Mirroring a Large Number of Databases in a Single SQL Server Instance
How many databases on a single SQL Server instance can be setup for Mirroring? 1, 10 or it depends? Find out in this technical note from the SQLCAT team ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com
Using Service Broker instead of Replication
Have you ever considered using Service Broker as an alternative to replication? Denny has, and shares the technical aspects in this post ... Source : Denny Cherry - TechTarget.com
SQL Server Myth Busters
For those that missed it, Paul ran a series of posts earlier this year covering common SQL Server myths. Find them all here ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com
Bad habits to kick : ignoring I/O
A great post from Aaron covering a series of tips for reducing disk I/O, a sure fire way of improving performance ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLBlog.com
Analyzing I/O Characteristics and Sizing Storage Systems for SQL Server Database Applications
Another Whitepaper from the SQLCAT team, this one covering the importance of an appropriately configured storage system matched to the I/O pattern of the application ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com
SSD Benchmarking
Another great series from Paul, this one examining the performance of SSDs under various workload types ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com
SQL Azure Best Practices
Based on their real world customer experiences, the SQLCAT & Azure teams have posted some great best practice documents for Azure, including "SQL Azure FAQ", "Comparing Azure with SQL Server" and "Security Guidelines for Azure" ... Source : SQLCAT Team - MSDN.com
Using SSAS as a PowerPivot Data Source
Using an SSAS data source as part of a PowerPivot solution throws up some interesting challenges, and in this post, Marco covers the major ones ... Source : Marco Russo - SQLBlog.com
Creating Sparklines in PowerPivot
Sparklines, new in Excel 2010 and Reporting Services 2008 R2, can also be used in PowerPivot as Patrick shows us in this post ... Source : Patrick LeBlanc - SQLServerCentral.com
Distinct Count Optimization Using Solid State Devices
This technical note covers a real world example of how Solid State devices improved cube performance when accessing distinct count measures ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com
SSIS : Data Flow paths
Will SSIS execute a data flow path if there are no qualifying records? Josef walks us through an example ... Source : Josef Richberg - Squarespace.com
Develop Reporting Services Reports Using SSAS Data
This whitepaper from the SQLCAT team focuses on the technical concepts and techniques used in implementing SSRS reports using an Analysis Services cube as the data source ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com
TCP Offloading
Take a deep dive with the CSS team into the internals of a TCP Chimney/Offloading problem from one of their customers ... Source : Evan Basalik - CSS SQL Server Engineers - MSDN.com
Finding Enterprise Only Features in Your SQL Server 2008 Database
As Glenn points out in this post, one of the annoying things with restoring large databases that use enterprise features such as compression, is that it doesn't fail until the end of the restore process if the server instance performing the restore is not running enterprise edition, potentially wasting hours of time. Glenn goes on to show us how we can use a DMV before we perform the restore to determine if any enterprise features are being used ... Source : Glenn Berry - Blog Post
SQL Azure–what it is and what it isn’t
The description says it all. John Paul Cook takes us on a quick tour of SQL Azure ... Source : John Paul Cook - SQLBlog.com
The importance of Unit Testing in BI
Unit testing BI solutions is as important (if not more so) than any other solution. In this post, Davide walks us through the benefits and usage of a tool he's developed and placed on codeplex called queryunit ... Source : Davide Mauri - SQLBlog.com
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot Planning and Deployment
This whitepaper from the SQLCAT team is written for architects and administrators looking to deploy PowerPivot throughout an Enterprise ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com
Median calculation in DAX
Marco shows us a neat trick for getting a MEDIAN calculation working in PowerPivot ... Source : Marco Russo - SQLBlog.com
MDX - Aggregating by member_caption
Richard uses a recursive MDX query to aggregate a dimension hierarchy by member caption, solving a problem whereby, for example, the same customer name exists in different states ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post
Cube Writeback in Excel 2010
Although Analysis Services has supported cube writeback for many years, client support has been limited. Excel 2010 improves support for this feature dramatically as Richard shows us in this post ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post
Scale-Out Querying for Analysis Services with Read-Only Databases
This white paper from the SQLCAT team describes recommended design techniques and methodologies to maximize the performance and scalability of SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services deployments by using read-only query servers ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com
Using the SSIS Data Viewer
How do you go about debugging complex SSIS data flows with millions of rows when you're only interested in a handful of records? Todd shows us an interesting technique using the data viewer in combination with multicast, conditional splits, sorts and derived columns ... Source : Todd Mcdermid - Blog Post
Report Server Diagnostic Reports
How do you manage the usage, content, permissions and overall health of your SSRS environment? Michael shows us how he manages it ... Source : Michael Davis - SQLServerCentral.com
Monitoring SQL Server Virtual Log File Fragmentation
The number of Virtual Log Files (VLFs) in a database can have a direct impact on its performance. In this article, Tom walks us through a powershell script he developed which automates the checking of VLFs across all databases in a given instance ... Source : Thomas LaRock - SimpleTalk.com
Why NUMA matters to admins
NUMA or SMP? Brent talks about what NUMA is, and an example of why it's important we understand it as DBAs ... Source : Brent Ozar.com - Blog Post
Server Migration Checklist
What's involved in making sure a SQL Server migration goes smoothly? Lots ….. Merrill presents us with his checklist ... Source : Merrill Aldrich - SQLBlog.com
Proven SQL Server Architectures for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
Another great whitepaper from the SQLCAT Team. This one describes five common High Availability and Disaster Recovery architectures for enterprise deployments of SQL Server ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com
IO, IO, It’s Off To Disk We Go!
