Ask the Unicorn: Why is it Important to Know Tables in Filegroups?

Earlier this week, I wrote a quick blog post on a throw-away script I had written.  The blog post was DETERMINING FILEGROUP FOR A TABLE.  At the time, I didn't explain why I needed the information; which prompted the following from one of my readers: Read your mini-blog in "how to determine the filegroup for a … Continue reading Ask the Unicorn: Why is it Important to Know Tables in Filegroups?

Determining Filegroup for a Table

Have you ever needed to figure out which filegroup your tables are located within?  If you had to do this, you might think it's as easy joining sys.tables to sys.filegroups.  But its a little more complicated than that because tables aren't stored in filegroups. It's The Indexes It's the indexes for a table that determine … Continue reading Determining Filegroup for a Table

5 MCM Readiness Indexing Videos You Should Watch

Earlier this year, I finally passed the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) for SQL Server 2008 certification.  In the process of preparing for the MCM lab portion, I did a lot of studying.  One of the my key resources, were the MCM Readiness Videos that SQLSkills put together a couple years back. The thing is, even if … Continue reading 5 MCM Readiness Indexing Videos You Should Watch

STATS_DATE() Doesn’t Indicate The Validity of Statistics

From time to time, you might have caught yourself in a conversation similar to the following: Fred: Hey folks, we have a query that isn’t working right anymore? Wilma: I wonder if there’s a problem with the statistics.  Maybe they are out of date. Barney: I checked the statistics with STATS_DATE() and they are really … Continue reading STATS_DATE() Doesn’t Indicate The Validity of Statistics

Six Degrees of SQL Saturday Fargo

Do you know anyone that lives in or around the great white north that is Fargo, North Dakota?  If so, then I'd like your help in with an introduction on LinkedIn.  Let's see how many people in the area are 6 or less degrees from me. Even if the person isn't in IT or doesn't … Continue reading Six Degrees of SQL Saturday Fargo

Determining Default Trace Location

While working on some scripts against SQL Server's default trace, I wanted to develop a sure fire way to find the location of the default trace regardless of the version of SQL Server and without having to tinker with file names. Since there are a few people that read this blog, I figured I'd share the … Continue reading Determining Default Trace Location

SQL Saturday Fargo Update

It’s been a while since I mentioned anything about the SQL Saturday in Fargo.  So I thought I would let people know that we’ve now got ourselves three sponsors – Confio (Silver), PASS (Bronze) and Steve Stedman (Blog).  Every little bit helps and we appreciate all of our sponsors.  Are you interested in helping to … Continue reading SQL Saturday Fargo Update

Index Analysis Update – January 2012

In the past couple weeks, I've gotten a couple reports of issues with sp_indexanalysis.  The update today fixes those issues.  It's fun to finally be playing with these scripts again.  I'm hoping to start writing blog posts showing the scripts in action in the next couple weeks. INDEX ANALYSIS UPDATES The main updates to the … Continue reading Index Analysis Update – January 2012

January 2013 – Monthly SQL Server Checklist

Today is the first Monday of 2013. Do you know if your servers are ready to take on the first month of the new year? Have you figured out if you have the hardware and capacity to make it through the next year? You should know this and, as a DBA, you should have a … Continue reading January 2013 – Monthly SQL Server Checklist