I suggest you mark your calender right now and present at the hall before time to secure your seat.

Session Details

SQL Server Performance Tips and Tricks

In this session we will go over various SQL Server Performance Tuning Tricks and Tips. Learn about top tips and best SQL Server performance practices related to:

• Unused Indexes
• Clustered Indexes
• Importance of Statistics
• Index Maintenance Scripts
• ColumnStore Index
• A Surprise Secret Tip

January 7, 2012 1:30 PM

I will ask 5 questions during my session and needless to say 5 winners will get copy of my book.

The session will be 100% demo oriented and I will share lots of tips and tricks during this session. Just like every other session of mine, this session will have lots of trivia for you as well it will be extremely interactive. If you prefer to stay quite during the session, this session will a perfect technology opener for you. Once you are in the session – you will be talking and discussion various aspect of performance along with your co-attendees and me.

Additionally, I am personally waiting for the sessions of Rick Morelan who is founder of Joes 2 Pros series. Do not miss any of the sessions of SQL Saturday – here is the complete schedule.

My friend Vinod Kumar has written blog on his sessions, read it here.

Note: Session will be not recorded. There will be no live cast of the session.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

My goals were simple:

1. Mastering the Basics
2. Igniting Learning

I am very fortunate that my co-author shares the same love and passion for the SQL Server community. Vinod Kumar always believed in my same two goals. Our combined passion for the subject made writing this book a pleasant, even invigorating experience. We always felt this urge to help community and those who are eager to learn more. Years of learning the basics and practicing advanced technology led us to believe that learning the basics is sometimes the most difficult task of all. Once someone masters the basics, advanced concepts come easy. We have kept this in mind as we wrote this book.

A Book for Everyone

This book is not just for people who are looking to get their first job in the information technology field.  If you do not have an upcoming interview, if you already work in the field, but have questions about SQL Server or know that there are topics you should brush up on, then this is the book for you.

You don’t have to have a certain level of experience to get a lot from this book, either.  If you are a beginner you will not be totally confused by the topics – in fact, we tried to lay out the book for beginners.  However, experts will also find a lot to learn in these pages. Too.

Philosophy of the Book

We believe that this book will give advanced users a refresher and beginners a good learning point. We believe that after reading this book, our readers would be ignited to learn more. The goal of this book was not to tell you everything but to tell you enough so that you can learn yourself. Here is the hidden philosophy behind the book:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Source Unknown

Our goal in writing this book was to give our readers a SQL Server fishing pole.  They can then learn how to “fish out” the good answers and solutions to their problems.  This book does not list the most common problems (and interview questions) and then give a long list about exactly what to do.  The point of this book was to teach the readers to think for themselves – and feed themselves for a lifetime.

Mastering the Basics

Recently someone asked me if they could pass an interview just by reading this book. The answer is – interviews are a complex process. One’s goal should not be to merely pass the interview. The goal should be to demonstrate your knowledge and find the right appropriate way to apply your learning. Think of it this way, before attempting to pass an interview just by remembering the right answers – ask yourself if you will be able to perform the real world tasks – the answer can be complex. How about this – learn all you can about the real work job before you go to the interview, and master the subject. Now when you go to the interview or to the real world job, you will always demonstrate superior quality and the ability to perform the necessary tasks.

Igniting Learning

Well, our book is exactly the same. It tells you what you should learn in depth, what you should know in the real world, what kind of information you should collect and master before you go on that interview. Do not use this book as a tool to pass the interview – it will not work that way – consider the book as ‘learning path’. Take each topic covered in the book and dwell on it, think about it and digest it slowly and masterfully. The book is designed in such a way that every important topic has enough reference material listed right below it. You can use the references listed there or do your own search on the subject. Just make sure that the learning experience is complete.

Real World Experience

In a tough job market, it can be easy to look at a job advertisement and think to yourself, “I could do that job.”  You might know just a little bit about a subject, and you think that if you study hard enough you will sound smart enough to get the job, and then later you can learn all you can about the subject.  However, while our book will certainly help with the “sounding smart” part, you will also find that it encourages you to really learn SQL Server before that interview – with lots of real world examples and pointers advanced learning.  We encourage everyone to think about the job they want and love, and go for it.  Don’t look at book as just a way to get a job.

YOU!

We are constantly flooded with numerous emails, positive comments and constructive feedback. We are overwhelmed that almost everybody has understood the philosophy behind the book. SQL Server experts have told us that this book has helped them remember the basics and many have sent us questions to incorporate into the next versions. We believe the success of this concept is the positive energy which we have received from all of YOU!

Here are few blog posts about the book:

1) Review by Nakul Vachhrajani – Good, portable book with easy to understand language on SQL Server Interview Questions & Answers

2) Review by Paras Doshi – Book Review: SQL server Interview Questions and Answers by Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar.

 3) Review by Madhivanan SQL Server MVP  – Book Review – SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers

4) Review by Sandeep Kalra – Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar‘s SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers: Book review

This book is available worldwide, here is the information about book – SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Comment by David Bridge on SQL SERVER – Effect of SET NOCOUNT on @@ROWCOUNT
David has written comment and clarified the message which I wanted to pass while writing blog post. I wish I had written the statement “NOCOUNT statement only affects the information messages and not the DML statement results ” which he wrote effortlessly in comment. Thanks David.

Blog by Vinod Kumar on SQL Server RC0 Resources
Vinod Kumar compiles the exhausting list of links and resources that might be of some interest to you on SQL Server 2012 RC0.

SQL Saturday 116
SQL Server 116 is here in India. This is going to very first SQL Saturday in India. Here are various links related to SQL Saturday 116.

Excellent Best Practices article by Aaron Bertrand
Aaron has written excellent timeless article on SQL Server Best Practices. If you have not read it earlier, well you read it now.

Just learned from Madhivanan – SSMS Allows you to ask a question in the MSDN forum directly from SSMS
I really loved this simple trick. I did know this earlier and I have now just learned.

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers on Kindle
Our new book SQL Server Questions and Answers is now available on Kindle at special rate for this month.

Pluralsight SQL Server training courses by Dan Sullivan
I have so far attended every single course created by Dan on Pluralsight and find it very informative.

Well, these are my top 7 updates of yesterday.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Well, we learn the lesson from the experience and have made sure that the inventory does not run out any more. Since then we are now available on multiple outlets. Pretty much anywhere in USA and India the book is available. Additionally, where ever Amazon ships internationally.

I have created dedicated page where I have listed where one can avail this book from Details of SQL Server Interview Question and Answers. Even though I keep on getting common question like – where one can get this book.

