Blog - Page 20 of 26 - SQLServerFast

Execution plans, laundry, and a giveaway

October 25, 2014

In just a week from now, SQL Saturday #337 will kick off in Portland, Oregon. And I will be there – the third time already for me to be speaking in Portland. For a European, Portland is not the most logical location. But the organization over there is a pretty smart bunch of people. They figure that being close to Seattle gives them a great opportunity – so whenever they get the chance, they will reserve a Saturday just before the PASS Summit in Seattle for their own event. And then they make sure to organize this event so extremely…

Database Mail … and then the SMTP Server changed

July 18, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

The database I inherited when I started my current job sends out lots of mails. It does so using Database Mail, and it has lots of mail accounts and mail profiles defined. I know that several of those profiles are used, I suspect that some are not, and I have no idea about the rest – one day I will find the time to clean up, but so far there have always been more pressing matters to attend to. But today the mail administrator told me that due to a change in architecture, SQL Server had to start using a…

PASS Summit Abstract Feedback

July 12, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

Last week, Adam posted the feedback he received from PASS on the abstracts he had submitted for the PASS Summit 2014. I was very happy he did – not only because the post itself was a good read, but also because I had not seen the PASS announcement on making the feedback available (I did see it in a PASS community mail a few days later, though). I can imagine that not everyone will want to see this feedback, but I do. I love harsh criticism, as long as it’s fair – that’s how I can learn and improve. (The…

SQLPass NomCom election: Why I voted twice

June 4, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

Did you already cast your votes for the SQLPass NomCom election? If not, you really should! Your vote can make a difference, so don’t let it go to waste. The NomCom is the group of people that prepares the elections for the SQLPass Board of Directors. With the current election procedures, their opinion carries a lot of weight. They can reject applications, and the order in which they present candidates can be considered a voting advice. So use care when casting your votes – you are giving a lot of influence to the people you choose. Because there are three…

SQL TuneIn Zagreb 2014 – Session material

June 4, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

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I spent the last few days in Zagreb, Croatie, at the third edition of the SQL TuneIn conference, and I had a very good time here. Nice company, good sessions, and awesome audiences. I presented my “Understanding Execution Plans” precon to a small but interested audience on Monday. Participants have received a download link for the slide deck. On Tuesday I had a larger crowd for my session on cardinality estimation. The slide deck and demo code used for that presentation will be available through the conference website, but for those who cannot wait, I have also attached them to…

TechDays 2014 – Session material

April 23, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

Last week in the Hague, I had the honor to present two very different sessions at the Dutch TechDays conference. A deep-dive session on internals of the SQL Server 2012 nonclustered columnstore index, and a very developer-oriented session on the bare basics of performance tuning. To my delight, both times the room was filled with very interested people, asking great questions and, I guess, enjoying my presentations. All sessions were recorded, and I have been told that in due time, all will be available on Channel 9. But what if you can’t stand the wait? What if you just want…

Fake statistics, and how to get rid of them

March 2, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

There are two ways to test how your queries behave on huge amounts of data. The simple option is to actually use them on huge amounts of data – but where do you get that if you have no access to the production database, and how do you store it if you happen not to have a multi-terabyte storage array sitting in your basement? So here’s the second best option: you cheat. Luckily, SQL Server has a feature that allows you to do just that. I must warn you that this feature is undocumented and unsupported. You should never under…

Database Design training – for free?

January 30, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

When I started this blog, my plan was to focus on two main subject areas. One of them is SQL Server, T-SQL, and performance. The other is database design. Looking back over my post history, I honestly cannot say I delivered on the second area. Not because I have nothing to say about database design, but because I found it doesn’t lend itself for a blog. In the SQL Server / T-SQL area, there are subjects that can be isolated and described in a single post, or in a short series. In database design, I do not see such objects.…

Parameterization and filtered indexes (part 2)

January 24, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

In my previous post, I demonstrated how the presence of a filtered index can get in the way of successful parameterization, possibly resulting in too much query compilations and procedure cache bloat. I suggest reading that first, because I will go straight where I left off. Use the Force, Luke If you read the previous post very carefully, you will have noticed that I wrote that if a plan is unstable, it is “unsafe for simple parameterization” – and that suggests that SQL Server will not have such inhibitions when using forced parameterization. Let’s have a look. Assuming you still…

Parameterization and filtered indexes (part 1)

January 19, 2014

Hugo Kornelis

Parameterization is a process where SQL Server slightly modifies a query in the parse phase: it replaces constant values by parameters. So if you submit — Query 1 SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE ProductID = 706; the parser will replace this by (and fool the optimizer into thinking you submitted): DECLARE @1 smallint = 706; SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE ProductID = @1; You can verify this very easily. If you go to the actual execution plan and hover over the left-most icon (the SELECT), a popup window will open that shows (a.o.) the query that was fed into the…

Execution plans, laundry, and a giveaway

Database Mail … and then the SMTP Server changed

PASS Summit Abstract Feedback

SQLPass NomCom election: Why I voted twice

SQL TuneIn Zagreb 2014 – Session material

TechDays 2014 – Session material

Fake statistics, and how to get rid of them

Database Design training – for free?

Parameterization and filtered indexes (part 2)

Parameterization and filtered indexes (part 1)

Execution plans, laundry, and a giveaway

Database Mail … and then the SMTP Server changed

PASS Summit Abstract Feedback

SQLPass NomCom election: Why I voted twice

SQL TuneIn Zagreb 2014 – Session material

TechDays 2014 – Session material

Fake statistics, and how to get rid of them

Database Design training – for free?

Parameterization and filtered indexes (part 2)

Parameterization and filtered indexes (part 1)

Hugo Kornelis

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