SQL Server Diaries

During a database/application performance investigation we wanted to check which indexes were being used. The database had almost 1,200 indexes (!!) most of which we believed were redundant or partly causing a performance overhead. A quick review of the indexes showed that most were created on one column and only... [Read More]

This week we implemented a database onto a production environment.  The implementation had been tested a number of times to prepare and verify the final set of scripts.  On D-Day we started the implementation according to the previously tested steps and I’m proud to say that all went fine.  We... [Read More]

We were recently applying a number of changes on a test environment and which were due for implementation on the production database once testing was verified. What one of the testers failed to notice was that one of the applications was connecting to the production database instead. Luckily no harm... [Read More]

In an earlier post I explained a number of migration or upgrade issues arising from the usage of SELECT TOP 100 PERCENT…ORDER BY… constructs when used in a VIEW. I wrote the below script to identify the VIEW objects which are implemented in this way and also identify from which... [Read More]

When it comes to testing queries I noticed that most developers usually write the query, verify that it returns the required result set then deploy it in the application or report and move on to the next query. While some might see this as one of the rapid development techniques,... [Read More]