There are a bunch of ways you could create a database clone. Backup and restore is one method. Export/Import is another. There are even third party tools that will help with that. However, each of these has a problem. It's moving all the data, not just once, but twice. You move the data when you export it and you move it again when import it (same thing with backup and restore). That makes these methods slow for larger databases. How can you create a database clone without moving the data multiple times? Don't Move the Data At All New with SQL Server 2016, expanded in SP1, and added to SQL Server 2014 SP2 is a new command, DBCC CLONEDATABASE. This is like a dream come true. The use is extremely…
Monday I got in on Sunday and chose to have a small dinner with a couple of friends, quiet, preparing. Monday was a less hectic day than the others . The Board had the morning off, although Redgate had me go and give a session at an event. Monday afternoon was one of our three in-person board meetings. The minutes will be published soon. I was responsible for running the meeting. I also presented two topics, first, and most importantly, our current financial status. Then I presented the initial set of thoughts towards some SMART goals for Global Growth, which I will share once they are further developed . Monday evening I had two events I had to attend. First, as part of the Executive Committee, I attended the kick off dinner…
SQL Cruise offers a number of unique opportunities for everyone involved, including speakers and sponsors. I've written before, several times, about the benefits of SQL Cruise. As an attendee of the cruise, you will get to sit in classes by amazing people (and me) talking about all aspects of the Data Platform. Further, you get the opportunity to sit down, for long hours, with these people and get, for want of a better description, free consulting time. What about as a speaker and a sponsor though, do we get benefits? As A Speaker Tim Ford is quite a bright fellow. He has tweaked and tuned SQL Cruise. I have been on SQL Cruise a number of times over the last five years, and it has changed radically since my first cruise…
It's weird being an introvert who likes to talk to people, but what can I do. I like talking to people. I have a number of upcoming trips, quite literally all over the world, that provide us with the opportunities to get together and have a chat. First, I'll be at SQL Saturday Boston (the 500th SQL Saturday event, HUZZAH!), this weekend, March 19th 2016. I'll be talking about the Query Store and I'll be doing a presentation for PASS since this is a milestone event. The first SQL Saturday event in Boston was #34, six years ago, which I helped organize. It's been quite the journey. I'm going to SQL Saturday Madison on April 9th. I'll be talking about the Query Store and how to automate your database deployments.…
You know you want to go on the SQL Cruise. You can. You just have to convince the boss that it's worth doing. It is. I've said it before and I'll repeat it as necessary, SQL Cruise changes peoples lives. I've watched people go on the cruise with a job and come back with a career. People don't just learn on the Cruise. They get energized. They get engaged with the data professional community. How do I profit by promoting SQL Cruise? I don't. Tim Ford is a friend and I'm supporting him. My company, Redgate Software, is a sponsor of the cruise, so I'm supporting them. I could just be doing the bare minimum in support of these parties. However, I'm not getting paid anything special by anyone for doing more.…
One of my favorite events of the year is the SQL Saturday in Silicon Valley. They've had four of them and I've gone to three (had to miss last year, scheduling conflict). It's a fantastic event and Mark Ginnebaugh (b|t) does a great job putting it together. In fact, this year, we got to listen to Ross Mistry and T.K. Rengarajan have a "fireside chat" for the keynote. For those who don't know, Mr. Rengarajan is just a VP at Microsoft. Yeah, he simply runs the ENTIRE FLIPPING AZURE DATA PLATFORM. That's all. They had a few demos and showed us unreleased code and new versions of SSMS not yet available publicly (including functionality around Query Store and execution plans, my little heart was going pitter-pat). Anyway, if you missed it, you…
With all the cool kids posting about beginners and interview questions, I thought I'd toss my favorites out there, from the brief-case gang point of view. These are the technical phone-screening questions I use after I look at a resume. There are only 10. They're simple. Stupid simple. Silly even. Yet, I can count on eliminating 4 out 5 people who have a resume that looks like a qualified DBA. I've seen people with 10 years experience fail on these questions. I'm only going to provide the questions. If you can't find the answers on your own, you're already disqualified: What is the difference between a clustered and non-clustered index? No, don't tell me that one is clustered and the other is not. I don't need specific low-level information on this, just…
A view is simply a query that behaves something like a table. Most people know this. Most people also know that a view is simply a mask on top of what might be a very complex query. It all seems really simple. You call the view inside a simple query, the view runs the underlying complex query. Most people might not know that when a view is called and it gets sent to the optimizer, the optimizer unpacks the view and binds the component parts of the query necessary to create an execution plan that will return the data requested. What I didn't know until recently was that the optimizer is VERY smart. Not only does it unpack the query of the view, but it will change the query that…
My name is Grant Fritchey. I have more than thirty years' experience in IT working in development and database administration. I work for Red Gate Software as a Product Advocate. I write articles for publication at SQL Server Central and Simple-Talk. I'm the Author of "SQL Server Execution Plans" and "SQL Server Query Performance Tuning." I helped co-Author "Query Store for SQL Server 2019", "Expert Performance Indexing", "SQL Server MVP Deep Dives 2", "Beginning SQL Server 2012 Administration" and "Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices." I present at conferences and user groups around the world. I am available for part-time, short-term, consulting contracts. Since 2009 I have been awarded as a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. I have received the AWS Community Builder award for the last five years. In 2014 I…
Yeah, yeah, second AI post in a row. I promise not to make a habit of it. But I saw someone else mention that you can feed them XML and the AI will read the execution plan. I had to test it out and then overshare my results with all of you. We Need A Query Here's a query: SELECT c.CustomerID, a.City, s.Name, st.Name FROM Sales.Customer AS c JOIN Sales.Store AS s ON c.StoreID = s.BusinessEntityID JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory AS st ON c.TerritoryID = st.TerritoryID JOIN Person.BusinessEntityAddress AS bea ON c.CustomerID = bea.BusinessEntityID JOIN Person.Address AS a ON bea.AddressID = a.AddressID JOIN Person.StateProvince AS sp ON a.StateProvinceID = sp.StateProvinceID WHERE st.Name = 'Northeast' AND sp.Name = 'New York'; This query results in this execution plan: There are some tuning opportunities here.…