How do -you- install SQL Server (Part 1)

No, this is not an installation guide There is documentation for that found in many places. First good place to look is Books Online (2005/2008) but there are plenty of other community resources found at sites like SQL Server Central and SQLServerPedia as well as blogs. What I mean by this post is to ask, … Read more

How to use sp_configure in SQL Server

sp_configure is the "type set" of SQL Server

2018 Update – Straight Up SQL Server Tips posts  – this is an edit as part of our SQL Server tips when we referenced SP_Configure there –> Not much has changed with sp_configure in SQL Server. The below post is still quite current as far as how to use sp_configure or sys.configurations to check and change … Read more

SQL Server Implicit Conversion: You Could Be Suffering Right Now!

SQL Server Implicit Conversion – A Silent Perf Killer I recently had the opportunity to work with a developer at the day job. He was using a loop (for what he was doing, it makes sense 🙂 ), and he had a query that ran great when he stripped the question out of the process, … Read more

Benchmarking… Who Needs It?

All of our SQL Server instances need benchmarks! So the title is somewhat of a trick question… I hear and sense a lack of priority around taking periodic benchmarks in a system with a lot of folks. How often do you take benchmarks? Do you know what “normal” means for your system? Do you know … Read more

A Picture That Says, “Don’t Shrink!” (and other things…)

So I wrote a lot of posts around shrinking (Here, here, here). Some of my posts were turned into a wiki article on SQLServerPedia. I thought I was done posting about this but one more. I talked about why we shouldn’t do it on a regular basis. Why it should really be reserved for use … Read more

SQLServerPedia –> Do you use it?

I was going about my own business today when I got an e-mail from Brent Ozar (twitter, blog) who is the editor-in-chief of SQLServerPedia. Apparently a wiki article that was made from my blog posts on shrinking has received the honor of being the first to receive the “Wiki of the month” recognition. Great honor … Read more