Monthly Archives: December 2009

A Small Collection of I/O Specific DMV Queries

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Glenn Berry

It is pretty common for large, busy SQL Server implementations to run into I/O pressure or bottlenecks, especially since many people seem to buy “big” servers with lots of CPU capacity and lots of RAM, but they treat the I/O … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 17 Comments

Windows ReadyBoost in Windows 7

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Perhaps you heard of or actually tried Windows ReadyBoost in Windows Vista, and were (like me) disappointed with the results? The idea behind ReadyBoost is to take advantage of flash memory as a cache for random disk I/O. Microsoft made … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft | 8 Comments

Fun With DBCC FREEPROCCACHE

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Nearly anytime you see the command DBCC FREEPROCCACHE mentioned in a blog post, magazine article or book, you get some sort of a scary warning about how you should not use it on a production system, or else life as … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 4 Comments

How To Get a Count of SQL Connections BY IP Address

Posted on December 27, 2009 by Glenn Berry

These queries (which work on both SQL Server 2005 and 2008) are very handy if you want to know who is connecting to a SQL Server instance and how they are doing it.  It will give you a nice idea … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 1 Comment

Should You Get a Netbook Computer?

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Glenn Berry

On Monday, Intel officially announced the next generation Atom processors (aka Pineview) that are part of the new Pine Trail platform. According to AnandTech, these new Atoms offer about 5-10% better performance along with 15-20% better battery life. If you … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware | 1 Comment

Two Tools For Discovering Hardware Information About Your Servers

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Glenn Berry

One thing that I think is very important for a successful DBA to be aware of is their hardware environment.  Database servers typically place more demands on their hardware resources than the more common web or application server, and if … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | Leave a comment

Great Resource On SQL Server Wait Types

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Microsoft’s Bob Ward has updated his blog post about documenting SQL Server wait types, that came out of his work at PASS 2009. He is planning on updating his post further as he gets comments and questions on his blog. … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 2 Comments

Webcast: SQL Server 2008 R2 Support for Up to 256 Logical Processors

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Glenn Berry

If you are a low-level, bare-metal type of SQL Server geek, you will probably enjoy watching this 60 minute webcast by Microsoft’s Madhan Arumugam and Fabricio Voznika. It has a lot of interesting and useful information on how Microsoft was … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | Leave a comment

Cumulative Update 7 For SQL Server 2005 SP3

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Microsoft has announced the release of CU7 for SQL Server 2005 SP3, which is Build 4273. The link to request the CU from Microsoft is not live yet, but should be pretty soon, hopefully.  I count 23 fixes included in … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2005 | 8 Comments

Cumulative Update 17 For SQL Server 2005 SP2

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Microsoft has announced the release of CU17 for SQL Server 2005 SP2, which is Build 3356. The link to request the CU from Microsoft is not live yet, but should be pretty soon hopefully.  I only see one fix (for … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2005 | 2 Comments