Physical and virtual memory are two different things, and SQL Server reports on both. This post explains RAM, address space, the page file and paging in plain words. It then reads each number with three read-only queries and ends with settings worth checking.
SQL Server emergency? Email pinal@sqlauthority.com with URGENT in the subject line.
Does Dropping Primary Key Drop Non-Clustered Index on the Column? – Interview Question of the Week #085
Does dropping a primary key also drop the Non-Clustered Index on that column? An interview question with a small repro script to see the answer.
SQL SERVER – SSMS Error During Restore: No Backupset Selected to be Restored
Restoring a SQL Server 2008 backup in SSMS 2012 gave ‘No backupset selected to be restored’. A reader’s question and what causes this restore error.
SQL SERVER – Backup to URL Fails in Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Deployment Model with Error – (400) Bad Request
Backup to URL failed with (400) Bad Request on storage created in the Azure Resource Manager model. Here is why and how my client got it working.
SQL SERVER – False Error – Cannot bulk load because the file could not be opened. Operating system error code 5 (Access is denied.)
BULK INSERT said ‘Operating system error code 5 (Access is denied.)’ but that was not the real problem. A repro of this misleading error and the real cause.
Database Sharding – How to Identify a Shard Key?
Picking the shard key is the hardest part of Database Sharding. Here are the guiding principles I shared at a user group for choosing a good one.
PowerShell – SQL Server Paging of Memory Identification
After a client case of memory pressure, I wrote a PowerShell script to spot SQL Server Paging, when SQL Server memory is being paged out to disk.
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