CSS SQL Server Engineers
This is the official team Web Log for Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) SQL Support. Posts are provided by the CSS SQL Escalation Services team.
SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 explained....
PLEASE NOTE: This blog post has been updated from its original posting to clarify other details...
Author: psssql Date: 08/11/2008
How It Works: Attention, Attention or Should I say Cancel the Query and Be Sure to Process Your Results
I ran into this issue the other day and decided it would make a good post. Since I have seen this...
Author: psssql Date: 07/23/2008
SQL Server 2005 Encounters Exception During Install When System has Odd Number of Processors or Logical Processors Per Core
While attempting to install SQL Server 2005 you may encounter an error familiar to the following and...
Author: psssql Date: 07/23/2008
Supporting SQL Server 2008: The system_health session
In my first post on SQL Server 2008, I introduced a new feature called Extended Events (we like to...
Author: psssql Date: 07/15/2008
SQL Server I/O Bottleneck, I don't have one, YES YOU DO!
The mistake I see people make is when looking at the SQL Server PAGE I/O waits and stalled I/O...
Author: psssql Date: 07/08/2008
SQL Server, Windows Server 2008, and the Windows Firewall
Sounds like a movie title. No, it is actually a topic you need to know about if you plan to install...
Author: psssql Date: 07/02/2008
Get Ready for SQL Server 2008
Technorati Tags: SQL Server 2008,Extended Events Someone who contributes to this blog posted back in...
Author: psssql Date: 07/01/2008
How It Works: Trace (.TRC) File Security
SQL Server 2000 shipped with different trace file security than later builds of SQL Server 2000, SQL...
Author: psssql Date: 06/25/2008
How It Works: More on DBCC Shrink* Activities
My peers are starting to tease me about becoming a dbcc shrink* expert. (Ha, Ha I said.) Then, I...
Author: psssql Date: 06/18/2008
Helpful Hint: Making Review of a Query Plan Easier
I think we all have looked at the output of statistics profile and wished the Estimated Rows and...
Author: psssql Date: 06/17/2008
Query Performance issues associated with a large sized security cache
In the past couple of months, SQL Server support team has come across some customers running into...
Author: psssql Date: 06/16/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 - Possible data recovery when checksum failure reported
I and Microsoft will always opt for restore of a backup when corruption of the database is...
Author: psssql Date: 05/22/2008
SQL Server 2005 SP3 and Self-Service Hotfixes
If you have not seen or heard the news, we have announced our plans to release a service pack for...
Author: psssql Date: 04/25/2008
How It Works: What is a Sleeping / Awaiting Command Session
This issue is as old as SQL Server. In fact, it goes back to Sybase days but continues to fool and...
Author: psssql Date: 04/21/2008
Changes introduced in CU#7 may impact Analysis Services backup and sync operations
Cumulative Update #7 for SQL Server includes a fix for Analysis Services backups to correct a...
Author: psssql Date: 04/16/2008
How It Works: SQL Server Checkpoint (FlushCache) Outstanding I/O Target
I ran into an issue yesterday that brought up questions as to how the checkpoint's max outstanding,...
Author: psssql Date: 04/11/2008
Troubleshooting xp_cmdshell failures
This post assumes you have properly enabled the xp_cmdshell feature using the Surface Area...
Author: psssql Date: 04/10/2008
How It Works: File Streams Requires Integrated Security (Windows Authentication)
SQL Server authentication versus Windows Authentication seems to cause File Stream users confusion....
Author: psssql Date: 04/10/2008
European PASS Conference 2008
I'm leaving this Saturday for the Europe PASS Conference in Neuss, Germany. I have the following two...
Author: psssql Date: 04/09/2008
How It Works: SQL Server Page Allocations
When I drop an object why does SQL Server not immediately re-use those extents for a new...
Author: psssql Date: 04/08/2008
Microsoft to Increase Use of SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (SQLPBA) - So Should You
I don't want you to be surprised when you see more use of SQLBPA. It was 18 months ago when the...
Author: psssql Date: 04/05/2008
SQL Server 2005 Memory Limits and Related Questions
I had a very nice conversation this week with one of the blog readers. The question related to...
Author: psssql Date: 04/05/2008
SQLIOSim is "NOT" an I/O Performance Tuning Tool
This blog post is to again inform you "NOT" to consider SQLIOSim as an I/O performance evaluation...