How do you determine that storage is a performance bottleneck on your system? Denny provides some hints from the perspectives of SQL Server, Windows and the Storage Array itself ... Source : Denny Cherry - TechTarget.com
Solid Q Journal
If you don't already know about it, the team at SolidQ are now producing a monthly online journal packed with well written and high quality SQL Server tips and articles. Check it out here ... Source : Greg Low - SQLBlog.com
Getting Partition Offset information with Powershell
Disk partition alignment is a big issue, with unaligned partitions contributing to disk bottlenecks and various other problems as a result. In this post, Jonathan walks us through a powershell script used to collect this information, and when combined with other scripts, formatted in a nice HTML report ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - SQLBlog.com
Using Diskpart and WMIC to Check Disk Partition Alignment
In this post, Paul talks about the disk partition alignment problem, and then a couple of tools that can be used for inspecting the alignment offset values on a server's disk partitions ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com
Tuning Data Warehouse Performance with SQL Server Profiler
In this post, Richard walks us through the process of tuning a Data Warehouse using SQL profiler, and covers some of the important differences when compared to tuning an OLTP database ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post
Publishing Master Data with Subscription Views
Subscription views are used in Master Data Services to hide the complexity of the underlying schema from applications consuming master data. In this post, the MDS team describes this feature, and then walks us through the implementation process using an example ... Source : MDS Team - SQLBlog.com
Does SSAS Support MSDTC Transactions?
In this post, Darren helps us discover whether SSAS supports distributed transactions started within SSIS, and further, whether or not this is desirable ... Source : Darren Gosbell - Blog Post
Improving Excel's Cube Performance
Richard goes behind the scenes with Profiler to discover why Excel sometimes performs poorly when running Analysis Services queries ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post
PowerPivot for SharePoint: Single Server Installation
Installing PowerPivot for SharePoint involves a number of steps, and getting them right (and in the right order) is crucial for a pain-free installation. This WhitePaper walks through the steps involved in a single server installation ... Source : Whitepaper - SQLCAT.com
MDX - Group by measure range dynamically
Another great MDX script from Richard, this one providing a dynamic means to aggregate members by the range of their measure ... Source : Richard Lees - Blog Post
Excel, Cube Formulas, Analysis Services, Performance, Network Latency, and Connection Strings
This technical note from the SQLCAT team looks at how the performance of Excel reports connecting to Analysis Services cubes over slow network links was improved by configuring 3 different connection string settings ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com
Data Conversion in SSIS
How do you convert data from one type to another in SSIS? Eric walks us through a few options and the benefits and limitations of each ... Source : Eric Johnson - SQLBlog.com
My Kerberos Checklist…
Kerberos….. The dreaded K word …. Adam Saxton de-mystifies the beast in this great post ... Source : Adam W. Saxton - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post
SQL Server Hardware Checklist
Which server properties do you collect/document in a SQL Server hardware audit? Brad offers his own comprehensive list for consideration ... Source : Brad McGehee - SQLServerCentral.com
Easy Ways to Detect I/O Pressure in SQL Server 2008
In this post, Glen offers a series of DMV scripts that can be used to determine the existence of I/O pressure, an important diagnostic skill for any DBA ... Source : Glenn Berry - Blog Post
Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
A great (free) e-book on SQL Server 2008 R2 covering the new features in R2 for both DBAs and Business Intelligence professionals ... Source : Stacia Misner - SQLBlog.com
Top 10 Hidden Gems in SQL 2008 R2
There's lots of press on the big new features in SQL Server 2008 R2, but this post takes a look at some of the lesser known new features such as sysprep, SMB support, enhanced setup and unicode compression ... Source : Technical Note - SQLCAT.com
Bob Dorr's SQL Server I/O Presentation
Bob Dorr gives us his slide deck and speaker notes for his legendary presentation on SQL Server I/O. Don't miss this one ... Source : Bob Dorr - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post
Fusion-IO ioDrive Review
A great review of the Fusion-IO SSD drive from BrentO ... Source : Brent Ozar.com - Blog Post