How Do You Defragment Your SQL Server Indexes
Database Administration, Database Maintenance, Performance Tuning | August 18, 2010 | 11:05 am
I give a lot of presentations based on best practices, and in all of them I stress the importance of regularly rebuilding or reorganizing indexes. Both the REBUILD and the REORGANIZE options have their pros and cons, so I thought it would be interesting to do a poll to see which method(s) was preferred by DBAs. The results are to the left.
After seeing the results of the poll (which was not scientifically designed), I was rather impressed with how many DBAs use a combination of both the REBUILD and the REORGNIZE methods to defragment their indexes. To me, this indicates a high level of knowledge of how to best defragment indexes, as using a combination of both options allows the DBA to choose which method is best for a particular index, rather than taking the brute force method of using either REBUILD or REORANIZE to defragment all of their indexes. I was also impressed that only a very small percentage of the poll’s respondents didn’t defragment their indexes, or know what index defragmentation was.
Don’t Forget to Sign Up for the 24 Hours of PASS: Summit Preview
Conferences, PASS, Speaking Schedule | August 17, 2010 | 9:47 am
Looking for some free SQL Server training? How about 24 hours of free training offered by some of the top SQL Server experts in the world? If so, sign up for the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS live webcasts to be held September 15-16, 2010. It’s your opportunity to continue and broaden your SQL Server education, with your only investment being your time.
How to Performance Tune a VLDB on your Desktop
Database Administration, Performance Tuning | August 16, 2010 | 3:17 pmRecently, I wrote a review of Red Gate Software’s new SQL Virtual Restore software. SQL Virtual Restore allows you to quickly turn a compressed backup into a live, virtual database, with the advantage that the virtual database is substantially smaller than the original database, while at the same time acting identically to the production database.
devLINK a Huge Success
Conferences, Speaking Schedule | August 7, 2010 | 2:05 pmWhere can you spend $100 and get three full days of technical training? devLINK of course. devLINK 2010 was held this past week in Nashville (August 5-7), and had 800 registered attendees. There were over 150 session in 10 different tracks, with 71 different speakers. While the focus of the event was more towards developers, there was a Database Platforms and Development track that included many prominent speakers, including Kevin Kline, Joe Webb, Jeremiah Peschka, Joe Kuemerle, Jason Follas, Louis Davidson, Dennis Bottjer, Philip Japikse, and Brad McGehee.
If you were unable to attend, or can’t get enough SQL Server training, there will be a SQL Saturday in Nashville on August 21, 2010.
Winner of the July Question of the Month
Question of the Month | August 2, 2010 | 10:51 amThis month’s question of the month was:
Tell us your story of how you happened to become a DBA.
This month, the winner of the contest was selected randomly, and the winner was Bill Wehnert, who has won a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate and a single license to SQL Response.
If you haven’t done so, check out the 33 different stores from DBAs who tell us how they happened to become a DBA.
Thanks to everyone who participated this month, and don’t forget to enter the August Question of the Month.
August Question: What types of continuing education do you use to keep up with being a DBA?
Question of the Month | | 10:41 amPost your responses to the above SQL Aloha Question of the Month in the comments section below (at www.bradmcgehee.com if you are viewing this from a syndicated newsfeed). And don’t forget to enter your e-mail address when you post your response, so I can contact you if you win.
This month, because of the nature of the question, which has no right or wrong answer, the winner will be selected randomly from all the entries that are received. As DBAs, we have a lot of information to keep up with. Not only do we need to keep up with the latest versions of SQL Server, we also have to keep up with the OS and the hardware. So this month, share with us what you do to help keep up your continuing education of being an exceptional DBA?
For more information, click on the Question of the Month tab above.
| This Month’s Prizes
|
The prizes this month are an Amazon.com voucher worth US$50.00 and a license for new SQL Virtual Restore 2.0 with one year of support and upgrades worth US$619.00.Not familiar with SQL Virtual Restore? It lets you mount your backups as live, fully functional databases – without the time or space needed for a physical restore. To find out more, visit the Red Gate website. |
Windows OS Power Saving Feature Directly Affects CPU Performance
Database Administration, Hardware, Performance Tuning | July 26, 2010 | 2:50 pmWhile I have always known that the Windows operating system Power Plan options affect a server’s performance, I had not realized how much until SQL Server MVP Glenn Berry (Blog | Twitter) suggested I try out my new Dell T610 test servers under the three available power savings plans:
- High Performance
- Balanced
- Power Saver
Instant File Initialization Speeds SQL Server
Database Administration, Database Maintenance | July 21, 2010 | 9:20 amSometimes, its just the smallest of details that can make all the difference. For example, on my test system (see the end of this posting for a description), I created a new 50GB database. The database creation process took about 5 minutes and 50 seconds to complete.
RSS
Twitter
Linked In