A database on a specific SQL Server version doesn’t automatically have all features enabled. For example, a database on SQL Server 2019 can still use SQL Server 2014 compatibility, missing some 2019 features. Each database has a Compatibility Level setting that activates certain features of its version. When SQL Server 2014 introduced the Cardinality Estimator,…
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Many developers mistakenly use WITH (NOLOCK) in their SELECT statements without fully understanding its effects. While they might aim to speed up queries or prevent deadlocking, NOLOCK can actually lead to invalid results. What does NOLOCK do? A SELECT statement in SQL Server locks data to prevent modifications during querying. The lock is released after…
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So, you’ve decided your organization’s data needs to remain highly available. Given the options in SQL Server, you’ve decided an Availability Group makes the most sense for your scenario. What’s next? Involve Stakeholders Early in the Process of Building a SQL Server Availability Group Before jumping into building your Availability Group, it’s crucial to identify…
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A common mistake database developers make in SQL Server is naming their stored procedures with the “sp_” prefix. Organizations sometimes even adopt this as a standard convention (along with the “tbl_” prefix for tables!). So, why is this considered a bad practice? It’s inefficient. The “sp_” prefix is used by SQL Server to designate internal…
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I recently had a discussion with a client that turned to the question of SQL Server code compatibility with Azure SQL Database. We were designing a new pipeline for their on-premises SQL environment, and they mentioned their abandoned cloud migration effort from a few years earlier. The business ended up pausing this effort because of…
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I’ve had several companies inquire about SQL Server’s built-in high availability options over the years. This conversation usually indicates a need to ensure that their database systems remain operational and accessible with minimal downtime. But why now? They’ve been in business for years and are just now interested in HA/DR. What changed? Reasons vary, but…
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No one wants a slow, unreliable SQL Server that leaks data like a sieve. No, they want a fast, reliable, and secure database environment. However, they may not want it right now. Creating a better SQL environment can wait until later, right? It might seem that way, but the risks will only grow while you…
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Does the perfect SQL Server exist? And what would that even look like? Let’s think about it for a moment. If the perfect SQL Server exists, it would be flawlessly tuned for its workload. It would have the ideal amount of hardware resources, and its settings would be perfectly optimized. The perfect SQL Server would…
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SQL Server is designed to efficiently manage memory on its own. It requests memory when it’s needed and releases memory back to the system when it’s not. However, the default settings may not be ideal for your situation. An experienced database administrator will usually fine-tune these settings to optimize performance and server stability. Minimum server…
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Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server is worth considering for organizations looking to unify their database management and capitalize on cloud-native features while still keeping their data on-premises. Azure Arc is a set of technologies from Microsoft that extends Azure management and services to any infrastructure, including other clouds, on-premises, and edge. This enables you to manage…
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