CSS SQL Server Engineers

SQL Server 2005 adds additional shrink logic to compress TEXT/IMAGE data, referred to as LOBs.     The dbcc shrink* code uses the same underlying methods that ALTER INDEX .... WITH (LOB_COMPACTION ON) uses to compact the LOB space...

I ran across an undocumented option that was very helpful in resolving an issue last week.   WARNING: As always any undocumented syntax can change and may not be supported.  This should be used under the guidance of Microsoft SQL Server...

Microsoft support continues to receive a steady flow of cases indicating poor, SQL Server performance symptoms.   When the issue is narrowed down we are finding that the working set of SQL Server and many of the processes on the computer have...

I have seen a fair series of questions around the compression and encryption features of SQL Server 2008.   The main question is can I or should I used Total Data Encryption (TDE) and backup compression? All these features work with each other...

I have addressed similar conditions error in a white paper: www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/diagandcorrecterrs.mspx 2008-01-20 19:01:26.11 Server      ***Stack Dump being sent to K:\MSSQL.3\MSSQL\LOG\SQLDump0001...

SQLIOSim, like its predecessor SQLIOStress, is designed to read pages it has written and validate the data.   SQLIOSim does this using a checksum algorithm. When SQLIOSim starts up it creates a set of buffers and used the Cryto APIs to generate...

SQL Server 2005 SP2 added new ring buffer entries ( sys.dm_os_ring_buffers ) for various security errors.   The reason the ring buffer entries are added was to provide the DBA with more details as to why a client is receiving a failed login...

Recently I have fielded several questions related to I/O affinity.  Allow me to outline the behavior and clear up misconceptions. When I/O affinity is enabled SQL Server creates a hidden scheduler for the Log Writer process as well as a special lazy...

Previously I have covered stuck and stalled I/O issues in other posts and articles.  However, these only tell you that there is a problem outside the SQL Server engine.   This post attempts to extend your root cause debugging capabilities...

I ran into an issue last week that I found interesting and thought you might find it interesting as well. The primary database had a replica (snapshot database) established and the issue reported was that the replica was acquiring additional space when...