You can get this book from:

USA: Amazon

India: Flipkart | IndiaPlaza | Crossword

In India now you can walk into any crossword store and ask this book, if they do not have it, you can ask them get one for you.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

To begin with, we want to thank all those interviewers who reject interviewees by saying they need to know ‘the key things’ regardless of having high grades in class. The whole concept of interview questions and answers revolves around knowing those ‘key things’.

The core concept of this book will continue to evolve over time. I am sure many of you will come along with us on this journey and submit your suggestions to us to make this book a key reference for anybody who wants to start with SQL Server. Today we want to acknowledge the fact that you will help us keep this book alive forever with the latest updates. We want to thank everyone who participates in this journey with us.

Though each of these chapters are geared towards convenience we highly recommend reading each of the sections irrespective of the roles you might be doing since each of the sections have some interesting trivia about working with SQL Server. In the industry the role of accidental DBA’s (especially with SQL Server) is very common. Hence if you have performed the role of DBA for a short stint and want to brush-up your fundamentals then the upcoming sections will be a great review.

Table Of Contents

• Database Concepts With Sql Server
• Common Generic Questions & Answers
• Common Developer Questions
• Common Tricky Questions
• Miscellaneous Questions On Sql Server 2008
• Dba Skills Related Questions
• Data Warehousing Interview Questions & Answers
• General Best Practices

[Amazon] | [Flipkart]

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

I have received lots of interesting comments on the blog about what is in it. Many of you got it absolutely incorrect and many got it close to the right answer but no one got it 100% correct. Well, no issue at all, I am going to give away the price to whoever has the closest answer first in personal email.

Here is the answer to the question about what is in the box? Here it is – the box has my new book. In fact, I should say our new book as I co-authored this book with my very good friend Vinod Kumar. We had real blast writing this book together and had lots of interesting conversation when we were writing this book. This book has one simple goal – “master the basics.”

This book is not only for people who are preparing for interview. This book is for every one who wants to revisit the basics and wants to prepare themselves to the technology. One always needs to have practical knowledge to do their duty efficiently. This book talks about more than basics. There are multiple ways to present learning – either we can create simple book or make it interesting. We have decided the learning should be interactive and have opted for Interview Questions and Answer format.

Here is quick interview which we have done together.

Details of the books are here

The core concept of this book will continue to evolve over time. I am sure many of you will come along with us on this journey and submit your suggestions to us to make this book a key reference for anybody who wants to start with SQL server. Today we want to acknowledge the fact that you will help us keep this book alive forever with the latest updates. We want to thank everyone who participates in this journey with us.

You can get the books from [Amazon] | [Flipkart].

Read Vinod‘s blog post. Do not forget to wish him happy birthday as today is his birthday and also book release day – two reason to wish him congratulations.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

So what’s attribute propagation?  expressor’s starting point observation is that in any transformation most values are either copied from the input record to the output record without any changes or dropped from the output record.  What attribute propagation does is transparently perform these operations without a requirement for coding.  Consequently, within an operator performing a transformation, your only responsibility is to manipulate the values that do require modification.  And this is where the rules editor becomes involved.

Let’s consider an example.  A company wants to give any employee whose tenure with the company started before January 1, 1995 a 5% salary increase.  The application will read a list of employees from a SQL Server database table, determine if the employee’s hire date was before January 1, 1995, and if appropriate calculate a new salary.

Of course expressor offers many ways to develop this application, but I’ll just highlight one approach as it’s the rules editor that I want to discuss.

With expressor, this application can be developed using three operators: a SQL Query operator to select the qualified employees from the SQL Server database table, a Transform operator to carry out the salary calculation, and a Write Table operator to write the modified record back to the database table.  The SQL Query operator executes a SELECT statement that limits the result set to only those employees who qualify for the raise.

SELECT * FROM employees WHERE HIRE_DATE < CONVERT(VARCHAR(23), ’1995-Jan-01′ , 121)

To continue developing the application, I open the rules editor of the Transform operator.

In the left-hand panel is a listing of the attributes in each incoming record.  The names of these attributes are identical to the table column names, although expressor allows you to easily rename if desired.

The right-hand panel shows the effect of attribute propagation.  That is, each incoming attribute has been transferred to the outgoing record.  The right-facing arrow before each attribute name indicates that the attribute will be automatically initialized and that no coding is required.

To alter the value assigned to the outgoing record’s SALARY attribute, start by using the mouse to drag a connection between the input and output attributes.  An expression rule is displayed.  The default code simply transfers the incoming value to the output.  Also note that the symbol before the output attribute’s name has changed from the right-facing arrow to a diamond, indicating that this attribute is initialized through code.

All I need to do to complete the application is modify the default code, applying the salary increase and, since all salaries are stored as whole dollars, apply a rounding, which I can easily do by clicking the Math button in the Edit tab of the ribbon bar and selecting round from the drop down list of functions.

But what happens when my processing logic is more complex, for example, I only want to give the raise to employees whose commission percentage is smaller than 0.35%.  Then I replace the expression rule with a function rule, where I have full access to the underlying code and I can use the filter helper function to enrich my logic.

In this example, I demonstrated the use of an expression rule and a function rule in the Transform operator.  These rule types are also available in the Join operator.  Within the Transform operator you can also work with a lookup expression rule and a lookup function rule.  These are the rules you use to access the lookup table artifact, another new feature of expressor Studio 3.4.  And in the Aggregate operator you can use an aggregate expression rule, which allows you to select an aggregating function from a drop down control, or an aggregate function rule that allows you to completely manage the processing logic.

While the example developed in this article was quite simple, I think you will agree that attribute propagation and the new rules editor provide a high level of support when your applications require coding.  I continue to be intrigued by the many innovations expressor is putting into their desktop ETL tool.  You can download their tool by following this link.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

My Personal Coordinates

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/pinaldave
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/SQLAuth
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pinaldave
• Email: pinal ‘at’ SQLAuthority.com

Blog Coordinates

• Facebook: http://facebook.com/SQLAuth
• Newsletter: Feedburner
• Feed: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/feed/
• Comments Feed: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/comments/feed/

My Preference for Facebook

I am very active on Facebook. I think the Facebook page is great way to stay connected with everyone. I check my Facebook page once in every 2 hours during the day. I want to make sure that no comments left on the Facebook are missed. I often post or blog various events related to the SQL Server. I think Facebook comments give us a structured communication medium. There are so many topics that we discuss on Facebook.

For example,

What are we going to learn on today?
What is going on in the SQL Server World around the globe?
Where I am I speaking next?
Where can you find more details about various SQL Servers?

I always announce all my upcoming news first on my Facebook page. I consider every fan and friend on the Facebook page as very special. Earlier, we had done a special exclusive competition on Facebook page, where we had gave away a lot of gifts.

