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SQL Server According to Bob

Come here for knowledge about SQL Server uniquely provided by the two Bobs at Microsoft

SQL Server Log Writer Workers

SQL Server 2017 leverages up to 4 log writer workers, on hidden schedulers, to assist in transaction...

Date: 02/11/2019

SQL Mysteries: SQL Server Login Timeouts – A Debugging Story

This blog takes you through the debugging journey, refreshing us on old concepts and introducing...

Date: 02/10/2019

SQL Server Worker Thread Default Calculation

SQL Server 2017 introduced a small change to SQL Server’s default worker thread calculation,...

Date: 02/10/2019

Viewing and Sorting XEvents Efficiently (Code Samples) - XEProfiler

I was doing backups and clean-ups and ran across a couple of sample projects for XEvent and...

Date: 12/31/2018

SQL Server Linux: Directory fsync Activities

When Creating, Renaming or Deleting (remove/unlinking) a file, Linux requires the direct parent...

Date: 12/18/2018

SQL Server Linux: fsync and Buffered I/O

I was asked to validate the SQL Server behavior in light of the error condition involving...

Date: 12/18/2018

SQL Server On Linux: Forced Unit Access (Fua) Internals

Overview SQL Server relies on Forced-Unit-Access (Fua) I/O subsystem capabilities to provide data...

Date: 12/18/2018

SQL Server Instant File Initialization: SetFileValidData (Windows) vs fallocate (Linux)

SQL Server Books Online documents Instant File Initialization and the associated security...

Date: 12/10/2018

SQL MYSTERIES: Tracing BCP Might Fool You

Today I was tracking a large BCP.exe ‘IN’ operation and monitoring the sys.dm_exec_requests entries....

Date: 08/07/2018

SQL Server Mysteries: The Case of the Dropped AD Group Login

Dylan (who kindly wrote up the contents of this blog for me) was modifying the tests for Active...

Date: 08/03/2018

SQL Server on Linux: How is Delete-On-Close Handled

Windows provides an option for CreateFile to delete a file when the file is closed...

Date: 07/31/2018

SQL Server on Linux: Why Do I Have Two SQL Server Processes

When starting SQL Server on Linux why are there two (2) sqlservr processes? systemctl status...

Date: 07/18/2018

SQL Server on Linux: Quick Performance Monitoring

I have been asked several times about how to get a Performance Monitor like view on Linux. There are...

Date: 05/20/2018

Take the SQL Server Mac challenge

When I graduated from college, one of the first computers I ever used was a MacIntosh. I loved the...

Date: 04/24/2018

SQL Server 2017 Improved Resource Usage On Smaller Machines

What does improving resource usage on smaller machines really mean?...

Date: 03/18/2018

SQL Server on Linux: CU4 - NewSequentialId() – Uuid

Prior to SQL Server 2017 CU4 for Linux (Linux only) the generation of a sequential UUID may not...

Date: 02/22/2018

Microsoft Engineering loves SQLBits

I have the blessed opportunity to speak at many customer events. SQLBits is always one of my...

Date: 02/15/2018

SQL Server on Linux: Kerberos Troubleshooting, Hints and Tips and Hard Code Debugging

SQL Server on Linux uses the GSSAPI and SSSD service for Active Directory (AD) authentication...

Date: 02/05/2018

How It Works: SQL Server DTC (MSDTC and XA Transactions)

I have found the term DTC is used in many ways so for the purposes of the discussion here are a few...

Date: 01/28/2018

Let's talk SQL Server to kick off the PASS Facebook Live series

I've had such a long, great history with the PASS Summit, Community, and all the great people that...

Date: 01/12/2018

SQL Server Management Studio Provides–“XE Profiler”

Bob Ward and I worked with our SQL Server Tool developers (thanks David) to enable ‘Quick XE Trace’...

Date: 12/26/2017

SQL Server Linux: Distributed transactions requiring the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator service are not supported on SQL Server running on Linux. SQL Server to SQL Server distributed transactions are supported. – CLARIFIED!!!

SQL Server 2019 CTP2 SQL Server 2019 adds broad support for distributed transactions (both...

Date: 12/11/2017

Experience SQL Server 2017: Start your journey here

Updated Content! Please check out these new resources for SQL Server 2017 and SQL Server on Linux...

Date: 10/26/2017

Experience SQL Server 2017: The Fast and the Furious

Please check out a new blog post I created detailing how SQL Server 2017 is Fast, Built-In. Faster...

Date: 09/27/2017

SQL Server 2017 generally available on October 2nd...

Scott Guthrie and Rohan Kumar officially made the announcement today at Ignite that SQL Server 2017...

Date: 09/25/2017

SQL Server Mysteries: The Case of the Suspended, Awaiting Command, and Blocked Session

I ran into a scenario showing my session as suspended, awaiting command and blocked! My first...

Date: 06/09/2017

How It Works: SQL Server Deadlock Trace Flag 1222 Output

The trace flag 1222 can be very powerful and helpful in tracking down the cause of a deadlock when...

Date: 05/23/2017

SQL Server Mysteries: The Case of the Not 100% RESTORE…

I recently visited a customer onsite and presented to them topics on SQL Server 2016. After the...

Date: 04/25/2017

SQL Server Mysteries: The Case of the Not 100% RESTORE…

I recently visited a customer onsite and presented to them topics on SQL Server 2016. After the...

Date: 04/21/2017

SQL Server On Linux: Core-minidumps and Breakpad

As pointed out in my previous post, debugging on Linux brings a few new twists to those of us used...

Date: 03/27/2017

SQL Server on Linux: Scatter/Gather == Vectored I/O

Scatter/gather capabilities allow more efficient memory to disk transfers reducing redundant memory...

Date: 01/31/2017

SQL Server on Linux: An LLDB Debugging Tale

You are aware of our statements indicating “Microsoft Loves Linux.” Over the last couple of years...

Date: 01/29/2017

SQL Server Mysteries: The Case of TDE and Permanent Tempdb Encryption

I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan (I’ve read all the books, watch Elementary on CBS every week, and...

Date: 01/26/2017

SQL Server on Linux: Debugging ELF and PE Images (dbgbridge)

In my last post I highlighted the marriage of PE and ELF images within the same process space to...

Date: 01/24/2017

SQL Server on Linux: ELF and PE Images Just Work

Last March I moved from 22 years in SQL Server support to the SQL Server development team, working...

Date: 01/05/2017

How It Works (It Just Runs Faster): Auto Soft NUMA…

Back in June, Bob Dorr gave you the thinking behind why SQL Server 2016 It Just Runs Faster due to...

Date: 11/29/2016

How It Works (It Just Runs Faster): Non-Volatile Memory SQL Server Tail Of Log Caching on NVDIMM

Note: We received feedback that there was some confusion on us calling this functionality "tail of...

Date: 11/08/2016

The SQL Server Installer Version 2: Just Install It!

Back in July, I told you about a new installation experience for SQL Server. One of our goals from...

Date: 10/03/2016

SQL Server 2016 - It Just Runs Faster: Always On Availability Groups Turbocharged

When we released Always On Availability Groups in SQL Server 2012 as a new and powerful way to...

Date: 09/26/2016

How It Works: BULK INSERT (BCP) TDS Traffic

Yesterday I had a discussion with a customer and realized that the BCP, TDS pattern could use a bit...

Date: 09/16/2016

How It Works: How is SQL Server Error 833, 15 Sec I/O Detected

I was approached to revisit the details of how Error Message 833 is detected and reported. SQL...

Date: 09/01/2016

Create Table – Disk vs In-Memory Optimized

I had an interesting e-mail discussion related to the performance of create table. The test being...

Date: 08/23/2016

How It Works: Sync IOs in nonpreemptive mode longer than 1000 ms

Have you encountered the following in your SQL Server error log? Long Sync IO: Scheduler 95 had 1...

Date: 08/17/2016

COLD, WARM, HOT … CLEAN, DIRTY, FREE … What Does All This Mean?

I was asked about these terms from a blog reader. As I thought about these terms and how to blog...

Date: 08/08/2016

How It Works: Session/SPID (–2) for DTC Transactions

I have written on this subject before but it seems to come up from time to time, as it did again...

Date: 08/04/2016

How It Works: Reader / Writer Synchronization

This post is not about a specific SQL Server object but instead outlines a technique used in various...

Date: 07/23/2016

The SQL Server Basic Installer: Just Install It!

20+ years ago when I joined Microsoft I was handed a diskette (maybe it was two), and was told “Here...

Date: 07/13/2016

DBCC Trace Flags 2562 and 2549

Erin Stellato and Jonathan Kehayias from sqlskills reached out asking for clarification of trace...

Date: 07/12/2016

How it Works: XEL Health Session and Shutdown

There are a variety of posts talking about the black box recorder (XEL Health Session) explaining...

Date: 07/04/2016

What Am I Working On (RDORR): SQL Server On Linux

To some of you SQL Server On Linux is old news from various announcements made a couple of months...

Date: 06/27/2016

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