A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Kenneth Fisher explains a nasty-looking error to us:
So, are you seeing this error?
Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
If you read the error it might freak you out a bit. The key words memory and corrupt can be a bit .. concerning. Fortunately in this case they are also rather misleading.
Click through to understand what’s going on and how you can fix the problem if you see this error.
Comments closedThis is a contrived example but I was given a script that got the “Discipline”, “DocumentVersion”, “DocumentNumber”, “SectionNumber”, and “SectionName” out of the above.
And while it works, I hate that formatting. Everything is all squashed and shoved together.No, thanks. Let’s see if we can make this more presentable.
Shane has a regular expression. Now Shane has two problems.
In all seriousness, regular expressions are extremely powerful in the right scenario. Shane mentions being okay with it not in the database engine and I’m usually alright with that, but there are cases when it’s really helpful like figuring out if a particular input is valid. One example I have on a project is finding legitimate codes (like ISBN) where you can solve the problem easily with a regex but my source data is abysmal. I can use the SQL# regular expression functions to drop into CLR and figure out whether that value is any good, something I would have a lot more trouble with in T-SQL alone.
Comments closedJeff Iannucci explains the benefits of Central Management Servers:
If you have more than a handful of instances, you really owe it to yourself to take a few minutes and set up your own CMS. The hard part is getting a list of all the instances, but you need to do that anyways, right?
Once you have that list pick ONE SQL Server instance to create your CMS. You want this to be something with solid up-time that is accessible to other team members, but not an instance that’s already spending CPU cycles on something critical.
The lack of CMS compatibility is one of my larger pain points with Azure Data Studio and an issue which hopefully gets fixed this year.
Comments closedMichelle Haarhues shows how you can use query shortcuts in SQL Server Management Studio:
Back in the day, with the introduction of programs like Word and Excel, I used keyboard shortcuts to make my job easier. Then we started using a mouse and reduced the number of keyboard shortcuts I used. It took me a long time to switch from the keyboard shortcuts to the mouse. Now I am back to using shortcuts, especially in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Microsoft allows users to create shortcuts that, if you use them, could make your job easier. Setting up the shortcuts in SSMS are pretty simple.
My shortcuts are all around running sp_whoisactive: Ctrl+F1 gets results back the way I want, Ctrl+3 shows only my sessions, and Ctrl+4 gives me more details (like execution plans) when I’m willing to wait the extra time to get them.
Comments closedGreg Low shares a few tips on working with graphical execution plans in SQL Server Management Studio:
So I can zoom in and out, set a custom zoom level, or zoom until the entire plan fits. Generally though, that would make the plan too small to read, as soon as you have a complicated plan.
But in one of the least discoverable UI features in SSMS, there is an option to pan around the plan.
Click through for the demos. My favorite way of navigating graphical execution plans in SSMS is to use SentryOne Plan Explorer instead.
Comments closedMichelle Haarhues shows how you can enable an enhanced scroll bar in SQL Server Management Studio:
There are so many tools within SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) that can make your job as a DBA or Developer easier that you may or may not be using. One of the tools available is the customization of the Scroll Bar. You can change the display and the behavior of the scroll bars, which can make working with code a lot easier and more efficient, especially when working with long code. The two options we will discuss are Scroll Bar Display and Behavior.
I didn’t like this a lot at first, but as I used it a few times, it grew on me.
Comments closedArthur Daniels shows us what happens when there are multiple missing indexes in an execution plan:
This is missing index request #1, and by default, this is the only missing index we’ll see by looking at the graphical execution plan. There’s actually a missing index request #2, which we can find in the XML (I know, it’s a little ugly to read. Bear with me).
I am of two minds on this. It probably should be easier to see multiple index candidates, but there’s already so much risk of people just copy-pastaing missing index recommendations that adding more seems like a bad idea.
Comments closedMonica Rathbun introduces a new feature in SQL Server Management Studio:
Ever need to have a test database on hand that you can allow others to query “real like” data without actually giving them actual production data values? In SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 18.0 preview Microsoft introduces us to Static Data Masking
. Static Data Masking is a new feature that allows you to create a cloned copy of your database and replace sensitive data with new data (fake data, referred to as masked). You can use this for things like development of business reports and analytics, trouble shooting, database development and even sharing data with outside teams or third parties. Unlike Dynamic Data Masking
added in SQL Server 2016, this feature does not hide the data with characters, rather it replaces the entire value. For example with dynamic data masking the name Peter = Pxxxx, whereas Static Data Masking changes Peter to Paul. This makes it very easy to use in place of production. Let’s see it in action. If you are not on a newer version on SSMS, don’t worry, you can download it
It looks like there are a few limitations to keep in mind, so click through to read about those.
Comments closedArthur Daniels recommends you review any warning signs in execution plans:
Some things in life we ignore. For example, the “check engine” light. That’s just there as a suggestion, right?
But when you’re performance tuning, you can’t afford to ignore the warning signs. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve found the issue with a query by looking at the warnings.
The example Arthur uses involves implicit conversion, but there are several important warnings SSMS bubbles up.
Comments closedTo help promote the seperation of duties one of the things my company has done is to divide our permissions into two accounts. We have one account that is for our daily tasks. Reading email, searching the internet, basic structure changes in a database etc. The other account is our admin account. It’s for remoting to servers, security tasks, really anything that requires sysadmin. I’m not going to argue the advisability of this because honestly, I’m kind of on the fence. That said, I do have to deal with it and there are a few tips in case you have to deal with it as well.
And if you’re not on the domain as well, runas /netonly /user:[domain\username] ssms.exe will do the job.