Office Hours

Every week, I observe office hours on my Facebook page, where I am available to answer any SQL Server-related question. We actively communicate during this hour. The best part is that there are so much conversation going on at the same time, and the learning experience goes to next level ‑ so many questions and so many real answers in 60 minutes.

My Preference for Twitter

I currently follow many people on Twitter, and I enjoy reading the information shared on twitter. However, Twitter can be considered like a river; so, I often miss lots of things. If you want to draw my attention to something, then please include @pinaldave or #SQLAuthority somewhere in the email; this way, I will get an email of the same in my mailbox, and I will surely read the comments.

I often post my new activities and interesting finds on my Twitter. I do not consider Twitter as a marketing channel; so I always make sure that I write all of my tweets myself. If you are following me on Twitter, then only tweet you will which are automated contains information regarding my blog and link to my blog.

You can always ask me any question on Twitter, and I always make sure that I respond to it. I often RT tweets, which I find interesting in my river of tweets. If your tweet is during the time when I have not keep my Twitter page open, then I may miss your tweet. This does not mean that your tweet was not interesting and I ignored it. If you want me to read your tweet, then you can always mention my name or send me an email directly.

I open Twitter in the morning and evening for couple of hours. During the work hours, I usually keep off Twitter  as it can be a distraction.

My Preference for LinkedIn

LinkedIn is my professional network, and I often participate in questions and answers as well in the groups. I do not post personal posts in this network and keep the communication totally work related and professional. If you have any question regarding the blog, I suggest you go with the Facebook page or contact page on the SQLAuthority blog.

My Preference for Email

No matter how much ever we grow our social media network, Email still seems to be the most preferred method. I get more than 300 emails every day on various subjects. This 300+ does not include any work email, personal email, or emails from my close friends. These emails are from various people who have questions for SQL Server or technology in general. I always make sure that I answer any email in 24 hours.

I have created my own deadlines to answer emails. Let me just quickly share with you.

• Family, Friends and Work: 2 Hours
• Questions related to Books: 8 Hours
• Questions related to Blog: 8 Hours
• Other: 24 Hours

If you do not get answer from me in 24 hours, which means your post has either hit my spam folder or just got lost in cyberspace. When your first email is delivered to spam your subsequent emails may be delivered to spam as well. I suggest you try alternative method to contact me in this case. I suggest facebook page as next method to communicate with me.

While asking question through Email

Sometime I get questions that have very little information. If you have any question related to the SQL Server, I suggest you include as much as information you can instead of just sending me an email suggesting ‘help me’. Here is the list of the few things that I would like to see in any email query.

• SQL Server Version
• Screenshot of the error
• Issue you are facing
• Expected result
• Current result
• Recent changes in server/configuration or anything else

Instant Communication / Messengers

Many have figured out my messenger id by trying my username at various communicators. I often get pinged asking for help. I use the messenger mainly for friends and family. I always politely answer each of the messenger pop-ups and forward them to any of the abovementioned communication media. It will be of immense help if you email me when you have an urgent question. I assure you that I will do my best. I have a family, job and other priorities. All the social media communication channels give me time to answer the questions when I am free; however, instant messages can create interruption.

Stay updated

There are cases when you just wanted to stay updated with what is happening with SQL Server and SQLAuthority.

Feed

If you are using the RSS reader, I suggest that you subscribe my Feed in your RSS reader. Most of the RSS readers provide facilities to reply right back to the blog author or go to comments page.

Newsletter

If you do not prefer the RSS reader and prefer to go our good old email way, then you can subscribe to my newsletter over here. This will ensure that the emails directly reach your mailbox. You can hit reply and reach me ‑ write away!

Summary:

If all of these sound too complicated, then just get in touch with me any way you prefer. I am here to help you always!

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

You can read more about this sessions over here.

This presentation is based on the famous book ‘The Art of War’ written in sixth century BC by Sun Tzu. Index is usually a favorite tool of many when it is about performance tuning. However, Index is not everything. Performance tuning is much very deep subject and one needs to understand various aspect of the performance tuning. In today’s session I will cover performance tuning beyond indexes. I have created some real interesting demos.

Sessions Details

Title: Ancient Trade of Performance Tuning – Index, Beyond Index and No Index
Timing: September 29, 2011 11:45am-12:45pm IST
SQL Server Indexes are double edge sword. If used properly it gives tremendous performance improvement of the server. However, there is a dark side of the Index as well, which one needs to learn before using them to improve performance of the query. In this session we will go over various concepts of the Indexes which are not common but extremely important.
Location: Register for Virtual Tech Days

Giveaways

During my session I will ask a simple question. I will give away 5 copies of my SQL Server Wait Stats books to five random person who will answer it correctly. If you have already have this book, I strongly suggest you attend this session as this session will take the performance tuning concepts to next level. I will make sure that I autograph and send this copies to your way.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Session Inspiration

Driven with coming up something different around indexes, I created this presentation. This presentation is based on the famous book ‘The Art of War’ written in sixth century BC by Sun Tzu. This book is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, and it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and it is still read for its military insights. I am heavily inspired by this book, and I have always treated performance tuning as a war.

Here are the three subjects which I will be covering in my online presentation.

How to defeat an opponent

• Using Weapon

• Carry a convenient weapon
• Use anything as weapon

• Use Counter Intelligence

• Use spy network
• Use statistical data points

• The Lords of War

• Extra-ordinary intellect
• Supreme heroic ability

I have created three demos to support the above three sections. I am very sure that this is one of the most interesting and inspiring sessions for performance tuning. Here are the details for the session.

Sessions Details

Title: Ancient Trade of Performance Tuning – Index, Beyond Index and No Index
Timing: September 29, 2011 11:45am-12:45pm IST
SQL Server Indexes are like a double-sided sword. If used properly it gives tremendous performance improvement of the server. However, there is a dark side of the Index as well, which one needs to learn before using them to improve the performance of the query. In this session, we will go over various concepts of the Indexes, which are not common but extremely important.
Location: Register for Virtual Tech Days

Giveaways

During my session, I will ask a simple question. I will give away 5 copies of my SQL Server Wait Stats books to five random people who will answer it correctly. If you already have this book, I strongly suggest you attend this session as this session will take the performance tuning concepts to next level. I will make sure that I personally autograph and send these copies to your way.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

It happened about 8 years ago when I was working as Network Engineer in United States. I was responsible for a large data center and we had more than 40 servers under my watch. In our SQL Server database we had one table for the inventory of all the servers. On that table we used to keep a lot of details of the server. To keep it simple, I will say that we have only two columns in that table: ServerID and ServerName. I was asked to write a script which was intended to retrieve all the data from this table and insert them into the new table that was created by the database administrator. I thought I could handle SQL Server script well enough because I learned SQL a bit when I was younger. I ended up writing a script where I wrote cursor to SELECT single row from the table and insert into new table. Well, this went very fine. The script was taking a while to perform its tasks; nevertheless, it worked. I used this script for a short while.

