Jon Gurgul's Blog

Category: SQL Server

  • Coalesce vs ISNULL

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    Jon Gurgul
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    The difference between ISNULL and COALESCE? It is quicker to type ISNULL. Plus COALESCE always takes me a few goes to spell correctly, luckily there is intellisense and I can wait for the color of the text to change. Well yes quicker to type, but probably going to throw the odd issue because you neglected…

  • SQL Events 2013 Part 2

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    Jon Gurgul
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    Just to make everyone aware that SQL Relay is back in November this year. These are all day events, and well worth attending. The link you will need is: http://www.sqlrelay.co.uk/register.html The dates are: WEEK 1 Mon 11 Nov Reading Tue 12 Nov Southampton Wed 13 Nov Cardiff Thu 14 Nov Birmingham Fri 15 Nov Hertfordshire WEEK…

  • Suppress messages in SQL log

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    Jon Gurgul
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    Previously we had looked at how to configure alerts to log the messages that we are interested in picking up. In this previous post I very briefly showed how to add logging for messages that were not normally logged such as a permission denied. But just as there are extra messages you want to see…

  • Configure Alerts SQL Server

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    Jon Gurgul
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    As a base set of alerts for monitoring SQL Server I tend to use the following out of the box categories, with the obvious exception of syntax errors. This will cover all of the really bad alerts that you never want to see, as well as those that can help troubleshoot and head off potential…

  • SQL Server Page Types

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    Jon Gurgul
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    There are lots of different page types and Paul Randall list them in his article. However as I tend to have a rather poor memory for remembering them first off here are the ones that can be anywhere within the database. m_type 1  DATA_PAGE 2  INDEX_PAGE 3 TEXT_MIX_PAGE 4 TEXT_TREE_PAGE 7 SORT_PAGE 10 IAM_PAGE Now…

  • SQL Server Row Internals

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    Jon Gurgul
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    Row Storage A Row is stored on a Page which is 8192 Bytes, and this is broken down in two key areas when considering physical storage. Firstly on all pages there is a 96 Byte Header. In addition to this we also need to store the Row structure as well as its location in the…

  • MCM 2008 Success

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    Jon Gurgul
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    I got an email from Microsoft! The lab I took on the 11th April. (Yesterday). I passed!!! So…. a long time ago in a place….no wait… I passed the prerequisite and then spent many days with my books and study material to pass the knowledge exam which as I said before was hard. The lab exam itself…

  • SQL Server Partitioning Data Movement

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    Jon Gurgul
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    Introduction This is a continuation to the partitioning overview post to help explain how data movement is performed using Alter Partition with Merge and Split Commands. Getting Started In order to move data in or out of a partitioned object the part of the object that needs to be moved must reside on the same file…

  • SQL Server Partitioning Overview

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    Jon Gurgul
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    Introduction This is a guide to help explain partitioning setup; which although introduced way back in SQL 2005 is still an area which throws up a lot of questions. Requirements First off you will need Enterprise SQL Server in your production environment, or alternatively you can explore this feature in SQL Developer edition. Getting Started…

  • SQL Events 2013

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    Jon Gurgul
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    2013 is shaping up to be a good year for me getting to events, so far penciled in are SQLSaturday in Exeter and SQLBits XI in Nottingham. Hope to see lots of you there… In fact you can even register for SQLSaturday right now. So go do that. SQLSaturday #194 8th and 9th March 2013 Exeter http://www.sqlsaturday.com/194/eventhome.aspx SQLBits XI 2nd…