I'm excited to able to say that I've been given the opportunity to put on a full day workshop at SQL Connections on Friday, September 19th, 2014. The title is "Query Performance Tuning in SQL Server 2014", but I assure you we're going to cover things that are applicable if you're still working on SQL Server 2005. We'll start the day covering the different mechanisms you have to capture query metrics. We'll go over dynamic management objects and extended events that are incredibly important to you in understanding which queries you need to tune. We'll get an introduction into how the optimizer works and the importance that statistics, indexes and constraints play in helping the optimizer make the choices it makes. I promise, execution plans will be covered throughout the…
The combination of in-memory tables and natively compiled procedures in SQL Server 2014 makes for some seriously screaming fast performance. Add in all the cool functionality around optimistic locking, hash indexes and all the rest, and we're talking about a fundamental shift in behavior. But... Ah, you knew that was coming. But, you can still write bad T-SQL or your statistics can get out of date or you can choose the wrong index, or any of the other standard problems that come up that can negatively impact all those lovely performance enhancements. Then what? Well, same as before, take a look at the execution plan to understand how the optimizer has resolved your queries. But... Yeah, another one. But, things are a little different with the natively compiled procedures and…
It's kind of fun to see Azure development artifacts on display. I've posted about them before, a couple of times. I'm starting to finally get systematized about the whole thing, just so I can see stuff as it changes rather than discover them by accident or get told about them by someone else. Here's a little query I'm running to see when system views were last modified: SELECT av.name, av.create_date, av.modify_date FROM sys.all_views AS av ORDER BY av.modify_date DESC; The most recent stack of changes are here: I'll keep an eye on them to see what I can spot about interesting new functionality. I also compared the listing of all views in Azure to those on a SQL Server 2012 instance and came up with a list of differences. These…
Red Gate visited three cities this year with our SQL in the City event; Pasadena, Atlanta and Charlotte. I just wanted to give you a quick assessment of how the events went from my point of view. Overall, each and every one of these events was awesome. I can safely say that because each and every one of these events provided something special, the opportunity to network with our peers and with the developers and project managers at Red Gate (who are also our peers, but not usually available to us). I both took part in the networking and stood back and watched it happen. I love seeing a bunch of data pro's sitting (or standing) in a circle exchanging war stories, ideas, questions, thoughts or suggestions. It means you…
I am excited to be able to tell you about an all day seminar that I'll be putting on prior to the Dallas SQL Saturday #255. The seminar will be on November 1, 2013. It's called Query Performance Tuning in SQL Server. We're going to cover the topic from an understanding of the optimizer to collecting data using extended events to reading execution plans and then on to lots of standard problems and their solutions. If you sign up before September 21st you can get a substantial early-bird discount, so I'd jump on it. Also, seats are limited, so don't wait too long. Let's get together and talk query tuning.
If you asked me, prior to today, if I would type or say those words, I would have laughed right at you. But then, I saw this question on Ask SQL Server Central. It's from a college student, not yet twenty-one, who was considering paying his (assuming it's a guy since their handle is 'Eagle Scout') own way to the Summit and wondered if it would be worth it. It pains me to say that I suggested that he not do it. Don't get me wrong. I think the PASS Summit is probably the single greatest resource you have to advance your career. Where else can you go to get that broad a choice in training? Where else can you go to get that many of the leaders of our industry, specializing…
Good question. I don’t have a clue. So let’s set up a test. I’ll create this stored procedure: CREATE PROCEDURE DL2e WITH ENCRYPTION AS BEGIN TRANSACTION UPDATE Purchasing.PurchaseOrderDetail SET OrderQty = 2 WHERE ProductID = 448 AND PurchaseOrderID = 1255; Then I’ll execute things in the following order. From one connection this query: UPDATE Purchasing.PurchaseOrderHeader SET Freight = Freight * 0.9 --9% discount on shipping WHERE PurchaseOrderID = 1255; From a second connection, my stored procedure: EXEC dbo.dl2e; Then, back on the first connection, this query: UPDATE Purchasing.PurchaseOrderDetail SET OrderQty = 4 WHERE ProductID = 448 AND PurchaseOrderID = 1255; That will generate a deadlock. It’s a straight-forward classic deadlock. I’m using extended events to capture the deadlock graph and the output looks like this: <deadlock> <victim-list> <victimProcess id="process472310928" />…
There are four different ways you can get information about deadlocks in your system. These are: traceflag 1204 traceflag 1222 trace events extended events For years I’ve been pushing traceflag 1222 as the best of the lot. Well, that’s over. I’ve been learning more and more about extended events and I’m currently in love with xml_deadlock_report event. Why? Simple, it has everything that traceflag 1222 has, but there are two glorious things about it. First, it’s not going to be filling up my error log with, for the error log, noise. Seriously. As much as I liked the information displayed from traceflag 1222, I didn’t like what it did to the log, but I saw it as a necessary evil. Second, it’s XML baby! That means you can set up…
Microsoft is supporting an effort by PragmaticWorks targeted at supporting technical training for returning veterans. I can’t think of a single better cause to throw some support behind. Not one. They’re going to donate money based on posts about #sqlfamily. Well done to Brian Knight (blog|twitter) and all the team at PragmaticWorks. I knew you were great people, I just didn’t know how great. Thanks to Microsoft and the SQL Server Team for their support of Brian. Oh, and for all the work you guys do with SQL Server. I may bitch about you guys more than you’d like, but it’s only because I live inside your software, constantly. I wouldn’t be there all the time if you didn’t do great work. Keep it up. We can talk about this…
Andy Warren posted a question the other day (well, issued a challenge actually), “What Should PASS Be?†I’ll let you go and read that & wait here… Done? Cool. Moving on. I have thoroughly enjoyed my associations with PASS over the years. I’ve been a first-time attendee, a volunteer and a presenter at the PASS Summit. I’ve volunteered with the PASS organization with the Special Interest Groups, the Editorial Committee, and as Editor of the SQL Standard. I’ve taken part in 24 Hours of PASS as a presenter, host and attendee. I have helped to put on SQL Saturday events, attended them and presented at them (and we have another one coming up on April 2nd in the Boston area, please register here.). I was one of the founding officers…