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• SQL SERVER – Tricks to Replace SELECT * with Column Names – SQL in Sixty Seconds #017 – Video

  - by pinaldave

  You might have heard many times that one should not use SELECT * as there are many disadvantages to the usage of the SELECT *. I also believe that there are always rare occasion when we need every single column of the query. In most of the cases, we only need a few columns of the query and we should retrieve only those columns. SELECT * has many disadvantages. Let me list a few and remaining you can add as a comment.  Retrieves unnecessary columns and increases network traffic When a new columns are added views needs to be refreshed manually Leads to usage of sub-optimal execution plan Uses clustered index in most of the cases instead of using optimal index It is difficult to debug. There are two quick tricks I have discussed in the video which explains how users can avoid using SELECT * but instead list the column names. 1) Drag the columns folder from SQL Server Management Studio to Query Editor 2) Right Click on Table Name >> Script TAble AS >> SELECT To… >> Select option It is extremely easy to list the column names in the table. In today’s sixty seconds video, you will notice that I was able to demonstrate both the methods very quickly. From now onwards there should be no excuse for not listing ColumnName. Let me ask a question back – is there ever a reason to SELECT *? If yes, would you please share that as a comment. More on SELECT *: SQL SERVER – Solution – Puzzle – SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) SQL SERVER – Puzzle – SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) SQL SERVER – SELECT vs. SET Performance Comparison I encourage you to submit your ideas for SQL in Sixty Seconds. We will try to accommodate as many as we can. If we like your idea we promise to share with you educational material. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video

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• SQL SERVER – 2011 – Introduction to SEQUENCE – Simple Example of SEQUENCE

  - by pinaldave

  SQL Server 2011 will contain one of the very interesting feature called SEQUENCE. I have waited for this feature for really long time. I am glad it is here finally. SEQUENCE allows you to define a single point of repository where SQL Server will maintain in memory counter. USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO CREATE SEQUENCE [Seq] AS [int] START WITH 1 INCREMENT BY 1 MAXVALUE 20000 GO SEQUENCE is very interesting concept and I will write few blog post on this subject in future. Today we will see only working example of the same. Let us create a sequence. We can specify various values like start value, increment value as well maxvalue. -- First Run SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR Seq, c.CustomerID FROM Sales.Customer c GO -- Second Run SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR Seq, c.AccountNumber FROM Sales.Customer c GO Once the sequence is defined, it can be fetched using following method. Every single time new incremental value is provided, irrespective of sessions. Sequence will generate values till the max value specified. Once the max value is reached, query will stop and will return error message. Msg 11728, Level 16, State 1, Line 2 The sequence object ‘Seq’ has reached its minimum or maximum value. Restart the sequence object to allow new values to be generated. We can restart the sequence from any particular value and it will work fine. -- Restart the Sequence ALTER SEQUENCE [Seq] RESTART WITH 1 GO -- Sequence Restarted SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR Seq, c.CustomerID FROM Sales.Customer c GO Let us do final clean up. -- Clean Up DROP SEQUENCE [Seq] GO There are lots of things one can find useful about this feature. We will see that in future posts. Here is the complete code for easy reference. USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO CREATE SEQUENCE [Seq] AS [int] START WITH 1 INCREMENT BY 1 MAXVALUE 20000 GO -- First Run SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR Seq, c.CustomerID FROM Sales.Customer c GO -- Second Run SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR Seq, c.AccountNumber FROM Sales.Customer c GO -- Restart the Sequence ALTER SEQUENCE [Seq] RESTART WITH 1 GO -- Sequence Restarted SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR Seq, c.CustomerID FROM Sales.Customer c GO -- Clean Up DROP SEQUENCE [Seq] GO Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – A Puzzle – Fun with NULL – Fix Error 8117

