Administration – Page 3

Optimized Locking in SQL Server 2025

Published 2026-07-30 by Kevin Feasel

A feature I have been trying to find time to write about since it arrived is Optimized Locking, which first shipped in SQL Server 2025. This is a feature that changes the way SQL Server locks manages concurrency in a very interesting number of ways. Most of which, as I start writing this blog, I don’t understand. And I probably won’t when I finish.

What I can promise you is an example rich blog where I examine the impact of this feature.

Read on to see what Louis was able to learn.

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Test and Validate Azure SQL Database Migrations

Published 2026-07-27 by Kevin Feasel

Marlon Ribunal has a tool:

Introducing azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against a local Azure SQL Database Developer container — the same engine as the cloud, running on your machine.

The problem: proving a migration works shouldn’t require the cloud

The tool is AI-generated and it looks like the blog post is as well, but it does look to be useful.

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MSDB 110_upgrade.sql Failed with Error 574

Published 2026-07-22 by Kevin Feasel

Jordan Boich troubleshoots an issue:

SQL Server won’t start and at first, I couldn’t figure out why. When I logged off for the day on Friday, everything was happy, but when I logged on Monday morning, a heavily used test instance of SQL was not running and wouldn’t start.

Quick side note, and it’s funny looking back on now, but in the moment it sucks. You ever have to start the SQL Server Service from Configuration Manager, and when you right click -> Start, or right click -> Restart you see that green progress bar start to go and under normal healthy circumstances, it probably gets a third of the way through before SQL kicks over. But when you start to see that progress bar start to make more and more progress, you know before it even fails on you that something isn’t going to work right. You start to get that sinking feeling in your stomach. That was me.

Click through for the troubleshooting process as well as the end result.

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Removing and Re-Adding Databases into Distributed AGs

Published 2026-07-20 by Kevin Feasel

Jordan Boich administers a database in a distributed availability group:

I’ve seen a lot of great blog posts and content out there talking about Distributed Availability Groups (DAGs). However, I haven’t come across much of anything covering the actual administration of them. Especially for those choosing to use a DAG as their Disaster Recovery (DR) strategy. If you’re choosing to use a DAG for your DR, then you need to know how to perform basic administration. The goal of this post is to cover the gaps in knowledge out there, and cover the nuances of DAG administration as the methods and steps reveal nuances that normal Availability Groups do not necessarily present.

This post is going to cover how to remove and add a database from a Distributed Availability Group. Removing a database from an AG and having to add it back is a common maintenance or troubleshooting step that many DBAs face. But when it comes to DAGs there are some extra nuances and steps you have to keep in mind depending on if you’re working on the global primary AG or the forwarder.

Click through for the steps, as well as some of the pain points you might run into along the way.

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Working with Group Managed Service Accounts in SQL Server

Published 2026-07-17 by Kevin Feasel

Aleksey Vitsko uses a gMSA:

I plan to install several SQL Server instances across different servers. On all servers, I would like to use the same accounts for the SQL Server services for easier management. I’ve heard there are Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA) that can be used as SQL Server service accounts, for example for the database engine service and SQL Agent service. How can I configure gMSAs?

Click through for a good solution to a security problem that becomes all the more important when you need high availability.

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Impacts of Disabling Ghost Cleanup in SQL Server

Published 2026-07-17 by Kevin Feasel

Martyn Jones performs an experiment:

The first blog post introduced the ghost cleanup process, why it exists and how it works. The second demonstrated the process in action, including monitoring with Extended Events.

This post explores the ghost cleanup process further, including how it can be disabled and a high-level view of the potential impact. It also dives into data pages to show how ghost records are marked.

Disabling the ghost cleanup process can help expose internal behaviour more clearly, making it easier to observe how ghost records are marked and retained on pages.

Read on for the trace flag that can do it, as well as the consequences of doing it.

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Index Rebuild Completion Percentages in SQL Server

Published 2026-07-16 by Kevin Feasel

Andrea Allred goes searching for the truth:

I truly don’t know when it happened, but over the last while I have noticed that the percentage complete on indexes has disappeared when I run sp_whoisactive. It makes me so sad! I used that functionality often to track how things were progressing in my databases. At first I thought it was a version thing and it would come back, then I wondered if it was only when I use “ONLINE = ON”, but I am seeing it blank more and more. It has left me feeling like I am missing something and today, I finally did the digging to learn how to get that visibility back.

Click through to see how.

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Settings and Configurations to Avoid in SQL Server

Published 2026-07-16 by Kevin Feasel

Jeff Iannucci has a list:

SQL Server has quite a few instance and database configuration options, which is great if you need to make changes for different business workloads. But some of these configurations can do more harm than good, especially with modern version of the product.

As a consultant, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many clients who have a diverse range of configurations for their instances. And every now and then I see some that have been configured for what I can only presume is a predilection for danger. I mean, little to no good can come of them.

So today I wanted to share with you a few that I have seen used or changed, and to recommend to you with all the influence that I may have, that you DON’T TOUCH THEM – THEY’RE EVIL!

The contrarian in me wants to poke holes at some of these, though all of his database-level settings are defensible. On the instance level, I do have some gripes, specifically with fill factor (at least if you’re following Jeff Moden’s strategy). I thought about having a gripe around min server memory, but that’s reasonable—it’s max server memory that tends to be much more important to change.

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A Primer on Database States

Published 2026-07-14 by Kevin Feasel

Jeff Iannucci lays out the list:

I’ve recently been asked by some folks about different states for SQL Server databases. Questions like “what’s the state of a database with log shipping?”, “can I fix a database in (whatever) state with a restart?”, and “which is the bad one, RECOVERY or RECOVERY PENDING?”

Hopefully you don’t have to try to figure out if your database is in a bad way or not because of an unusual state, but I presume when you do you will need to know as soon as possible. So, I’ve put this handy list of possible database states together to help you in your moment of need.

Click through for the full set.

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SQL Login Overhead in SQL Server 2025

Published 2026-07-13 by Kevin Feasel

Sean Gallardy has a wonderful rant:

There were a few emails about login times so I figured it warranted a blog post. Strap in, this one goes sideways fast.

Some people noted that the amount of time to log in with a SQL Login in SQL Server 2025 all of a sudden took longer. This is clearly stated in the Docs, though the way it is written is documented is problematic.

As Sean mentions, this is on purpose and it is good. Yeah, the amount of time it takes to log in using SQL authenticated accounts in SQL Server 2025 is higher. That’s because the mechanism to log in is now considerably more secure than it was before. And let’s be honest: how frequently are you logging into SQL Server? What percentage of your processing time does that take? Because if the answer is “a large percentage,” that sounds like a job for connection pooling or revising the calling application.

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Category: Administration