Disk2vhd

Disk2vhd is a tool for creating virtual machines based on a existing physical machine, but unlike other physical-to-virtual tools, Disk2vhd can be run against a physical machine that's currently online ... Source : Technet.com - sysinternals - Download

SQL Server Chargeback Strategies

A common mainframe charging strategy is based on time and resources used, i.e.; you pay for what you use. In this blog post, Buck Woody explains how we can setup a similar scheme for SQL Server ... Source : Buck Woody - SQLBlog.com

SQL Azure FAQ

In this post, Brent demystifies SQL Azure (SQL Server in the cloud) by answering some frequently asked questions ... Source : Brent Ozar - BrentOzar.com

SQL Server 2008 R2 Feature/Edition Matrix

SQL Server 2008 R2 brings with it a range of new features. This page nicely summarises the features available for each edition ... Source : MSDN.com - SQL Server Books Online

How does Microsoft use SQL Server?

Microsoft is a huge company with massive IT infrastructure, including a very large SQL Server deployment. Find out how they use SQL Server internally through this series of links ... Source : Technet.com - IT Showcase

SQL Server Reporting Services Disaster Recovery Case Study

A great overview of setting up Reporting Services DR ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

High Availability with SQL Server 2008

In this whitepaper, Paul compares and contrasts the various High Availability technologies available in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Paul Randal - MSDN.com - Technical Article

Using Replication for High Availability and Disaster Recovery

As per the title, this whitepaper focuses on using Replication as a means to increase database availability ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Whitepaper

SQL Server 2008 Pricing and Licensing

One of the more simple to understand guides to SQL Server 2008 licensing ... Source : Microsoft.com - download

Upgrading the SQLServerCentral Servers - Part 1

Brad walks us through the upgrade process for the SQLServerCentral and Simple-Talk.com websites ... Source : Brad McGehee - SQLServerCentral.com - Blog Post

Abusing Triggers

In this post, Aaron discussed some situations in which triggers are (and are not) appropriate ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLBlog.com

Using Cross Joins to generate test data

Joe walks us through a novel approach to generating large test data sets ... Source : Joe Webb - SQLServerCentral.com - Blog Post

Consolidation using SQL Server 2008

Server consolidation is a growing trend and this paper assists those considering a SQL Server consolidation exercise ... Source : Allan Hirt - MSDN.com - Whitepaper

Auto-tuning memory config on a cluster

Maximizing memory usage within a cluster sometimes runs the risk of instability during node failover. In this post, Merrill looks at options for automatic memory adjustment when cluster nodes fail ... Source : Merrill Aldrich - SQLBlog.com

Locked Pages, AWE, Task Manager and the Working Set

A great post from Bob that de-mystifies a lot of common memory misconceptions ... Source : Bob Ward - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com

SQL Server Agent job/user contexts

It's sometimes a little confusing trying to work out the security context of a SQL Server agent job. In this post, Tibor helps us in that very task ... Source : Tibor Karaszi - SQLBlog.com

Star Join Optimizations

This whitepaper covers an important new feature in SQL Server 2008 for improving Data Warehouse query performance - Star Join Optimizations ... Source : MSDN.com - Whitepaper

SSIS Data Warehouse Design Pattern

Jorg covers a reusable design pattern for loading a data warehouse using SSIS ... Source : Jorg Klein - SQLBlog.com

Circular Relationships

In this post, Richard covers a common issue with database design - The circular relationship ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Parallel Data Warehouse

Another new feature in SQL Server 2008 R2 is the Parallel Data Warehouse. This page provides a good overview of the feature and how it can be used ... Source : Microsoft.com - Article

Deriving a list of tables in dependency order

It's a common requirement to blow away all of the data in a warehouse in preparation for a reload, however, that's not all that simple if the database is loaded up with foreign keys. In this post, Jamie shows us how we can work around that by generating a list of tables in dependency order ... Source : Jamie Thomson - SQLBlog.com

SSIS Package Builds

How do you deploy SSIS packages? Eric walks through one of the options ... Source : Eric Johnson - SQLBlog.com

Package Version Expressions

A couple of good options from Andy on generating package versions using SSIS expressions ... Source : Andy Leonard - SQLBlog.com