Here is the script that I wrote. I am using sample and simple database for example. Please note that this is not a good practice.

-- Create Table and Populate with Sample Data
CREATE TABLE ServerTable (ServerID INT, ServerName VARCHAR(100))
INSERT INTO ServerTable (ServerID, ServerName)
SELECT 1, 'First Server'
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'Second Server'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'Third Server'
-- Creating New Table
CREATE TABLE NewServerTable (ServerID INT, ServerName VARCHAR(100))
-- Insert Logic
DECLARE @Flag INT
SELECT @Flag = COUNT(*) FROM ServerTable
WHILE(@Flag > 0)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO NewServerTable (ServerID, ServerName)
SELECT ServerID, ServerName
FROM ServerTable
WHERE ServerID = @Flag
SET @Flag = @Flag - 1
END
SELECT ServerID, ServerName
FROM NewServerTable
-- Clean up
DROP TABLE ServerTable
DROP TABLE NewServerTable


This script worked very well till we had changed in company policy. We then had a newly- appointed CTO (which I was about to become 3 years after this incidence), who introduced the requirement of Code Reviewing of all both old codes and new ongoing codes. When my code went to a code review, my Team Leader really laughed at my code. So he sent me new piece of the code which was much shorter and more efficient. The code which he proposed was as follows. I honestly say this was much better than my code.

-- Create Table and Populate with Sample Data
CREATE TABLE ServerTable (ServerID INT, ServerName VARCHAR(100))
INSERT INTO ServerTable (ServerID, ServerName)
SELECT 1, 'First Server'
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'Second Server'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'Third Server'
-- Creating New Table
CREATE TABLE NewServerTable (ServerID INT, ServerName VARCHAR(100))
-- Insert Logic
INSERT INTO NewServerTable (ServerID, ServerName)
SELECT ServerID, ServerName
FROM ServerTable
SELECT ServerID, ServerName
FROM NewServerTable
-- Clean up
DROP TABLE ServerTable
DROP TABLE NewServerTable

If you’ve noticed, the new insert code is just reduced to two lines only. Today you might think it is a very simple code, but for me it was a very new thing during those times. Now comes the best part of this whole story.

My team leader, who was very supportive and extremely positive person, asked me to demonstrate this whole incidence on our next team meeting. Honestly, I did not feel bad about accepting my mistake and learning new things. During the team meeting, I first accepted the fact that I was wrong with my code and thanked the Team Leader for giving me the opportunity to improve and develop myself. Because of his encouragement to accept my own mistake and improve from that incident, today I have reached this place.

Please get rid of cursors and use INSERT INTO…SELECT or SELECT INTO logic.

Reference:  Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Amit has selected a very interesting subject – Best Practices. When I read the subject, I can directly relate this subject to my real world interactions. I have seen so many developers and DBAs making fatal mistakes in the early days of their career. Most of the time, they get another chance because they are new to the job or that particular task, which they are doing for the first time. However, such excuses cannot be made for experts and senior professionals. They are expected perform and carry out the right practices always.

Instead of writing best practices, I am going to write about few of the worst practices which I have quite often seen in the real world. Some of them are really bad that I often wonder how those who still use them were able to continue on the job so far. Let us go over few of the worst practices I have observed in the industry.

My log file is growing too big – I truncated the log without taking backup.

This has to be the numero uno of worst practices. Every time I come across such a statement, I almost miss a heartbeat. Before I continue, let me confess that at the beginning of the career, I have practiced the same. After a while, I had learned it the hard way. This is never a good practice; truncating the log file is not an option. The reason why I rate this as the worst practice: this one mistake can make database impossible to recover. When someone truncates the log file without taking backup, there is no chance of recovery.

Here are a couple of articles which I have written on how to prevent log file from growing too big.

How to Stop Growing Log File Too Big

Log File Growing for Model Database – model Database Log File Grew Too Big

master Database Log File Grew Too Big

I shrink my database daily to regain the space.

This is one of the popular worst practices. I have seen administrators shrinking the database at the end of the day to gain the space only to lose it the very next day. Shrinking is a VERY BAD operation. It increases fragmentation, reduces the performance, and wastes the resources. I strongly advise not to do it.

Here are few articles I had earlier written on this subject.

Shrinking Database is Bad – Increases Fragmentation – Reduces Performance

SHRINKDATABASE For Every Database in the SQL Server

Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – Readers’ Opinion

SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File in SQL Server 2008

Clustered Index makes the table to sort every time. I do not have clustered index on any table.

For an OLTP system, Index is very important and clustered index is the most important index (in my opinion). Clustered index forces order to the table and removes the ‘forwarding records’ problem from the database. Personally, I consider tables without clustered index performance to be unacceptable?. In my OLTP system, I always recommend that all tables should have clustered index.

Here is a quick script that can help in identifying a table without clustered index in the database.

Find Table without Clustered Index – Find Table with no Primary Key

Clustered Index on Separate Drive From Table Location

Observation – Effect of Clustered Index over Nonclustered Index

TempDB is not important; so I will keep it on my slow drive.

Personally, I have tremendous respect for TempDB. Even though it resets every time when the server restarts, this is a single most important database that is shared among all the other databases in the system. This database is used for sorting, temporary objects, triggers, row version and in other operations. Keeping it on the slow drive is not the solution, but reality is that it will just create many performance-related problems in the overall system. If your TempDB is becoming full, move it to the another drive.

Here are a few blog posts I have written on TempDB.

T-SQL Script to Find Details About TempDB

TempDB is Full. Move TempDB from one drive to another drive

Reducing Page Contention on TempDB

Improvements in TempDB

TempDB Restrictions – Temp Database Restrictions

Ideal TempDBFileGrowth Value

I am confused between Full, Differential, and Log Backup

Inability to understand the proper recovery model is another worst practice. I have people restoring many differential backups while restoring the database. I quite often see that log file backup interval is so huge it is more than differential backup interval. There are so many factors which can lead to disaster and data loss, leading to people to look for a new job in a new town at times. If you are confused regarding what is tail log backup, then stop, and learn from online books before implementing the backup strategy. Even if you are not responsible for implementing the backup strategy, I would still suggest you to read how to carry out proper backup as you never know when it will land heavily on your job card!

Here are few interesting write-ups on this subject on this blog.

