Read deadlock graphs from system_health, identify victims and resource owners, reproduce a two-session cycle, and choose a targeted fix.
Capturing the SQL Behind SSMS Reports With Extended Events
Capture the SQL behind SSMS reports with a filtered Extended Events ring buffer, inspect batch text, and remove the session afterward.
Memory Grant Feedback Events: Capture Them in T-SQL
Memory grant feedback events list every query whose memory grant keeps changing, and the moment SQL Server gives up on it. This post creates the Extended Events session in T-SQL, watches it live in SSMS and reads it with one query that names the procedure.
Capture Query Plans With Extended Events: A Safe, Scoped Session
To capture query plans without guessing, use an Extended Events session scoped to one database and a duration threshold. This post builds one on SQL Server 2025, reads the captured actual plan, and measures why plan capture must be switched on briefly and then off.
Sessionizing Events: Grouping Activity Into Sessions by Idle Gap
Your events have a user and a time but no visit ID. Here is how to infer sessions from an idle gap with LAG and a running sum.
Capturing Successful Logins With an Extended Events Session
A login event is a connection, not a user action. A small session shows how one query can leave three of them behind.
SQL SERVER – xp_create_subdir() Returned Error 183, ‘Cannot Create a File When that File Already Exists
A client’s maintenance plan kept failing with: xp_create_subdir() returned error 183, Cannot create a file when that file already exists. Here is the fix.