I have just published a four-part series for SQLPerformance.com on the Halloween Problem. Some of you will never have heard of this issue, and those that have might associate it only with T-SQL UPDATE queries. In fact, the Halloween problem affects execution plans for INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and MERGE statements. This is a topic I have been ...

Can DELETE operations cause pages to split?  Yes.  It sounds counter-intuitive on the face of it; deleting rows frees up space on a page, and page splitting occurs when a page needs additional space.  Nevertheless, there are circumstances when deleting rows causes them to expand before they can be deleted.  The mechanism at ...

[This post was created by Jason Howell, Senior Escalation Engineer in the SQL Server Support team specializing in MDS] SQL Server 2008 R2 Service pack 1 was released in July 2011, as well as CU#1 for Service Pack 1 a few days afterwards, and CU #2 just yesterday August 15th, 2011. The purpose of this blog is to call out the difference in ...

Yes, the day has finally arrived, and a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.  Typically when Microsoft promises a release in Qx or Hx, the software comes on the last or second last day of that quarter or half.  This year, we get an early Christmas present: SQL Server 2005 SP4.   Downloads To download SP4, go to this ...

(This post was contributed by Reagan Templin, Lead Technical Writer for the MDS Team) Note: This article is applicable to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services feature. SQL Server 2012 now ships Master Data Services on the DVD with the other SQL Server 2012 features and is patched by the same Cumulative Updates and Service Packs for ...