SQL Server

Introducing Database Watcher for Azure SQL

Introducing Database Watcher for Azure SQL (Public Preview) Introducing Database Watcher for Azure SQL, Microsoft’s latest public preview monitoring tool that elevates observability for Azure SQL Databases, Elastic Pools, and Managed Instances to new heights. Database Watcher is a powerful managed database monitoring solution designed to enhance the reliability and…


SQL Server and Azure SQL Updates (February 2024)

Upcoming changes for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). This is the first of three blog posts about the next releases of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), and the roadmap for 2024! Learn more: SSMS 20 connection changes (microsoft.com) Get started planning SQL Server 2014 end of support. Did you know that…


SQL Skills Blackbelt on SQL Server 2019

Extremely rewarding to be only the 46th person to earn this demanding badge from SQL Skills. It is only achieved after attending SEVEN deeply technical courses focused on Microsoft SQL Server. In total, these courses provide over 155 hours of content and demonstrations.


MPP Architecture in Synapse SQL Pools

The purpose of Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) is to scale out compute nodes and reduce workload per compute node to query large volumes of data. Control Node There will always be 1 Control Node that is used to connect to and manage the SQL Pool. The data in a table…


SQL Server Technical Reviewer

After several attempts, I finally got to see my name in an actual published book. Not as an author but a technical reviewer of the SQL Server 2022 Performance Tuning book written by Grant Fritchey. I have been reading every version of this book since at least the second edition…



Azure Data Engineer

John Deardurff passed the DP-200 and DP-201 exam for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer certification.



Task Execution Model

Explore the Task Execution Model used in the Database Engine for efficient CPU thread scheduling and task management.


Execution Plans – Table Operators

How to read Heap and Clustered Index table operators in a SQL Server Execution Plan. One way of determining if a table is structured as a Heap or a Clustered Index is to look at the table operators from the Execution Plan.