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SQL SERVER – The NOLOCK Question – Notes from the Field #117

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
Notes from the Field, SQL Server, SQL Server Security, SQL Statistics
4 Comments

[Note from Pinal]: This is a 117th episode of Notes from the Field series. Everytime I go to do performance tuning consultancy, one thing annoys me and makes me angry. The usage of NOLOCK hint. I think without any argument, this is one of the most abused query hint in the SQL Server universe. Lots of people treat NOLOCK as a silver bullet of performance tuning and that is unfortunate. There is a special purpose of how NOLOCK should be used and what is the end goal of it.

In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Stuart Ainsworth explains about NOLOCK and its best practices. Trust me, you do not want to overuse NOLOCK hint as it can just impact your database integrity negatively.

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SQL SERVER – syspolicy_purge_history job failing step: Erase Phantom System Health Records

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL Error Messages, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio
16 Comments

Getting back to consulting mode has got my newer clients and bigger challenges. Not only that I am seeing interests for some of the greatest and latest versions, but some clients are sitting on an older version of SQL Server requiring some serious help for trivial issues. One of my clients has asked to consult for a quick error message troubleshooting in the recent past. Since it was an interesting one about syspolicy_purge_history job, I am sharing it via the blog.

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SQL SERVER – Setup Closed with Exit Code 0x80004005

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL Error Messages, SQL Server
10 Comments

Recently I was trying to help one of my clients to install Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2008 R2 instance. Nothing was coming up when we were hitting setup.exe. I looked into my own blog and found Installation Log Summary File Location – 2012 – 2008 R2. But there was no file getting generated. I looked around of MSDN and found: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/install-windows/view-and-read-sql-server-setup-log-files?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=sql-server-ver15. The reason was there was exit code 0x80004005.

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Interview Question of the Week #061 – How to Retrieve SQL Server Configuration?

Pinal Dave
SQL Interview Questions and Answers
SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Configuration
4 Comments

I have observed this question in the interview question few days ago. I had a fun time to see candidates failing to answer this question. The most common answer candidate gave us was that they will right click on the server and see the properties. Well, that option will not give all the details which actual question intended. Let us see the question:

Question: What is the best way to see all the options set for your SQL Server programmatically?

Answer:

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SQL SERVER – Management Studio – Changing Status Bar Location

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio
7 Comments

To error is human and sometimes the errors / mistakes we make can easily put our jobs at stake. Such horror stories are something I keep hearing from people and they are super cool in a way because you learn from their experiences. In a recent corridor conversation with a friend, he said how cool he found my blog on: SQL SERVER – Color Coding SQL Server Management Studio Status Bar. He personally felt this was a cool thing. But he said even after that, it is sometimes difficult because the status bar location is at the bottom. I asked what is your screen resolution – he replied (2560 x 1440).

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Pinal Dave is an SQL Server Performance Tuning Expert and independent consultant with over 22 years of hands-on experience. He holds a Masters of Science degree and numerous database certifications.

Pinal has authored 14 SQL Server database books and 94 Pluralsight courses. To freely share his knowledge and help others build their expertise, Pinal has also written more than 5,800 database tech articles on his blog at https://blog.sqlauthority.com.

Pinal is an experienced and dedicated professional with a deep commitment to flawless customer service. If you need help with any SQL Server Performance Tuning Issues, please feel free to reach out at pinal@sqlauthority.com.

Pinal is also a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer (CF-L1) and CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2).

Nupur Dave is a social media enthusiast and an independent consultant. She primarily focuses on the database domain, helping clients build short and long-term multi-channel campaigns to drive leads for their sales pipeline.

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