Learn More About SQL Server IO and Query Tuning in These Webcasts

Join database expert Kevin Kline in two new webcasts for SQL Server users: Storage IO Best Practices and Query Tuning Best Practices.

Flexibility When Waiting on Locks

An attendee at a recent performance tuning session wanted ideas to more flexibly react to locks on blocks than using the WITH (NOLOCK) hint.

Dev Advice: Make a Tiny Dev Database Act Like a HUGE Prod Database

If you’re struggling with doing development on a big SQL Server database, learn the ropes on cloned databases asap!

Everybody Needs a Test Harness

Here’s a handy little block of T-SQL code to improve code stability.

SQL Server Migration Roll-Up

Here are a hand full of cool database migration tools and white papers worth mentioning for SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and Sybase.

Wednesday Quest: Exciting New Community for Users of Toad for SQL Server

There’s a great, new community dedicated to all the users of Toad for SQL Server…

Back in Atlanta! Wed, Feb 9 2011

in the last couple years that I’ve gotten to know Atlanta-area folks like Aaron Nelson

Video: Maximize SQL Server Performance with SQL Tuning

This presentation is a bit old, but largely still applicable.  It will help you understand Microsoft tuning techniques. It will teach tips and tricks for making queries perform better, and how to use tools to tune SQL. Posted March 27, 2007.

DBTA: The Future of Coding for SQL Server, Part 2

In my last column (published in the February e-edition and the March print edition of DBTA), I reviewed the overall coding landscape for SQL Server with special focus on LINQ to SQL, a new technology introduced by Microsoft in late 2008. LINQ to SQL promised to make developers’ lives much easier by allowing them to focus [...]

Free Poster – SQL Server Dynamic Management Views

I enjoy working at Quest Software partly because we do a lot to give back to the community. Here’s one example, a free poster describing all of the SQL Server 2005 and 2008 dynamic management views.  Get it here.  It’s the perfect compliment to the free system map poster available from Microsoft here.