Your database is like a machine. Much like your car, your database needs maintenance to ensure it runs smoothly. The indexes slowly become fragmented as you insert, delete, and update…
Check for SQL Index Fragmentation
SQL Disk Space Usage
How big? It isn't very often that you need to understand which tables take up most space within your database. Normally, knowing how much space the entire database consumes is…
Test SQL Connection without SSMS
Background You'll find yourself logged into a web or application server and need to test that you can access the SQL server at which you've unsuccessfully tried to point your…
SQL Joins
Background There are many ways to join tables and views in an SQL server. This diagram is a great quick reference.
SQL Suggested Indexes
How SQL access data Whenever SQL Server executes a query, it builds an execution plan to find the data and return it to the requesting process. I have another post…
Determine where SQL files are
SQL Files A typical SQL Server Database comprises two physical files on the disks: an 'mdf' file and a 'ldf' file. The 'mdf' file contains the database scheme, tables, stored…
Shrink an SQL database
Size does matter As you use a database, the log files increase in size. When you back up your database, SQL frees the space in the log file - it…
Fix a SQL Database
A true story Several years ago, before we moved our Production and Development systems over to Kubernetes running on Azure, we used a well-known hosting provider in the UK. Initially,…
Enable SQL Database Diagrams
The Code SQL Database Diagrams are invaluable in understanding the schema. I use them all of the time. Occasionally, I create the database tables and relationships from the diagram designer…
Update SQL Statistics on things
Background As our customer base has grown, so has the size of those customers and, with them, the amount of data we hold within our databases. We have a solution…