Working with thousands of instances of Microsoft SQL Server, I often encounter users having issues. A common error is 18456 which indicates a login failure.
Category: SQL Tuning
Hidden Killers of SQL Server Performance
I’ve been working with SQL Server for a very long time. Out of the box, SQL Server works great, however there is regular care and feeding that needs to be done to ensure it is running optimally. One of the best analogies is to think about an automobile or airplane and how they need to […]
SQL Best Practices
SQL Server has evolved a great deal since I first started working with SQL Server 6.5 in 1998. Unfortunately I continually come across newer systems that are configured with old ‘best practices’. Things like 1 tempdb file per core, 1 core per socket on VMware machines, index rebuilds each night, and more. Below are some […]
Why You Need a SQL DBA or Consultant
Many organizations do not have in-house DBAs. This can be due to a number of reasons. Most commonly it is smaller organizations that cannot justify a full time DBA. Others are larger organizations that do more development work or organizations that run a lot of vendor supported software that don’t understand the value of having […]
Your SQL Server is Slow, What To Look At
As a data professional, you’ll often get a phone call, email, or trouble ticket that says “SQL Server is slow, my query is slow, or things are slow”. This is the dreadful comment that we all receive from time to time and it never provides any detail of ‘what’ is slow. Where do you start […]
Risk with Not Patching and Upgrading SQL Server
Working with SQL Server over the past 25 years for various organizations all over the world, I usually always find a database server that is well outside of support. I’d be willing to be that anyone reading this blog post in 2024 knows of a SQL 2000 or SQL 2005 instance out there. I hear […]
SQL Server Recovery Models
When I review customers database environments, I always check to see what the recovery model is for their databases and review that with the customer. I often times have to explain the three recovery models and what they are used for. Simple, Full, and Bulk-Logged. The recovery model that you select will determine how transaction […]
Are You Protected from Ransomware
There have been many organizations that have become victims of ransomware over the years. Occasionally we hear about some high-profile cases in the news. Most every case I’ve read about could have been easily prevented, while a few were much more sophisticated in nature. What are some steps that you or your organization can take […]