Administering SQL Server 2012 Running On Windows Server Core

Are you afraid of deploying (or supporting) an instance of Windows Server Core? Are you telling others to “stay away” because of your own fears of doing something new? Then I am here to tell you that you’re doing it wrong. Last month I decided that it was time to get down and dirty with … Read more

The Accidental Architect

Most readers of this blog are likely to be familiar with the term accidental DBA. It is meant to describe someone that ended up in the role of database administration by pure chance. They simply happened to be in the right place at the right time (or right place at the wrong time). I even wrote a book … Read more

TPC-VMS Benchmark To Compare Virtual Workloads

This past November the Transaction Processing Performance Council (the TPC) released a new benchmark, the TPC-VMS. If you are interested in the details you can download the PDF by clicking here. The TPC benchmarks have been the industry standard when it comes to benchmarking database performance. As more companies move towards virtualization solutions the standard TPC … Read more

VMWare KB: An Incomplete List of Tips for Configuring Microsoft SQL Server in a Virtual Machine

I wanted to take a moment to point out this VMWare KB article I came across recently. I really do love how the KB article points out the need for accurate disk configurations. I often see misconfigured disks resulting in a performance bottleneck for a virtualized environment. So that part of the KB was great for me to see … Read more

The 3 DBA Mistakes You Don’t Know You Are Making

You have no idea that what you are not doing is causing you pain. Then again, how could you know this? I mean, if you are not doing it, why would you ever think that your inaction could be the very thing that is causing you heartache every time your phone rings in the middle … Read more

Expert Query Performance Troubleshooting

This video is an hour-long but well worth sharing with you today. One of the main takeaways from this video I want you to have is the fact that troubleshooting performance is not always rocket surgery. When you watch this video and listen to Conor Cunningham talk about some of the real world examples he … Read more