sqlCrunch

SQLCrunch Updates for November 2010

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 06:20:00 GMT

Recently added to SQLCrunch ...

Kerberos….. The dreaded K word …. Adam Saxton de-mystifies the beast in this great post ... Source : Adam W. Saxton - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

SQL Server Hardware Checklist

Which server properties do you collect/document in a SQL Server hardware audit? Brad offers his own comprehensive list for consideration ... Source : Brad McGehee - SQLServerCentral.com

Easy Ways to Detect I/O Pressure in SQL Server 2008

In this post, Glen offers a series of DMV scripts that can be used to determine the existence of I/O pressure, an important diagnostic skill for any DBA ... Source : Glenn Berry - Blog Post

Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

A great (free) e-book on SQL Server 2008 R2 covering the new features in R2 for both DBAs and Business Intelligence professionals ... Source : Stacia Misner - SQLBlog.com

Top 10 Hidden Gems in SQL 2008 R2

There's lots of press on the big new features in SQL Server 2008 R2, but this post takes a look at some of the lesser known new features such as sysprep, SMB support, enhanced setup and unicode compression ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com

Bob Dorr's SQL Server I/O Presentation

Bob Dorr gives us his slide deck and speaker notes for his legendary presentation on SQL Server I/O. Don't miss this one ... Source : Bob Dorr - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

Fusion-IO ioDrive Review

A great review of the Fusion-IO SSD drive from BrentO ... Source : Brent Ozar.com - Blog Post

Tuning Data Warehouse Performance with SQL Server Profiler

In this post, Richard walks us through the process of tuning a Data Warehouse using SQL profiler, and covers some of the important differences when compared to tuning an OLTP database ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Publishing Master Data with Subscription Views

Subscription views are used in Master Data Services to hide the complexity of the underlying schema from applications consuming master data. In this post, the MDS team describes this feature, and then walks us through the implementation process using an example ... Source : MDS Team - SQLBlog.com

PowerPivot for SharePoint: Single Server Installation

Installing PowerPivot for SharePoint involves a number of steps, and getting them right (and in the right order) is crucial for a pain-free installation. This WhitePaper walks through the steps involved in a single server installation ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

Does SSAS Support MSDTC Transactions?

In this post, Darren helps us discover whether SSAS supports distributed transactions started within SSIS, and further, whether or not this is desirable ... Source : Darren Gosbell - Blog Post

Improving Excel's Cube Performance

Richard goes behind the scenes with Profiler to discover why Excel sometimes performs poorly when running Analysis Services queries ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

MDX - Group by measure range dynamically

Another great MDX script from Richard, this one providing a dynamic means to aggregate members by the range of their measure ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Excel, Cube Formulas, Analysis Services, Performance, Network Latency, and Connection Strings

This technical note from the SQLCAT team looks at how the performance of Excel reports connecting to Analysis Services cubes over slow network links was improved by configuring 3 different connection string settings ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com

Data Conversion in SSIS

How do you convert data from one type to another in SSIS? Eric walks us through a few options and the benefits and limitations of each ... Source : Eric Johnson - SQLBlog.com

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

SQLCrunch Updates for October 2010

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:05:00 GMT

Recently added to SQLCrunch ...

SQL Azure–what it is and what it isn’t

The description says it all. John Paul Cook takes us on a quick tour of SQL Azure ... Source : John Paul Cook - SQLBlog.com

The importance of Unit Testing in BI

Unit testing BI solutions is as important (if not more so) than any other solution. In this post, Davide walks us through the benefits and usage of a tool he's developed and placed on codeplex called queryunit ... Source : Davide Mauri - SQLBlog.com

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot Planning and Deployment

This whitepaper from the SQLCAT team is written for architects and administrators looking to deploy PowerPivot throughout an Enterprise ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

Monitoring SQL Server Virtual Log File Fragmentation

The number of Virtual Log Files (VLFs) in a database can have a direct impact on its performance. In this article, Tom walks us through a powershell script he developed which automates the checking of VLFs across all databases in a given instance ... Source : Thomas LaRock - SimpleTalk.com

Why NUMA matters to admins

NUMA or SMP? Brent talks about what NUMA is, and an example of why it's important we understand it as DBAs ... Source : Brent Ozar.com - Blog Post

Server Migration Checklist

What's involved in making sure a SQL Server migration goes smoothly? Lots ….. Merrill presents us with his checklist ... Source : Merrill Aldrich - SQLBlog.com

Proven SQL Server Architectures for High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Another great whitepaper from the SQLCAT Team. This one describes five common High Availability and Disaster Recovery architectures for enterprise deployments of SQL Server ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

IO, IO, It’s Off To Disk We Go!

