June 2009 - Posts

• Spooky: What do you connect to?

  I only recently discovered that SSMS will connect to different things. For instance, press the "New query" button. What were you connected to? The answer is the same server as your "current" server. But what is the current server? It is the server where Read More... Posted Friday, June 26, 2009 5:12 PM by TiborKaraszi | 2 Comments Filed under: SQL Server 2008, Tools

• Table restore and filegroups

  The story usually goes something like: Q - How can I restore only this table? A - Put it on its own filegroup and you can do filegroup level backup and restore. The problem with above answer is that it most likely misses the point. We need to ask ourselves: Read More... Posted Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:49 PM by TiborKaraszi | 20 Comments Filed under: Backup, Transaction log

• Key count in sys[.]indexes

  The old sysindexes table (as of 2005 implemented as a compatibility view) has a useful column named keycnt. This is supposed to give us the number of columns (keys) in the index. However, to make heads and tails out of the numbers, we need to understand Read More... Posted Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:57 AM by TiborKaraszi | 1 Comments Filed under: indexes

• Remove transaction log files

  Say you happened to get too many transaction log (ldf) files. Can you remove log files from the database? Yes, but only if a file isn't in use, and you cannot remove the first ("primary") log file. So, be prepared to investigate the virtual file layout, Read More... Posted Wednesday, June 17, 2009 8:47 AM by TiborKaraszi | 6 Comments Filed under: Transaction log

• Response time vs. resource consumption

  I see a trend towards more and more focusing on response time; and less and less on resource usage (resource consumption). I've even seen blanket statements such as the only thing that matters is response time. I do not agree. I feel that by being a good Read More... Posted Monday, June 15, 2009 11:01 AM by TiborKaraszi | 7 Comments Filed under: Performance

• Management Pack for SQL Agent Alerts

  I have finished my article about suggested SQL Server Agent Alerts. Perhaps calling this a "Management Pack" is OTT, but hopefully it will be useful to some of you folks. We are talking about having Agent sending email to us when SQL Server writes messages Read More... Posted Monday, June 01, 2009 10:05 PM by TiborKaraszi | 4 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Agent, Tools, Troubleshooting