16Jan 2018 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Updated YouTube Channel

Misc
Hello all, I've recently updated my YouTube channel. I'm going to be posting a lot more videos up there. If you would like to take advantage of it, please go here and click on the subscribe button. I'll be covering pretty much the same type of thing there that I blog about here, Microsoft Data Platform, DevOps, Redgate Software, Database Lifecycle Management, Data Protection & Privacy, and other IT stuff as it takes my fancy. Also, I'm taking requests. If there's something you've seen on the blog that you'd like to see as a video, I'll see what I can do to help you out.
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15Jan 2018 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Getting Started in a SQL Server 2017 VM in Azure

SQL Server 2017
You say you're ready to dip your toes in the Azure ocean? Come on in, the water's fine! Oh, you want to really dip your toes. You're starting with Virtual Machines? OK. I guess. It's not where the real excitement is. You should be checking out Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse and CosmosDb and... VMs. OK. Let's get you started. Set up Azure First Microsoft maintains seriously good documentation on how to work with Azure. I'm honestly blown away by how much information there is and how well written it is. In fact, everything I'm about to tell you is documented better, here. However, I'm going to give you the TLDR version. First, you have to have an Azure account. If you have an MSDN license, that…
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08Jan 2018 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Statistics Use, Extended Events and Execution Plans

SQL Server 2017
Query tuning ain't easy. Figuring out which index is getting used is one step, and generally simple, look at the execution plan to see which index is in use and whether it's being used in a SEEK or a SCAN. Done. However, when your index isn't being used, how do you tell how or why something else is being done? Well, that's largely down to row counts which brings us to statistics. Which Statistics are Used Years ago I was of the opinion that it wasn't really possible to see the statistics used in the generation of a query plan. If you read the comments here, I was corrected of that notion. However, I've never been a fan of using undocumented trace flags. Yeah, super heroes like Fabiano Amorim and…
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02Jan 2018 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Snow, Heathrow Airport, Disaster Recovery

DevOps
I recently flew from Boston to the UK through the Heathrow airport. It just happened to be on the day that the UK got about 1.5 inches of snow (sorry, 3.8 centimetres, according to Weather Underground though, just 15mm, not sure about that). I spent a little more than four hours sitting on the runway at Heathrow before I was able to get out of the airplane. It was a frustrating and tiring experience, but it made me think about disaster recovery. Having a Disaster Recovery Plan Most of us have a Disaster Recover (DR) plan. Of course we do. Well, probably. Well, we take backups. Well, we occasionally take some backups. Well, we're pretty sure someone within the organization may have taken a backup once... somewhere... probably. Heathrow Airport…
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26Dec 2017 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

SQL Server Automatic Tuning and sys.dm_db_tuning_recommendations

Azure, SQL Server 2017
In Azure SQL Database for quite some time and now available in SQL Server 2017, Microsoft has put a lot of the knowledge they've gleaned from running more databases that any of the rest of us ever will to work with Automatic Tuning. Automatic Tuning The core of automatic tuning at this point in time (because I'm sure it's going to evolve) is the ability of the query engine to spot when a query has generated a new plan and that new plan is causing performance to degrade. This is known as a regression in the plan. It comes from bad parameter sniffing, changes in statistics, cumulative updates, or the big notorious one, the cardinality estimator introduced in SQL Server 2014 (it's been almost four years, I'm not calling it…
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18Dec 2017 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

Query Store Wait Statistics with sys.query_store_wait_stats

Azure, SQL Server 2017
The second best thing to questions that people ask is when I sit down to write a book. It's so easy to miss things in the day-to-day grind of doing work. Then, late at night, you're working on a chapter, so you read up on the documentation to ensure that you're not missing anything. Of course, then you find, yes, you are missing something. In my case, sys.query_store_wait_stats. sys.query_store_wait_stats. If you follow the link above, it'll give you what you need to know, but, I figured I'd provide a little more clarity because I think there are some pitfalls in using this data. I love Query Store (do a search to see all the exploration I've done with it). One of my favorite things is the time intervals. It breaks…
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11Dec 2017 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Execution Plan Metrics and Units of Measure

SQL Server, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017
Have you ever looked at the properties inside an execution plan and wondered what the units of measure were? I know I have. I also get the question pretty frequently about all sorts of properties. What does EstimatedAvailableMemoryGrant display it's units in anyway? For that matter, what the heck is an EstimatedAvailableMemoryGrant? Showplan Schema and Units of Measure The answer to those questions and a whole lot more is pretty easy to find. You just have to look to the ShowPlan Schema. Microsoft has all the schema's published, going back to 2005. The next time you're faced with a question such as, what are the units of measure of the MemoryGrantInfo: Or, what the heck is SerialDesiredMemory and why is it exactly matching RequestedMemory, you just have to go and…
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08Dec 2017 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

SQL in the City 2017

Redgate Software
Redgate is once again hosting a live, virtual event for SQL in the City. We're going to give you a lot of educational content on DevOps, SQL Server, Monitoring, GDPR and compliance. We'll also be doing all this with Redgate tools. Here's my promotional video for the event: [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://www.scarydba.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SitC.mp4"][/video] I hope you'll join us for this event. It's live, so you can ask questions and we'll all try to help out. Go here to register.
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04Dec 2017 by Grant Fritchey 12 Comments

Why I Use AdventureWorks for Demos

SQL Server, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017
I know that when some people see AdventureWorks, their vision turns all red around the edges, their blood pressure spikes and they begin to foam at the mouth. I do understand. AdventureWorks, Microsoft's very old, near ubiquitous, sample database suffers from a lot off issues. What's The Matter With AdventureWorks? Let's start off with the general design of the schemas. It's broken up in odd ways. Production has a TransactionHistory and a TransactionHistoryArchive instead of Sales? That doesn't make any sense. What the heck is up with the general database design anyway? I mean, pick on one example. A person can have more than one phone number. Fine. But, what about people who share phone numbers like that ancient land line in my house that is only EVER used by…
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28Nov 2017 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Automating T-SQL Code Analysis

Redgate Software
With all the options available within T-SQL these days, it's more and more imperative that our code be clear and consistent. For example, there are clustered indexes and nonclustered indexes. Oh, but those are rowstore indexes. You also have clustered columnstore and nonclustered columnstore indexes. When you write T-SQL that says "CREATE INDEX MakeMyQueriesFast ON dbo.MySlowTable" which one do you mean? Well, the default there will be a nonclustered rowstore index. How do I know that? I checked the documentation. Oh, same thing will work with a columnstore index. You don't have to specify that it's nonclustered, but doesn't that seem unclear to you? It does to me. Clarity and Understanding You can write T-SQL a bunch of ways. Further, you can do some pretty crazy stuff with it that…
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