How do you determine that storage is a performance bottleneck on your system? Denny provides some hints from the perspectives of SQL Server, Windows and the Storage Array itself ... Source : Denny Cherry - TechTarget.com

Median calculation in DAX

Marco shows us a neat trick for getting a MEDIAN calculation working in PowerPivot ... Source : Marco Russo - SQLBlog.com

MDX - Aggregating by member_caption

Richard uses a recursive MDX query to aggregate a dimension hierarchy by member caption, solving a problem whereby, for example, the same customer name exists in different states ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Cube Writeback in Excel 2010

Although Analysis Services has supported cube writeback for many years, client support has been limited. Excel 2010 improves support for this feature dramatically as Richard shows us in this post ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Scale-Out Querying for Analysis Services with Read-Only Databases

This white paper from the SQLCAT team describes recommended design techniques and methodologies to maximize the performance and scalability of SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services deployments by using read-only query servers ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

Using the SSIS Data Viewer

How do you go about debugging complex SSIS data flows with millions of rows when you're only interested in a handful of records? Todd shows us an interesting technique using the data viewer in combination with multicast, conditional splits, sorts and derived columns ... Source : Todd Mcdermid - Blog Post

Report Server Diagnostic Reports

How do you manage the usage, content, permissions and overall health of your SSRS environment? Michael shows us how he manages it ... Source : Michael Davis - SQLServerCentral.com

Solid Q Journal

If you don't already know about it, the team at SolidQ are now producing a monthly online journal packed with well written and high quality SQL Server tips and articles. Check it out here ... Source : Greg Low - SQLBlog.com

Getting Partition Offset information with Powershell

Disk partition alignment is a big issue, with unaligned partitions contributing to disk bottlenecks and various other problems as a result. In this post, Jonathan walks us through a powershell script used to collect this information, and when combined with other scripts, formatted in a nice HTML report ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - SQLBlog.com

Using Diskpart and WMIC to Check Disk Partition Alignment

In this post, Paul talks about the disk partition alignment problem, and then a couple of tools that can be used for inspecting the alignment offset values on a server's disk partitions ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

SQLCrunch Updates for September 2010

Fri, 8 Oct 2010 00:40:00 GMT

Recently added to SQLCrunch ...

Bad habits to kick : ignoring I/O

A great post from Aaron covering a series of tips for reducing disk I/O, a sure fire way of improving performance ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLBlog.com

SQL Server 2008 SP2 Released

SP2 is here, including improved support for SharePoint integrated mode, Utility Control Point enrolment and DAC support ... Source : Microsoft SQL Server Release Services - Blog Post

SQL Server Migration Assistant

An updated version of the SQL Server Migration Assistant is now available for download ... Source : Microsoft SQL Server Development Customer Advisory Team - Blog Post

SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Pack

The Management Pack for 2008 R2 has been released including numerous improvements and support for Operations Manager 2007 SP1 and R2 ... Source : Microsoft SQL Server Release Services - Blog Post

SQL Server 2008 R2 Feature Pack

The Feature Pack is a collection of stand-alone packages which provide additional value for SQL Server 2008 R2 ... Source : Microsoft.com - Download

SQL Server Consolidation Planning Tool

Microsoft Consolidation Planning Tool for SQL Server (CPT) is an Excel Add-In that helps database architects in planning their consolidation efforts ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com

Analyzing I/O Characteristics and Sizing Storage Systems for SQL Server Database Applications

Another Whitepaper from the SQLCAT team, this one covering the importance of an appropriately configured storage system matched to the I/O pattern of the application ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

SSD Benchmarking

Another great series from Paul, this one examining the performance of SSDs under various workload types ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com

SQL Azure Best Practices

Based on their real world customer experiences, the SQLCAT & Azure teams have posted some great best practice documents for Azure, including "SQL Azure FAQ", "Comparing Azure with SQL Server" and "Security Guidelines for Azure" ... Source : SQLCAT Team - MSDN.com

