Browse by Tags

SQL Server 2005 and Disk drive allocation unit size to 64K - any benefit or performance?

Published 28 April 8 3:1 AM | SSQA.net

You may be aware that or seen within your Database platform about slower disk performance than expect having multiple disks in Windows Server 2003 environment when you use a hardware-based redundant array of independent disks (RAID) or a software-based...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, technet, i/o, article, disk, best practices, monitoring, deployment, layout

BI Virtual labs on MSDN - specific to data mining and top 10 classed in Tech-ed.

Published 26 February 8 4:45 AM | SSQA.net

As blogged here before Virtual Labs are very handy for the new users and existing professionals to test out new features without disturbing their own platform. In this scenario Microsoft events are helping the users by providing access to their virtual...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, technet, data mining, version, virtual, labs, 2005, loading

SQL Server license with multi-core CPU technology, confusing concepts?

Published 20 February 8 2:47 AM | SSQA.net

How many SQL Server licenses you need to fix the number of CPUs on the server? The answer it depends on the number! Well having hyper-threading (i.e. multiple threads execute on a single physical CPU appearing as 2 logical CPUs) and dual-core technology...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, version, article, license, 2005, cpu, monitoring, administrator, value, costing

SQL Server licensing with having multi-core CPU technology, confusing concepts?

Published 19 February 8 2:47 AM | SSQA.net

How many SQL Server licenses you need to fix the number of CPUs on the server? The answer it depends on the number! Well having hyper-threading (i.e. multiple threads execute on a single physical CPU appearing as 2 logical CPUs) and dual-core technology...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, version, article, license, 2005, cpu, monitoring, administrator, value, costing

How to use TSQL to find the size of total and free physical memory within the SQL Server?

Published 24 January 8 4:28 PM | SSQA.net

Recently I have to search for the information on the total size of free physical memory on the SQL Server which is causing lots of performance issues, when reported to CSS they have supplied the following TSQL to get more information in this regard: With...

Filed under: sql server, performance, memory, microsoft, dump, physical, tsql, select, css, size

SQL Server performance monitoring requirement and specifications, heard about baseline and benchmarking?

Published 19 December 7 6:6 AM | SSQA.net

How do you define the terms "Performance Monitoring"? What is your baseline & benchmarks? Have you ever used PERFMON (SYSMON) & PROFILER for serious performance issues within your SQL Server environment? The answer may be not 'yes'...

Filed under: dashboard, sql server, performance, databases, microsoft, security, blog, environment, best practice, backups, monitoring, baseline, benchmarking, downloads, performance monitoring

SQL Server is waiting for an internal operation to complete, message on SQL Server Management Studio

Published 17 December 7 2:49 AM | SSQA.net

Interesting popup message on the down-right corner of my laptop when I'm performing SQL Server tasks against a 2005 version database using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), displays the message " Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio is waiting...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, users, sql express, service pack2, management studio, slow, delay

SQL Server 2008 Data Compression, what it is - how does it work?

Published 3 December 7 7:54 AM | SSQA.net

As you know data compression facility is added onto the SQL Server 2008 version, though this is not a new feature and I would call it as an enhanced feature in SQL Server. This subject of data compression has already been introduced in SQL Server 2005...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, blogs, security, 2008, ctp, data capture, 2005, compress, data compression

SQL Server: How do I identify the queries that are worth tuning?

Published 16 November 7 7:2 AM | SSQA.net

Have you ever asked this question about how do I identify the queries that worth tuning? The simple answer it is neither easy or hard to obtain such information if you have managed your SQL Server by deploying industry best practices (wherever possible...

Filed under: sql server, performance, management, microsoft, blogs, technet, dmv, dba, best practice, slow query

If MAX WORKER THREADS increased from 255 to 500 what will be the usage or availability of system resources on the server?