Backup Timeline and Understanding of Database Restore Process in Full Recovery Model

Restore Sequence and Understanding NORECOVERY and RECOVERY

Mirrored Backup and Restore and Split File Backup

Restore Database Without or With Backup – Everything About Restore and Backup

Restore Database Backup using SQL Script (T-SQL)

There are many more practices I can write, but I think these five are the top worst practices. Feel free to post your opinions and suggestions.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Meanwhile do you know how can you generate Zero without using any numbers in T-SQL. My friend Madhivanan has done that and I find it very interesting.Run following T-SQL code – ‘SELECT $’. He has written many other tricks how to generate zero also on his blog.

On another note – I have published my answer for question about SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) here.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Here are few things which I had learned in my very first month (not necessarily I have practices them on production).

• Never compress (zip) native backup using any tools, when disaster happen sometime the extra time to un-compress the database can be too long and not acceptable for business SLA
• Do not truncate logs
• After restoring full database backup – only restore latest differential back, no need to restore all the backup
• Always write WHERE condition when deleting and updating

Sr. DBA always advised me – always keep your résumé ready and car ready – you never know when you can not recover disaster! Well for sure it was a joke. Today’s T-SQL Tuesday remind me of my very first month as DBA trainee.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Inviting all Professional Developers, Project Managers, Architects, IT Managers, IT Administrators and Implementers of Ahmedabad to be a part of Tech•Ed on the Road, on 11th June, 2011. We have put together the best sessions from Tech•Ed India 2011 for you in your city. Focal point will be technologies like Database and BI, Windows 7, ASP.NET.

REGISTER HERE!

Venue:
Venue: Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA)
Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Marg,
University Area,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380 015

Time: 9:30AM – 5:30PM

The biggest attraction of the event is session HTML5 – Future of the Web by Harish Vaidyanathan. He is Evangelist Lead in Microsoft and hands on developer himself. I strongly urge all of you to attend his session to understand direction of the web and Microsoft’s take on the subject.

I (Pinal Dave) will be presenting on the session of SQL Server Performance Tuning and Jacob Sebastian will be presenting on T-SQL Worst Practices. Do not miss this opportunity. Those who have attended in the past know that from last two years the venue is jam packed in first few minutes. Do come in early to get better seat and reserve your spot.

We will have QUIZ during the event and we will have various gifts – Watches, USB Drives, T-Shirts and many more interesting gifts.

Refer the agenda today and register right away. There will be no video recording so come and visit the event in person.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

SQL Server Waits and Queues – Your Gateway to Performance Troubleshooting

Session Level: 300
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
Just like a horoscope, SQL Server Waits and Queues can reveal your past, explain your present and predict your future. SQL Server Performance Tuning uses the Waits and Queues as a proven method to identify the best opportunities to improve performance. A glance at Wait Types can tell where there is a bottleneck. Learn how to identify bottlenecks and potential resolutions in this fast paced, advanced performance tuning session.

I have previously presented this session at TechEd India and it got very much appreciated by attendees: SQLAuthority News – TechED 2011 – Bangalore – An Unforgettable Experience – Day Next.

Please Vote for My Session in SQL PASS

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Video of Check SQL Server Health using Best Practices Analyzer

If you want to download the resources which I have used in this presentation here is the link of the same:

Download BPA resources

Do let me what you think of the same. If you like it, let me know and I will have more videos like the same.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)


Filed under: Best Practices, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/05/06/sql-server-video-best-practices-analyzer-using-microsoft-baseline-configuration-analyzer/feed/ 6 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/05/05/sql-server-presenting-on-best-practices-analyzer-using-microsoft-baseline-configuration-analyzer/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/05/05/sql-server-presenting-on-best-practices-analyzer-using-microsoft-baseline-configuration-analyzer/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 01:30:47 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=12789 ]]> Today (May 5, 2011) I will be presenting on Presenting on Best Practices Analyzer using Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer at http://zeollar.com/. I will be presenting on following subjects.

The tools which I will be using in the demonstration are following:

• Engine – Backups outdated for databases
• Engine – Database files and backups exist on the same volume
• Engine – SQL Server tempdb database not configured optimally
• Engine – Authentication Mode
• Engine – Database consistency check not current
• Engine – Databases using simple recovery model

Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0

Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 (MBCA 2.0) can help you maintain optimal system configuration by analyzing configurations of your computers against a predefined set of best practices, and reporting results of the analyses.

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Best Practices Analyzer

The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 BPA is a diagnostic tool that performs the following functions:

• Gathers information about a Server and a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 instance installed on that Server
• Determines if the configurations are set according to the recommended best practices
• Reports on all configurations, indicating settings that differ from recommendations
• Indicates potential problems in the installed instance of SQL Server
• Recommends solutions to potential problems

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)


You can watch the most popular SQL Server – TSQL course on Pluralsight On-Demand for FREE for the next 48 hours. It starts NOW!

The Story

Learning is always difficult. After learning how to apply your knowledge, learning in real life is even more difficult. Technology is moving faster than the speed of light and new technologies are always emerging – this is now the reality of the new technology world. Between all of this, I personally have very little time to learn new technology. I do not like eBooks (this statement warrants a whole new blog posts – some other time), I prefer regular books. It is becoming more and more difficult to carry around the books and read them with passion. It happened to me once that by the time I finished the book, there was a new version of the product out in the market.

Recently I noticed that I am reading more blogs than books. Blogs are great but they are not structured. Structured learning is the key when one wants to understand technology properly. From experience I have learned that watching videos at my convenience (on-demand) and following the labs along with the video is way easier. A good teacher cannot be replaced by 1,000 books. I find that I can learn fastest using online tutorial videos that are well structured.

All the attendees of the technology mega-event in India got free passes from Pluralsight On-Demand training. I watched two Pluralsight courses online and I found they are well structured and have lots of supporting material (lab, scripts, ppts). When I reported my good feedback to Pluralsight, they offered 48 hours free access to their MOST popular SQL Server – TSQL course, exclusively for SQLAuthority.com readers. I cannot let this offer pass when it can help so many of my readers.

The Beginning of the Real World

Try out the SQL Server – TSQL course right away as it is freely available for the next 48 hours only. Let me know your feedback about the course. This course is for every developer who uses SQL Server in their applications. It covers the fundamentals of using SQL Server from T-SQL to the CLR, to automating processing with SQL Server Integration services.

UPDATE: You do not need login or create account to watch T-SQL course. Just go to SQL Server – TSQL and click on links.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Niraj Bhatt works as an Enterprise Architect for a Fortune 500 company and has an innate passion for building / studying software systems. He is a top rated speaker at various technical forums including Tech·Ed, MCT Summit, Developer Summit, and Virtual Tech Days, among others. Having run a successful startup for four years Niraj enjoys working on – IT innovations that can impact an enterprise bottom line, streamlining IT budgets through IT consolidation, architecture and integration of systems, performance tuning, and review of enterprise applications. He has received Microsoft MVP award for ASP.NET, Connected Systems and most recently on Windows Azure. When he is away from his laptop, you will find him taking deep dives in automobiles, pottery, rafting, photography, cooking and financial statements though not necessarily in that order. He is also a manager/speaker at BDOTNET, Asia’s largest .NET user group.

