SQL Server

Secret Meeting Minutes for the SQL Server on Linux Decision*

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After today’s bombshell announcement that a subset of SQL Server functionality will run on Linux, I got curious and went dumpster diving. I hopped a flight over to Seattle, rummaged through the dumpster in Redmond, and found a shredded set of meeting notes. It took a long time to piece together, but here we go: Manager: (raps table) “Alright, let’s call this meeting to order. We need to raise the market share of SQL Server. This is the new Microsoft, people. Anything is possible. Let’s think about the truly new and unique. What can we do?” Rand: “People have complained about core-based…
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Guess the Bug Source: Microsoft SQL Server or MongoDB?

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In the green trunks… In database-land, MongoDB is the butt of a lot of jokes, but is it really any worse than mainstream databases like Microsoft SQL Server? I’ll list pairs of bugs, and you have to guess whether it’s in MongoDB or SQL Server. You can click on the bug to learn the answer. Question 1: Careful With That Monitoring: Profiling the server causes it to crash Querying instrumentation tables causes the database server to crash Question 2: Locking Up the Shop: Database server stops responding while it’s writing to disk Copying tinyint data from one table to another locks up…
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The Real Problem with Relational Databases

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They’ve become too easy. It’s too easy to just dump any kind of data in there. It’s too easy to query the database rather than cache data for a period of time in the app. It’s too easy to join all the tables together rather than pick just the tables you need. It’s too easy to write spectacularly, horrifically bad queries. It’s too easy to copy/paste bad designs from the web that have gradually gained good SEO over time. It’s too easy to install them and go live on really crappy hardware. It’s too easy to scale for the first couple…
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Pop Quiz: What Do These Things Cost?

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The Price is Right Arrange this list of things in order based on how much they cost: SQL Server Standard Ed. licensing for four cores SQL Server Enterprise Ed. licensing for one core One typical day of employee time One week of a team’s time (4 people) 64GB of memory 256GB of memory A mirrored pair of 1TB SSDs Without searching the web for prices, put those items in order. Do it on a scratch piece of paper – first estimate how much you think each one costs, then put them in order. How does this impact the way you do performance tuning, and…
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The One Pound SQL Server: Dell Venue Pro 8

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I should have bought one with an ARM processor. If you’re like me (and I have a feeling you’re not), you’ve always wanted a portable backup SQL Server that you could use for presentations, script authoring, and settling bar bets – but you didn’t want to pay a lot for this muffler. Enter the $250 Dell Venue 8 Pro running full-blown Windows 8.1 (none of that crippled “RT” stuff), an Intel Atom processor, 2GB RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. I won it free at SQLSaturday Madison 2014, but I’ve sunk about another $100 into it: 64GB MicroSD card (I…
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Good News About SQL Server Standard Edition’s Limits

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I got in a lot of trouble when I wrote that SQL Server 2014 Standard Edition Sucks. That post generated a lot of public discussion, and it also generated a lot of private ill will for me. I heard from several Microsoft folks who were downright angry. How dare I voice an opinion like that? I even heard from MVPs who told me I shouldn’t criticize Microsoft in public, only in private. I didn’t back down, and I didn’t apologize. I believed in the post, and I never heard anyone arguing that Standard should indeed be capped at $500 of…
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What Would a SQL Server Experience Index Look Like?

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The Windows Experience Index was a neat way to get a quick idea of how fast your hardware was relative to the rest of the world. It gauged the performance of your processor, memory, graphics card, and storage. You could see the weakest link in your rig, and then focus your upgrade money there. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the non-geek consumer’s first chance to instantly compare desktops next to each other at stores and get a feel for whether they were hot or not. Let’s build this for SQL Server. We need to decide two things: what we’re…
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How Fast Should the Developer’s SQL Server Be?

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Slow and cheap, right? Managers and DBAs usually want the development server to be just slow enough to get the job done, and no faster. The dev server doesn’t have production load on it – you’re just working by yourself. If you can’t make your code fast when you’re the only person working in the server, then it’ll never scale in production with hundreds or thousands of simultaneous users. Wrong – the development server should be faster than production. Ideally, the whole database should fit in memory, and we should be using solid state drives. Amazon’s running a huge >30%…
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Hi. I’m Brent.

That's me, Brent.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm on an epic life quest to have fun and make a difference.

I co-founded Brent Ozar Unlimited to help make your SQL Server go faster. I also maintain sp_Blitz® and the open source First Responder Kit repo.

My current car collection includes a 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS, a 1964 Porsche 356, a 1971 VW Type 3 Squareback, and more.

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