SQL Server Radio

On this show, we talk about monitoring in SQL Server. But actually, monitoring is not only monitoring: It's also baselining, data collection, data analysis, reporting and alerting, and we cover all of those in the show. Among other topics, we talk about:

• The different levels of monitoring
• Why it's important to have a baseline
• Trend analysis
• What should you monitor in SQL Server
• The set of tools for monitoring, baselining, data collection, reporting and alerting
• What should you do when you get an alert about a certain problem
• And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

• Conor Cunningham – Managing 1 Million+ DBs-How Big Data is used to run SQL Azure
• Maria Zakourdaev – Alert Visualization Recipe

Happy 2015, everybody!

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Show 12 is here, and yet again we have a mix of various SQL Server topics. Among them are High Availability, development, performance, Columnstore Indexes, Azure, and general news and events.

More specifically, we talk about:

* How log backup and Log Shipping really work

* What parts of SQL Server Memory does the Max Server Memory option controls

* Performance differences between Row_Number and CROSS APPLY

* A disturbing bug with the SYSDATETIME function

* Clustered Columnstore Indexes, and how Rebuild and Reorganize work on them

* Azure Storage

* SQLRally and SQLBits conferences

* And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

* Guy Glantser - SQL Server Developer Tips that Can Save Your XXX

* Matan Yungman - Rebuilding and Reorganizing Clustered Columnstore Indexes

* Kendra Little - Did You Give SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition Enough Memory?

* Glenn Berry - Running SQL Server 2014 on an Azure Virtual Machine

* Mary Jo Foley - Microsoft says Storage service performance update brought Azure down

* Azure Premium Storage

Show 12 is here, and yet again we have a mix of various SQL Server topics. Among them are High Availability, development, performance, Columnstore Indexes, Azure, and general news and events.

More specifically, we talk about:

• How log backup and Log Shipping really work
• What parts of SQL Server Memory does the Max Server Memory option controls
• Performance differences between Row_Number and CROSS APPLY
• A disturbing bug with the SYSDATETIME function
• Clustered Columnstore Indexes, and how Rebuild and Reorganize work on them
• Azure Storage
• SQLRally and SQLBits conferences
• And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

• Guy Glantser – SQL Server Developer Tips that Can Save Your XXX
• Matan Yungman – Rebuilding and Reorganizing Clustered Columnstore Indexes
• Kendra Little – Did You Give SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition Enough Memory?
• Glenn Berry – Running SQL Server 2014 on an Azure Virtual Machine
• Mary Jo Foley – Microsoft says Storage service performance update brought Azure down
• Azure Premium Storage

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Did you know that SQL was initially called "Sequel" (Structured English Query Language)?

On this show, we go back to basics and talk about our favorite language - Transact-SQL (T-SQL).

We cover a lot of topics in the fields of development, performance and maintenance. Among them:

* The logical phases of query processing

* Our favorite and least favorite T-SQL features

* T-SQL development best practices

* How to avoid writing long Stored Procedures

* How to avoid writing the "mother of all queries"

* The Axis of Evil T-SQL featrues

* Why you should (almost) never use table variables

Items mentioned in the show:

* Matan Yungman - The Axis of Evil

* Itzik Ben-Gan - Creative Uses of the APPLY Operator (Part1)

* Itzik Ben-Gan - Creative Uses of the APPLY Operator (Part2)

Did you know that SQL was initially called "Sequel" (Structured English Query Language)?

On this show, we go back to basics and talk about our favorite language – Transact-SQL (T-SQL).

We cover a lot of topics in the fields of development, performance and maintenance. Among them:

• The logical phases of query processing
• Our favorite and least favorite T-SQL features
• T-SQL development best practices
• How to avoid writing long Stored Procedures
• How to avoid writing the "mother of all queries"
• The Axis of Evil T-SQL featrues
• Why you should (almost) never use table variables

Items mentioned in the show:

• Matan Yungman – The Axis of Evil
• Itzik Ben-Gan – Creative Uses of the APPLY Operator (Part1)
• Itzik Ben-Gan – Creative Uses of the APPLY Operator (Part2)

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On previous shows, we talked about an interesting behavior of the Sort operator and missing nodes in execution plans. On this show, we finally have the explanation for those Phenomenons.

