[Note from Pinal]: In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Mike Lawell talks about his thoughts and observation about SQL Server 2016 and enhancements with AlwaysOn Availability Groups. When AlwaysOn was newly introduced, I was not able to catch up with the feature. I just thought it was just one of the subject which will not be developed by Microsoft, however, as the new versions of the SQL Server are now taking this feature to the next level, I am very delighted that I should have not worried at all. Let us see what Mike says in his own words about Enhancements with AlwaysOn Availability Groups.
SQL SERVER 2016 – Early Thoughts and Observations – Notes from the Field #120
[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.
“I Don’t Know” – DBAs Should Learn to Use This Phrase – Notes from the Field #119
[Note from Pinal]: This is a 119th episode of Notes from the Field series. If you know Mike Walsh, he is an amazing person to meet and know. He is technical expert, but along with that he is a true life coach. I am fortunate to be his friend. Every single time I meet him, I learn something as a human. In this episode Mike explains one of the most important things any DBAs should learn, which is to say “I Don’t Know”.
In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Mike Walsh gives a challenge to all of us. He explains to us why we should study our mistakes. He is indeed very right that every mistake gives us opportunity to correct ourselves.
SQL SERVER 2016 – STRING_SPLIT Function Performance Comparison – Notes from the Field #118
SQL Server 2016 is around the corner. We already have SQL Server 2016 RC0 released and many of us have started to test out various aspects of the same. For many years users have created temporary tables as well as used cross apply functions to split a large string and make it a table. I think every single time when I was assigned this task, I disliked it as the methods I used never made me happy. Well, the situation is now changed now with STRING_SPLIT function in SQL Server 2016.
In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Kathi Kellenberger explains about easy and amazing functions of SQL Server. Kathi is an amazing instructor, she was the SQL author I have read in my early career. Today she brings a very new topic for database experts. Read the experience of Kathi in her own words.
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.
SQL SERVER – Boosting User Experience with Analysis Services Perspectives – Notes from the Field #116
[Note from Pinal]: This is a new episode of Notes from the Field series. When I was new to SSAS it took me quite a while to understand the various terminology of SSAS. The reason for the same was, I was from networking background and not familiar with many of the analytical terms. I am sure if you are not familiar with SSAS the very first line of this blog “Analysis Services Perspectives are a feature that enable the designer to control which portions of the data model are exposed to the users.” may be confusing. It is alright if you are not familiar with the concept, the goal of this blog post is to understand what is perspective and how it helps user experience.
SQL SERVER – Attaching and Restoring Database in Clustering Generates An Error – Notes from the Field #115
[Notes from Pinal]: In my career, I have seen many database experts who are great with what they do, but when they have to work with clustering or AlwaysOn solutions, they usually avoid it. The reason is that there are not many experts who know this subject well enough. One thing I always personally felt that the documentation is also not widely available when it is about clustering. If one receives some error, they are usually lost. This is when I reached out to Eduardo and asked him what can we do to if we face error while attaching or restoring database in clustering environment in SQL Server.