Joe Sack's SQL Server Blog

Until we meet again...

Today is my last day with Microsoft. After five and a half years, I recently decided to join...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 09/30/2011

Announcing the new SQL MCM Program Manager

I’ve been waiting for a long running transaction to commit, so to speak, before announcing the...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 06/27/2011

Measuring impact of “optimize for ad hoc workloads” via CACHESTORE_SQLCP

The cache store “CACHESTORE_SQLCP” represents cached ad-hoc query plans, server-side...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 03/28/2011

ARP Caching and SQL Server Failover Cluster install failures

Now I’m definitely not a networking guy, so even the more basic networking concepts fill me...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 03/27/2011

Forced Parameterization with Filtered Indexes

Consider the following scenario: You have a database that has PARAMETERIZATION FORCED enabled. You...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 03/27/2011

Two good Mondays in a row for the SQL MCM program

The last two Mondays have brought us two new highly qualified Microsoft Certified Masters. If you’ve...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 02/21/2011

One less “uncertified Master”

News travels pretty fast, so I thought I would get the official word out tonight before this news...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 02/10/2011

Last batch of SQL MCM videos now published

Our last planned batch of SQL Server 2008 MCM Readiness Videos are now published – covering...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 01/03/2011

Second batch of SQL MCM Readiness Videos now Released

We just added another 23 videos on Technet – making it a total of 56 videos available as of today....

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 12/15/2010

How do you know if you’re ready for SQL MCM?

“Know what you know. Know what you don’t know. Don’t ever confuse the two.”...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 11/21/2010

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Administration for Oracle DBAs

I just found out today that one of our own SQL MCMs (2005/2008) & MCA, Christian Bolton, is a...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 11/21/2010

A New Path to Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008

It’s a big day for the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) program, as we announce the new MCM...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 11/09/2010

High Availability and Disaster Recovery for Microsoft’s SAP Data Tier: A SQL Server 2008 Technical Case Study

Apologies for my radio silence lately. With SQL PASS next month, I'll be getting a little more...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 10/29/2010

Off Topic: How I chop wood and carry water

“Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 06/17/2010

Sharing your T-SQL Code? Test it on a case sensitive SQL instance

(Reposting from cache - as the MSDN blog migration seemed to have lost my latest post) Do you share...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 06/01/2010

Eve of SQL Rotation 9 and planning for future rotations

The ninth rotation of the SQL Microsoft Certified Masters program begins Monday. I'm really looking...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 04/30/2010

Friday afternoon case of the mystery scan versus seek

So I just got finished with a Friday afternoon head scratcher (that luckily had a resolution)....

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 04/23/2010

Gotcha: When Server-Scoped DDL Triggers don’t honor ROLLBACK

I’ve used DDL Triggers before to prevent database DROP DATABASE operations.  For example:...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 04/08/2010

Free press doesn’t always mean lollypops and rainbows

(Cross posted on The Masters Blog) The eighth rotation of the SQL Microsoft Certified Masters...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 04/02/2010

ALTER INDEX ALL REBUILD behavior

I was asked a few questions about the behavior of using “ALTER INDEX ALL… REBUILD” and thought I...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 03/09/2010

SQL MCM Prep Week posts by Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar, who is a Microsoft SQL Server expert for Quest Software, Microsoft MVP, Editor-in-Chief...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 02/10/2010

DBA 101: Collecting and Interpreting Failover Cluster Logs

When an unexplained outage occurs on a standalone server and you need to determine root cause, DBAs...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 02/09/2010

Why run the SQL MCM marathon?

I’ve been a casual jogger for about 14 years, and lately I’ve been debating whether or not I should...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 01/21/2010

Gaps in Database ID sequence – one reason why this can happen

I spoke with a DBA today about the following scenario… When running DBCC CHECKDB in SQL Server 2005,...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 12/28/2009

Updated SQL 2008 MCM Pre-reading list

David Ikeda and I have updated the SQL Server 2008 MCM Pre-reading list based on the last training...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 12/07/2009

SQL MCMs – Now Sixty Members Strong

** Cross posted from the Master blog.  I usually don’t cross post the new SQL MCM member...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 11/26/2009

Testimonial from a SQL MCM (who doesn’t work for Microsoft)

I was recently asked by a potential SQL MCM candidate if we could share testimonials about the SQL...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 10/30/2009

Lucky "Rotation 7" almost done

The seventh SQL Microsoft Certified Masters rotation is almost finished. It has been a jam packed 48...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 10/22/2009

Authors on the loose at the SQL MCM Program

We’re midway through the second week of “Rotation 7” for the SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 10/14/2009

Rotation 7 of the SQL MCM Program has begun!

We kicked off the seventh rotation of the SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master program on Monday...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 10/07/2009

Last week to register for the October 2009 SQL Microsoft Certified Master program

Just a heads up that if you've been on the fence about registering for the SQL Server Microsoft...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 09/16/2009

SQL MCM Program Fee Discounts

I just posted some information on two SQL MCM Program Fee discounts available for the next SQL MCM...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 08/19/2009

Using MSDN SQL Server 2008 R2 Books Online instead of using the local download

I downloaded the client-based version of SQL Server 2008 R2 Books Online, however the installer...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 08/13/2009

SQL-DMO and SQL Server 2008

Just a reminder that SQL-DMO will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server - so if you...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 08/12/2009

Meet the new batch of SQL Server Microsoft Certified Masters

Good Morning, Just a heads up that I just posted an introduction to nine out of twelve of the new...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 07/11/2009

SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering White Paper & SQL MCM

Short post with two updates today: After many months of development, the much anticipated SQL Server...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 07/09/2009

Where is my SQL Error log?

Today I found a new (for me), undocumented method for identifying the location of the SQL Error log....

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 06/15/2009

Three Usage Scenarios for sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats

I just posted a new entry on the SQL Server Premier Field Engineer Blog on Three Usage Scenarios for...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 06/11/2009

Introducing the SQL Server Premier Field Engineer Blog

The new SQL Server Premier Field Engineer Blog is now launched! It will start off small, but...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 06/07/2009

New White Paper and Compression impact on Memory

Sanjay Mishra just published the following White Paper, "Data Compression: Strategy, Capacity...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 05/29/2009

Troubleshooting Table Locks

I recently worked on a case where a significant number of deadlocks were being generated for...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 05/22/2009

Impact of NOLOCK on READ COMMITTED SNAPSHOT ISOLATION

Heard a similar question today, related to my post on "Override READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT with...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 05/19/2009

Override READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT with READ_COMMITTED?

The scenario… An application is using the READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT (RCSI) database option to minimize...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 05/18/2009

Presentation Deck for "Performance Tuning with Wait Statistics"

Here is a link to the presentation deck for yesterday's Minnesota PASS presentation: "Performance...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 04/22/2009

Speaking at PASS MN Tuesday April 21 - Performance Troubleshooting with Wait Statistics

If you live in Minnesota or are visiting next Tuesday, April 21st, please stop by the Bloomington...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 04/15/2009

Checking for CPU pressure via sys.dm_os_schedulers

Do you suspect you are encountering CPU pressure? Some of the more common signs of CPU pressure...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 04/08/2009

Should you worry about SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD?

Today I witnessed a performance load test against a 16 proc 64-bit SQL Server instance. During the...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 03/17/2009

SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled

Today I received a copy of SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled by Grant Fritchey (aka...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 03/13/2009

SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes - Source Code

I recently heard from a reader of SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes who was looking for the...

Author: Joseph Sack Date: 03/09/2009

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