  - by pinaldave

  During my 8 years of career, I have been involved in many interviews. Quite often, I act as the  interview. If I am the interviewer, I ask many questions – from easy questions to difficult ones. When I am the interviewee, I frequently get an opportunity to ask the interviewer some questions back. Regardless of the my capacity in attending the interview, I always make it a point to ask the interviewer at least one question. What is NULL? It’s always fun to ask this question during interviews, because in every interview, I get a different answer. NULL is often confused with false, absence of value or infinite value. Honestly, NULL is a very interesting subject as it bases its behavior in server settings. There are a few properties of NULL that are universal, but the knowledge about these properties is not known in a universal sense. Let us run this simple puzzle. Run the following T-SQL script: SELECT SUM(data) FROM (SELECT NULL AS data) t It will return the following error: Msg 8117, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Operand data type NULL is invalid for sum operator. Now the error makes it very clear that NULL is invalid for sum Operator. Frequently enough, I have showed this simple query to many folks whom I came across. I asked them if they could modify the subquery and return the result as NULL. Here is what I expected: Even though this is a very simple looking query, so far I’ve got the correct answer from only 10% of the people to whom I have asked this question. It was common for me to receive this kind of answer – convert the NULL to some data type. However, doing so usually returns the value as 0 or the integer they passed. SELECT SUM(data) FROM (SELECT ISNULL(NULL,0) AS data) t I usually see many people modifying the outer query to get desired NULL result, but that is not allowed in this simple puzzle. This small puzzle made me wonder how many people have a clear understanding about NULL. Well, here is the answer to my simple puzzle. Just CAST NULL AS INT and it will return the final result as NULL: SELECT SUM(data) FROM (SELECT CAST(NULL AS INT) AS data) t Now that you know the answer, don’t you think it was very simple indeed? This blog post is especially dedicated to my friend Madhivanan who has written an excellent blog post about NULL. I am confident that after reading the blog post from Madhivanan, you will have no confusion regarding NULL in the future. Read: NULL, NULL, NULL and nothing but NULL. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – DVM sys.dm_os_sys_info Column Name Changed in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  Have you ever faced situation where something does not work and when you try to go and fix it – you like fixing it and started to appreciate the breaking changes. Well, this is exactly I felt yesterday. Before I begin my story of yesterday I want to state it candidly that I do not encourage anybody to use * in the SELECT statement. One of the my DBA friend who always used my performance tuning script yesterday sent me email asking following question - “Every time I want to retrieve OS related information in SQL Server – I used DMV sys.dm_os_sys_info. I just upgraded my SQL Server edition from 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012 RC0 and it suddenly stopped working. Well, this is not the production server so the issue is not big yet but eventually I need to resolve this error. Any suggestion?” The funny thing was original email was very long but it did not talk about what is the exact error beside the query is not working. I think this is the disadvantage of being too friendly on email sometime. Well, never the less, I quickly looked at the DMV on my SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 RC0 version. To my surprise I found out that there were few columns which are renamed in SQL Server 2012 RC0. Usually when people see breaking changes they do not like it but when I see these changes I was happy as new names were meaningful and additionally their new conversion is much more practical and useful. Here are the columns previous names - Previous Column Name New Column Name physical_memory_in_bytes physical_memory_kb bpool_commit_target committed_target_kb bpool_visible visible_target_kb virtual_memory_in_bytes virtual_memory_kb bpool_commited committed_kb If you read it carefully you will notice that new columns now display few results in the KB whereas earlier result was in bytes. When I see the results in bytes I always get confused as I could not guess what exactly it will convert to. I like to see results in kb and I am glad that new columns are now displaying the results in the kb. I sent the details of the new columns to my friend and ask him to check the columns used in application. From my comment he quickly realized why he was facing error and fixed it immediately. Overall – all was well at the end and I learned something new. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DMV, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to FIRST _VALUE and LAST_VALUE – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical functions FIRST_VALUE() and LAST_VALUE(). This function returns first and last value from the list. It will be very difficult to explain this in words so I’d like to attempt to explain its function through a brief example. Instead of creating a new table, I will be using the AdventureWorks sample database as most developers use that for experiment purposes. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) LstValue FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty GO The above query will give us the following result: What’s the most interesting thing here is that as we go from row 1 to row 10, the value of the FIRST_VALUE() remains the same but the value of the LAST_VALUE is increasing. The reason behind this is that as we progress in every line – considering that line and all the other lines before it, the last value will be of the row where we are currently looking at. To fully understand this statement, see the following figure: This may be useful in some cases; but not always. However, when we use the same thing with PARTITION BY, the same query starts showing the result which can be easily used in analytical algorithms and needs. Let us have fun through the following query: Let us fun following query. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) LstValue FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty GO The above query will give us the following result: Let us understand how PARTITION BY windows the resultset. I have used PARTITION BY SalesOrderID in my query. This will create small windows of the resultset from the original resultset and will follow the logic or FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE in this resultset. Well, this is just an introduction to these functions. In the future blog posts we will go deeper to discuss the usage of these two functions. By the way, these functions can be applied over VARCHAR fields as well and are not limited to the numeric field only. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to PERCENTILE_DISC() – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical function PERCENTILE_DISC(). The book online gives following definition of this function: Computes a specific percentile for sorted values in an entire rowset or within distinct partitions of a rowset in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate 0 (RC 0). For a given percentile value P, PERCENTILE_DISC sorts the values of the expression in the ORDER BY clause and returns the value with the smallest CUME_DIST value (with respect to the same sort specification) that is greater than or equal to P. If you are clear with understanding of the function – no need to read further. If you got lost here is the same in simple words – find value of the column which is equal or more than CUME_DIST. Before you continue reading this blog I strongly suggest you read about CUME_DIST function over here Introduction to CUME_DIST – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist, PERCENTILE_DISC(0.5) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY ProductID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS PercentileDisc FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY SalesOrderID DESC GO The above query will give us the following result: You can see that I have used PERCENTILE_DISC(0.5) in query, which is similar to finding median but not exactly. PERCENTILE_DISC() function takes a percentile as a passing parameters. It returns the value as answer which value is equal or great to the percentile value which is passed into the example. For example in above example we are passing 0.5 into the PERCENTILE_DISC() function. It will go through the resultset and identify which rows has values which are equal to or great than 0.5. In first example it found two rows which are equal to 0.5 and the value of ProductID of that row is the answer of PERCENTILE_DISC(). In some third windowed resultset there is only single row with the CUME_DIST() value as 1 and that is for sure higher than 0.5 making it as a answer. To make sure that we are clear with this example properly. Here is one more example where I am passing 0.6 as a percentile. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist, PERCENTILE_DISC(0.6) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY ProductID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS PercentileDisc FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY SalesOrderID DESC GO The above query will give us the following result: The result of the PERCENTILE_DISC(0.6) is ProductID of which CUME_DIST() is more than 0.6. This means for SalesOrderID 43670 has row with CUME_DIST() 0.75 is the qualified row, resulting answer 773 for ProductID. I hope this explanation makes it further clear. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Three Puzzling Questions – Need Your Answer

  - by pinaldave

  Last week I had asked three questions on my blog. I got very good response to the questions. I am planning to write summary post for each of three questions next week. Before I write summary post and give credit to all the valid answers. I was wondering if I can bring to notice of all of you this week. Why SELECT * throws an error but SELECT COUNT(*) does not This is indeed very interesting question as not quite many realize that this kind of behavior SQL Server demonstrates out of the box. Once you run both the code and read the explanation it totally makes sense why SQL Server is behaving how it is behaving. Also there is connect item is associated with it. Also read the very first comment by Rob Farley it also shares very interesting detail. Statistics are not Updated but are Created Once This puzzle has multiple right answer. I am glad to see many of the correct answer as a comment to this blog post. Statistics are very important and it really helps SQL Server Engine to come up with optimal execution plan. DBA quite often ignore statistics thinking it does not need to be updated, as they are automatically maintained if proper database setting is configured (auto update and auto create). Well, in this question, we have scenario even though auto create and auto update statistics are ON, statistics is not updated. There are multiple solutions but what will be your solution in this case? When to use Function and When to use Stored Procedure This question is rather open ended question – there is no right or wrong answer. Everybody developer has always used functions and stored procedures. Here is the chance to justify when to use Stored Procedure and when to use Functions. I want to acknowledge that they can be used interchangeably but there are few reasons when one should not do that. There are few reasons when one is better than other. Let us discuss this here. Your opinion matters. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to CUME_DIST – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is written in response to the T-SQL Tuesday post of Prox ‘n’ Funx. This is a very interesting subject. By the way Brad Schulz is my favorite guy when it is about blogging. I respect him as well learn a lot from him. Everybody is writing something new his subject, I decided to start SQL Server 2012 analytic functions series. SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical function CUME_DIST(). This function provides cumulative distribution value. It will be very difficult to explain this in words so I will attempt small example to explain you this function. Instead of creating new table, I will be using AdventureWorks sample database as most of the developer uses that for experiment. Let us fun following query. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, CUME_DIST() OVER(ORDER BY SalesOrderID) AS CDist FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY CDist DESC GO Above query will give us following result. Now let us understand what is the formula behind CUME_DIST and why the values in SalesOrderID = 43670 are 1. Let us take more example and be clear about why the values in SalesOrderID = 43667 are 0.5. Now let us enhence the same example and use PARTITION BY into the OVER clause and see the results. Run following query in SQL Server 2012. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID DESC, CDist DESC GO Now let us see the result of this query. We are have changed the ORDER BY clause as well partitioning by SalesOrderID. You can see that CUME_DIST() function provides us different results. Additionally now we see value 1 multiple times. As we are using partitioning for each group of SalesOrderID we get the CUME_DIST() value. CUME_DIST() was long awaited Analytical function and I am glad to see it in SQL Server 2012. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Open the SQL Server Error Log with PowerShell

