Technical guides

Index of SQL Server handbook articles and knowledgebase HTML guides.

A PostgreSQL 18 guide to index usage, bloat, integrity checks, and safe concurrent reindexing.

Hekaton deploy and last-container removal with sys.dm_db_xtp_undeploy_status.

Interactive P0–P8 checklist for SQL Server 2016 → 2022 migrations.

Interactive production DBA handbook with checklists, scripts, and incident playbooks.

Phase-gated AG/WSFC checklist for production Always On deployments.

End-to-end SQL Server production install checklist with config and validation gates.

Fix CL 160 regressions after SQL Server 2016 → 2022 restore migrations.

How to read object diffs between prod and non-prod safely.

Distinguish allocation-page pressure from metadata contention, then verify the targeted change.

A practical guide for DBAs, application owners, and security teams on common attack paths, control limits, detection signals, and recovery drills.

A plain-English, diagram-led guide to Always Encrypted with validated SQL, PowerShell, and C# examples.

Reduce SQL Server ransomware risk with concrete hardening priorities, detection sources, isolated backups, and a restore process the business can trust.

A hands-on workflow for collecting and interpreting SQL Server wait statistics without treating one wait type as an automatic diagnosis.

Choose the right AI surface, write evidence-rich prompts, constrain agent behavior, and prove every SQL rewrite with plans, metrics, and result checks.

Run the two-part SQL Server 2025 lab, interpret XTP memory and undeploy status, and safely remove the final memory-optimized container.

Pair seek/scan usage with write cost before marking an index unused.

Prefer targeted reorganize over nightly rebuild-everything jobs.

Fragmentation only matters when scans or range seeks read many pages.

Drop the redundant cover once you prove the survivor serves the same predicates.

Sort by duration delta, then confirm the plan_id that actually changed.

Force only after you can name the regression trigger and a review date.

A clearer shape usually beats a forced join order on the old mess.

Treat AG/WSFC as gated phases — infrastructure first, failover proof last.

Keep CL 130, baseline with Query Store, then fix CE regressions before cutover.

Use CTEs for clarity; materialize with temp tables when estimates go wild.

Install once against a checklist so day-two ops is boring.

The real fight is disciplined parameterized SQL versus undisciplined string-built queries — not SP versus inline.

Table variables shine for small fixed lists; skip them for large unknown sets.

Turn findings into prioritized, assignable work.

Prove restore SLAs with scheduled verification, not just successful backup jobs.

Prefer EXISTS for filters; CROSS APPLY for correlated top-N lookups.

Bridge app traces with database wait and plan evidence.

IIF is fine for short true/false expressions; keep complex branching in CASE.

Treat schema compare as a release gate, not a quarterly cleanup chore.

Prefer actionable alerts with clear ownership and runbooks.

Focus on runnable waits that explain user-visible latency.

Baseline, rehearse, verify, then cut — in that order.

Watch freeze age and dead tuples before users feel the pain.

Baseline latency and top queries before any engine cutover.

Confirm sniffed values before rewriting every procedure.

Always capture the head blocker when waits spike.

Watch growth frequency and size before users report timeouts.

Pair cache metrics with latency and IO stall evidence.

Interactive checklists and reference guides.

Post-migration diagnostics, Query Store, statistics, compatibility, and baseline scripts.

Targeted checks and fixes for compatibility-level regressions.

A hands-on lab for memory-optimized data and cleanup.