Using SSAS as a PowerPivot Data Source

Using an SSAS data source as part of a PowerPivot solution throws up some interesting challenges, and in this post, Marco covers the major ones ... Source : Marco Russo - SQLBlog.com

Creating Sparklines in PowerPivot

Sparklines, new in Excel 2010 and Reporting Services 2008 R2, can also be used in PowerPivot as Patrick shows us in this post ... Source : Patrick LeBlanc - SQLServerCentral.com

Distinct Count Optimization Using Solid State Devices

This technical note covers a real world example of how Solid State devices improved cube performance when accessing distinct count measures ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com

SSIS : Data Flow paths

Will SSIS execute a data flow path if there are no qualifying records? Josef walks us through an example ... Source : Josef Richberg - Squarespace.com

Develop Reporting Services Reports Using SSAS Data

This whitepaper from the SQLCAT team focuses on the technical concepts and techniques used in implementing SSRS reports using an Analysis Services cube as the data source ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

TCP Offloading

Take a deep dive with the CSS team into the internals of a TCP Chimney/Offloading problem from one of their customers ... Source : Evan Basalik - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com

Finding Enterprise Only Features in Your SQL Server 2008 Database

As Glenn points out in this post, one of the annoying things with restoring large databases that use enterprise features such as compression, is that it doesn't fail until the end of the restore process if the server instance performing the restore is not running enterprise edition, potentially wasting hours of time. Glenn goes on to show us how we can use a DMV before we perform the restore to determine if any enterprise features are being used ... Source : Glenn Berry - Blog Post

Mirroring a Large Number of Databases in a Single SQL Server Instance

How many databases on a single SQL Server instance can be setup for Mirroring? 1, 10 or it depends? Find out in this technical note from the SQLCAT team ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com

Using Service Broker instead of Replication

Have you ever considered using Service Broker as an alternative to replication? Denny has, and shares the technical aspects in this post ... Source : Denny Cherry - TechTarget.com

SQL Server Myth Busters

For those that missed it, Paul ran a series of posts earlier this year covering common SQL Server myths. Find them all here ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

SQLCrunch Updates for April 2010

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 06:30:00 GMT

Recently added to SQLCrunch ...

8 Steps to better transaction log throughput

A great post from 2005 in which Kimberly outlines a number of very important transaction log management techniques ... Source : Kimberly Tripp - SQLSkills.com

Benchmarking a 1TB database

In this series, Paul will be exploring a range of different data configuration techniques and measuring their impacts against baseline measurements ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com

What you can and can't do with SAN replication

A great post from Denny on a very important topic - What SAN replication is good (and NOT good) at ... Source : Denny Cherry - techtarget.com

Port Numbers and Named Instances

If you supply a port number in a connection string, what effect does including the instance name have? Read on for Grant's first hand experience ... Source : Grant Fritchey - Blog Post

Filtered Statistics

In this post, Jason overviews a great use for Filtered Statistics; skewed data ... Source : Jason Massie - JasonMassie.com

PASS Summit follow up answers

Another 2009 PASS Summit follow up blog post from Bob, this one dealing with common questions he fielded during the Summit ... Source : Bob Ward - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com

Wait Type Repository

As a follow on from the 2009 PASS summit, Bob has created this page as a wait type reference point, answering frequent questions on SQL Server wait types ... Source : Bob Ward - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com

Ghost Cleanup

As Paul explains, disabling the ghost cleanup task can be beneficial in very busy databases with a very heavy delete load ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com

Query Optimizer Tricks

The execution plan chosen for a query depends upon a number of things including the volume of data present. In this post, Ben demonstrates a method for tricking the optimizer into thinking there's a lot more data present than there really is, which is very useful in performance testing exercises ... Source : Ben Nevarez - SQLBlog.com

Relog Utility

The relog utility allows us to convert a native .blg performance monitor counter file to a csv version, which then allows us to easily import it into a variety of tools for further analysis ... Source : SQLServings - Blog Post

Find the most expensive operations in Execution plans

As Mladen points out, analyzing very large execution plans can be difficult and time consuming. In this post, he shows us a method for quickly finding the most expensive sub-statements within the plan ... Source : Mladen Prajdic - SQLTeam.com

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

SQLCrunch Updates for March 2010

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:30:00 GMT

Recently added to SQLCrunch ...