Here is the guest post by Niraj Bhatt.

When I get stumped while programming, I find myself asking the variations on these questions:

• “How do I…?”
• “Now what?”
• “Why isn’t this working?”
• “Why do I have to redo the work I just did?”

It seems to me that a good ETL IDE will anticipate these questions and seek to answer them before they are even asked. So here are my tips to help software vendors build developer IDEs that actually make development easier.

How do I…?

While developing an ETL application, have you ever asked yourself: “How do I set up the connection to my SQL Server database?”,“How do I import my table definitions from Access?”, etc. An easy answer might be “read the manual” but sometimes product manuals are not robust or easily accessible. So, integrating robust how-to instructions directly into your ETLstudio would help users get the information they need at the time they need it.

Now what?

IDEs in general know where you last clicked or performed an action using an input device such as a keyboard; so they should be able to reasonably predict the design context you are in and suggest the next steps accordingly. Context-sensitive suggestions based on the state of the user’s work will help users move forward in ETL application development.

Why isn’t this working? Or why do I have to wait till I compile to be told about a critical design issue?

If an ETL IDE is smart enough to signal to users what in their design structures is left to be completed or has been completed incorrectly, then the developer can spend much less time in the designàcompileàerror-correct loop. Just-in-time validation helps users detect and correct programming errors earlier in the ETL development life cycle.

Why do I have to redo the work I just did?

In ETL development, schemas, transformation rules, connectivity objects, etc., can be reused in various situations. Using mouse-clicks to build and manage libraries of reusable design objects implies that the application development effort should decrease over time and as the library acquires more objects.

I met a great company at SQL Pass that is trying to address many of these usability issues. Check them out at www.expressor-software.com.

What other ease-of-use suggestions do you have for ETL software vendors? Please post your valuable comments.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

This whitepaper talks about what are best practices for Data Warehousing. This whitepaper discusses ETL, Analysis, Reporting as well relational database. The main focus of this whitepaper is on mainly ‘architecture’ and ‘performance’.

Download Best Practices for Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2008 R2

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

On December 11, 2010, Vinod Kumar, a Databases & BI technology evangelist from Microsoft Corporation, graced Ahmedabad by spending some time with the Community during the Community Tech Days (CTD) event. As he was running through a few demos, Vinod asked the audience one of the most fundamental and common interview questions – “What is the difference between a DELETE and TRUNCATE?“

Ahmedabad SQL Server User Group Expert Nakul Vachhrajani has come up with excellent solutions of the same. I must congratulate Nakul for this excellent solution and as a encouragement to User Group member, I am publishing the same article over here.

Nakul Vachhrajani is a Software Specialist and systems development professional with Patni Computer Systems Limited. He has functional experience spanning legacy code deprecation, system design, documentation, development, implementation, testing, maintenance and support of complex systems, providing business intelligence solutions, database administration, performance tuning, optimization, product management, release engineering, process definition and implementation. He has comprehensive grasp on Database Administration, Development and Implementation with MS SQL Server and C, C++, Visual C++/C#. He has about 6 years of total experience in information technology. Nakul is an member of the Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar SQL Server User Groups, and actively contributes to the community by actively participating in multiple forums and websites like SQLAuthority.com, BeyondRelational.com, SQLServerCentral.com and many others.

Please note: The opinions expressed herein are Nakul own personal opinions and do not represent his employer’s view in anyway.

All data from everywhere here on Earth go through a series of  four distinct operations, identified by the words: CREATE, READ, UPDATE and DELETE, or simply, CRUD. Putting in Microsoft SQL Server terms, is the process goes like this: INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE and DELETE/TRUNCATE.

Quite a few interesting responses were received and evaluated live during the session. To summarize them, the most important similarity that came out was that both DELETE and TRUNCATE participate in transactions. The major differences (not all) that came out of the exercise were:

DELETE:

DELETE supports a WHERE clause
DELETE removes rows from a table, row-by-row
Because DELETE moves row-by-row, it acquires a row-level lock
Depending upon the recovery model of the database, DELETE is a fully-logged operation.
Because DELETE moves row-by-row, it can fire off triggers

TRUNCATE:

TRUNCATE does not support a WHERE clause
TRUNCATE works by directly removing the individual data pages of a table
TRUNCATE directly occupies a table-level lock.
(Because a lock is acquired, and because TRUNCATE can also participate in a transaction, it has to be a logged operation)
TRUNCATE is, therefore, a minimally-logged operation; again, this depends upon the recovery model of the database
Triggers are not fired when TRUNCATE is used (because individual row deletions are not logged)

Finally, Vinod popped the big homework question that must be critically analyzed:

“We know that we can restrict a DELETE operation to a particular user, but how can we restrict the TRUNCATE operation to a particular user?”

After returning home and having a nice cup of coffee, I noticed that my gray cells immediately started to work. Below was the result of my research.

As what is always said, the devil is in the details. Upon looking at the Permissions section for the TRUNCATE statement in Books On Line, the following jumps right out:

“The minimum permission required is ALTER on table_name. TRUNCATE TABLE permissions default to the table owner, members of the sysadmin fixed server role, and the db_owner and db_ddladmin fixed database roles, and are not transferable. However, you can incorporate the TRUNCATE TABLE statement within a module, such as a stored procedure, and grant appropriate permissions to the module using the EXECUTE AS clause.“

Now, what does this mean? Unlike DELETE, one cannot directly assign permissions to a user/set of users allowing or revoking TRUNCATE rights. However, there is a way to circumvent this. It is important to recall that in Microsoft SQL Server, database engine security surrounds the concept of a “securable”, which is any object like a table, stored procedure, trigger, etc. Rights are assigned to a principal on a securable. Refer to the image below (taken from the SQL Server Books On Line).

urable”, which is any object like a table, stored procedure, trigger, etc. Rights are assigned to a principal on a securable. Refer to the image below (taken from the SQL Server Books On Line).

SETTING UP THE ENVIRONMENT – (01A_Truncate Table Permissions.sql) Script Provided at the end of the article.

By the end of this demo, one will be able to do all the CRUD operations, except the TRUNCATE, and the other will only be able to execute the TRUNCATE.

All you will need for this test is any edition of SQL Server 2008. (With minor changes, these scripts can be made to work with SQL 2005.)

We begin by creating the following:

1.       A test database

2.        Two database roles: associated logins and users

3.       Switch over to the test database and create a test table. Then, add some data into it. I am using row constructors, which is new to SQL 2008.

