SQL Database Engine Blog
This is the blog of the engineering team managing and developing the Database Engine for SQL Server and Azure SQL Database
Reducing the Size of your Database in SQL Server 2005/SP2
An exciting new feature in SQL Server 2005/SP2 is Vardecimal Storage Format. This storage format...
Author: Sunil Agarwal Date: 11/10/2006
SQL Server 2005 SP2 CTP2 released
We've released the second CTP (Community Technology Preview) of the SP2 for SQL Server 2005. All...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 11/09/2006
When can allocation order scans be used?
I know this is jumping the gun a little as I haven't made it this far in my series on fragmentation,...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 11/08/2006
CHECKDB (Part 6): Consistency checking options for a VLDB
(Yippee - just finished my certification dives and got my PADI Open Water certification - just in...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 10/19/2006
SQLIOSim available for download
There has already been a great deal of excitement over the release of SQLIOSim, and I know everyone...
Author: Jerome Halmans Date: 10/06/2006
Skipping rows in the datafile that contains NULL for a column that does not allow NULLs
I recently ran into a customer who wanted to import data into a table that did not allow NULL for...
Author: Sunil Agarwal Date: 09/29/2006
What Master???
I've come across a few interesting DR scenarios lately, (interesting in the sense that the...
Author: Kevin Farlee [MSFT] Date: 09/26/2006
CHECKDB (Part 5): What does CHECKDB really do? (part 4 of 4)
(Another airport, another blog post - I really must make an effort to come up with more original...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 09/20/2006
Fragmentation (part 4): what are heaps?
Ok - really catching up with the various blog post series I started back in June/July - time to bang...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 09/18/2006
CHECKDB (Part 4): What does CHECKDB really do? (part 3 of 4)
(OK - I was wrong about the posting frequency - events overtook me and I got bogged down preparing...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 09/18/2006
Don't try this at home kids... (data recovery using DBCC PAGE)
Time to cough up a real-life data recovery scenario to temporarily stop those people who badger me...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 08/09/2006
Can't I ever get a guarantee?
I've been sitting and thinking a lot about guarantees this morning while drinking coffee in the...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 07/23/2006
Scale-up technology
Totally off-topic post today. We recently had a private tour of the excellent Woodland Park Zoo here...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 07/21/2006
CHECKDB (Part 3): What does CHECKDB really do? (2 of 4)
In the previous post of this series, I covered the system table checks that have to be done before...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 07/18/2006
Under the covers: GAM, SGAM, and PFS pages
(Been a week or so since the last post but I haven't burnt out with blogging yet - I was on vacation...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 07/08/2006
Checksum in SQL2005
Page checksum is new feature in SQL2005 that provides you a stronger mechanism than torn-page to...
Author: Sunil Agarwal Date: 06/29/2006
Why is the NULL bitmap in a record an optimization?
I've had some questions sent in comments and I wanted to reply to some of them using a post so...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/28/2006
Fragmentation (part 3): What are extents?
(Ok - another flight - another blog post. This time its Boston back to Seattle. The three of us...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/28/2006
Fixed the problem with images in blog posts..
Apologies for the lack of a proper image in the previous post - as several people have pointed out....
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/28/2006
Under the covers: IAM chains and allocation units in SQL Server 2005
(I'm sitting here in Seattle airport at 7am on Sunday waiting to catch the same flight to Boston...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/26/2006
Under the covers: IAM chains in SQL Server 2000
I've reached a point in my various ramblings where I need to do some glossary work. First up is an...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/24/2006
Why are those IOs taking so long?
Ever see something like this in your SQL Errorlog?SQL Server has encountered 1 occurrence(s) of I/O...
Author: Jerome Halmans Date: 06/21/2006
How can you prove that hardware is the problem? Use stress to reduce stress...
I'm sure you've been there - something causes corruption in the database. You blame the hardware,...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/21/2006
What makes Paul tick?
If you're interested in a little background, I did an email interview with Steve Jones of...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/21/2006
Fun with execution context switching
Having multiple users each owning various objects is commonplace in the database world. When one...
Author: RobWalters Date: 06/21/2006
Two new white papers by SQL Server Storage Engine Team
Here is the summary and the link to the white papers. Working with TempDBThis white paper describes...
Author: Sunil Agarwal Date: 06/20/2006
Why you should NOT optimize your backup strategy for backup speed
Sounds kinda funny, doesn't it? I mean, who here doesn't have someone breathing down your neck every...
Author: Kevin Farlee [MSFT] Date: 06/20/2006
CHECKDB (Part 2): What does CHECKDB really do? (1 of 4)
Hmmm - I sat for 5 minutes thinking of something amusing to say to start this one off and nothing...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/18/2006
Another disaster recovery 'advice' gem...
I just saw this on one of the forums - it's another wonderful piece of advice to studiously...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/18/2006
Do you need to run CHECKDB because of SQL Server?
I was asked this several times at TechEd so I'd like to answer it publicly. It's kind of complicated...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/18/2006
The best part of TechEd was meeting people...
TechEd's done and dusted for another year, and what a blast we had!It's incredible to think of the...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/16/2006
Which part of 'REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS' isn't clear?
In my chalk/talk at TechEd yesterday, I asked the crowd "what's the purpose of repair?" One person...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/15/2006
When should you rebuild the transaction log?
10 points if you answered "don't be daft, never!" and minus several million is you answered anything...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/15/2006
Just why are you backing up your database?
So, I'd like to make a couple of assertions about backup and disaster recovery that will hopefully...
Author: Kevin Farlee [MSFT] Date: 06/15/2006
Data files: To Autogrow Or Not To Autogrow?
This is a question that's come up several times at TechEd already and is a nice second part to the...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/13/2006
Here's a good reason not to run SHRINKDATABASE...
.. this is an old one, but its poorly understood and it just surfaced again today so I thought I'd...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/12/2006
We're at TechEd - stop by and see us!
Luckily the 8.40am Alaska Airlines direct flight from Seattle>Boston was on time as I'm guessing...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/12/2006
How to use DBCC PAGE
Yes, finally I come clean and tell all. It's an open secret that there's an undocumented DBCC...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/10/2006
New SQL Express Starter Kit and Sample Apps available on MSDN
Collection Manager Starter Kit Overview The Collection Manager is a rich client application that...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/10/2006
CHECKDB (Part 1): How does CHECKDB get a consistent view of the database?
As you can guess from the title, I'm planning a long series over the summer to go into the guts of...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/08/2006
Importing UNIX data file
When bulk importing data, the data can come from any source including the files created in other...
Author: Sunil Agarwal Date: 06/08/2006
Common bad advice around disaster recovery
I've just been itching to post this one.I'm doing a chalk-talk (AKA cabana session, this year AKA...
Author: Paul Randal - MSFT Date: 06/07/2006