncation in SQL Server
In the event that a transaction log grows to an out-of-control size, shrinking it can be the only solution – but don’t rush to do this until you are aware of the consequences. Shrinking the log could...
View ArticleBacking Up a SQL Server Database Directly Onto a Remote Server
Recently I encountered a situation where the backup drive was short of space on the production server. The policy on the production server was that as soon as soon as the Full Backup is complete, a...
View ArticleMonitor SQL Server Replication Jobs
The Replication infrastructure in SQL Server is implemented using SQL Server Agent to execute the various components involved in the form of a job (e.g. LogReader agent job, Distribution agent job,...
View ArticleUnderstanding SQL Server 2008 R2 Fixed Database Level Roles
To easily manage the permissions in our databases, Microsoft has provided several roles in SQL Server which are security principals that group other principals. They are like groups in the Microsoft...
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