  - by BuckWoody

  Using the Server Management Objects (SMO) library, you don’t even need to have the SQL Server 2008 PowerShell Provider to read the SQL Server Error Logs – in fact, you can use regular old everyday PowerShell. Keep in mind you will need the SMO libraries – which can be installed separately or by installing the Client Tools from the SQL Server install media. You could search for errors, store a result as a variable, or act on the returned values in some other way. Replace the Machine Name with your server and Instance Name with your instance, but leave the quotes, to make this work on your system: [reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo") $machineName = "UNIVAC" $instanceName = "Production" $sqlServer = new-object ("Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server") "$machineName\$instanceName" $sqlServer.ReadErrorLog() Want to search for something specific, like the word “Error”? Replace the last line with this: $sqlServer.ReadErrorLog() | where {$_.Text -like "Error*"} Script Disclaimer, for people who need to be told this sort of thing: Never trust any script, including those that you find here, until you understand exactly what it does and how it will act on your systems. Always check the script on a test system or Virtual Machine, not a production system. Yes, there are always multiple ways to do things, and this script may not work in every situation, for everything. It’s just a script, people. All scripts on this site are performed by a professional stunt driver on a closed course. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. Offer good for a limited time only. Keep out of reach of small children. Do not operate heavy machinery while using this script. If you experience blurry vision, indigestion or diarrhea during the operation of this script, see a physician immediately. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Windows Service with a Logon user set

  - by David.Chu.ca

  I have a service running in a box with Windows XP and a box of Server (2008). The service is configured as autmactic mode with a logon user/pwd set. The log on user is a local user. The service requires this user setting in order to run. The issue I have right now is that the box intermittently reboot itself. I am going to investigate what is causing the reboot (hardware or application). Regardless the reason, what I need is that the service should be able to recover itself into running state after the reboot. I think the configuration should be able achieve this goal since the user/pwd having been set and its mode being automatic. Do I need to log in as that user to bring the service back? (sometimes the reboot happens in the midnight) I am not sure if there is any difference between Windows XP and Windows Server (2008). The only thing I realize is that when there is a unexpected reboot, the Windows Server will prompt a dialog to explain the previous reboot. Will this prevent any automatic service running or the service will run only the reason has been set?

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• “NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON” error in Windows 7 (ASP.NET & Web Service)

  - by Tony_Henrich

  I have an asp.net web app which works fine in Windows XP machine in a domain. I am porting it to a Windows 7 stand alone machine. The app uses a web service which makes a call to sql server. The web server (IIS 7.5) and SQL Server are on the same stand alone machine. I enabled Windows authentication for the website and web service. The web service uses a trusted connection connection string. The web service credentials uses System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials. I noticed username, password and domainname are blank after the call! The webservice and web site use the 'Classic .NET AppPool' with NetworkServices identity. I am getting an exception "NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON" in the database call in the web service. I am assuming it's related to the blank credentials. I am expecting ASPNET user to be the security token to the database. Why is this not happening? Did I miss a setting? (Usually this happens when sql server and web server are on two different machines in a domain, delegation & double hopping, but in my case everything is on a dev box)

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• Windows service fails to start with local user until password is entered again in logon tab

  - by Nick

  Basically we have a service where we use a local account as its logon. it has all the proper permissions, and everything is working fine, service starts and runs and all is good. Then one day, after rebooting, the service fails to start. Logs show incorrect password. Our technicians resolve the issue by simply retyping the password into the "Log On" tab from the services.msc. Unfortunately we have not been able to root cause. I suspect that the password that is stored for the service is lost somehow. Does anyone know where the password hash might be stored so we can check it? The only activities that seem to be possibly related are patching with Microsoft security patches, but we have multiple servers running the same service, and we have never seen more than one at a time, and its usually a different one each time when this occurrs. I believe this to be the same issue as this: Windows service fails to start with custom user until started once with local user But i was unable to add comments, and its really old.

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• Exchange 2010 UR3 - customizing OWA logon page

  - by STGdb

  I have an Exchange 2010 UR3 deployment that I need to customize the OWA logon page for. I've created a new LGNTOPL.GIF file to replace the existing one in the folder: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\14.3.158.1\themes\resources” When I bring up OWA, I still get the original “Outlook Web App” logo. I’ve searched and found a couple of other instances of LGNTOPL.GIF in the directories: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\14.3.123.3\themes\resources” “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\14.3.146.0\themes\resources” “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\Current\themes\resources” I’ve replaced the LGNTOPL.GIF file in each of the above directories but got the same results. I’ve tried clearing my browser cache and even using multiple browsers from multiple PC’s but the same results. I’ve even tried making my GIF file the same pixel size as the original LGNTOPL.GIF logo but still the same results. I’ve tried restarting IIS on the CAS server and restarting the server but same results. Has something changed with Exchange 2010 UR3 when trying to customize OWA? I don't see anything documented about any change to OWA customization. Thanks

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• Exchange 2010 UR3 - customizing OWA logon page

  - by STGdb

  I have an Exchange 2010 UR3 deployment that I need to customize the OWA logon page for. I've created a new LGNTOPL.GIF file to replace the existing one in the folder: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\14.3.158.1\themes\resources” When I bring up OWA, I still get the original “Outlook Web App” logo. I’ve searched and found a couple of other instances of LGNTOPL.GIF in the directories: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\14.3.123.3\themes\resources” “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\14.3.146.0\themes\resources” “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\Current\themes\resources” I’ve replaced the LGNTOPL.GIF file in each of the above directories but got the same results. I’ve tried clearing my browser cache and even using multiple browsers from multiple PC’s but the same results. I’ve even tried making my GIF file the same pixel size as the original LGNTOPL.GIF logo but still the same results. I’ve tried restarting IIS on the CAS server and restarting the server but same results. Has something changed with Exchange 2010 UR3 when trying to customize OWA? I don't see anything documented about any change to OWA customization. Thanks

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to Extended Events – Finding Long Running Queries