Star Join Optimizations

This whitepaper covers an important new feature in SQL Server 2008 for improving Data Warehouse query performance - Star Join Optimizations ... Source : MSDN.com - Whitepaper

SSIS Data Warehouse Design Pattern

Jorg covers a reusable design pattern for loading a data warehouse using SSIS ... Source : Jorg Klein - SQLBlog.com

Circular Relationships

In this post, Richard covers a common issue with database design - The circular relationship ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Parallel Data Warehouse

Another new feature in SQL Server 2008 R2 is the Parallel Data Warehouse. This page provides a good overview of the feature and how it can be used ... Source : Microsoft.com - Article

Deriving a list of tables in dependency order

It's a common requirement to blow away all of the data in a warehouse in preparation for a reload, however, that's not all that simple if the database is loaded up with foreign keys. In this post, Jamie shows us how we can work around that by generating a list of tables in dependency order ... Source : Jamie Thomson - SQLBlog.com

SSIS Package Builds

How do you deploy SSIS packages? Eric walks through one of the options ... Source : Eric Johnson - SQLBlog.com

Package Version Expressions

A couple of good options from Andy on generating package versions using SSIS expressions ... Source : Andy Leonard - SQLBlog.com

Transactions within SSIS

Richard walks us through the usage of the TransactionOption in SSIS ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

SSIS Checkpoints with parallel tasks

Checkpoints in SSIS can be tricky, as Devin points out in this post ... Source : Devin Knight - SQLServerCentral.com

Kimball's SSIS Slowly Changing Dimension Component

Finally! Kimball's SSIS SCD component v1.5 is released ... Source : Todd McDermid - Blog Post

SSIS Sorting Considerations

Sorting can kill SSIS performance. In this post, Eric talks about an important technique for avoiding the performance hit when a sort is required ... Source : Eric Johnson - SQLBlog.com

SSIS Visio Stencils

Jamie points us in the direction of some SSIS Visio stencils ... Source : Jamie Thomson - SQLBlog.com

Data Type Conversion Techniques within SSIS; A Performance Comparison

What's the fastest SSIS method for performing data transformations within SSIS Read on for the answer? ... Source : SQLCAT Team - Blog Post

Master Data Services links & updates

A good collection of links for getting started with MDS ... Source : Kirk Haselden - SQLBlog.com

Getting started with the Master Data Services Web Services API

An overview of using the MDS Web Services API ... Source : MDS Team - SQLBlog.com

Creating a simple Business Rule in Master Data Services

Another good MDS post, this one on how we can create business rules within MDS ... Source : MDS Team - SQLBlog.com

PowerPivot Memory Considerations

Marco covers some important memory considerations for PowerPivot ... Source : Marco Russo - SQLBlog.com

What is PowerPivot?

A good overview of the shiny new tool on the block ... Source : Powerpivotpro.com - Article

SSAS Calculated Measures

A great series from Todd on the power of Calculated Measures ... Source : Todd McDermid - Blog Post

Aggregations (may not) Fix Cube Performance

Richard debunks the myth that Aggregations will always fix cube performance problems ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Deploying a BI Solution using Sharepoint, SSRS & Kerberos

A great architectural overview of a large BI solution setup to work with Kerberos authentication ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

Analysis Services Consolidation Best Practices

In this article, the SQLCat team focus on Analysis Services consolidation best practices and a reporting query load balancing solution used by one of their clients ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

SQLCrunch Updates for February 2010

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:45:00 GMT

Recently added to SQLCrunch ...

Disk2vhd

Disk2vhd is a tool for creating virtual machines based on a existing physical machine, but unlike other physical-to-virtual tools, Disk2vhd can be run against a physical machine that's currently online ... Source : Technet.com - sysinternals - Download

SQL Server Chargeback Strategies

A common mainframe charging strategy is based on time and resources used, i.e.; you pay for what you use. In this blog post, Buck Woody explains how we can setup a similar scheme for SQL Server ... Source : Buck Woody - SQLBlog.com

SQL Azure FAQ

In this post, Brent demystifies SQL Azure (SQL Server in the cloud) by answering some frequently asked questions ... Source : Brent Ozar - BrentOzar.com

SQL Server 2008 R2 Feature/Edition Matrix

SQL Server 2008 R2 brings with it a range of new features. This page nicely summarises the features available for each edition ... Source : MSDN.com - SQL Server Books Online

How does Microsoft use SQL Server?

