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DMV Query to identify all active SQL Server Sessions

June 3, 2009 by John Sansom 9 Comments

You may already be aware that I am a big advocate of the SQL Server Dynamic Management Views (DMV’s) and the benifits that they bring to the Database Administrator. They certainly came in handy with a requirement I had recently whereby I needed to identify the IP Address of a specific SQL Server Login and […]

Filed Under: DMVs, SQL Server Tips, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: DMV

Performing fast SQL Server delete operations

May 27, 2009 by John Sansom 4 Comments

There have been quite a few queries on the forums this past week with regard to performing fast delete operations on large tables and I wanted to share some of the possible solutions here with you. Fast ordered delete using a view To perform a fast ordered delete, take a look at the article Fast Ordered […]

Filed Under: Administration Tagged With: Query Optimisation

Reporting Services date control issue using Analysis Services data source

April 17, 2009 by John Sansom 8 Comments

Here’s a solution to an issue that you may have come up against when designing a SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) report requiring Datetime parameters, that uses a SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) data source. What’s the problem? When you create a dataset from a SSAS data source, by default the date values returned from […]

Filed Under: Reporting Services

Whitepaper: Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008

April 16, 2009 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

No doubt you already know that I love nothing more than getting my hands on excellent technical resources for SQL Server. Well hot off the press is the latest Whitepaper offering from Microsoft that looks at troubleshooting performance problems in SQL Server 2008. Naturally you may already be familiar with some of the techniques and […]

Filed Under: Administration, Performance Tuning

The SQL Server Buffer Pool and Buffer Cache Hit Ratio

March 31, 2009 by John Sansom 3 Comments

Buffer Cache Hit Ratio

There seems to be some confusion surrounding Buffer Cache Hit Ratio and the SQL Server Buffer Cache. Having answered several queries concerning this over the last few weeks on a variety of forums I thought I would post here in order set the record straight. What is the SQL Server Buffer Cache? The Buffer Cache […]

Filed Under: Administration, Memory, Performance Tuning Tagged With: Buffer Cache

Automate SQL Server Index Defragmentation,Optimisation

March 20, 2009 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

This week I came across what could quite possibly be, the best SQL Server index defrag script I have seen. This little beauty is fully customisable and is freely available courtesy of Michelle Ufford (aka SQL Fool) on her blog SQLFool.com As you know, it is just not practical to use a SQL Server Maintenance […]

Filed Under: Administration, Disaster Recovery, Index Optimisation, Performance Tuning, Tools

SQL Server Memory Configuration, Determining MemToLeave Settings

March 16, 2009 by John Sansom 20 Comments

Santech Solutions - Affordable SQL Server services

Determining the appropriate memory configuration for a SQL Server platform is a task that all database administrators are required to perform. It is essential to ensuring that an appropriate level of performance can be provided. I am going to discuss some of the additional memory configuration tweaking that you may wish to undertake so that […]

Filed Under: Memory Tagged With: memToLeave

SQL Server Stuff Discovered This Week

March 6, 2009 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

Virtualisation As you may already know, I am big fan of the work of Brent Ozar, a talented SQL Server professional and online author of excellent quality SQL Server content. I particularly enjoy his podcast series and think the clear, direct style of his presentations are brilliant. You can learn a great deal in a […]

Filed Under: Reporting Services, SQL Server Tips

Performance Comparison of (SELECT TOP 1) Verses MAX()

February 26, 2009 by John Sansom 19 Comments

I recently came across a post on Stackoverflow regarding the performance of using a SELECT TOP 1 query in comparison to using the MAX() function. My initial thoughts on this were that the MAX() function would provide the best performance however, in order to be absolutely certain and prove my initial hypothesis I decided to […]

Filed Under: Administration, Index Optimisation, Performance Tuning, Tools Tagged With: MAX()

Finding Bad Indexes Using SQL Server DMVs

February 24, 2009 by John Sansom 1 Comment

Today I want to show you how to go about finding bad indexes. SQL Server indexes are often promoted as the answer to all of our performance optimisation needs. It may then surprise you to hear that indexes can also be bad for performance. “What are you yapping on about John” I hear you shout. […]

Filed Under: Index Optimisation Tagged With: Bad Indexes, DMV Queries

What is your biggest SQL Server mistake?

February 17, 2009 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

You know the one I am talking about. We have all been there at some point. You get that awful feeling of dread as a chilling realisation sets in and you ask yourself, oh my god did that actually just happen. Sure you can laugh about it now though, right. So come on and share […]

Filed Under: SQL Server Tips

New SQL Server Resources

February 12, 2009 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

    One of the joys of working with SQL Server technologies is that there are some truly great knowledge resources available for use. You just have to know where to look. With the volume of information available it can be difficult to sift out the really good stuff. I know throughout my time as […]

Filed Under: Tools

Disaster Recovery Planning – Getting Started

February 3, 2009 by John Sansom 1 Comment

The starting point for a rock solid disaster recovery (DR) strategy is to establish what the true cost of server/platform downtime would be to the business. The project will require you to collaborate with your key business decision makers and you will need to communicate to them what the associated costs of downtime are and […]

Filed Under: Administration, Disaster Recovery

TempDB configuration, optimal number of data files to use

January 18, 2009 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered what is the optimal configuration for your tempdb database within SQL Server? There is often significant debate surrounding this subject and so Paul S. Randal, discusses using multiple files for a user DB on a multi-core box in an effort to set the record straight. I have been doing some very […]

Filed Under: Administration

Performance Dashboard Report – Datatype Overflow Error

January 14, 2009 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

When you try to execute the Performance Dashboard Reports for the first time, you may be presented with an error of the form: “the difference of two datetime columns caused overflow at runtime” This is because the DATEDIFF function returns an int value and once you have a connection that is more than 24 days […]

Filed Under: Reporting Services, SQL Server Tips

Being Organised

January 13, 2009 by John Sansom

An essential skill trait for a good DBA in my view is being organised. With the responsibility of administering and managing vast numbers of servers/jobs/processes simultaneously across the globe, it goes without saying that being organised can come in handy. What with so much going on at any given time, it can be tricky to […]

Filed Under: Tools

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