  - by pinaldave

  The job of an SQL Consultant is very interesting as always. The month before, I was busy doing query optimization and performance tuning projects for our clients, and this month, I am busy delivering my performance in Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Query Optimization and & Performance Tuning Course. I recently read white paper about Extended Event by SQL Server MVP Jonathan Kehayias. You can read the white paper here: Using SQL Server 2008 Extended Events. I also read another appealing chapter by Jonathan in the book, SQLAuthority Book Review – Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting. After reading these excellent notes by Jonathan, I decided to upgrade my course and include Extended Event as one of the modules. This week, I have delivered Extended Events session two times and attendees really liked the said course. They really think Extended Events is one of the most powerful tools available. Extended Events can do many things. I suggest that you read the white paper I mentioned to learn more about this tool. Instead of writing a long theory, I am going to write a very quick script for Extended Events. This event session captures all the longest running queries ever since the event session was started. One of the many advantages of the Extended Events is that it can be configured very easily and it is a robust method to collect necessary information in terms of troubleshooting. There are many targets where you can store the information, which include XML file target, which I really like. In the following Events, we are writing the details of the event at two locations: 1) Ringer Buffer; and 2) XML file. It is not necessary to write at both places, either of the two will do. -- Extended Event for finding *long running query* IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.server_event_sessions WHERE name='LongRunningQuery') DROP EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER GO -- Create Event CREATE EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER -- Add event to capture event ADD EVENT sqlserver.sql_statement_completed ( -- Add action - event property ACTION (sqlserver.sql_text, sqlserver.tsql_stack) -- Predicate - time 1000 milisecond WHERE sqlserver.sql_statement_completed.duration > 1000 ) -- Add target for capturing the data - XML File ADD TARGET package0.asynchronous_file_target( SET filename='c:\LongRunningQuery.xet', metadatafile='c:\LongRunningQuery.xem'), -- Add target for capturing the data - Ring Bugger ADD TARGET package0.ring_buffer (SET max_memory = 4096) WITH (max_dispatch_latency = 1 seconds) GO -- Enable Event ALTER EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER STATE=START GO -- Run long query (longer than 1000 ms) SELECT * FROM AdventureWorks.Sales.SalesOrderDetail ORDER BY UnitPriceDiscount DESC GO -- Stop the event ALTER EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER STATE=STOP GO -- Read the data from Ring Buffer SELECT CAST(dt.target_data AS XML) AS xmlLockData FROM sys.dm_xe_session_targets dt JOIN sys.dm_xe_sessions ds ON ds.Address = dt.event_session_address JOIN sys.server_event_sessions ss ON ds.Name = ss.Name WHERE dt.target_name = 'ring_buffer' AND ds.Name = 'LongRunningQuery' GO -- Read the data from XML File SELECT event_data_XML.value('(event/data[1])[1]','VARCHAR(100)') AS Database_ID, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[2])[1]','INT') AS OBJECT_ID, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[3])[1]','INT') AS object_type, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[4])[1]','INT') AS cpu, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[5])[1]','INT') AS duration, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[6])[1]','INT') AS reads, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[7])[1]','INT') AS writes, event_data_XML.value('(event/action[1])[1]','VARCHAR(512)') AS sql_text, event_data_XML.value('(event/action[2])[1]','VARCHAR(512)') AS tsql_stack, CAST(event_data_XML.value('(event/action[2])[1]','VARCHAR(512)') AS XML).value('(frame/@handle)[1]','VARCHAR(50)') AS handle FROM ( SELECT CAST(event_data AS XML) event_data_XML, * FROM sys.fn_xe_file_target_read_file ('c:\LongRunningQuery*.xet', 'c:\LongRunningQuery*.xem', NULL, NULL)) T GO -- Clean up. Drop the event DROP EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER GO Just run the above query, afterwards you will find following result set. This result set contains the query that was running over 1000 ms. In our example, I used the XML file, and it does not reset when SQL services or computers restarts (if you are using DMV, it will reset when SQL services restarts). This event session can be very helpful for troubleshooting. Let me know if you want me to write more about Extended Events. I am totally fascinated with this feature, so I’m planning to acquire more knowledge about it so I can determine its other usages. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL Extended Events

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• SQL SERVER – Update Statistics are Sampled By Default

  - by pinaldave

  After reading my earlier post SQL SERVER – Create Primary Key with Specific Name when Creating Table on Statistics, I have received another question by a blog reader. The question is as follows: Question: Are the statistics sampled by default? Answer: Yes. The sampling rate can be specified by the user and it can be anywhere between a very low value to 100%. Let us do a small experiment to verify if the auto update on statistics is left on. Also, let’s examine a very large table that is created and statistics by default- whether the statistics are sampled or not. USE [AdventureWorks] GO -- Create Table CREATE TABLE [dbo].[StatsTest]( [ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, [FirstName] [varchar](100) NULL, [LastName] [varchar](100) NULL, [City] [varchar](100) NULL, CONSTRAINT [PK_StatsTest] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([ID] ASC) ) ON [PRIMARY] GO -- Insert 1 Million Rows INSERT INTO [dbo].[StatsTest] (FirstName,LastName,City) SELECT TOP 1000000 'Bob', CASE WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%2 = 1 THEN 'Smith' ELSE 'Brown' END, CASE WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%10 = 1 THEN 'New York' WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%10 = 5 THEN 'San Marino' WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%10 = 3 THEN 'Los Angeles' ELSE 'Houston' END FROM sys.all_objects a CROSS JOIN sys.all_objects b GO -- Update the statistics UPDATE STATISTICS [dbo].[StatsTest] GO -- Shows the statistics DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS ("StatsTest"PK_StatsTest) GO -- Clean up DROP TABLE [dbo].[StatsTest] GO Now let us observe the result of the DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS. The result shows that Resultset is for sure sampling for a large dataset. The percentage of sampling is based on data distribution as well as the kind of data in the table. Before dropping the table, let us check first the size of the table. The size of the table is 35 MB. Now, let us run the above code with lesser number of the rows. USE [AdventureWorks] GO -- Create Table CREATE TABLE [dbo].[StatsTest]( [ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, [FirstName] [varchar](100) NULL, [LastName] [varchar](100) NULL, [City] [varchar](100) NULL, CONSTRAINT [PK_StatsTest] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([ID] ASC) ) ON [PRIMARY] GO -- Insert 1 Hundred Thousand Rows INSERT INTO [dbo].[StatsTest] (FirstName,LastName,City) SELECT TOP 100000 'Bob', CASE WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%2 = 1 THEN 'Smith' ELSE 'Brown' END, CASE WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%10 = 1 THEN 'New York' WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%10 = 5 THEN 'San Marino' WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%10 = 3 THEN 'Los Angeles' ELSE 'Houston' END FROM sys.all_objects a CROSS JOIN sys.all_objects b GO -- Update the statistics UPDATE STATISTICS [dbo].[StatsTest] GO -- Shows the statistics DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS ("StatsTest"PK_StatsTest) GO -- Clean up DROP TABLE [dbo].[StatsTest] GO You can see that Rows Sampled is just the same as Rows of the table. In this case, the sample rate is 100%. Before dropping the table, let us also check the size of the table. The size of the table is less than 4 MB. Let us compare the Result set just for a valid reference. Test 1: Total Rows: 1000000, Rows Sampled: 255420, Size of the Table: 35.516 MB Test 2: Total Rows: 100000, Rows Sampled: 100000, Size of the Table: 3.555 MB The reason behind the sample in the Test1 is that the data space is larger than 8 MB, and therefore it uses more than 1024 data pages. If the data space is smaller than 8 MB and uses less than 1024 data pages, then the sampling does not happen. Sampling aids in reducing excessive data scan; however, sometimes it reduces the accuracy of the data as well. Please note that this is just a sample test and there is no way it can be claimed as a benchmark test. The result can be dissimilar on different machines. There are lots of other information can be included when talking about this subject. I will write detail post covering all the subject very soon. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL Statistics