Microsoft is a huge company with massive IT infrastructure, including a very large SQL Server deployment. Find out how they use SQL Server internally through this series of links ... Source : Technet.com - IT Showcase

SQL Server Reporting Services Disaster Recovery Case Study

A great overview of setting up Reporting Services DR ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

High Availability with SQL Server 2008

In this whitepaper, Paul compares and contrasts the various High Availability technologies available in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Paul Randal - MSDN.com - Technical Article

Using Replication for High Availability and Disaster Recovery

As per the title, this whitepaper focuses on using Replication as a means to increase database availability ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Whitepaper

SQL Server 2008 Pricing and Licensing

One of the more simple to understand guides to SQL Server 2008 licensing ... Source : Microsoft.com - download

Upgrading the SQLServerCentral Servers - Part 1

Brad walks us through the upgrade process for the SQLServerCentral and Simple-Talk.com websites ... Source : Brad McGehee - SQLServerCentral.com - Blog Post

Abusing Triggers

In this post, Aaron discussed some situations in which triggers are (and are not) appropriate ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLBlog.com

Using Cross Joins to generate test data

Joe walks us through a novel approach to generating large test data sets ... Source : Joe Webb - SQLServerCentral.com - Blog Post

Consolidation using SQL Server 2008

Server consolidation is a growing trend and this paper assists those considering a SQL Server consolidation exercise ... Source : Allan Hirt - MSDN.com - Whitepaper

Auto-tuning memory config on a cluster

Maximizing memory usage within a cluster sometimes runs the risk of instability during node failover. In this post, Merrill looks at options for automatic memory adjustment when cluster nodes fail ... Source : Merrill Aldrich - SQLBlog.com

Locked Pages, AWE, Task Manager and the Working Set

A great post from Bob that de-mystifies a lot of common memory misconceptions ... Source : Bob Ward - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com

SQL Server Agent job/user contexts

It's sometimes a little confusing trying to work out the security context of a SQL Server agent job. In this post, Tibor helps us in that very task ... Source : Tibor Karaszi - SQLBlog.com

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

23 New Whitepapers, Articles and Blog Posts...

9 Sep 2009 13:00:00 GMT

In my recently released book, the summary section of each chapter has a link to a page on SQLCrunch.com which contains best practice articles, whitepapers and blog posts appropriate for that chapter. Since the book was released, I've noticed a large number of new subscribers to this RSS feed, so welcome if you're in that category :-)

My last site update was over 3 months ago, so apologies for the delay (I've been busy finishing the book among other things). Since then, a whole pile of tasty links have arrived, summarized here;

------

Understanding and Using Powershell Support in SQL Server 2008

In this article, Allen covers both an introduction to Powershell, and how we can use it to our advantage in administering SQL Server ... Source : Allen White - Technical Article - MSDN.com

Multi-Terabyte Database Backups over the Network

This document discusses the challenges of designing a robust backup and restore solutions for very large databases (VLDBs). Using a real-world example, it demonstrates how to make the best use of the backup and restore features of SQL Server 2008 to help create a fast and reliable backup and restore plan for VLDBs over the network ... Source : Thomas H. Grohser - Case Study - SQLCAT.com

Best Practices for Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2008

As the title suggests, this article presents "accumulated wisdom" from Data Warehousing projects and covers initial design, partitioning, data profiling, business sponsorship and a whole lot more ... Source : Mark Whitehorn - Technical Article - MSDN.com

Assigning surrogate keys to early arriving facts using SSIS

In this post, the SQLCAT team demonstrate an SSIS technique for handling early arriving facts ... Source : SQLCat.com - Blog Post

SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering

A great companion whitepaper to the SQL Server Books Online failover clustering documentation ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

MemToLeave and 64bit

Bob Ward talks about one of the benefits of 64bit SQL Server - the absence of "MemToLeave" issues ... Source : Bob Ward - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

Resource_semaphore_query_compile

It looks like Jason and I have shared the same nightmare. In this post, he explores the possible causes of the infamous Resource_Semaphore_Query_Compile error ... Source : Jason Massie - jasonmassie.com

Data Compression: Strategy, Capacity Planning and Best Practices

While the new data compression feature in SQL Server 2008 delivers obvious benefits, there's a number of considerations before implementation, most notably the CPU impact. This article covers both the benefits and impacts of compression by different workload types ... Source : Sanjay Mishra - Technical Article - MSDN.com

DBCC Checks and Terabyte-Scale Databases

This document covers some of the options available to reduce the impact of running DBCC checks on VLDBs. ... Source : Stuart Ozer - Technical Note - SQLCAT.com

MERGE and OUTPUT

Adam explores the various uses for the MERGE command, including the power of its OUTPUT clause ... Source : Adam Machanic - SQLBlog.com

Can NOLOCK block inserts?

