Friday, November 25, 2016

Interesting SQL related links for the week of Nov 25, 2016


Here are some interesting articles I read and tweeted about this past week, I think you will like these as well. If you are bored this weekend, some of these might be good for you to read



Released: Public Preview for System Center Management Packs for SQL Server

We are getting ready to update the SQL Server Management Packs family. Please install and use this public preview and send us your feedback (sqlmpsfeedback@microsoft.com)! We appreciate the time and effort you spend on these previews which make the final product so much better.
Please download at:
Included in the download are:
  • Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2008/2008 R2/2012/2014/2016 (6.7.10.0)
  • Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server Replication 2008/2012/2014/2016 (6.7.10.0)
  • Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server Analysis Services 2008/2012/2014/2016 (6.7.10.0)
  • Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server Reporting Services 2008/2012/2014/2016 (6.7.10.0)
  • Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server Dashboards (6.7.10.0)


SQL Server 2016 SP1: Known issues

The SQL Product team has identified the following known issues which the customers may encounter after installing SQL Server 2016 SP1. The following post will help the customers  plan and prepare their environment for the following known issues while installing SQL Server 2016 SP1.







Index Scans: Not Nearly As Bad As You Might Think

Using our good old buddy the StackOverflow demo database, let’s look at the Users table. I want to get the first 10 users in the table ordered by Id, the primary clustered key, which is an identity field.


Ooo – clustered index scan – that’s bad, right?

Not so fast. Click on the plan to view it in PasteThePlan.com, and hover your mouse over the Clustered Index Scan:




Source Control in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

In the latest generation of SQL Server Management Studio, we moved to the Visual Studio 2015 Isolated Shell. While this provides SSMS a modern IDE foundation for many functional areas, it also had some consequences. Specifically, the integration with source control systems in SSMS no longer works the way it did in SSMS 2014 and prior.  Previously, one could install the Visual Studio MSSCCI provider and then integrate with various source control systems. Visual Studio 2015 does not support MSSCCI so that is no longer an option to use in SSMS.
Of course, the good news is that Visual Studio 2015 includes TFS and Git source control integration. With the move to VS 2015 Isolated Shell, SSMS should be able to use these packages as well, right? The answer is…yes…but! The issue for SSMS is that the TFS source control integration package VS provides also includes the entire suite of TFS integration features. If we include this package by default, SSMS will have Team Explorer in its entirety which includes things such as work item tracking, builds, etc. This doesn’t fit in the overall experience SSMS is designed for, so we aren’t going to include this package as part of SSMS. The full TFS integrated experience is included as part of SQL Server Data Tools which is designed for a more developer-centric set of scenarios.
That said, if source code integration is an important aspect of how you use SSMS, you can enable the Visual Studio packages manually.

Why is My Query Faster the Second Time it Runs? (Dear SQL DBA Episode 23)

Dear SQL DBA,
Whenever I create a complex view, the first time I use it in a query, the query is slow. The same thing happens after I alter the view. What is the reason behind this?
This is a great question — because when you ask this question, you’re about to discover a lot of interesting, useful things about how SQL Server runs queries.
There are two ways that SQL Server can use memory to make a query faster the second time you run it. Let’s talk about how the magic happens.

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