Published 15 November 7 9:41 AM | SSQA.net

Continuing on the MAX WORKER THREADS topic from ThisBlog I have been asked about method of calculating the amount of system resources that will be used when the setting is increased to 500 from 255 (default). Well, as one of the best practices you must...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, server, tuning, dbcc, system, best practice, testing, resources, sqlperf, max worker threads

Identifying top 20 most expensive queries in terms of read I/O (referred from Technet Magazine)

Published 15 November 7 7:16 AM | SSQA.net

It is worth mentioning the valueable query I have been through when referring to Technet Magazine, the following query has given me useful information in finding out what are my top 20 most expensive queries that are consuming most of disk I/O (read &...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, technet, dmv, top, tsql, reads, system resources, expensive query, identity, writes

NTFS Cluster size - if changing the default cluster size on the disk is a good idea or not?

Published 16 October 7 7:18 AM | SSQA.net

You might have come across on the web resources that setting the disk to a 64k cluster size (8 * 8KB pages) might achieve the performance. But have you wondered will this really boost the disk performance, see in what scenario such as lots of reads and...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, technet, disk, partition, testing, hardware, lun, clustersize

Filestream datatype - what it is?

Published 1 October 7 3:31 AM | SSQA.net

My question is have you looked into the CTP4 Books online for SQL 2008? This is new to SQL Server arena, the FileStream data type which allows large binary data to be stored in the file system and yet remain an integral part of the database with transactional...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, 2008, ctp, new, data type, filestream

Determining the required capacity of an I/O subsystem before deploying the database

Published 17 September 7 8:49 AM | SSQA.net

It is a good practice to determine the required capacity for a database application before it is deployed on the Production environment. As it speaks the I/O system is "most" important to the performance of SQL Server, in the event of any performance...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, security, i/o, storage, throughput, vendor

SQL Server 2005 using Cryptography & Encryption what they are for?

Published 13 September 7 7:46 AM | SSQA.net

Since the inception of SQL Server 2005 data encryption and cryptography functionality has elevated to a new level, this wasn't the case until SQL 2000 version. The overall security improvements within SQL 2005 is mainly with 'certficate' authentication...

Filed under: sql server, performance, databases, microsoft, security, audit, encryption, authentication, authorization, cryptography

Paging and Available Memory for Operating sysem, what you need to know?

Published 6 September 7 7:29 AM | SSQA.net

Performance tuning exercise involves using SYSMON for the server based tasks, also I have seen users referring that MEMORY is at peak level by referring to Task Manager on the server. Not always depend upon the task manager, for optimum information better...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, server, sysmon, paging, vmm, processes, virtual memory

Live Meeting - Advanced Tips and Techniques for using SQL Server 2005 Profiler

Published 17 August 7 5:21 AM | SSQA.net

Upcoming PASS SIG LiveMeeting - August 22, 2007 @ 12:00 p.m. EDT DBA Special Interest Group presents speaker Brad McGehee Brad will be giving a presentation about SQL Profiler. To read a description of the LiveMeeting, the Biography of Brad McGehee, or...

Filed under: sql server, profiler, performance, webcast, microsoft, pass, live meeting

SQL Server 2008 – First Look (Live Webcast) by Microsoft and Vendors

Published 17 August 7 2:45 AM | SSQA.net

When L Wednesday, August 22, 2007 4:00 PM Eastern | 3 PM Central | 2 PM Mountain | 1 PM Pacific Hosted by: Microsoft, Edgewood Solutions & Idera Overview of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, code name "Katmai", the next generation of SQL Server...

Filed under: sql server, performance, webcast, microsoft, 2008, idera, edgewood

Tech-ed South Africa - 21 - 24 October 2007

Published 16 August 7 4:1 PM | SSQA.net

You might have seen Tech-ed, US in Orlando and hear about Tech-ed, Australia. Now Tech-ed Africa is scheduled from October 21- 24 2007 in Sun City and upcoming Tech-ed, Barcelona for European based community. As always Tech-Ed Africa is the best way to...

Filed under: sql server, performance, webcast, microsoft, tech-ed, event, earth, africa

SQL Server Licensing for a quad CPU server, a mystery?

Published 16 August 7 10:9 AM | SSQA.net

Microsoft Licensing methods for SQL Server is always a mystery! Though visiting HOWTOBUY says what type of license choose but nothing much to understand. Scalable link explains bit more than that page. Still I have to search for a quest on how many processor...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, tuning, processor, quad