Read EngineEdition with edition and version properties, select platform-aware diagnostics, and avoid treating an engine family as a license.
Network Packet Size: When a Bigger Packet Helps Large Results
Test network packet size on a specific SQL Server connection, verify the negotiated value, and compare large-result performance carefully.
SQL SERVER – Set AUTO_CLOSE Database Option to OFF for Better Performance
How I helped a customer get better performance by setting the AUTO_CLOSE Database Option to OFF, and why this setting hurts busy databases.
Getting Started With R Services and Forecasting
R Services and forecasting meet when a data scientist’s R script has to run next to the data. This guest post by Eduardo Castro shows how to enable external scripts, install packages and run a forecast with sp_execute_external_script.
Interview Question of the Week #061 – How to Retrieve SQL Server Configuration?
A common interview question: how do you retrieve SQL Server configuration? Right-click and Properties is not enough. Here is the better answer.
Autogrowth Settings: Why 1 MB and 10 Percent Still Hurt
Inspect autogrowth settings across database files, review retained growth events and VLFs, and choose tested fixed-size increments.
Msg 864: Buffer Pool Extension Size Over the Limit
Msg 864 means a buffer pool extension file is larger than SQL Server allows for the memory in the machine. This post gives the limits, four read-only checks tested on SQL Server 2025, and the steps to start a server that will not boot.