Yes, and Linchi demonstrates how this can occur ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLBlog.com

Calculating the third Wednesday of the month

Alexander provides a (fast) solution to problems such as this using inline UDFs ... Source : Alexander Kuznetsov - SQLBlog.com

Un-named Defaults

In this post, Andrew covers several reasons why it's important to give default constraints a name ... Source : Andrew Kelly - SQLBlog.com

Grouped String Concatenation

Adam announces the results of his "Grouped String Concatenation" challenge ... Source : Adam Machanic - SQLBlog.com

TRY, CATCH, FAIL

In some (rare) cases, the CATCH block of a TRY-CATCH statement may fail to fire. In this post, Alexander walks us through one such example ... Source : Alexander Kuznetsov - SQLBlog.com

Statistics Used by the Query Optimizer in Microsoft SQL Server 2008

This papers covers the inner workings of statistics, and the vital role they play in achieving the best query performance in SQL Server. In addition to a broad overview, it covers how SQL Server automatically maintains statistics, and how these settings can be overridden for individual columns/tables/databases (and why you may want to consider doing so) ... Source : Eric N. Hanson and Yavor Angelov - Whitepaper - MSDN.com

Plan Caching in SQL Server 2008

In this paper, Greg explains the inner workings of plan caching in SQL Server 2008, including best practices for reducing recompilations and plan cache pollution ... Source : Greg Low - Technical Article - MSDN.com

Using the Resource Governor

This paper covers the new Resource Governor feature introduced in SQL Server 2008, including ways of using it for server consolidation, preventing runaway queries, meeting service level agreements and implementing a resource usage based charging system ... Source : Whitepaper - MSDN.com

High Availability and Disaster Recovery: A SQL Server 2008 Technical Case Study

A case study of how ServiceU Corporation achieved 99.99% uptime using SQL Server 2008 ... Source : David P. Smith - Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com

Free SQL Server tools

Mladen provides links to a number of cool (and free) SQL Server tools ... Source : SQLTeam.com

SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Script

Glenn kindly provides access to a number of diagnostic scripts for SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Glen Berry - spaces.live.com

Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for SQL Server

Covering both the historical background information surrounding partition alignment and the negative performance impact unaligned partitions can have, this paper is essential reading for anyone involved in storage configuration for SQL Server systems. It provides actual results that demonstrate the performance impact of unaligned partitions, and includes a discussion of how Windows Server 2008 deals with this situation ... Source : Jimmy May and Denny Lee - Best Practices Article - Microsoft.com

SAN Multipathing

Brent walks us through the benefits and considerations for using SAN Multipathing ... Source : brentozar.com - Blog Post

Cheers,

Rod.

SQLCrunch: May 2009 Edition

Tue, 5 May 2009 07:25:00 GMT

SQL Server Blocked Process Monitor

Jonathan provides a tool via codeplex to track and capture the details of blocked processes, saving us the hassle of manually creating traces ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - codeplex.com

Data type conversion

A timely reminder from Tibor to watch out for implicit data type conversion ... Source : Tibor Karaszi - SQLBlog.com

Common SQL Server Security Issues and Solutions

In this article, Paul tackles a number of important security issues from physical and network security through to SQL Injection, auditing and service accounts ... Source : Paul Randal - Technet Magazine

What the?

