SQL SERVER – Contest Post – Notes from the Field – Learning Performance Tuning and Database Health

One of the most appreciated and loved the series on SQLAuthority.com is Notes from the Field. I often received how did I come up with the idea behind it. Here is the story for the same.

Inceptions of Notes from the Field

There are two aspects of any technology 1) Theoretical Knowledge and 2) Practical Knowledge. I have been blogging over 7 years over here and over the years, I have shared my theoretical and practical knowledge over here on this blog. However, I am primarily contributor to my blog and hence there was a monotonous tone to this blog. I always wanted to bring the perspective of other Database Experts to the blog readers. In the real world, we have thousands of the servers deployed, and each server has its own stories to tell. When I have worked on performance tuning projects, I have realized that it is not possible to figure out everything by a single expert. When we have more than one opinion for any server, it helps us to figure out what is the best possible solution for that server. Following the same logic, I have decided to reach out to few of my fellow industry experts to help me write a series Notes from the Field.

Contest

Here are details of quick contest. We have so far published 16 different episodes of Notes from the Field. We believe each of them are extremely valuable and have lots of interesting information from the real world. We personally cannot decide which one is better than another, as they all are exceptional posts. With said that when we check the statistics of each of the blog post, we see different interest level for each of them. We decided to have a quick contest for all of you, which will help us to come up with better notes from the field.

Answer following question in the comments – What would you like to learn next in the Notes from the Field series?

One lucky winner will get USD 50 Amazon gift card. We will select lucky winner based on the random algorithm.

Roundup from Notes from the Field

My friends at Linchpin People are expert at Anything and Everything about SQL. You can reach out to them when you need an urgent care specialist for your database. If you believe your servers are healthy, that is a great thing, but it does not hurt to read the advice of the experts in their own words.

Here is the roundup from Notes from the Field. Each of the note is shared by experts at Linchpin People.

• Transaction Log Full – Transaction Log Larger than Data File – Notes from the Field #001
• Root Cause to Performance Problems – Notes from the Field #002
• vCPUs – How Many Are Too Many CPU for SQL Server Virtualization ? – Notes from the Field #003
• SQL Server Configuration Checking – A Must Do for Every DBA – Notes from the Field #004
• Finding Frequently Running Query and Elapsed Time – Notes from the Field #005
• Optimal Memory Settings for SQL Server – Notes from the Field #006
• SQL Server Alerts and How to Use Them – Notes from the Field #007
• Overall SQL Server Performance – Not Just Query Performance – Notes from the Field #008
• Tools for Proactive DBAs – Central Management Server – Notes from the Field #009
• Auditors, Passwords and Exceptions – Notes from the Field #010
• Check for Database Integrity – Notes from the Field #011
• Tools for Proactive DBAs – Policy Based Management – Notes from the Field #012
• Virtualized SQL Server Performance and Storage System – Notes from the Field #013
• Learning SSIS – Where Do I Start? – Notes from the Field #014
• Expanding Your Skills – Notes from the Field #015

• Finding the Last Backup for All Databases – Notes from the Field #016

If you are busy with Christmas, I suggest you bookmark this post and read it later on in the new year.

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)