Find sleeping sessions with open transactions, inspect their locks and last batch, and identify the application owner before ending work.
SQL SERVER – Clustered Index on Separate Drive From Table Location
A Jr. developer asked if a clustered index can live on a separate Drive from its table. The answer is no, and the clustered vs non clustered difference shows why.
SQL SERVER – Query Optimizer Hint ROBUST PLAN – Question to You
What does the query optimizer hint ROBUST PLAN do? I explain query hints in simple words and ask you for a practical example of ROBUST PLAN in action.
No Join Predicate: Verify the Relationship Before Tuning
No join predicate prompts a relationship check. Compare all combinations with exact customer-order pairs before changing indexes or hiding duplicates.
SQL SERVER – Performance Counters from System Views – By Kevin Mckenna
SQL and .NET expert Kevin Mckenna, whom I met on Twitter, shows how to read SQL Server performance counters from system views.
APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT in SQL Server: Saves Memory, Not Time
APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT counts distinct values with almost no memory. Tested on 5 million rows, it was within 2.2 percent of the exact count and needed no memory grant, while COUNT(DISTINCT) asked for 436 MB. It was not faster.
Ordered Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2022
Build an ordered columnstore index in SQL Server 2022, inspect segment bounds, and compare range-query reads on your own data.