Disabling parameter sniffing does not guarantee that a bad plan becomes good. That remains my answer to the customer question.
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Parallelism in Express Edition: What the Limits Mean
Parallelism in Express Edition has its own reason code in the execution plan. This post reads that reason, shows the settings that keep a plan serial on any edition, and tests the check on a demo table.
SQL SERVER – Dirty Pages Clean Pages and the Correct Cache Commands
Clean Pages have no outstanding data-file write, while dirty pages contain unwritten changes. A customer asked which state was better.
Recovery Model Changes and the Log Backup Chain
Explain the log backup chain across FULL and SIMPLE changes, inspect recovery LSNs and backup history, and establish a new backup boundary.
Status Changes Only: Collapsing Repeated Rows With LAG
Hundreds of repeated readings, three real changes. Here is how LAG finds them, and why a plain not-equal test quietly drops rows.
max_column_id_used: How Many Columns a Table Once Had
The max_column_id_used column shows how many columns a table ever had. See it grow, find tables that lost columns, and avoid treating column_id as a position.
Query Progress: Watching a Running Plan With dm_exec_query_profiles
Elapsed time cannot tell you if a query is almost done. Live operator rows can. See how to read them and how far to trust the percentage.
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