Show 12 – The Other One Mode

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Show 12 is here, and yet again we have a mix of various SQL Server topics. Among them are High Availability, development, performance, Columnstore Indexes, Azure, and general news and events.

More specifically, we talk about:

  • How log backup and Log Shipping really work
  • What parts of SQL Server Memory does the Max Server Memory option controls
  • Performance differences between Row_Number and CROSS APPLY
  • A disturbing bug with the SYSDATETIME function
  • Clustered Columnstore Indexes, and how Rebuild and Reorganize work on them
  • Azure Storage
  • SQLRally and SQLBits conferences
  • And more..

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Show 11 – T-SQL

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Did you know that SQL was initially called “Sequel” (Structured English Query Language)?

On this show, we go back to basics and talk about our favorite language – Transact-SQL (T-SQL).

We cover a lot of topics in the fields of development, performance and maintenance. Among them:

  • The logical phases of query processing
  • Our favorite and least favorite T-SQL features
  • T-SQL development best practices
  • How to avoid writing long Stored Procedures
  • How to avoid writing the “mother of all queries”
  • The Axis of Evil T-SQL featrues
  • Why you should (almost) never use table variables

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Show 10 – Coolest Thing Ever

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On previous shows, we talked about an interesting behavior of the Sort operator and missing nodes in execution plans. On this show, we finally have the explanation for those Phenomenons.

In addition, we talk about:

  • What needs does Azure DocumentDB come to address
  • Common mistakes with Parameterization in SQL Server
  • Tracking Page Splits
  • Tracking progress of index builds and rebuilds
  • A new index maintenance script
  • Dangerous backups
  • And more..

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Show 9 – PASS Summit 2014 Recap

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PASS Summit 2014 is over, and wh’re here for a recap of what happened, what was announced, what we learned in the sessions we attended, and some thoughts on the direction Microsoft is heading.

Among other topics, we talk about:

  • The summit keynote and the Microsoft vision
  • Parallelism
  • The new Query Store feature
  • The new Stretched Tables feature
  • Improvements to Cluster Quorum
  • Backup performance improvements
  • Database corruption recovery techniques
  • Interesting behavior of Sequence with Delayed Durability
  • The various activities during the summit
  • And more..

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Show 8 – SQLRally Interviews

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We’re currently at PASS Summit, and things are pretty busy here, so we didn’t manage to record a new show.

Instead, we republish an episode which features interviews with 3 of the top experts in the industry: Brent Ozar, Denny Cherry and Adam Machanic. They were recorded a year ago at SQLRally Amsterdam for our Hebrew version (of course the interviews were conducted in English).

The interviews cover a lot of topics. Among them are professional development, the future of DBA work, SQL Server 2014, storage, parallelism, virtualization and SQLCLR. If you missed it, it’s an opportunity to catch up.

After we return home, we have a lot of exciting stuff to talk about on the next shows.

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Show 7 – In-Memory OLTP and Columnstore Indexes

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On this in-depth show, we take a deep dive into the two biggest features of SQL Server 2014: In-Memory OLTP (aka Hektaon) and Clustered Columnstore Indexes.

We talk about the data structures of the two features, how they differ from the traditional data structures, and why they allow such staggering performance boosts.

We also talk about things you need to take into account and watch out for when working with them, and about the types of workloads that can benefit from them.

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Show 6 – It’s the Cursor

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It’s the monthly all-over-the-place version of the show, and this time we have a mix of various topics like the cloud, T-SQL development, performance, SQL Server 2014, events and presentation skills.

We also have some more mystery around the Non-Blocking Sort issue from earlier shows.

More specifically, we talk about:

  • Is the cloud a threat or opportunity for DBAs?
  • The ways to pass a list of values to a Stored Procedure
  • The distribution of installations between SQL Server versions
  • Non-Blocking Sort – Is there a hidden Iterator that helps it?
  • Various presentations worth watching
  • The new SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator
  • And more..

 

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