What looks odd here? select * from person where 'thomas' in (Firstname,LastName,LEFT(emailaddress,7)) ... Source : Denis Gobo - SQLBlog.com

Partition switching gotchas

Important things to consider when switching-out partitions in SQL Server 2005 / 2008 ... Source : Microsoft SQL ISV Program Management Team - Blog Post

Index Defrag script

Aaron provides some personal tweaks to Michelle Ufford's Index Defrag script ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLBlog.com

Limiting connections to a specific application

Aaron lets us in on a little known SQL Server feature; the ability to restrict connections to a particular application ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLBlog.com

Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008

From the whitepaper summary "This paper provides step-by-step guidelines for diagnosing and troubleshooting common performance problems by using publicly available tools such as SQL Server Profiler, Performance Monitor, dynamic management views, and SQL Server Extended Events (Extended Events) and the data collector" ... Source : SQLCat.com - Whitepaper

Locked pages in memory

Sankar provides a quick and painless way to determine if a SQL Server instance is using Locked Pages in Memory ... Source : Sankar Reddy - SQLServerPedia.com

T-SQL debugger for SQL Server 2008

The first of Bill's three part series on using the T-SQL debugger in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Bill Ramos - MSDN.com - Blog Post

Recursive Queries

Linchi answers one of life's great questions; How do recursive queries actually work? ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLBlog.com

Standardized SQL Server 2008 Audit

Lara provides several scripts to help get us started on creating standardized SQL Server audits ... Source : Lara Rubbelke - SQLBlog.com

Roadmap of SQL Server Certifications

Pinal Dave provides us with a link to his SQL Server certification roadmap pdf ... Source : Pinal Dave - SQLServerPedia.com

Memory deep dive

The first of Ulrich's 9 part series on memory. Whilst not written for a SQL Server audience, it's a great read nonetheless. Lots to be learned here ... Source : Ulrich Drepper - LWN.net

Controlling Lock Granularity

In this post, Kalen talks about the new options in SQL Server 2008 for controlling lock granularity ... Source : Kalen Delaney - SQLBlog.com

Using @@ROWCOUNT in Triggers

Steve warns us of the dangers of using @@ROWCOUNT in Triggers ... Source : Steve Kass - SQLBlog.com

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

SQLCrunch: All you can eat

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 10:15:00 GMT

I've just spent the best part of today getting through the backlog of links (123 of them) for posting to SQLCrunch. Obviously too many to list individually, but here's a selection;

Installing SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008 Cluster

Installing a clustered instance of SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 has changed significantly from earlier versions. In this 4 part post, Edwin walks through the process including screen shots and coverage of the iSCSI Initiator ... Source : Edwin Sarmiento - mssqltips.com

Free E-Book; Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions

A free 15MB pdf download covering Microsoft based virtualization solutions ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloads

MySpace.com and SQL Server

MySpace.com runs one of the largest (if not "the" largest) SQL Server implementations in the world. Learn how they do it here ... Source : WatchTechVideos.com - Video Download

Creating Alerts using T-SQL Script

In this post, Paul walks us through the process of creating an alert for a particular error message and also discusses the types of alerts we should create by default for all new SQL Server installations ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Database Snapshot Performance Considerations

This whitepaper covers snapshots from several angles including the impact on index creation, duration to create a snapshot and restoration of databases from a snapshot ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Presentation Logic; Database or App?

Do you format dates in stored procedures or an application layer? This post from Jonathon Kehayias (and a follow up post from Alexander Kuznetsov) talks about the pros and cons of each technique ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - SQLBlog.com

Perl vs. Powershell vs. SSIS vs. Batch Files

What's the best/easiest way to execute multiple .sql script files in a given directory? What starts out as a simple perl script example from Linchi turns into a contest of sorts using various other script languages and tools to achieve the same result ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLBlog.com

Pre-Installation Checklist

Brent shares his pre-installation checklist containing best practices for preparing for a SQL Server installation. This post also links to a follow up blog entry on post installation tasks ... Source : BrentOzar.com - Blog Post

Fixing setup prior to running it

Bob walks us through the new slipstream setup process whereby service packs and cumulative updates can be included in the one installation ... Source : Bob Dorr - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

Wait Stats (for the last second)

Using the sys.dm_os_wait_stats DMV to identify wait statistics is a crucial step in any performance tuning exercise, however, the results returned are accumulated since the last server restart. In this post, Jason demonstrates a technique for using this DMV to return wait stats for the last second, useful for troubleshooting performance problems in real time ... Source : Jason Massie - Blog Post

Adam Machanic's Who is Active Script

Adam has released the latest version of his excellent DMV based current activity script Who Is Active - version 8.4 ... Source : Adam Machanic - SQLBlog.com

Paging T-SQL Results

How do you return a particular page of results with minimal overhead? Robert walks through a number of options before finishing with the lowest overhead approach ... Source : Robert Cary - SQLServerCentral.com

HBA Queue Depth Resources

A great blog from Joe focussed on HBA Queue Depth. In it, he links to a number of other prominent blogs which describe the performance impact (good and bad) of testing with various different settings ... Source : Joe Sack - MSDN.com - Blog Post

SSD vs. SAS and SATA

A great article from AnandTech comparing SSD to SATA and SAS ... Source : AnandTech.com - Article

Cheers!
Rod Colledge

SQLCrunch Update: Clustering

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:45:00 GMT

Added to SQLCrunch.com/clustering this week ...

