Why Blog?
The main reason I started blogging was a community thing. I leeched from the community to get me to where...
2013-09-04
1,008 reads
Simple SQL Server
Query Stats
DBAs rarely use the full potential of sys.dm_exec_query_stats. It’s common to see the queries for looking at the most expensive...
2013-09-04 (first published: 2013-08-27)
3,743 reads
SQL Saturday 250 – Pittsburgh – Advice for My Presentation on Monitoring and Baselines
I’ll be presenting at SQL Saturday 250 in Pittsburgh on Baselining and Monitoring. This is my first public presentation, and...
2013-08-20
767 reads
Fixing Page Life Expectancy (PLE)
What is Page Life Expectancy (PLE), what makes it drop, and how can I manage memory better? Abusing disks slows...
2013-08-20 (first published: 2013-08-19)
4,672 reads
Sys.dm_os_performance_counters Demystified
The dmv sys.dm_os_performance_counters is awesome, if you can understand it. This is how I make it easy to read and...
2013-08-13
2,564 reads
Deadlock – A quick, easy view
Deadlocks are rough to work with. Here are the scripts I use to capture deadlocks, find which ones are reoccurring,...
2013-08-06
2,078 reads
SQL Server Running Slow
A user calls to say the app or server is slow today. Here’s a quick summary of how I get...
2013-06-20
864 reads
Recently Recompiled Resource Hogs
It’s not too uncommon for a query to get a new execution plan that performs a lot worse than it...
2013-06-24 (first published: 2013-06-19)
1,794 reads
Reading Traces
Capturing information is useless unless you know how to use it. Here’s what I use to get the most out...
2013-06-18
1,389 reads
Tracing Introduction
SQL Server tracing is essential for troubleshooting performance issues, yet it can put loads on your server that would cause...
2013-06-16
1,061 reads
Blogs
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
dataMinds Saturday 2026 – Slides
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Forums
AllocationType as ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
is it true we cant debug c# scripts in ssis anymore under vs
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers