August 2009 - Posts

• Heaps, forwarding pointers, ALTER TABLE REBUILD and non-clustered indexes

  Let's start with some background on forwarding pointers: Forwarding pointers in heaps can be a mess to get rid of. A forwarding pointer happens when you modify a row so that the row doesn't fit on the same page anymore. SQL Server moves the row to a new Read More... Posted Friday, August 28, 2009 1:15 PM by TiborKaraszi | 5 Comments Filed under: indexes, Performance, SQL Server 2008

• Do maintenance plans require SSIS?

  To many, this is a non-issue, since SSIS is installed anyhow. But not everyody installs SSIS. I for instance prefer to keep my production systems as clean as possible and only have what I really need (a principle which is harder and harder to live after Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 26, 2009 1:06 PM by TiborKaraszi | 1 Comments Filed under: Backup, Maintenance, Troubleshooting

• Watch out for that autogrow bug

  Under some circumstances, autogrow for database files can be set to some 12000 percent. I think this is limited to SQL Server 2005 and for databases upgraded from SQL Server 2000 (I didn't bother to search - feel free to comment if you know). So, if you Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 05, 2009 3:14 PM by TiborKaraszi | 4 Comments Filed under: Maintenance, SQL Server Agent, Troubleshooting