In addition, we talk about:

* What needs does Azure DocumentDB come to address

* Common mistakes with Parameterization in SQL Server

* Tracking Page Splits

* Tracking progress of index builds and rebuilds

* A new index maintenance script

* Dangerous backups

* And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

* Guy Glatnser - Parameterization Part 5: Two Common Mistakes

* Paul White - Nested Loops Prefetching

* Wikipedia - Merge Sort

* Matan Yungman - Tracking Progress of Index Builds and Rebuilds

* Guy Glantser - Monitoring Page Splits

* Midnight SQL - Minion Reindex

* Kendra LIttle - Why I Don't Use SQL Server's Activity Monitor

* Introduction to Azure DocumentDB

* Guy Glantser - Be Careful! Backups Can Bite You!

On previous shows, we talked about an interesting behavior of the Sort operator and missing nodes in execution plans. On this show, we finally have the explanation for those Phenomenons.

In addition, we talk about:

• What needs does Azure DocumentDB come to address
• Common mistakes with Parameterization in SQL Server
• Tracking Page Splits
• Tracking progress of index builds and rebuilds
• A new index maintenance script
• Dangerous backups
• And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

• Guy Glatnser – Parameterization Part 5: Two Common Mistakes
• Paul White – Nested Loops Prefetching
• Wikipedia – Merge Sort
• Matan Yungman – Tracking Progress of Index Builds and Rebuilds
• Guy Glantser – Monitoring Page Splits
• Midnight SQL – Minion Reindex
• Kendra LIttle – Why I Don't Use SQL Server's Activity Monitor
• Introduction to Azure DocumentDB
• Guy Glantser – Be Careful! Backups Can Bite You!

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PASS Summit 2014 is over, and wh're here for a recap of what happened, what was announced, what we learned in the sessions we attended, and some thoughts on the direction Microsoft is heading.

Among other topics, we talk about:

* The summit keynote and the Microsoft vision

* Parallelism

* The new Query Store feature

* The new Stretched Tables feature

* Improvements to Cluster Quorum

* Backup performance improvements

* Database corruption recovery techniques

* Interesting behavior of Sequence with Delayed Durability

* The various activities during the summit

* And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

* PASS Summit 2014 Day 1 Keynote

* PASS Summit 2014 Day 2 Keynote

* Adam Machanic - Manhandling Paralellism, 2014 Edition

* Paul Randal - Advanced Data Recovery Techniques

* Allan Hirt - Did You Vote Today? A DBA's Guide to Cluster Quorum

* Guy Glantser - Working with Very Large Tables Like a Pro in SQL Server 2014

PASS Summit 2014 is over, and wh're here for a recap of what happened, what was announced, what we learned in the sessions we attended, and some thoughts on the direction Microsoft is heading.

Among other topics, we talk about:

• The summit keynote and the Microsoft vision
• Parallelism
• The new Query Store feature
• The new Stretched Tables feature
• Improvements to Cluster Quorum
• Backup performance improvements
• Database corruption recovery techniques
• Interesting behavior of Sequence with Delayed Durability
• The various activities during the summit
• And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

• PASS Summit 2014 Day 1 Keynote
• PASS Summit 2014 Day 2 Keynote
• Adam Machanic – Manhandling Paralellism, 2014 Edition
• Paul Randal – Advanced Data Recovery Techniques
• Allan Hirt – Did You Vote Today? A DBA's Guide to Cluster Quorum
• Guy Glantser – Working with Very Large Tables Like a Pro in SQL Server 2014

Download Episode (mp3)

We're currently at PASS Summit, and things are pretty busy here, so we didn't manage to record a new show.

Instead, we republish an episode which features interviews with 3 of the top experts in the industry: Brent Ozar, Denny Cherry and Adam Machanic. They were recorded a year ago at SQLRally Amsterdam for our Hebrew version (of course the interviews were conducted in English).

The interviews cover a lot of topics. Among them are professional development, the future of DBA work, SQL Server 2014, storage, parallelism, virtualization and SQLCLR. If you missed it, it's an opportunity to catch up.

After we return home, we have a lot of exciting stuff to talk about on the next shows.

Items mentioned in the show:

* Brent Ozar – Rock Stars, Normal People, and You

* Brent Ozar – Why Index Fragmentation Doesn’t Matter (Video)

* Denny Cherry’s Podcast – People Talking Tech

* Adam Machanic – Next-Level Parallel Plan Forcing: An Alternative to 8649

* Adam Machanic – Query Tuning Mastery: The Art and Science of Manhandling Paralellism

* Adam Machcnic – Data, Faster: Microsoft SQL Server Performance Techniques with SQLCLR

* T-SQL Tuesday