1. Not adjusting memory settings on your database server Below is a screen shot of the dreaded default 214748367 maximum server memory allowed to SQL Server. Will it take it? Yes, it will. It holds no sympathy for others and will leave no crumbs behind for mere OS operations or paging. Set this to an allowable maximum based on your server’s actual available memory. Leave some for the OS to survive.

This is just a quick blogpost that will show you how you can use T-SQL to get the command line startup parameters that were used to start SQL Server. Before I start I want to warn you that you do not try NET START and NET STOP on a production server since you might mess stuff up big time!!. In order to start SQL Server with parameters we can use the configuration tool or we can use the command line, of course we will use the command line

Over the past couple of years, we’ve been moving from a “custom-developed” (read: terrible) reporting system towards SSRS-type reports. We do this using the ASP.net client reports, but with a twist. We had a lot of problems using the built in data-binding, especially when making schema changes (which are frequent as we try to move the database to a more sane design). In order to get around these problems, we created a report definition class that encapsulates the stored procedure used to get the report data, the parameters, and anything else we need to display on the report viewer page.

I have two instances of SQL Server running on my laptop, one is SQL Server 2008 and the other is SQL Server 2008 R2. Now take a look at this image from task manager. Can you tell which process is the 2008 instance and which process is the 2008 R2 instance? I can’t either. Now if you want to know what process id your instance is using you can do three things

Everyone took all the good things already so I’m here with the leftovers but still things I call the pet peeves and I wouldn’t miss. So here is the big five that came to mind Default Configurations OK, defaults help everyone. Mostly they help them not actually think about what they are doing. My first call to the drop spree is roughly 90% of all the defaults. Make us think about it!

Using Database Engine Tuning Advisor can lend a great deal to a DBA. All you need to do is plug in a query, hit start and viola, instant 99% performance increase estimates. OK, it might not be all that but it can give you some pretty good suggestions for increasing performance. Is this too good to be true? In some cases, yes, it is. Let’s look at something I just ran across.

I have been tagged by Aaron Bertrand in the latest SQL meme: Tagged: 5 things SQL Server should drop. This meme is about five thing that you wished that were dropped from SQL Server. Actually I prefer that SQL Server adds stuff instead of removes stuff, I can always ingore the things I don’t like. Anyhow since this is about things that should be removed, here is my list.

Asking me what I do for living could net you different answers, depending on what day you ask. Over the years, and through the course of several jobs, I have had a wide range of responsibilities that often stretched well beyond my current organizational role. I like to call these opportunities. Recently I was considering the idea of building a virtual lab, as I’ve been worried that some of the varied experiences or skills I’ve picked up would rust away.

Time to get our hands dirty We’ve gone over Planning your hardware for SQL Server Mirroring and Planning your SQL Server mirroring landscape. Today we are going to get down into actually configuring a basic mirror using Developer Edition. Developer Edition is a great tool that is extremely inexpensive. At the time of this writing, the cost was still only $47. To set our mirror up we will need two instances.

So today I was working on setting up DB Mail on our new dev box (MS SQL 2008), but I ran into a little snag. Emails were sending fine to my email address, but all attempts to email our developers distribution group failed to be delivered. These was no sign on SQL Server that the email wasn’t delivered, it just didn’t appear in my inbox. I got to talking with my network admin, and he said that unauthenticated emails are blocked on distributions groups in the company (spam reasons).