Transactions within SSIS

Richard walks us through the usage of the TransactionOption in SSIS ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

SSIS Checkpoints with parallel tasks

Checkpoints in SSIS can be tricky, as Devin points out in this post ... Source : Devin Knight - SQLServerCentral.com

Kimball's SSIS Slowly Changing Dimension Component

Finally! Kimball's SSIS SCD component v1.5 is released ... Source : Todd McDermid - Blog Post

SSIS Sorting Considerations

Sorting can kill SSIS performance. In this post, Eric talks about an important technique for avoiding the performance hit when a sort is required ... Source : Eric Johnson - SQLBlog.com

SSIS Visio Stencils

Jamie points us in the direction of some SSIS Visio stencils ... Source : Jamie Thomson - SQLBlog.com

Data Type Conversion Techniques within SSIS; A Performance Comparison

What's the fastest SSIS method for performing data transformations within SSIS Read on for the answer? ... Source : SQLCAT Team - Blog Post

Master Data Services links & updates

A good collection of links for getting started with MDS ... Source : Kirk Haselden - SQLBlog.com

Getting started with the Master Data Services Web Services API

An overview of using the MDS Web Services API ... Source : MDS Team - SQLBlog.com

Creating a simple Business Rule in Master Data Services

Another good MDS post, this one on how we can create business rules within MDS ... Source : MDS Team - SQLBlog.com

PowerPivot Memory Considerations

Marco covers some important memory considerations for PowerPivot ... Source : Marco Russo - SQLBlog.com

What is PowerPivot?

A good overview of the shiny new tool on the block ... Source : Powerpivotpro.com - Article

SSAS Calculated Measures

A great series from Todd on the power of Calculated Measures ... Source : Todd McDermid - Blog Post

Aggregations (may not) Fix Cube Performance

Richard debunks the myth that Aggregations will always fix cube performance problems ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post

Deploying a BI Solution using Sharepoint, SSRS & Kerberos

A great architectural overview of a large BI solution setup to work with Kerberos authentication ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

Analysis Services Consolidation Best Practices

In this article, the SQLCat team focus on Analysis Services consolidation best practices and a reporting query load balancing solution used by one of their clients ... Source : SQLCAT.com - Technical Notes

8 Steps to better transaction log throughput

A great post from 2005 in which Kimberly outlines a number of very important transaction log management techniques ... Source : Kimberly Tripp - SQLSkills.com

Benchmarking a 1TB database

In this series, Paul will be exploring a range of different data configuration techniques and measuring their impacts against baseline measurements ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com

What you can and can't do with SAN replication

A great post from Denny on a very important topic - What SAN replication is good (and NOT good) at ... Source : Denny Cherry - techtarget.com

Port Numbers and Named Instances

If you supply a port number in a connection string, what effect does including the instance name have? Read on for Grant's first hand experience ... Source : Grant Fritchey - Blog Post

Filtered Statistics

In this post, Jason overviews a great use for Filtered Statistics; skewed data ... Source : Jason Massie - JasonMassie.com

PASS Summit follow up answers

Another 2009 PASS Summit follow up blog post from Bob, this one dealing with common questions he fielded during the Summit ... Source : Bob Ward - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com

Wait Type Repository

As a follow on from the 2009 PASS summit, Bob has created this page as a wait type reference point, answering frequent questions on SQL Server wait types ... Source : Bob Ward - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com

Ghost Cleanup

As Paul explains, disabling the ghost cleanup task can be beneficial in very busy databases with a very heavy delete load ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com

Query Optimizer Tricks

The execution plan chosen for a query depends upon a number of things including the volume of data present. In this post, Ben demonstrates a method for tricking the optimizer into thinking there's a lot more data present than there really is, which is very useful in performance testing exercises ... Source : Ben Nevarez - SQLBlog.com

Relog Utility

The relog utility allows us to convert a native .blg performance monitor counter file to a csv version, which then allows us to easily import it into a variety of tools for further analysis ... Source : SQLServings - Blog Post

Find the most expensive operations in Execution plans

As Mladen points out, analyzing very large execution plans can be difficult and time consuming. In this post, he shows us a method for quickly finding the most expensive sub-statements within the plan ... Source : Mladen Prajdic - SQLTeam.com