Jimmy May, Aspiring Geek: SQL Server Performance, Best Practices, & Productivity

News you can use on implementation of the elusive sqlservr.exe /faster switch & personal effectiveness

#SQLPASS: To The Cloud, Infinity, & Beyond: Top 10 Lessons Learned at MSIT

Capping off a fantastic third week of presentations (see #SQLSatSLC & #SQLSatOregon), I’m...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 11/06/2014

Spooked by Columnstore? See My Halloween Weekend Preso at #SQLSatOregon

This Halloween weekend I continue my efforts to make the world of SQL DWs a better place—one table...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 10/31/2014

AdventureWorks 2014 Sample Databases Are Now Available

Where in the World is AdventureWorks? Recently, SQL Community feedback from twitter prompted me to...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 08/20/2014

Columnstore Case Study #2: Columnstore faster than SSAS Cube at DevCon Security

Preamble This is the second in a series of posts documenting big wins encountered using columnstore...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 05/26/2014

Columnstore Case Study #1: MSIT SONAR Aggregations

Preamble This is the first in a series of posts documenting big wins encountered using columnstore...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 05/19/2014

MSDN Whitepaper: More Cowbell—Optimizing Your Query Plans with the SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator

Hot off the presses is this new MSDN white paper: Optimizing Your Query Plans with the SQL Server...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 04/17/2014

Columnstore Preso to the Oregon SQL Server User Group

In the latest-&-greatest effort in my mission to deliver my Columnstore presentation to every...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 04/08/2014

SQL Server 2014 Columnstore Indexes: The Big Deck

The History Though Columnstore indexes were introduced in SQL Server 2012; they're still largely...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/24/2014

Disk Partition Alignment: It Still Matters--DPA for Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, and SQL Server 2014

Introduction I continue to receive dozens of inquiries each year about this issue. The...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/14/2014

Xperf: Install Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT) with 242MB Download, Not 2.5GB Windows 7 SDK: Part 2

In my first post on Xperf, I described the simple 4.4MB download necessary to install the Windows...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 11/24/2009

Xperf: Install Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT) with 242MB Download, Not the Entire 2.5GB Windows 7 SDK: Part 1

Say It Ain’t So! In my first post on Xperf, I described the simple 4.4MB download necessary to...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 11/22/2009

SQLIOSim Parser by Jens Suessmeyer & Yours Truly

New! Improved! v.3.3.0 Now Available on CodePlex! Preamble SQLIOSim Parser shreds the results of...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 09/27/2009

Aspiring Geek Speaks This Week: PASS Minnesota

Greetings, my current colleague & former MVP Lara Rubbelke (blog | twitter) was gracious enough...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 09/14/2009

xPerf: Once I Was Blind and Now I See

I’ve been aware of the buzz around xPerf for quite some time.  I flagged emails from Microsoft...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 09/08/2009

SQL CAT New Whitepaper: Data Compression: Strategy, Capacity Planning and Best Practices by Sanjay Mishra, et al.

Data Compression: Strategy, Capacity Planning and Best Practices Hot off the presses, the SQL CAT...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 05/29/2009

Lured by Ward Pond, Chris Shaw’s Notorious SQL Quiz Ensnares Me In Its Web

SQL IT Operations Excellence IP Architect, colleague, & friend Ward Pond tagged me in a meme...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 05/18/2009

A World Without Google

If you’re reading this, you survived last week’s Google glitch. Learn more here about the events of...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 05/16/2009

New Article on SQL CAT: Initializing a Transactional Replication Subscriber from an Array-Based Snapshot by Benjamin Wright-Jones

Preamble I had the opportunity to perform a tech review of a very cool article by Benjamin...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 05/15/2009

Disk Partition Alignment (Sector Alignment): Make the Case: Save Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

I recently collaborated with Microsoft PFE Daniel Janik to create a template to make the case for...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 05/08/2009

A Language for Software Architecture by JD Meier in The Architecture Journal

J.D. Meier is a Principal Program Manager for Microsoft’s Patterns & Practices team.  He’s...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 04/28/2009

Wait Stats by Joe Sack

Wait stats rock. As I shared recently with friends, when it comes to SQL Server performance, wait...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 04/27/2009

Wait Stats Introductory References

Preamble For those of you who are already facile with SQL Server wait stats, there’s nothing new...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 04/26/2009

MSDN Blog Box Beefed Up and SProcs Tweaked For New! Improved! User Experience

A few weeks ago Cindy Gross brought this tweet to my attention from SQL Server MVP Jason Massie:...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 04/16/2009

SQL Server 2008 SP1: Available Now at an Internet Near You

The long-awaited SQL Server 2008 SP1 was just released, available at an Internet near you right NOW:...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 04/09/2009

Analyzing Storage Performance by Robert Smith on the Counter-of-the-Week (COTW) Blog

In my role with MS IT's Assessment, Consulting, & Engineering (A.C.E.) team, I work with some of...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/19/2009

Office Outlook 2007 CU/HotFix f/u: "Best version of Outlook ever" per MS VP Will Kennedy

This is a follow-up to last week's post in which I shared the fantastic perf enhancements in the...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/16/2009

Disk I/O Case Study: Classic Case of SAN Over-Subscription

SAN Over-SubscriptionThere are a variety of challenges related to I/O performance. One common...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/15/2009

Office Outlook 2007 CU: Hurry-Up-&-Wait Demon of Delay Begone!

It's a beautiful day. For years now the been hurry-up-&-wait icon has plagued our productivity;...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/12/2009

Does Your Blog Wordle Up?

My multi-talented, java-enabled yet Windows-empowered friend Alik Levin of www.practicethis.com...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/11/2009

Disk I/O: Microsoft SQL Server on SAN Best Practices from SQL CAT's Mike Ruthruff (& Prem Mehra)

While at the PASS Community Summit in November 2008, I had the pleasure of attending a handful of...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 03/01/2009

VSTS Web Test Step-by-Step Primer: 7-Minute Video by Microsoft A.C.E. Performance Engineer Chris Lundquist (with Copious Notes and Screen Shots from Your Humble Correspondent)

My decision to focus on the SQL Server vertical has paid off for me—metaphorically & literally....

Author: Jimmy May Date: 02/23/2009

SSMS Query Results: “Include column headers when copying or saving the results"

In my work with external customers, I collaborate with some excellent DBAs & Architects. But...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 02/22/2009

sp_reset_connection Does NOT Reset TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL: Unexpected Behavior By Design

I've long been an advocate of the best practice of explicitly setting the transaction isolation...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 02/02/2009

SQL Server Schema Best Practices from the SQL Server Customer Advisory Team (SQL CAT)

An authoritative reference on schema usage in SQL Server 2005 is now available. Along with my buddy...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 12/10/2008

Disk Partition Alignment (Sector Alignment) for SQL Server: Part 4: Essentials (Cheat Sheet)

The purpose of this post is to document Disk Partition Alignment Essentials. It is intended for...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 12/04/2008

Case Study: Part 2: CXPACKET Wait Stats & 'max degree of parallelism' Option: Suppressing Query Parallelism Eliminated CXPACKET Waits & Liberated 30% of CPU

Introduction This is the second of a four-part series: Introduction to Query Parallelism Parallelism...

Author: Jimmy May Date: 12/02/2008

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