Creating the modules that will be used to enforce permissions

1.       We have already created one of the modules that we will be assigning permissions to. That module is the table: TruncatePermissionsTest

2.       We will now create two stored procedures; one is for the DELETE operation and the other for the TRUNCATE operation. Please note that for all practical purposes, the end result is the same – all data from the table TruncatePermissionsTest is removed

Assigning the permissions

Now comes the most important part of the demonstration – assigning permissions. A permissions matrix can be worked out as under:

To apply the security rights, we use the GRANT and DENY clauses, as under:

That’s it! We are now ready for our big test!

THE TEST (01B_Truncate Table Test Queries.sql) Script Provided at the end of the article.

I will now need two separate SSMS connections, one with the login AllowedTruncate and the other with the login RestrictedTruncate.

Running the test is simple; all that’s required is to run through the script – 01B_Truncate Table Test Queries.sql. What I will demonstrate here via screen-shots is the behavior of SQL Server when logged in as the AllowedTruncate user. There are a few other combinations than what are highlighted here. I will leave the reader the right to explore the behavior of the RestrictedTruncate user and these additional scenarios, as a form of self-study.

1.       Testing SELECT permissions

2.       Testing TRUNCATE permissions (Remember, “deny by default”?)

3.       Trying to circumvent security by trying to TRUNCATE the table using the stored procedure

Hence, we have now proved that a user can indeed be assigned permissions to specifically assign TRUNCATE permissions. I also hope that the above has sparked curiosity towards putting some security around the probably “destructive” operations of DELETE and TRUNCATE.

I would like to wish each and every one of the readers a very happy and secure time with Microsoft SQL Server.

(Please find the scripts – 01A_Truncate Table Permissions.sql and 01B_Truncate Table Test Queries.sql that have been used in this demonstration. Please note that these scripts contain purely test-level code only. These scripts must not, at any cost, be used in the reader’s production environments).

01A_Truncate Table Permissions.sql

/*
*****************************************************************************************************************
Developed By          : Nakul Vachhrajani
Functionality         : This demo is focused on how to allow only TRUNCATE permissions to a particular user
How to Use            : 1. Run through, step-by-step through the sequence till Step 08 to create a test database
2. Switch over to the "Truncate Table Test Queries.sql" and execute it step-by-step
in two different SSMS windows, one where you have logged in as 'RestrictedTruncate',
and the other as 'AllowedTruncate'
3. Come back to "Truncate Table Permissions.sql"
4. Execute Step 10 to cleanup!
Modifications         :
December 13, 2010 - NAV - Updated to add a security matrix and improve code readability when applying security
December 12, 2010 - NAV - Created
*****************************************************************************************************************
*/
-- Step 01: Create a new test database
CREATE DATABASE TruncateTestDB
GO
USE TruncateTestDB
GO
-- Step 02: Add roles and users to demonstrate the security of the Truncate operation
-- 2a. Create the new roles
CREATE ROLE AllowedTruncateRole;
GO
CREATE ROLE RestrictedTruncateRole;
GO
-- 2b. Create new logins
CREATE LOGIN AllowedTruncate WITH PASSWORD = 'truncate@2010',
CHECK_POLICY = ON
GO
CREATE LOGIN RestrictedTruncate WITH PASSWORD = 'truncate@2010',
CHECK_POLICY = ON
GO
-- 2c. Create new Users using the roles and logins created aboave
CREATE USER TruncateUser FOR LOGIN AllowedTruncate WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA = dbo
GO
CREATE USER NoTruncateUser FOR LOGIN RestrictedTruncate WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA = dbo
GO
-- 2d. Add the newly created login to the newly created role
sp_addrolemember 'AllowedTruncateRole','TruncateUser'
GO
sp_addrolemember 'RestrictedTruncateRole','NoTruncateUser'
GO
-- Step 03: Change over to the test database
USE TruncateTestDB
GO
-- Step 04: Create a test table within the test databse
CREATE TABLE TruncatePermissionsTest (Id INT IDENTITY(1,1),
Name NVARCHAR(50))
GO
-- Step 05: Populate the required data
INSERT INTO TruncatePermissionsTest VALUES (N'Delhi'),
(N'Mumbai'),
(N'Ahmedabad')
GO
-- Step 06: Encapsulate the DELETE within another module
CREATE PROCEDURE proc_DeleteMyTable
WITH EXECUTE AS SELF
AS DELETE FROM TruncateTestDB..TruncatePermissionsTest
GO
-- Step 07: Encapsulate the TRUNCATE within another module
CREATE PROCEDURE proc_TruncateMyTable
WITH EXECUTE AS SELF
AS TRUNCATE TABLE TruncateTestDB..TruncatePermissionsTest
GO
-- Step 08: Apply Security
/*
*****************************SECURITY MATRIX***************************************
===================================================================================
Object                   | Permissions |                 Login
|             | AllowedTruncate   |   RestrictedTruncate
|             |User:NoTruncateUser|   User:TruncateUser
===================================================================================
TruncatePermissionsTest  | SELECT,     |      GRANT        |      (Default)
| INSERT,     |                   |
| UPDATE,     |                   |
| DELETE      |                   |
-------------------------+-------------+-------------------+-----------------------
TruncatePermissionsTest  | ALTER       |      DENY         |      (Default)
-------------------------+-------------+----*/----------------+-----------------------
proc_DeleteMyTable | EXECUTE | GRANT | DENY
-------------------------+-------------+-------------------+-----------------------
proc_TruncateMyTable | EXECUTE | DENY | GRANT
-------------------------+-------------+-------------------+-----------------------
*****************************SECURITY MATRIX***************************************
*/
/* Table: TruncatePermissionsTest*/
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON TruncateTestDB..TruncatePermissionsTest
TO NoTruncateUser
GO
DENY ALTER ON TruncateTestDB..TruncatePermissionsTest
TO NoTruncateUser
GO
/* Procedure: proc_DeleteMyTable*/
GRANT EXECUTE ON TruncateTestDB..proc_DeleteMyTable
TO NoTruncateUser
GO
DENY EXECUTE ON TruncateTestDB..proc_DeleteMyTable
TO TruncateUser
GO
/* Procedure: proc_TruncateMyTable*/
DENY EXECUTE ON TruncateTestDB..proc_TruncateMyTable
TO NoTruncateUser
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON TruncateTestDB..proc_TruncateMyTable
TO TruncateUser
GO
-- Step 09: Test
--Switch over to the "Truncate Table Test Queries.sql" and execute it step-by-step in two different SSMS windows:
--    1. one where you have logged in as 'RestrictedTruncate', and
--    2. the other as 'AllowedTruncate'
-- Step 10: Cleanup
sp_droprolemember 'AllowedTruncateRole','TruncateUser'
GO
sp_droprolemember 'RestrictedTruncateRole','NoTruncateUser'
GO
DROP USER TruncateUser
GO
DROP USER NoTruncateUser
GO
DROP LOGIN AllowedTruncate
GO
DROP LOGIN RestrictedTruncate
GO
DROP ROLE AllowedTruncateRole
GO
DROP ROLE RestrictedTruncateRole
GO
USE MASTER
GO
DROP DATABASE TruncateTestDB
GO