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• SQL SERVER – SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File in SQL Server 2008

  - by pinaldave

  Note: Please read the complete post before taking any actions. This blog post would discuss SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File. The script mentioned in the email received from reader contains the following questionable code: “Hi Pinal, If you could remember, I and my manager met you at TechEd in Bangalore. We just upgraded to SQL Server 2008. One of our jobs failed as it was using the following code. The error was: Msg 155, Level 15, State 1, Line 1 ‘TRUNCATE_ONLY’ is not a recognized BACKUP option. The code was: DBCC SHRINKFILE(TestDBLog, 1) BACKUP LOG TestDB WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY DBCC SHRINKFILE(TestDBLog, 1) GO I have modified that code to subsequent code and it works fine. But, are there other suggestions you have at the moment? USE [master] GO ALTER DATABASE [TestDb] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE WITH NO_WAIT DBCC SHRINKFILE(TestDbLog, 1) ALTER DATABASE [TestDb] SET RECOVERY FULL WITH NO_WAIT GO Configuration of our server and system is as follows: [Removed not relevant data]“ An email like this that suddenly pops out in early morning is alarming email. Because I am a dead, busy mind, so I had only one min to reply. I wrote down quickly the following note. (As I said, it was a single-minute email so it is not completely accurate). Here is that quick email shared with all of you. “Hi Mr. DBA [removed the name] Thanks for your email. I suggest you stop this practice. There are many issues included here, but I would list two major issues: 1) From the setting database to simple recovery, shrinking the file and once again setting in full recovery, you are in fact losing your valuable log data and will be not able to restore point in time. Not only that, you will also not able to use subsequent log files. 2) Shrinking file or database adds fragmentation. There are a lot of things you can do. First, start taking proper log backup using following command instead of truncating them and losing them frequently. BACKUP LOG [TestDb] TO  DISK = N'C:\Backup\TestDb.bak' GO Remove the code of SHRINKING the file. If you are taking proper log backups, your log file usually (again usually, special cases are excluded) do not grow very big. There are so many things to add here, but you can call me on my [phone number]. Before you call me, I suggest for accuracy you read Paul Randel‘s two posts here and here and Brent Ozar‘s Post here. Kind Regards, Pinal Dave” I guess this post is very much clear to you. Please leave your comments here. As mentioned, this is a very huge subject; I have just touched a tip of the ice-berg and have tried to point to authentic knowledge. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Data Storage, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to Wait Stats and Wait Types – Wait Type – Day 1 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  I have been working a lot on Wait Stats and Wait Types recently. Last Year, I requested blog readers to send me their respective server’s wait stats. I appreciate their kind response as I have received  Wait stats from my readers. I took each of the results and carefully analyzed them. I provided necessary feedback to the person who sent me his wait stats and wait types. Based on the feedbacks I got, many of the readers have tuned their server. After a while I got further feedbacks on my recommendations and again, I collected wait stats. I recorded the wait stats and my recommendations and did further research. At some point at time, there were more than 10 different round trips of the recommendations and suggestions. Finally, after six month of working my hands on performance tuning, I have collected some real world wisdom because of this. Now I plan to share my findings with all of you over here. Before anything else, please note that all of these are based on my personal observations and opinions. They may or may not match the theory available at other places. Some of the suggestions may not match your situation. Remember, every server is different and consequently, there is more than one solution to a particular problem. However, this series is written with kept wait stats in mind. While I was working on various performance tuning consultations, I did many more things than just tuning wait stats. Today we will discuss how to capture the wait stats. I use the script diagnostic script created by my friend and SQL Server Expert Glenn Berry to collect wait stats. Here is the script to collect the wait stats: -- Isolate top waits for server instance since last restart or statistics clear WITH Waits AS (SELECT wait_type, wait_time_ms / 1000. AS wait_time_s, 100. * wait_time_ms / SUM(wait_time_ms) OVER() AS pct, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY wait_time_ms DESC) AS rn FROM sys.dm_os_wait_stats WHERE wait_type NOT IN ('CLR_SEMAPHORE','LAZYWRITER_SLEEP','RESOURCE_QUEUE','SLEEP_TASK' ,'SLEEP_SYSTEMTASK','SQLTRACE_BUFFER_FLUSH','WAITFOR', 'LOGMGR_QUEUE','CHECKPOINT_QUEUE' ,'REQUEST_FOR_DEADLOCK_SEARCH','XE_TIMER_EVENT','BROKER_TO_FLUSH','BROKER_TASK_STOP','CLR_MANUAL_EVENT' ,'CLR_AUTO_EVENT','DISPATCHER_QUEUE_SEMAPHORE', 'FT_IFTS_SCHEDULER_IDLE_WAIT' ,'XE_DISPATCHER_WAIT', 'XE_DISPATCHER_JOIN', 'SQLTRACE_INCREMENTAL_FLUSH_SLEEP')) SELECT W1.wait_type, CAST(W1.wait_time_s AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS wait_time_s, CAST(W1.pct AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS pct, CAST(SUM(W2.pct) AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS running_pct FROM Waits AS W1 INNER JOIN Waits AS W2 ON W2.rn <= W1.rn GROUP BY W1.rn, W1.wait_type, W1.wait_time_s, W1.pct HAVING SUM(W2.pct) - W1.pct < 99 OPTION (RECOMPILE); -- percentage threshold GO This script uses Dynamic Management View sys.dm_os_wait_stats to collect the wait stats. It omits the system-related wait stats which are not useful to diagnose performance-related bottleneck. Additionally, not OPTION (RECOMPILE) at the end of the DMV will ensure that every time the query runs, it retrieves new data and not the cached data. This dynamic management view collects all the information since the time when the SQL Server services have been restarted. You can also manually clear the wait stats using the following command: DBCC SQLPERF('sys.dm_os_wait_stats', CLEAR); Once the wait stats are collected, we can start analysis them and try to see what is causing any particular wait stats to achieve higher percentages than the others. Many waits stats are related to one another. When the CPU pressure is high, all the CPU-related wait stats show up on top. But when that is fixed, all the wait stats related to the CPU start showing reasonable percentages. It is difficult to have a sure solution, but there are good indications and good suggestions on how to solve this. I will keep this blog post updated as I will post more details about wait stats and how I reduce them. The reference to Book On Line is over here. Of course, I have selected February to run this Wait Stats series. I am already cheating by having the smallest month to run this series. :) Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: DMV, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Fix : Error : 3117 : The log or differential backup cannot be restored because no files

