SQL Server Performance Tuning Expert - SQL Authority with Pinal Dave

Notes from the Field, SQL Server 2016

[Note from Pinal]: In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Mike Lawell explains about Live Query Statistics in SQL Server 2016. Statistics are heart of SQL Server. They play a very powerful role when SQL Server Engine needs help to build a new execution plan for a query. In earlier version of SQL Server we had the only privilege to see statistics after the query is executed. However, with the advancement of SQL Server 2016, the scenario has been changed. Here is a very interesting new feature of SQL Server 2016 which can help every performance tuning expert. Read the SQL Server 2016 – Early Thoughts and Observations of Mike in his own words.

Mar31

SQL SERVER – Finding If Status of Bulk Logging Enabled or Not From Logs

Bulk Logging, SQL Log, SQL Scripts, SQL Server

Backup related questions are always challenging and sometimes our basics is shaken when someone randomly asks us something we were not aware of. Sometimes it takes a little bit of digging around in documentation and we are in for a surprise because this has been there for quite some time. In a recent conversation with a DBA friend of mine in a consulting exercise, he came back to me with an interesting question. Let us see in this blog post about how to find the status of Bulk Logging Enabled or not from SQL logs.

Pinal, how do I know if a Bulk Logging operation was performed on my SQL Server. I know there are a number of SSIS jobs that run during the day and night and I have a number of log backups that are taken continuously. Some of these jobs actually change the recovery model to Bulk-Logged and end of the process, they turn it back to Full once the script was to end. I know I can do a number of audit settings to make sure this is captured. But is there any other way to identify which of these logs when taken have the Bulk logged operation?

Mar30

SQL SERVER – How to Query Active Directory Data Using ADSI / LDAP Linked Server

SQL Scripts, SQL Server

There are situations when you need to integrate SQL Server with other product. Once of the classic example was seen during my last visit to a client. They wanted list of email addresses and phone numbers for all users in the company to be fetched by Active Directory. I have told them that SQL can read that data via linked server. Here are the steps to learn how to query active directory data.

Mar29

SQL SERVER – How to Add Multiple New Columns to Table with Default Values?

SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Table Operation

This is a follow up blog post of my earlier blog post on the same subject. You can read my earlier blog post over here. I recently received an email where a user asked how to add more than one new column to an existing table with a default value. Very interesting and simple question. Honestly, I love simple questions as they are the most needed by users. So here is the question – “How to Add Multiple New Columns to Table with Default Values?”. Now let us try to solve this question with the help of an example.

Mar28

MySQL – How to Drop Table If Exists in Database?

MySQL, SQL Table Operation

SQL

In this post SQL Server – 2016 – T-SQL Enhancement “Drop if Exists” clause, we have seen the new feature introduced in SQL Server version 2016. One of my friends recently asked me question that how to drop table in exists in MySQL database? It was not surprising to see that not many people know about the existence of this feature. MySQL already has this feature for a while and if you are MySQL DBA, you may find it interesting that SQL Server just introduced this feature.

Mar27

What is a Self Join? Explain with Example – Interview Question of the Week #064

SQL Interview Questions and Answers

SQL Joins, SQL Scripts, SQL Server

A very popular question I often see in the interviews of developers. It does not matter if you are a SQL developer, .NET developer, JAVA developer or Python Developer, this question is always popular in any interviews. The question is about join in the SQL and it is about SELF JOIN.

Question: What is a Self Join?

Mar26

SQL SERVER – Patch Upgrade – Failed to connect to server. Error: 0x80070422

SQL Connection, SQL Error Messages, SQL Server