#SQLVacation meets Abraham Lincoln

In the movie, National Lampoon's Vacation, Clark and Ellen Griswold decide to lead their family, including the kids Rusty and Audrey, on a cross-country expedition from the Chicago area to the Los Angeles amusement park Walley World, touted as "America's Favorite Family Fun Park." Ellen sensibly wants to fly, but Clark wants to bond with his family over the course of a long road trip. Clark: So, this is the ol' homestead. Eddie: Yeah, but I don't know for how long? Bank's been on me like flies on a rib roast. Clark: I know the feeling. Eddie: Enough 'bout my problems. Hell, looks … [Read more...]

#SQLVacation Postcard from the Miracle Mile, Chicago, IL

Of the hundreds of cities that I've visited around the world, Chicago is one of my favorites. The food. The museums. The architecture. The scenery. It's all good - except for those outrageously cold winters. So I was really excited when my family agreed that they'd enjoy spending their summer vacation in the "Second City" as the midpoint for the #sqlvacation speaking tour. (Don't forget that the contest component of #sqlvacation lasts all summer long. You've got plenty of opportunity to win through July 31st).   While I'm working, the Horde will visit Navy Pier, Art … [Read more...]

#SQLVacation Postcard from Downers Grove, IL

I've been to Chicagoland many times over the years. During the 1990's, when I worked for Deloitte, I occasionally traveled to the practice office in downtown Chicago or to the tax practice in Deerfield. In the later 1990's and early 2000's (a.k.a. "the aughts"), I frequently traveled to the original offices for PASS on Michigan Avenue. Later on during the aughts through 2012, I often traveled to the Quest Software offices in Naperville. So it's with these thoughts in mind that we make the #SQLVacation drive from Indianapolis to the Chicago Suburban SQL Server user group in Downers Grove, … [Read more...]

#SQLVacation Postcard from Indianapolis, IN

For some people, Indianapolis means one thing, and one thing only - the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (a.k.a "The Brickyard")  and the Indianapolis 500. In my case, it means several times speaking at IndyPASS, the local SQL Server User Group, over the last 10 years. I first spoke at IndyPASS with the then head of Microsoft's Business Intelligence product line, Bill Baker. Bill was a big racing fan and, fortuitously, the user group leaders were happy to accommodate his request to speak in time to see the big race. I also got the chance back in 2005-2006 to see a hilarious comedian known as … [Read more...]

#SQLVacation Postcard from Louisville, KY

  Along the banks of the mighty Ohio River, in sight of the shores of Indiana, lies beautiful Louisville, KY. Louisville is a place with a strong connection for me. (No, not because I drink bourbon, although that's a pretty good reason to like the place, come to think of it). It's because my brother, five years my senior, earned his graduate degrees in one of the city's fine universities and worked there as an English professor for many years. Whenever I had a spare weekend, I'd load up the family, pop a cassette into the car stereo, and make the ~3 hour trip north to the Bluegrass … [Read more...]

ICYMI: Parameter Sniffing, Friends with Partition Benefits, and SELECT INTO Parallelism – SQL Server Performance

Great topics for further reading about tuning SQL Server performance: Exploring SQL Server 2014 SELECT INTO Parallelism Joe Sack (b | t) provides us with a peak into the performance improvements and new behaviors of SQL Server 2014 in the way it can now parallelize large SELECT INTO operations. Parameter Sniffing, Embedding, and the RECOMPILE Options Parameter sniffing is a term used to describe the processes by which SQL Server attempts to reuse execution plans where certain parameters might frequently change. If you’re only familiar in passing with the term, it probably has … [Read more...]

Advice to New Bloggers

PREAMBLE If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I travel and speak quite a lot. A frequent question I'm asked at these events is "I want to start blogging, but don't know where to start. What do you recommend?" This is a such a common and natural question as to be almost existential at it's root. In most every context where we move from the known to the unknown, from taking that first international trip to learning how to swim, we might first begin by saying "I'm uncertain. Where do I start?" Success in any of these situations can be distilled down to a single word - … [Read more...]

ICYMI: Partitioning Advice, Purging Data Bloat, and an example of TVF Misbehavior – SQL Server Performance

Here are some oldies, but goodies that I recommend you read: Two Partitioning Peculiarities and Aggregates and Partitioning Most of us know that partitions are one of the best ways to scale very large databases or very large IO workloads.  However, there are risks, two of which are explored in detail by internals master Paul White (b | t). The Price of Not Purging Holding on to data long after its useful lifespan contributes to bloat and added preventative maintenance headaches. Read this informative post from Erin Stellato (b | t), of SQLSkills.com, where you’ll find a lot of useful … [Read more...]

ICYMI: Query Optimization Phases, Observer Overhead, and Secrets of SP_Updatestats – SQL Server Performance

Do you do a bit of query tuning? Then check out this treasure trove of performance tuning advice! Optimization Phases and Missed Opportunities and Working Around Missed Optimizations Paul White (b | t) writes two fascinating blog posts that go hand-in-hand concerning query optimization.  He goes into some deep details about how the query optimizer works, comparing various versions of SQL Server, and shows you several useful ways to assess query performance. Plus, there’s one handy trace flag too! Observer Overhead and Wait Type Symptoms Joe Sack (b | t) does a deep dive on … [Read more...]

ICYMI: Troubleshooting CPU, Logging Myths, Missing Indexes, and Query Tuning Examples

Great Articles at SQLPerformance.com There are so many good articles from SQLPerformance.com this ICYMI article that it’s hard to know which are best to highlight in the limited space. So, I’ll be arbitrary and simply choose a few of my favorite entries as well look back: Troubleshooting SQL Server CPU Performance Issues This outstanding article from Joe Sack (b | t) of SQLSkills steps you through a methodical and insightful series of DMVs and queries that can pinpoint CPU issues on your SQL Server instances. Don’t just blindly create those “missing” indexes! Aaron Bertrand (b | … [Read more...]