  - by pinaldave

  I received the following email from one of my readers. Dear Pinal, I am new to SQL Server and our regular DBA is on vacation. Our production database had some problem and I have just restored full database backup to production server. When I try to apply log back I am getting following error. I am sure, this is valid log backup file. Screenshot is attached. [Few other details regarding server/ip address removed] Msg 3117, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 The log or differential backup cannot be restored because no files are ready to roll forward. Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 RESTORE LOG is terminating abnormally. Screenshot attached. [Removed as it contained live IP address] Please help immediately. Well I have answered this question in my earlier post, 2 years ago, over here SQL SERVER – Fix : Error : Msg 3117, Level 16, State 4 The log or differential backup cannot be restored because no files are ready to rollforward. However, I will try to explain it a little more this time. For SQL Server database to be used it should in online state. There are multiple states of SQL Server Database. ONLINE (Available – online for data) OFFLINE RESTORING RECOVERING RECOVERY PENDING SUSPECT EMERGENCY (Limited Availability) If the database is online, it means it is active and in operational mode. It will not make sense to apply further log from backup if the operations have continued on this database. The common practice during the backup restore process is to specify the keyword RECOVERY when the database is restored. When RECOVERY keyword is specified, the SQL Server brings back the database online and will not accept any further log backups. However, if you want to restore more than one backup files, i.e. after restoring the full back up if you want to apply further differential or log backup you cannot do that when database is online and already active. You need to have your database in the state where it can further accept the backup data and not the online data request. If the SQL Server is online and also accepts database backup file, then there can be data inconsistency. This is the reason that when there are more than one database backup files to be restored, one has to restore the database with NO RECOVERY keyword in the RESTORE operation. I suggest you all to read one more post written by me earlier. In this post, I explained the time line with image and graphic SQL SERVER – Backup Timeline and Understanding of Database Restore Process in Full Recovery Model. Sample Code for reference: RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks FROM DISK = 'C:\AdventureWorksFull.bak' WITH NORECOVERY; RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks FROM DISK = 'C:\AdventureWorksDiff.bak' WITH RECOVERY; In this post, I am not trying to cover complete backup and recovery. I am just attempting to address one type of error and its resolution. Please test these scenarios on the development server. Playing with live database backup and recovery is always very crucial and needs to be properly planned. Leave a comment here if you need help with this subject. Similar Post: SQL SERVER – Restore Sequence and Understanding NORECOVERY and RECOVERY Note: We will cover Standby Server maintenance and Recovery in another blog post and it is intentionally, not covered this post. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Attach mdf file without ldf file in Database

  - by pinaldave

  Background Story: One of my friends recently called up and asked me if I had spare time to look at his database and give him a performance tuning advice. Because I had some free time to help him out, I said yes. I asked him to send me the details of his database structure and sample data. He said that since his database is in a very early stage and is small as of the moment, so he told me that he would like me to have a complete database. My response to him was “Sure! In that case, take a backup of the database and send it to me. I will restore it into my computer and play with it.” He did send me his database; however, his method made me write this quick note here. Instead of taking a full backup of the database and sending it to me, he sent me only the .mdf (primary database file). In fact, I asked for a complete backup (I wanted to review file groups, files, as well as few other details).  Upon calling my friend,  I found that he was not available. Now,  he left me with only a .mdf file. As I had some extra time, I decided to checkout his database structure and get back to him regarding the full backup, whenever I can get in touch with him again. Technical Talk: If the database is shutdown gracefully and there was no abrupt shutdown (power outrages, pulling plugs to machines, machine crashes or any other reasons), it is possible (there’s no guarantee) to attach .mdf file only to the server. Please note that there can be many more reasons for a database that is not getting attached or restored. In my case, the database had a clean shutdown and there were no complex issues. I was able to recreate a transaction log file and attached the received .mdf file. There are multiple ways of doing this. I am listing all of them here. Before using any of them, please consult the Domain Expert in your company or industry. Also, never attempt this on live/production server without the presence of a Disaster Recovery expert. USE [master] GO -- Method 1: I use this method EXEC sp_attach_single_file_db @dbname='TestDb', @physname=N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\TestDb.mdf' GO -- Method 2: CREATE DATABASE TestDb ON (FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\TestDb.mdf') FOR ATTACH_REBUILD_LOG GO Method 2: If one or more log files are missing, they are recreated again. There is one more method which I am demonstrating here but I have not used myself before. According to Book Online, it will work only if there is one log file that is missing. If there are more than one log files involved, all of them are required to undergo the same procedure. -- Method 3: CREATE DATABASE TestDb ON ( FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\TestDb.mdf') FOR ATTACH GO Please read the Book Online in depth and consult DR experts before working on the production server. In my case, the above syntax just worked fine as the database was clean when it was detached. Feel free to write your opinions and experiences for it will help the IT community to learn more from your suggestions and skills. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Data Storage, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Merge Operations – Insert, Update, Delete in Single Execution

