Optimized Plan Forcing in SQL Server 2022
I’ve been reading Bob Ward’s book “SQL Server 2022 Revealed” and one of the new features in Intelligent Query Processing (IQP) jumped out at me. Not because it’s going...
2022-11-16
78 reads
Matthew McGiffen DBA
SQL Server 2022 is Coming
We still don’t have an exact release date for SQL Server 2022 but at this stage we can have strong confidence that it will be with us before the...
2022-11-15
89 reads
Setting up Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is one of the easiest ways of encrypting your data at rest. In my prevous post we looked at what TDE is and how it...
2021-04-12
282 reads
What is Transparent Data Encryption?
In this post we look at Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) in SQL Server. What it is - and how it works.
2021-04-07 (first published: 2021-03-29)
418 reads
Setting the Sample Rate for Automatic Statistics updates
I talked a few posts ago about Automatic Sample Sizes for Statistics Updates. From SQL 2016 CU4 we've been able to override that. You can manually update a statistics...
2021-03-11 (first published: 2021-03-09)
382 reads
Viewing the Statistics Objects Used to Create an Execution Plan
Use trace flag 8666 to view the statistics objects that the optimizer used to generate your execution plan.
2021-03-01
27 reads
Automatic Sample Sizes for Statistics Updates
Looking at how SQL Server samples your data when doing auto-stats updates. Part of a series on understanding statistics, to help you achieve optimal performance of your queries on...
2021-03-02 (first published: 2021-02-24)
344 reads
Manually updating Statistics
Having up to date statistics is vital for getting the best performance out of your queries. Even though SQL Server automatically updates statistics in the background for you, you...
2021-02-16
228 reads
Book Review: Learn dbatools in a Month of Lunches
If you work in the world of SQL Server you’ve almost certainly heard of dbatools. For those who haven’t, it’s an open source PowerShell module for automating literally hundreds...
2021-04-20 (first published: 2021-02-15)
490 reads
Reminder: SQL Server Agent and the clocks going forward
For most of us in the Northern Hemisphere the clocks go foward next month and we get to look forward to longer, sunnier evenings. This post is a reminder...
2021-02-17 (first published: 2021-02-10)
460 reads
Blogs
Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
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How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...
Upgrading Admin Queries
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries
Question of the Day
Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers