Slava Oks's WebLog
What made Porting Microsoft SQL Server to Linux to be the right move after all
It has taken us a little more than two and a half years to bring an official version of SQL Server...
Date: 09/24/2017
One, Two, Three... Boom!
...I am back and getting ready to start blogging. It has been almost ten years since my last blog...
Date: 12/20/2016
Changing gears
You haven't heard from me in while and there is a reason. I moved from SQL Server's Storage Engine...
Date: 03/07/2007
Q and A: Ratio between AWE Allocated and VM Committed/Reserved in DBCC MEMORYSTATUS output
Q: What kind of ratio should you expect to see between AWE Allocated and VM Committed/Reserved? We...
Date: 01/02/2007
Q & A: I am running on 64 bit and all of my tasks are waiting on SOS_RESERVEDMEMBLOCKLIST, What is going on?
This wait type represents waiting on multi page allocations inside of SQLOS's memory manager. As you...
Date: 11/14/2006
SQLOSDMV's Continue
sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks One can run lots of interesting queries using this view. You can even use...
Date: 11/14/2006
Q & A: Does SQL Server always respond to memory pressure?
Q: I thought I've seen reference recently to problems with SQL2005 not releasing memory when under...
Date: 11/13/2006
SQLOS's DMVs Continue
sys.dm_os_schedulers Q. Do I need to by more CPUs? In order to answer this question you have to find...
Date: 09/28/2006
SQLOS's DMVs
SQL Server 2005 has a large number of DMVs that you can take advantage of especially when you try to...
Date: 08/22/2006
Talking points around SQL Server 2005 scalability
Couple of weeks ago I did a talk on SQL Server 2005 scalability. The actual talk was not about the...
Date: 08/03/2006
Q & A: I can't make SQL Server 2005 32 bit version to use all memory on the machine
I’m currently using the RTM+SP1 x86-SQL2005 build on a server which has 32GB of physical memory. I...
Date: 08/03/2006
Set of new features in SQL Server 2005 enabled by SQLOS
Couple of weeks ago I had a chance to visit set of our customers and talk to them directly. It was...
Date: 04/12/2006
Q and A: Enabling AWE settings for SQL Server 32 bit edition in WOW
Q. A customer wants to run SQL 2000 SP4 in a Windows Server 2003 SP1 x64 edition. They did the...
Date: 04/12/2006
Q and A: Some questions about output from dbcc memorystatus
Recently I have recieved following question: A customer of mine is getting this output on an Itanium...
Date: 03/19/2006
Q and A: SQL Server memory allocated outside of Buffer Pool, formerly known as MemToLeave
Q. Under SQL Server 2000 Is the memtoleave concept still valid under 64-bit? A. Yes. If SQL Server’s...
Date: 03/14/2006
Q and A: Do I need to run "sp_configure 'awe enabled', 1" to make 64 bit version of SQL Server use locked pages?
The answer is No. The source of possible confusion came from one of my previous posts:...
Date: 03/13/2006
Be Aware: 4GB of VAS under WOW, does it really worth it?
By now you have heard a lot about the fact that under WOW a 32 bit process can get 4GB of VAS. I...
Date: 03/12/2006
Retrieving information about CPUs' relationships
In order for server side applications to run efficiently on modern hardware they have to understand...
Date: 03/12/2006
Q and A: Clock Hands - what are they for?
Q1 I read in your blog about the new algorithm with two clock hands to control memory consumption,...
Date: 11/20/2005
Q and A: Virtual Address Space, VAS, reservation - why bother?
Seems like today is a question day :-). I will attempt to answer several questions about VAS I got...
Date: 11/15/2005
Q and A: x64 & AWE mechanism
Today I received following question: Hello, We will be running Windows Server 2003 x64 with SQL...
Date: 11/15/2005
Be aware: To Hyper or not to Hyper
Our customers observed very interesting behavior on high end Hyperthreading (HT) enabled hardware....
Date: 11/12/2005
Final changes in SQL Server 2005's memory manager
As you would expect in the last several months SQL 2005 went through rigorous testing. During the...
Date: 11/05/2005
Q and A: Using Lock Pages In memory on 64 bit platform
Q: Hello Slava, I would like to confirm my understanding that on SQL 2005 64 bit edition it is...
Date: 08/31/2005
Talking Points around Memory Manager in SQL Server 2005
Yesterday I gave a talk around SQL Server 2005's memory manager. The talk was rather chalk talk. It...
Date: 08/30/2005
Configuring SQL Server 2005 for Soft NUMA
Sometimes I am surprised how issues come up the moment you mention them J. Recently, I have...
Date: 08/18/2005
SQL Server 2005 NUMA support & troubleshooting
SQL Server 2005 has been designed to take advantage of NUMA features exposed by both hardware and...
Date: 08/02/2005
SQLOS helps SQL Server to leverage hardware capabilities
I just finished an article on how SQLOS helps SQL Server to leverage hardware capabilities...
Date: 07/20/2005
Platform layer for SQL Server:
A new platform layer in SQL Server 2005 to exploit new hardware capabilities and their trends Slava...
Date: 07/20/2005
Be Aware: VirtualAlloc with MEM_RESERVE can fail even if you have plenty of VAS inside of the process
Many developers assume that if you have plenty of free VAS in your process VirtualAlloc...
Date: 06/03/2005
Q and A: Controlling size of a single cache in SQL 2005
Q: I have teaching a class on Yukon for the Ascend program, and the class had a question I wanted to...
Date: 06/03/2005
Q and A: Max memory with sql server 2000 / win2003 x64
Today, I received following question Q: Slava,I have a question for you. Sql 2000 is documented to...
Date: 06/03/2005
Be Aware: Using AWE, locked pages in memory, on 64 bit
We have already talked about Windows AWE mechanism on 32 bit and how SQL Server utilizes it. Today I...
Date: 04/29/2005
Be Aware: IA64 Stack Size
Stack subject in Windows OS is fascinating. There are so many interesting technical problems...
Date: 03/19/2005
SQLOS Caching
Yukon caching vs SQL2000 What makes Yukon memory management different from SQL2000 is elaborative...
Date: 03/18/2005
Be aware: FLS-Fiber Local Storage
Problem: In the last several months there were several publications describing usage of fibers. When...
Date: 02/28/2005
Be aware: a new section in my blog
Periodically, I bump into unusual behavior, features, of compiler, operating system, strange design...
Date: 02/22/2005
SQLOS's memory manager: responding to memory pressure
Resource Monitor and Memory Pressure When configuring SQL Server it is very important to understand...
Date: 02/19/2005
Changes in dbcc memorystatus in Yukon
You probably have used dbcc memory status command in SQL2000. In Yukon we have changed output of...
Date: 02/14/2005
SQLOS's memory manager and SQL Server's Buffer Pool
SQLOS's memory manager consists of several components such as memory nodes, memory clerks, memory...
Date: 02/11/2005
SQLOS - unleashed
With SQL Server 2005 Beta 1 and Beta 2 you might have noticed that there is no ums.dll in the bin...
Date: 02/05/2005
Look at Memory Leaks - Classify and Identify
In my previous post I talked about type of Memory Pressures. Today I would like to talk about...
Date: 02/04/2005
Memory Pressure - Classified
So far I touched on subjects that have been widely discussed in the industry. Today I would like to...
Date: 02/01/2005
Getting an exception call stack from the catch block (C++)
This is my first post in this category so I am really looking forward to your comments :-) Today I...
Date: 01/30/2005
A look at Windows Virtual Memory mechanisms (continuation of "A look at Virtual Address Space - VAS")
As I promised last time here comes next post on memory J. Remember, my eventual goal is to reveal...
Date: 01/29/2005
Tracking VAS in Yukon, cont...
Some of you could have gotten bored with my previous post...
Date: 01/28/2005
Tracking VAS in Yukon
When we started working on the next release of SQL Server, Yukon, we realized that supportability...
Date: 01/26/2005