UPDATEUSAGE and space are two jobs: the command corrects page and row counts but frees no space. See a test where it finds nothing and a rebuild shrinks the table.
Find Damaged Pages in SQL Server With suspect_pages
Find damaged pages in SQL Server by reading msdb.dbo.suspect_pages. Decode the event type, find the table behind each page and know what to do next.
DBCC CHECKIDENT: Check and Fix the Next Identity Value
DBCC CHECKIDENT reports the next identity value of a table and can change it. This post runs NORESEED, the no-option form and RESEED on a small demo table. It shows how DELETE and TRUNCATE treat the counter, the duplicate key error from a value that is too low, and who may run the command.
Check Trace Flag Status With DBCC TRACESTATUS
DBCC TRACESTATUS checks trace flag status. Run it with -1 to list every flag that is on, or with flag numbers to test them one by one. This post turns on a harmless session flag, reads its scope, finds startup flags, and stores the result in a table.
percent_complete: Which Commands Show Real Progress
percent_complete tells you how far a running command has come, but only some commands fill it in. This post times eleven commands on SQL Server 2025, shows which ones report real progress and which stay at 0, and adds a way to watch the silent ones.
DBREINDEX and MAXDOP: Use ALTER INDEX to Limit Parallelism
DBREINDEX and MAXDOP do not combine: DBCC DBREINDEX has no MAXDOP option, so it follows the server setting. This post shows the three errors, rebuilds a demo index with ALTER INDEX at different MAXDOP values, and measures the degree of parallelism each one used.
How to Change Database File Size? – Interview Question of the Week #296
Question: How to Change Database File Size?
Answer: By Shrinking the files. Now, many have a negative opinion about Shrinkfile.