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Checkpoint Analysis: Your Exclusive How-To with XEvents
Checkpoints are essential in SQL Server to help with the durability and reliability of data persisted in the database. When done right, you barely even notice the checkpoint and performance is groovy....
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Bulk Insert – Insights That Will Make You Drool
Bulk insert can be an extremely helpful tool to help ingest data into SQL Server efficiently. Sometimes, it is necessary to capture metrics in regards to the bulk insert in order to understand the who,...
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Azure DB – A Quick Spelunk Into XEvents to Love
This is a very simple introduction into the creation of an Extended Event session using a template for Azure SQL DB. I demonstrate the use of the GUI to configure the session quickly. After which I...
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Owner is Missing in the GUI – An Easy Fix
Having a Database Owner is not something that most people think about until something breaks. Usually, people will just kind of ignore it because it is just so innocuous and uncommon for the owner to...
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Memory – How to Find when Excess is a Bad Thing
Excessive memory grants are extremely problematic in SQL Server. These excessive grants do not just happen out of the blue. Memory grants are directly linked to the queries. When you write a bad query...
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Queries that Fail and How to find Them
Queries will fail. That is as inevitable as death and taxes. Many times queries fail without you knowing. Other times, the failure is glorious and impossible to not notice. In the majority of cases,...
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Statistics Auditing to make you Omniscient
Statistics in SQL Server, love them or hate them, are essential to good performance. Statistics help to drive execution plan selection and thus can have quite a profound impact. If you have bad stats,...
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Blocked Process Report: How to Get More Value
Blocking in SQL Server is not an uncommon phenomena. Many times it is rather trivial. Sometimes, it extends beyond the realm of trivial and needs to be addressed. How do you know when a blocked...
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3 Highly Improved Help Queries for XEvents in Azure SQL
Finding the right event or combination of events to monitor may seem like quite a daunting task with so many events to explore and (frequently) too little familiarity with Extended Events. In this...
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Top 3 Easy Help Queries for XEvents in Azure SQL
When working with Extended Events (XEvents), there are times when a little more information is, well, helpful. You know you want to use XEvents to try and monitor for a specific thing to happen....
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Powerful Monitoring for Your Linked Servers with XEvents
When I am looking for random failures or looking to resolve performance issues, one of the first things I like to check is if there are any linked servers that could be contributing to the problem....
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Easy Monitoring: Application Timeouts in SQL Server with XEvents
One of my least favorite feelings in the IT world is to be caught by surprise. Not just any type of surprise. I am talking about the kind of surprise that comes from an end user letting me know that...
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Your Quick Introduction to Extended Events in Analysis Services
The Extended Events (XEvents) feature in SQL Server is a really powerful tool and it is one of my favorites. The tool is so powerful and flexible, it can even be used in SQL Server Analysis Services...
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Disappearing Data Files
TSQL Tuesday Boy has it gotten hot outside. As the heat turns up outdoors, it is frequently a really good idea to get together with friends and family to relax with a little outdoor party. As luck...
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Extended Events Gets a New Home
It should be no secret that I am a huge advocate of the Extended Events (XEvents) feature in SQL Server. A good example of this advocacy can be found just by looking through my collection of articles...
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Life Support 2008 – Audit Logons
With SQL Server 2008 and 2008R2 limping along and becoming terminally ill (End of Life Support was July 9, 2019), it should come as no surprise that it is recommended to migrate/upgrade affected...
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Event Files on Linux
TSQL Tuesday The second Tuesday of the month is upon us once again. That means it is time for another group blog party called TSQLTuesday. This party that was started by Adam Machanic has now been...
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Is That Database in Use?
Does anybody know who or what is using this database? Better yet, is the database being used by anything at all? Have you ever asked those types of questions of your staff in an environment you have...
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Database File Changes
Data professionals around the globe are frequently finding themselves occupied with figuring out why and when a file (data or log) for a database has changed in size. Whether that change is a growth...
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Get the Source of PREEMPTIVE_OS_PIPEOPS Waits
A client reached out to me for help about a wait_type they were seeing. That’s not terribly uncommon, but the specific wait_type was something that was fairly obscure. Every day, they could see the...
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