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is written in response to T-SQL Tuesday hosted by Jorge Segarra (aka SQLChicken). I have been very active using these Merge operations in my development. However, I have found out from my consultancy work and friends that these amazing operations are not utilized by them most of the time. Here is my attempt to bring the necessity of using the Merge Operation to surface one more time. MERGE is a new feature that provides an efficient way to do multiple DML operations. In earlier versions of SQL Server, we had to write separate statements to INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE data based on certain conditions; however, at present, by using the MERGE statement, we can include the logic of such data changes in one statement that even checks when the data is matched and then just update it, and similarly, when the data is unmatched, it is inserted. One of the most important advantages of MERGE statement is that the entire data are read and processed only once. In earlier versions, three different statements had to be written to process three different activities (INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE); however, by using MERGE statement, all the update activities can be done in one pass of database table. I have written about these Merge Operations earlier in my blog post over here SQL SERVER – 2008 – Introduction to Merge Statement – One Statement for INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE. I was asked by one of the readers that how do we know that this operator was doing everything in single pass and was not calling this Merge Operator multiple times. Let us run the same example which I have used earlier; I am listing the same here again for convenience. --Let’s create Student Details and StudentTotalMarks and inserted some records. USE tempdb GO CREATE TABLE StudentDetails ( StudentID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, StudentName VARCHAR(15) ) GO INSERT INTO StudentDetails VALUES(1,'SMITH') INSERT INTO StudentDetails VALUES(2,'ALLEN') INSERT INTO StudentDetails VALUES(3,'JONES') INSERT INTO StudentDetails VALUES(4,'MARTIN') INSERT INTO StudentDetails VALUES(5,'JAMES') GO CREATE TABLE StudentTotalMarks ( StudentID INTEGER REFERENCES StudentDetails, StudentMarks INTEGER ) GO INSERT INTO StudentTotalMarks VALUES(1,230) INSERT INTO StudentTotalMarks VALUES(2,255) INSERT INTO StudentTotalMarks VALUES(3,200) GO -- Select from Table SELECT * FROM StudentDetails GO SELECT * FROM StudentTotalMarks GO -- Merge Statement MERGE StudentTotalMarks AS stm USING (SELECT StudentID,StudentName FROM StudentDetails) AS sd ON stm.StudentID = sd.StudentID WHEN MATCHED AND stm.StudentMarks > 250 THEN DELETE WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET stm.StudentMarks = stm.StudentMarks + 25 WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT(StudentID,StudentMarks) VALUES(sd.StudentID,25); GO -- Select from Table SELECT * FROM StudentDetails GO SELECT * FROM StudentTotalMarks GO -- Clean up DROP TABLE StudentDetails GO DROP TABLE StudentTotalMarks GO The Merge Join performs very well and the following result is obtained. Let us check the execution plan for the merge operator. You can click on following image to enlarge it. Let us evaluate the execution plan for the Table Merge Operator only. We can clearly see that the Number of Executions property suggests value 1. Which is quite clear that in a single PASS, the Merge Operation completes the operations of Insert, Update and Delete. I strongly suggest you all to use this operation, if possible, in your development. I have seen this operation implemented in many data warehousing applications. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Joins, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Merge

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• SQL SERVER – SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD – Wait Type – Day 8 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  This is a very interesting wait type and quite often seen as one of the top wait types. Let us discuss this today. From Book On-Line: Occurs when a task voluntarily yields the scheduler for other tasks to execute. During this wait the task is waiting for its quantum to be renewed. SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD Explanation: SQL Server has multiple threads, and the basic working methodology for SQL Server is that SQL Server does not let any “runnable” thread to starve. Now let us assume SQL Server OS is very busy running threads on all the scheduler. There are always new threads coming up which are ready to run (in other words, runnable). Thread management of the SQL Server is decided by SQL Server and not the operating system. SQL Server runs on non-preemptive mode most of the time, meaning the threads are co-operative and can let other threads to run from time to time by yielding itself. When any thread yields itself for another thread, it creates this wait. If there are more threads, it clearly indicates that the CPU is under pressure. You can fun the following DMV to see how many runnable task counts there are in your system. SELECT scheduler_id, current_tasks_count, runnable_tasks_count, work_queue_count, pending_disk_io_count FROM sys.dm_os_schedulers WHERE scheduler_id < 255 GO If you notice a two-digit number in runnable_tasks_count continuously for long time (not once in a while), you will know that there is CPU pressure. The two-digit number is usually considered as a bad thing; you can read the description of the above DMV over here. Additionally, there are several other counters (%Processor Time and other processor related counters), through which you can refer to so you can validate CPU pressure along with the method explained above. Reducing SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD wait: This is the trickiest part of this procedure. As discussed, this particular wait type relates to CPU pressure. Increasing more CPU is the solution in simple terms; however, it is not easy to implement this solution. There are other things that you can consider when this wait type is very high. Here is the query where you can find the most expensive query related to CPU from the cache Note: The query that used lots of resources but is not cached will not be caught here. SELECT SUBSTRING(qt.TEXT, (qs.statement_start_offset/2)+1, ((CASE qs.statement_end_offset WHEN -1 THEN DATALENGTH(qt.TEXT) ELSE qs.statement_end_offset END - qs.statement_start_offset)/2)+1), qs.execution_count, qs.total_logical_reads, qs.last_logical_reads, qs.total_logical_writes, qs.last_logical_writes, qs.total_worker_time, qs.last_worker_time, qs.total_elapsed_time/1000000 total_elapsed_time_in_S, qs.last_elapsed_time/1000000 last_elapsed_time_in_S, qs.last_execution_time, qp.query_plan FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats qs CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(qs.sql_handle) qt CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_query_plan(qs.plan_handle) qp ORDER BY qs.total_worker_time DESC -- CPU time You can find the most expensive queries that are utilizing lots of CPU (from the cache) and you can tune them accordingly. Moreover, you can find the longest running query and attempt to tune them if there is any processor offending code. Additionally, pay attention to total_worker_time because if that is also consistently higher, then  the CPU under too much pressure. You can also check perfmon counters of compilations as they tend to use good amount of CPU. Index rebuild is also a CPU intensive process but we should consider that main cause for this query because that is indeed needed on high transactions OLTP system utilized to reduce fragmentations. Note: The information presented here is from my experience and there is no way that I claim it to be accurate. I suggest reading Book OnLine for further clarification. All of the discussions of Wait Stats in this blog is generic and varies from system to system. It is recommended that you test this on a development server before implementing it to a production server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Data Pages in Buffer Pool – Data Stored in Memory Cache

