Recently I had been to an institute to talk about some database concepts to computer science students. Most of these academic engagements get me closer to young minds and this is an awesome way for me to bring some of the industry concepts in a digestible simple format. Trust me, this takes double the preparation I normally do for professional sessions because now I need to make the concepts so simple that even kids of any age and with no knowledge can still get the concepts being explained. A lot of times this is an exercise for me to show how self-learning can be much more rewarding and unique when compared to what text book teaching would look like. In this blog, let me take up the concept around Physical and Virtual memory which took some considerable time for me using a whiteboard. I am sure, you would have also learnt these concepts a while back, but this is a refresher in my opinion for all.
Does Dropping Primary Key Drop Non-Clustered Index on the Column? – Interview Question of the Week #085
Question: When we drop primary key on the column, does it automatically drop a non-clustered index on the same column (if created)?
Before we see answer of this question, I suggest you read following three blog posts, they discuss various similar aspects related to the primary key and clustered index.
SQL SERVER – SSMS Error During Restore: No Backupset Selected to be Restored
There are various ways of learning in my current role. Along with client engagements, reading others blog, I also learn from comment/interaction of my own blog. One of my blog readers sent below email about Backupset.
SQL SERVER – Backup to URL Fails in Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Deployment Model with Error – (400) Bad Request
During my previous consulting engagement, I learned something new with SQL Server feature called back up to the URL. Since it was not so clearly documented, I am sharing this with you. In this blog post, let us learn about Azure Resource Manager. If you have not heard about this feature, you can think of it as variation of the SQL backup feature. In this type of backup, the destination would be an Azure storage rather than disk or tape. You can read more about this feature on my previous blog SQL SERVER – Backup to Azure Blob using SQL Server 2014 Management Studio.
SQL SERVER – False Error – Cannot bulk load because the file could not be opened. Operating system error code 5 (Access is denied.)
Yes, it’s possible that SQL Server can raise false and misleading error. I was trying to do some pretty straight forward stuff – import data from text file to SQL table using the BULK INSERT command of T-SQL. Let us learn about false errors of Operating system error code 5 (Access is denied.)
Database Sharding – How to Identify a Shard Key?
I have written a number of posts in the past working on shared databases and the concepts around these can be read at Sharding or No Sharding of Database – Working on my Weekend Project for the starters point of view. In a recent discussion at a user group, I had someone ask me what is the rationale around building a sharding key and what should be used for sharding their database. The concept, though common, it is not in black-and-white to what should be used as an sharding key. There are guiding principles which can be applied. Let us learn about Database Sharding.
PowerShell – SQL Server Paging of Memory Identification
In one of my recent consultation visits to a customer, there was deep performance related problems. They were unclear to what was happening and what was the actual problem. But these are some of the challenges that I love to take head-on too. In this quest to learn what the problem would be, I used a number of tools and during that time I figured out it was a memory pressure that was creating the problem. Let us learn about SQL Server Paging of Memory Identification.
SQL SERVER – A Timeout (30000 milliseconds) was Reached While Waiting for a Transaction Response from the MSSQLSERVER
Recently I was contacted by a client who reported very strange error in the SQL Server machine. These consulting engagements sometimes get the best out of you when it comes to troubleshooting. They reported that they see timeout error. My question was whether it connection timeout or query timeout which I explained in this blog post?
How to Drop Clustered Index on Primary Key Column? – Interview Question of the Week #084
Question: How to drop clustered index, which is created on primary key?
Answer: If you thought the answer as simple as following script, you are wrong.
DROP INDEX PK_Table1_Col1
ON Table1
GO
SQL SERVER – Installation Fails With Error – A Constraint Violation Occurred
In my recent past, I have helped around 10 customers who have had similar problems while installing SQL Server Cluster on windows. So I thought it would be a nice idea to pen it down as a blog post so that it can help others in future. In this blog post we will discuss about Installation Fails With Error – A Constraint Violation Occurred.