In my most recent poll, I asked DBAs if they have turned on instant file initialization on their SQL Servers. I was a little surprised by the results. Just over half of the DBAs who responded to the poll said that they don’t know what instant file initialization is, and another 13% said that they don’t use it. Only about a third said they have it turned on.
Instant file initialization seems to be one of SQL Server’s most hidden performance gems, and should be turned on for virtually every SQL Server. To learn more about instant file initialization, see my blog post: “Instant File Initialization Speeds SQL Server”.
