Old catalog views still answer, but their page counts can be far too small. A short demo shows the gap and how to replace them.
How to Kill Processes Idle for X Hours? – Interview Question of the Week #152
Interview question: how to kill processes idle for X hours in SQL Server? Here is a script that finds idle sessions and kills them.
SPID, KPID and ECID in sys.sysprocesses: What They Mean
SPID, KPID and ECID are the three ID columns of sys.sysprocesses: the session, the Windows thread and the part of a parallel query. This post reads them for an idle session and for a query running in parallel, explains why KPID can be negative, and names the DMVs that give the same answers today.
SQL SERVER – How to Build Three Part Name from Object_ID – Part 2?
Rin Sitah replied to my interview question with a neat alternative way to build three part name from Object_ID using sys.objects and sys.schemas.
How to Build Three Part Name from Object_ID? – Interview Question of the Week #134
If you only have an object_id, can you get the database, schema and object name? Here is a simple script that builds the Three Part Name from Object_ID.
SQL SERVER – sp_readrequest – Long Running Process
sp_readrequest kept showing up as a long running procedure. It is Database Mail waiting on its queue with a 600 second timeout, usually nothing to worry about.
What is a Master Database in SQL Server? – Interview Question of the Week #076
A reader told me he had dropped his master database. So here is the basic question: what is a master database in SQL Server, and why does it matter?