Another quick one for the day – for a frequent query – what is the difference between GDR, QFE and other release terms. For all such queries I redirect my customers to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935897 - a nice article on Incremental Servicing...

One of the common questions that I face while reviewing the applications at customer site is if SQL Server caches and reuses the plan then where is the difference in stored procedure vs. SQL Query. There is no single answer; recommend to read Batch...

Another common query – How can I upgrade from SQL Server Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition Use the following command to upgrade to a different edition of SQL 2005. Go to Command prompt “start /wait setup.exe ADDLOCAL=SQL_Engine INSTANCENAME...

Faced a question couple of time “What are the performance gains in Win 2003 SP2 for SQL Server 2005 as mentioned in: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sp2/faq.mspx “ 2 important performance areas that I know of: · Optimization done...

As a consultant I face a common question where can I find useful whitepapers and reading material on SQL Server 2005. A simple cross reference approach - Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2005 Physical Database Storage Design...

Microsoft recently released a free download - SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard reports. Joint effort of SQL support and SQL development teams to help field with performance issues identification with focus on resolving the problem. The dashboard...

A common question from customers; should we apply SP2 or wait. There is no Golden answer; I would suggest: a. Test the application in testing / staging environment first b. Compare the performance against baseline c. Refer to wonderful blog...