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Is your SQL Server running slow and you want to speed it up without sharing server credentials? In my Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check, we can work together remotely and resolve your biggest performance troublemakers in less than 4 hours.

Once you learn my business secrets, you will fix the majority of problems in the future.

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Have you ever opened any PowerPoint deck when you face SQL Server Performance Tuning emergencies? SQL Server Performance Tuning Practical Workshop is my MOST popular training with no PowerPoint presentations and 100% practical demonstrations.

Essentially I share my business secrets to optimize SQL Server performance.

For SQL Server Emergency Help, you can reach out to me at pinal@sqlauthority.com with words URGENT in the email subject line for other services mention “Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check“.

SQL SERVER – The Need for Data Tier Elasticity in Cloud Computing

Many application workloads are characterized by resource use that varies over time. Usage peaks can vary depending on the time of the day, week, or month, and outside events. Even a big sport game or an online sale can bring usage spikes. With traditional, on-premises technologies, IT departments typically provisioned enough capacity to manage worst-case scenarios. This approach to scalability can leave a significant amount of underutilized resources in the data centers, most of the time—and inefficiency that can impact overall costs. Cloud computing promises answers to such inefficiencies. In the cloud, you can balance costs and performance by deploying new resources when needed and shrinking them during slack periods. This elastic approach matches demand and capacity.

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SQL SERVER – Installing SQL Server Management Studio 2016 – Step by Step

New versions bring new learning. To keep myself up-to-date, I have downloaded RC0 (release candidate zero) for SQL Server 2016 and while installing SQL Server I was surprised to see the feature list. Installing these bits were something I was wanting to do as we are getting closer to the release date. But something got me by surprise though, check the screenshot shown below, there is no mention of SQL Server Management Studio 2016:

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Interview Question of the Week #062 – How to Find Table Without Clustered Index (Heap)?

Question: How to Find Table Without Clustered Index (heap)?

Answer: In SQL Server, when we create a primary key it automatically creates clustered index on the table, unless we explicitly mentioned not to create one. Due to this reason, the most of the table where there is a primary key, there are good chances it is also a clustered index key.

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SQL SERVER – Installation Error – File Format is Not Valid

The reason I love consulting is because I get to see many flavors of the problems. This new avatar for me is pushing the limits to how I keep learning technologies. My recent interaction with client has shown one more error and another angle to look at a problem. Though some of these errors are new, it is a great way to understand how SQL Server actually works. In this blog post we will see Installation Error.

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Comparison – Understanding Tables Between Oracle and SQL Server

Oracle has a Heap-organized table which SQL Server calls “Heap”
Oracle’s “Clustered” tables are called “Indexed Views” in SQL Server
Both Oracle and SQL Server have “Partition” & “Temporary” tables
Oracle’s “External” tables are called “Linked Servers” in SQL Server.
Oracle’s “Object” table is called “Table Type” in SQL Server.
Oracle’s “Index-organized” tables are referred to as a “Clustered index” in SQL Server.
Oracle does not have an equivalent/term for SQL Server’s In-Memory OLTP table
And Oracle’s “Hybrid columnar” compressed tables are called “Column store clustered index” in SQL Server.

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

[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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