Overview of Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008

In this 10 page summary, we learn the major new Clustering enhancements in Windows Server 2008 ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Understanding Quorum Configurations

This short Technet article does a good job of explaining the importantance of Quorum in a cluster ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article

Multi-Site Clustering in Windows Server 2008

A great whitepaper (16 pages) covering Multi-Site clusters, including the business need for geographical dispersion and considerations for Quorum, Network and Storage ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering

A 22 page document detailing the new features and capabilities of Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008 ... Source : Microsoft.com - Downloadable Word Document

Auto Notification for Cluster Failover

A simple but effective tip from Tim regarding a low cost method for email notification on cluster node failure ... Source : Tim Ford - mssqltips.com

Cheers

Drinking from the SQL fire hose

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 13:25:00 GMT

One of the great things about working with SQL Server is the incredible support community that has grown alongside the product itself. From local user groups through to conferences and forum websites, the breadth and depth of knowledge available through these mediums is possible only because of many very talented people willing to share their own valuable time in helping others.

Back in 2007, I decided that the best way for me to further advance my knowledge (and therefore career prospects) was to become vigilant with reading and summarizing blogs, articles and whitepapers from Microsoft and SQL Server MVPs. There is a massive amount of freely available SQL Server knowledge out there (far more than I ever imagined) and I naively decided that the best way to manage and benefit from it was to categorize, summarize and link to what I believed to be the best available content. SQLCrunch was born as a result of that decision, and to this day I desperately try and keep up with the torrent of great information released on a daily basis.

Over the last few months, I've been completely consumed with my book, and as a result, the SQLCrunch updates have reduced in frequency somewhat. I've got 143 links queued up and ready to go, and will be adding these to the site over the next week or so. With so many links to add, rather than release them in chronological order (which I typically do), I've decided to release them grouped by category, starting this week with Business Intelligence links ....

Fast Track Data Warehouse Design

This whitepaper introduces and defines a repeatable architecture for building scalable SMP based data warehousing solutions in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : SQLCat.com - Whitepaper

Analysis Services Codeplex Projects

Codeplex is an absolute goldmine. Check out these Analysis Services projects including SSAS stress testing and load simulation, collecting SSAS performance data, powershell scripts and SSIS packages for querying/collecting SSAS DMVs, monitoring scripts for Management Data Warehouse and a whole lot more ... Source : Codeplex.com

Slowly Changing Dimensions

In this post, Boyan walks us through an example implementation of a Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) ... Source : Boyan Penev - Blog Post

The Data Loading Performance Guide

This paper contains the tricks and techniques used by the SQLCat team to achieve the ETL World Record for loading over 1TB of data in under 30 minutes ... Source : MSDN.com - Technical Article

Copying and Moving DTS packages

This post describes the process of copying and moving DTS packages between servers, including to SQL 2005/2008 destinations in which they need to be retained in legacy mode i.e.; not upgraded to SSIS packages ... Source : MSDN.com - Blog Post

SSIS Expression Language

In the first post in this series, Andy introduces us to the SSIS expression language, and provides some basic examples. Be sure to follow his later posts on derived columns, conditional splits and dynamic property expressions ... Source : Andy Leonard - SQLBlog.com

Reporting Services Performance Optimizations

In the latest addition to their Building and Deploying Large Scale Reporting Services Environments series, the SQLCAT team describes methods for optimizing Reporting Services architecture for higher throughput and performance, for both 2005 and 2008 environments ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

SSRS Management Reports

Thanks to Greg Low for pointing this one out. This BOL article walks us through the process of installing the sample Server Management reports for reporting on Reporting Services itself ... Source : SQL Server Books Online

...

Cheers

source: www.rodcolledge.com