As professional DBAs, we’re often tasked with balancing query performance against resource consumption. While SQL Server’s query optimizer generally does an excellent job at selecting execution plans, there are times when we need more control. This is where query hints come into play. These hints provide a powerful way to override the default behavior of the query optimizer, allowing us to directly influence how queries are executed to solve performance bottlenecks. In this post, we will explore how query hints can be leveraged to address common performance issues and fine-tune your SQL Server workloads.
Category: Database Configuration
Enhancing Availability with SQL Server AlwaysOn Database-Level Health Detection
AlwaysOn Database-Level Health Detection is an optional configuration that enhances the resilience of availability group databases. It monitors database transactions and, if an issue is detected, can automatically trigger a failover to another replica. This proactive measure helps maintain application availability even in the event of hardware or I/O failures.
Strategies for Optimizing Version Ghost Record Cleanup in SQL Server
This blog explores the challenges and strategies for managing version ghost records in SQL Server. It discusses issues like single-threaded cleanup tasks, long-running transactions, and locking levels that impact the cleanup process. The post provides actionable strategies such as updating SQL Server, utilizing trace flags, and regular index maintenance to improve ghost record cleanup efficiency.
Five Mistakes Made by Junior SQL Server Database Administrators
Starting as a new SQL Server Database Administrator (DBA) can be an overwhelming experience. There is a vast amount of knowledge to absorb, ranging from understanding the intricacies of SQL Server to mastering best practices in database management. Amidst this learning curve, it’s easy to overlook important aspects that can have significant impacts on database performance and integrity. In this post, we will explore five common mistakes made by junior DBAs, why they are problematic, and how to handle each issue properly.
Capturing SQL Server Inventory with PowerShell
Maintaining an accurate and comprehensive inventory of your SQL Server environment is crucial for effective database management, ensuring security, and meeting compliance requirements. With PowerShell, database administrators can automate the collection of detailed information about SQL Server instances and databases, streamlining the inventory process. This blog post introduces a PowerShell script designed to efficiently gather SQL Server inventory data, separating instance-level information from database-specific details into two distinct reports.
Ensuring Optimal Execution Plans in SQL Server
Explore professional strategies for managing SQL Server Plan Regression. This guide offers insight into preventing performance degradation through efficient execution plan selection and maintenance, ensuring optimal query performance in SQL Server environments.
Understanding the Implications of the TRUSTWORTHY Database Setting in SQL Server
As a SQL Server DBA, understanding the nuances of database settings is necessary for maintaining security and integrity. One such setting that often becomes a topic of discussion due to its significant impact on security is the TRUSTWORTHY database setting. The TRUSTWORTHY database setting in SQL Server is a configuration option that affects the security of certain database operations, particularly those involving code execution contexts. It plays a critical role in the security context of modules that use WITH EXECUTE AS, as well as CLR (Common Language Runtime) assemblies marked as EXTERNAL_ACCESS or UNSAFE.