  - by pinaldave

  This will drop all the clean buffers so we will be able to start again from there. Now, run the following script and check the execution plan of the query. Have you ever wondered what types of data are there in your cache? During SQL Server Trainings, I am usually asked if there is any way one can know how much data in a table is stored in the memory cache? The more detailed question I usually get is if there are multiple indexes on table (and used in a query), were the data of the single table stored multiple times in the memory cache or only for a single time? Here is a query you can run to figure out what kind of data is stored in the cache. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT COUNT(*) AS cached_pages_count, name AS BaseTableName, IndexName, IndexTypeDesc FROM sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors AS bd INNER JOIN ( SELECT s_obj.name, s_obj.index_id, s_obj.allocation_unit_id, s_obj.OBJECT_ID, i.name IndexName, i.type_desc IndexTypeDesc FROM ( SELECT OBJECT_NAME(OBJECT_ID) AS name, index_id ,allocation_unit_id, OBJECT_ID FROM sys.allocation_units AS au INNER JOIN sys.partitions AS p ON au.container_id = p.hobt_id AND (au.type = 1 OR au.type = 3) UNION ALL SELECT OBJECT_NAME(OBJECT_ID) AS name, index_id, allocation_unit_id, OBJECT_ID FROM sys.allocation_units AS au INNER JOIN sys.partitions AS p ON au.container_id = p.partition_id AND au.type = 2 ) AS s_obj LEFT JOIN sys.indexes i ON i.index_id = s_obj.index_id AND i.OBJECT_ID = s_obj.OBJECT_ID ) AS obj ON bd.allocation_unit_id = obj.allocation_unit_id WHERE database_id = DB_ID() GROUP BY name, index_id, IndexName, IndexTypeDesc ORDER BY cached_pages_count DESC; GO Now let us run the query above and observe the output of the same. We can see in the above query that there are four columns. Cached_Pages_Count lists the pages cached in the memory. BaseTableName lists the original base table from which data pages are cached. IndexName lists the name of the index from which pages are cached. IndexTypeDesc lists the type of index. Now, let us do one more experience here. Please note that you should not run this test on a production server as it can extremely reduce the performance of the database. DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS This will drop all the clean buffers and we will be able to start again from there. Now run following script and check the execution plan for the same. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT UnitPrice, ModifiedDate FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderDetailID BETWEEN 1 AND 100 GO The execution plans contain the usage of two different indexes. Now, let us run the script that checks the pages cached in SQL Server. It will give us the following output. It is clear from the Resultset that when more than one index is used, datapages related to both or all of the indexes are stored in Memory Cache separately. Let me know what you think of this article. I had a great pleasure while writing this article because I was able to write on this subject, which I like the most. In the next article, we will exactly see what data are cached and those that are not cached, using a few undocumented commands. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: DMV, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL DMV

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• SQL SERVER – DMV – sys.dm_os_wait_stats Explanation – Wait Type – Day 3 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  The key Dynamic Management View (DMV) that helps us to understand wait stats is sys.dm_os_wait_stats; this DMV gives us all the information that we need to know regarding wait stats. However, the interpretation is left to us. This is a challenge as understanding wait stats can often be quite tricky. Anyway, we will cover few wait stats in one of the future articles. Today we will go over the basic understanding of the DMV. The Official Book OnLine Reference for DMV is over here: sys.dm_os_wait_stats. I suggest you all to refer this for all the accuracy. Following is a statement from the online book: “Specific types of wait times during query execution can indicate bottlenecks or stall points within the query. Similarly, high wait times, or wait counts server wide can indicate bottlenecks or hot spots in interaction query interactions within the server instance.” This is the statement which has inspired me to write this series. Let us first run the following statement from DMV. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_os_wait_stats ORDER BY wait_time_ms DESC GO Above statement will show us few of the columns. Here it is quick explanation of each of the column. wait_type – this is the name of the wait type. There can be three different kinds of wait types – resource, queue and external. waiting_tasks_count – this incremental counter is a good indication of frequent the wait is happening. If this number is very high, it is good indication for us to investigate that particular wait type. It is quite possible that the wait time is considerably low, but the frequency of the wait is much high. wait_time_ms – this is total wait accumulated for any type of wait. This is the total wait time and includes singal_wait_time_ms. max_wait_time_ms – this indicates the maximum wait type ever occurred for that particular wait type. Using this, one can estimate the intensity of the wait type in past. Again, it is not necessary that this max wait time will occur every time; so do not over invest yourself here. signal_wait_time_ms – this is the wait time when thread is marked as runnable and it gets to the running state. If the runnable queue is very long, you will find that this wait time becomes high. Additionally, please note that this DMV does not show current wait type or wait stats. This is cumulative view of the all the wait stats since server (instance) restarted or wait stats have been cleared. In future blog post, we will also cover two more DMVs which can be helpful to identify wait-related issues. ?sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks sys.dm_exec_requests Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DMV, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – CXPACKET – Parallelism – Advanced Solution – Wait Type – Day 7 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier we discussed about the what is the common solution to solve the issue with CXPACKET wait time. Today I am going to talk about few of the other suggestions which can help to reduce the CXPACKET wait. If you are going to suggest that I should focus on MAXDOP and COST THRESHOLD – I totally agree. I have covered them in details in yesterday’s blog post. Today we are going to discuss few other way CXPACKET can be reduced. Potential Reasons: If data is heavily skewed, there are chances that query optimizer may estimate the correct amount of the data leading to assign fewer thread to query. This can easily lead to uneven workload on threads and may create CXPAKCET wait. While retrieving the data one of the thread face IO, Memory or CPU bottleneck and have to wait to get those resources to execute its tasks, may create CXPACKET wait as well. Data which is retrieved is on different speed IO Subsystem. (This is not common and hardly possible but there are chances). Higher fragmentations in some area of the table can lead less data per page. This may lead to CXPACKET wait. As I said the reasons here mentioned are not the major cause of the CXPACKET wait but any kind of scenario can create the probable wait time. Best Practices to Reduce CXPACKET wait: Refer earlier article regarding MAXDOP and Cost Threshold. De-fragmentation of Index can help as more data can be obtained per page. (Assuming close to 100 fill-factor) If data is on multiple files which are on multiple similar speed physical drive, the CXPACKET wait may reduce. Keep the statistics updated, as this will give better estimate to query optimizer when assigning threads and dividing the data among available threads. Updating statistics can significantly improve the strength of the query optimizer to render proper execution plan. This may overall affect the parallelism process in positive way. Bad Practice: In one of the recent consultancy project, when I was called in I noticed that one of the ‘experienced’ DBA noticed higher CXPACKET wait and to reduce them, he has increased the worker threads. The reality was increasing worker thread has lead to many other issues. With more number of the threads, more amount of memory was used leading memory pressure. As there were more threads CPU scheduler faced higher ‘Context Switching’ leading further degrading performance. When I explained all these to ‘experienced’ DBA he suggested that now we should reduce the number of threads. Not really! Lower number of the threads may create heavy stalling for parallel queries. I suggest NOT to touch the setting of number of the threads when dealing with CXPACKET wait. Read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Note: The information presented here is from my experience and I no way claim it to be accurate. I suggest reading book on-line for further clarification. All the discussion of Wait Stats over here is generic and it varies by system to system. You are recommended to test this on development server before implementing to production server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: DMV, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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