01B_Truncate Table Test Queries.sql

/*
*****************************************************************************************************************
Developed By          : Nakul Vachhrajani
Functionality         : This demo is focused on how to allow only TRUNCATE permissions to a particular user
How to Use            : 1. Switch over to this from "Truncate Table Permissions.sql", Step #09
2. Execute this step-by-step in two different SSMS windows
a. One where you have logged in as 'RestrictedTruncate', and
b. The other as 'AllowedTruncate'
3. Return back to "Truncate Table Permissions.sql"
4. Execute Step 10 to cleanup!
Modifications         :
December 12, 2010 - NAV - Created
*****************************************************************************************************************
*/
-- Step 09A: Switch to the test database
USE TruncateTestDB
GO
-- Step 09B: Ensure that we have valid data
SELECT * FROM TruncatePermissionsTest
GO
-- (Expected: Following error will occur if logged in as "AllowedTruncate")
-- Msg 229, Level 14, State 5, Line 1
-- The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'TruncatePermissionsTest', database 'TruncateTestDB', schema 'dbo'.
--Step 09C: Attempt to Truncate Data from the table without using the stored procedure
TRUNCATE TABLE TruncatePermissionsTest
GO
-- (Expected: Following error will occur)
--  Msg 1088, Level 16, State 7, Line 2
--  Cannot find the object "TruncatePermissionsTest" because it does not exist or you do not have permissions.
-- Step 09D:Regenerate Test Data
INSERT INTO TruncatePermissionsTest VALUES (N'London'),
(N'Paris'),
(N'Berlin')
GO
-- (Expected: Following error will occur if logged in as "AllowedTruncate")
-- Msg 229, Level 14, State 5, Line 1
-- The INSERT permission was denied on the object 'TruncatePermissionsTest', database 'TruncateTestDB', schema 'dbo'.
--Step 09E: Attempt to Truncate Data from the table using the stored procedure
EXEC proc_TruncateMyTable
GO
-- (Expected: Will execute successfully with 'AllowedTruncate' user, will error out as under with 'RestrictedTruncate')
-- Msg 229, Level 14, State 5, Procedure proc_TruncateMyTable, Line 1
-- The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object 'proc_TruncateMyTable', database 'TruncateTestDB', schema 'dbo'.
-- Step 09F:Regenerate Test Data
INSERT INTO TruncatePermissionsTest VALUES (N'Madrid'),
(N'Rome'),
(N'Athens')
GO
--Step 09G: Attempt to Delete Data from the table without using the stored procedure
DELETE FROM TruncatePermissionsTest
GO
-- (Expected: Following error will occur if logged in as "AllowedTruncate")
-- Msg 229, Level 14, State 5, Line 2
-- The DELETE permission was denied on the object 'TruncatePermissionsTest', database 'TruncateTestDB', schema 'dbo'.
-- Step 09H:Regenerate Test Data
INSERT INTO TruncatePermissionsTest VALUES (N'Spain'),
(N'Italy'),
(N'Greece')
GO
--Step 09I: Attempt to Delete Data from the table using the stored procedure
EXEC proc_DeleteMyTable
GO
-- (Expected: Following error will occur if logged in as "AllowedTruncate")
-- Msg 229, Level 14, State 5, Procedure proc_DeleteMyTable, Line 1
-- The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object 'proc_DeleteMyTable', database 'TruncateTestDB', schema 'dbo'.
--Step 09J: Close this SSMS window and return back to "Truncate Table Permissions.sql"

Thank you Nakul to take up the challenge and prove that Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar SQL Server User Group has talent to solve difficult problems.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

This blog post is written in response to T-SQL Tuesday hosted by Steve Jones.

Steve raised a very interesting question; every DBA and Database Developer has already faced this situation. When I read the topic, I felt that I can write several different examples here. Today, I will cover this scenario, which seems quite amusing.

Shrinking Database

Earlier this year, I was working on SQL Server Performance Tuning consultancy; I had faced very interesting situation. No matter how much I attempt to reduce the fragmentation, I always end up with heavy fragmentation on the server. After careful research, I figured out that one of the jobs was continuously Shrinking the Database – which is a very bad practice. I have blogged about my experience over here SQL SERVER – SHRINKDATABASE For Every Database in the SQL Server.

I removed the incorrect shrinking process right away; once it was removed, everything continued working as it should be. After a couple of days, I learned that one of their DBAs had put back the same DBCC process. I requested the Senior DBA to find out what is going on and he came up with the following reason: “Business Requirement.” I cannot believe this! Now, it was time for me to go deep into the subject.

Moreover, it had become necessary to understand the need. After talking to the concerned people here, I understood what they needed. Please read the exact business need in their own language.

The Shrinking “Business Need”

“We shrink the database because if we take backup after shrinking the database, the size of the same is smaller. Once we take backup, we have to send it to our remote location site. Our business requirement is that we need to always make sure that the file is smallest when we transfer it to remote server.”

The backup is not affected in any way if you shrink the database or not. The size of backup will be the same. After a couple of the tests, they agreed with me. Shrinking will create performance issues for the same as it will introduce heavy fragmentation in the database.

The Real Solution

The real business need was that they needed the smallest possible backup file. We finally implemented a quick solution which they are still using to date. The solution was compressed backup. I have written about this subject in detail few years before SQL SERVER – 2008 – Introduction to New Feature of Backup Compression. Compressed backup not only creates a small filesize but also increases the speed of the database as well.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

The story is very small but the moral of the story is very important. The story is about a client, who had continuously performance issues. Client used Activity Monitor (Read More: SQL SERVER – 2008 – Location of Activity Monitor – Where is SQL Serve Activity Monitor Located) to check the performance issues. The pattern of the performance issues was very much common all the time. Every time, after a while the computer stopped responding. After doing in-depth performance analysis, Jacob realized that client once opened activity monitor never closed it. The same activity monitor itself is very expensive process. The tool, which helped to debug the performance issues, also helped (negatively) to bring down the server. After closing the activity monitor which was open for long time, the server did not have performance issues.

Moral of the story: Activity Monitor is great tool but use it with care and close it when not needed.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)