SQL Tips and Tricks Archives - Page 131 of 536 - SQL Authority with Pinal Dave

SQL Authority News – SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 Available for Download

May 18, 2015

Last month, Microsoft announced SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 and it had issues with SSIS catalog. Microsoft has once again released SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 earlier today and it is now available to download. I hope all the issue with earlier version has been taken care and the…

Interview Question of the Week #020 – What is the Difference Between DISTINCT and GROUP BY?

May 17, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Scripts

Question: What is the Difference Between DISTINCT and GROUP BY? Answer: A DISTINCT and GROUP BY usually generate the same query plan, so performance should be the same across both query constructs. GROUP BY should be used to apply aggregate operators to each group. If all you need is to remove duplicates,…

SQL SERVER – Service Pack Error – The User Data directory in the registry is not valid. Verify DefaultData key under the instance hive points to a valid directory

May 16, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Error Messages

As a good SQL Server DBA, I always keep updating my SQL Server on my all VMs with the latest service pack available. During my last installation of service pack 2 on SQL Server 2012, I got below error. The User Data directory in the registry is not valid. Verify…

SQL SERVER – WARNING – SQL Server Has Encountered N Occurrence(s) of I/O Requests Taking Longer Than 15 Seconds

May 15, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Counter, SQL DMV, SQL Error Messages, SQL Log, SQL Server

This is one of the most commonly asked questions via blog comments and emails sent across to me. Here is the sample error message which has been reported in SQL Server ERRORLOG. Let us learn about how to fix occurrences of I/O Requests taking longer.

SQL SERVER – PowerShell Script – When Was SQL Server Last Restarted?

May 13, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

Powershell

I have always wanted to learn a bit of scripting and I was always searching for a good reason to learn something new. As I said, this is my learning and I am open to learning some scripting tricks from you too. So do let me know how the below…

SQL SERVER – Identify Page Splits Using Extended Events in SQL Server

May 12, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Extended Events

Digging some of my older posts reveal I have written a blog already on Page Splits with SQL Server. This was no surprise because I am in constant need to reinvent as I write the blog posts. Now you might ask, why was I searching. Well, when I was talking…

SQL SERVER – Introduction to Database Engine Tuning Advisor (a.k.a. DTA)

May 11, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Performance, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

While talking to one of the attendees after my session at GIDS, I realized that I don’t have much information available on my blog about the usage of one of the fantastic performance tuning tool called Database Engine Tuning Advisor. This is also called as Database Tuning Advisor or DTA…