Author: psssql Date: 04/04/2008
How It Works: Non-Yielding Resource Monitor
I have addressed similar conditions error in a white paper:...
Author: psssql Date: 03/28/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 DBCC Shrink* May Take Longer Than SQL Server 2000
SQL Server 2005 adds additional shrink logic to compress TEXT/IMAGE data, referred to as...
Author: psssql Date: 03/28/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2008 Backup Compression, Database Compression and Total Data Encryption
I have seen a fair series of questions around the compression and encryption features of SQL Server...
Author: psssql Date: 03/24/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 SP2 Security Ring Buffer - RING_BUFFER_SECURITY_ERROR
SQL Server 2005 SP2 added new ring buffer entries (sys.dm_os_ring_buffers) for various security...
Author: psssql Date: 03/24/2008
How It Works: DBCC ShrinkDatabase / ShrinkFile (Tabular)
I ran across an undocumented option that was very helpful in resolving an issue last week. WARNING:...
Author: psssql Date: 03/24/2008
How It Works: Shapshot Database (Replica) Dirty Page Copy Behavior (NewPage)
I ran into an issue last week that I found interesting and thought you might find it interesting as...
Author: psssql Date: 03/24/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 I/O Affinity and NUMA Don't Always Mix
Recently I have fielded several questions related to I/O affinity. Allow me to outline the behavior...
Author: psssql Date: 03/18/2008
How It Works: SQLIOSim - Checksums
SQLIOSim, like its predecessor SQLIOStress, is designed to read pages it has written and validate...
Author: psssql Date: 03/05/2008
SQL Server Working Set Trim Problems? - Consider...
Microsoft support continues to receive a steady flow of cases indicating poor, SQL Server...
Author: psssql Date: 03/03/2008
How It Works: Debugging SQL Server Stalled or Stuck I/O Problems - Root Cause
Previously I have covered stuck and stalled I/O issues in other posts and articles. However, these...
Author: psssql Date: 03/03/2008
How It Works: Linked Servers and Collation Compatibility
Customer Question: "Why I am getting different results when is change collation compatibility from...
Author: psssql Date: 02/14/2008
How it Works: SQL Server Per Query Degree Of Parallelism Worker Count(s)
The question invoking the discussion was why did a query elect to use 100+ workers, approximately...
Author: psssql Date: 02/13/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 Connection and Task Assignments
I have talked about how connections and tasks get assigned as PASS and during many other mentoring...
Author: psssql Date: 02/12/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 Database Snapshots (Replica)
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I...
Author: psssql Date: 02/07/2008
How It Works: How does SQL Server Backup and Restore select transfer sizes
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I thought...
Author: psssql Date: 02/06/2008
High waits on CLR_MANUAL_EVENT and CLR_AUTO_EVENT
If you have a SQL CLR application, you may notice that waits on CLR_MANUAL_EVENT and CLR_AUTO_EVENT...
Author: psssql Date: 02/05/2008
How It Works: SQL Server Backup Buffer Exchange (a VDI Focus)
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I thought...
Author: psssql Date: 01/28/2008
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 NUMA Basics
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I...
Author: psssql Date: 01/24/2008
How It Works: Conversion of a Varchar, RPC Parameter to Text from a Trace (.TRC) Capture
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I thought...
Author: psssql Date: 01/24/2008
How It Works: What is Restore/Backup Doing?
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I thought...
Author: psssql Date: 01/23/2008
How It Works: File Stream the Before and After Image of a File
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I thought...
Author: psssql Date: 01/15/2008
SQLIOSim - Error Request Could Not Be Performed - Unable to get disk cache info
Both SQLIOSim and SQLIOStress use DeviceIOControl to determine information about the target. On disk...
Author: psssql Date: 01/14/2008
RML Utilities Install Fails with MSI (Windows Installer) Error #2755
It is possible to encounter error 2755 when installing the RML Utilities package. The...
Author: psssql Date: 01/11/2008
How It Works: SQL Server Engine Error Messages
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I thought...
Author: psssql Date: 01/10/2008
How It Works: System Sessions
The Senior Escalation Engineers do various training and mentoring activities. As I do this I thought...
Author: psssql Date: 01/10/2008
SQL Server 2008 - Resource Governor Questions
A couple of common questions have surfaced related to the SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor feature....
Author: psssql Date: 01/10/2008