When thinking about migration the most common issue is downtime. There are some methods that require downtime like backup/restore or less downtime using Log Shipping. You can choose several different methods to migrate your database. For example, methods that require downtime include: Backup the database, manually copy the backup file to the machine and then … Continue reading Database migration methods
What is Stretch Database?
Stretch Database is a feature of SQL Server where data can be split between on-premises storage and cloud storage. With Stretch Database, cold, historical data is kept in the cloud and active data is kept on-premises for maximum performance. Stretch Database requires no changes to client applications or existing Transact-SQL queries, so you can implement … Continue reading What is Stretch Database?
Moving the msdb, model, and tempdb databases files
All system databases, except the resource database, can be moved to new locations to help balance I/O load. To move the msdb, model, and tempdb databases, perform the following steps: For each file to be moved, execute the ALTER DATABASE … MODIFY FILE statement. Stop the instance of SQL Server. Move the files to the … Continue reading Moving the msdb, model, and tempdb databases files
Understanding parallelism on SQL Server
Parallelism refers to multiple processors cooperating to execute a single query at the same time. Parallel execution involves the overhead of synchronizing and monitoring the tasks. So, that's why parallel plans are considered expensive operations. The query optimizer determines whether a parallel plan should be used based on the configuration and the query cost. A configuration … Continue reading Understanding parallelism on SQL Server
TempDB summary
Tempdb is a special database available as a resource to all users of a SQL Server instance, you use it to hold temporary objects that users, or the database engine, create. In many respects, tempdb files are identical to the files that make up other SQL Server databases. From the perspective of storage I/O, … Continue reading TempDB summary
Locks everywhere
In this post I'm going to talk about locks on SQL Server. Locks are necessary, they are used in all operations in the database. Don't get confused about blocking, locking and blocking are totally different. When we talk about lock, doing something in the database, like an update and select though will cause a type … Continue reading Locks everywhere
Memory-optimized Logging
In a previous post I talked about transaction log works, and what about using a memory-optimized table? SQL Server has the feature Memory-Optimized Objects to improve performance. In-memory nonclustered indexes are implemented using a data structure called a Bw-Tree. A Bw-Tree is a lock and latch-free variation of a B-Tree. In-memory architecture: To enable an … Continue reading Memory-optimized Logging
