Episode 188 - Virtualization pitfalls and best practices with SQL Server

This episode is dedicated to a dear friend of the SQL Server community - Hugo Kornelis. Hugo, this one is for you ❤️ Relevant links: Game over - SQLServerFast.com Meet Hugo Kornelis, Execution Plan Expert. - Brent Ozar Unlimited®

Guy and Eitan are spiritually obligated to talk about Microsoft's announcements made at SQLCon/FabCon Europe 2026 that took place on September. UGH... FINE! Relevant links: What's new across Microsoft SQL at SQLCon/FabCon Europe 2026 - Azure SQL Dev Corner More performance and flexibility for Azure SQL Managed Instance Business Critical | Microsoft Community Hub Announcing the Public Preview of Local Time Zone Support in Azure SQL Database - Azure SQL Dev Corner SQL Data Sync – the final phase of retirement | Microsoft Community Hub

Guy and Eitan discuss an interesting case study where crazy high CPU was detected after an upgrade to SQL Server 2025. Relevant links: SQL 2025 showing crazy-high CPU | LobsterPot Solutions Enable Automatic Tuning - Azure SQL Database & Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn Plan Forcing in SQL Server - Erin Stellato

Guy and Eitan discuss news regarding SQL Server 2025, specifically that it's now publicly available on Amazon RDS, but also that Web Edition is now gone. Also, Guy shares an interesting use case with troubleshooting disk IO latency issues. And finally, Guy and Eitan discuss the differences between SQL Server and PostgreSQL, and why would anyone still be paying for SQL Server. Relevant links: Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports Microsoft SQL Server 2025 SQL Server Web Edition Discontinued. Now What? SQL Server 2025: Web Edition Is Gone SQL Server 2016 end of support is here: Plan your next steps Troubleshoot slow SQL Server performance caused by I/O issues sqlfingers.com: Why Are We Still Paying for SQL Server?

Guy and Eitan go over Paul Randal's article of "Top Ten SQL Server Performance Tuning Best Practices" (published in last March), and add their own input. We also talk about considerations of upgrading SQL Server to 2025, and we also learn something new about Temp Table Caching. Relevant links: SQL101: Top Ten SQL Server Performance Tuning Best Practices - Paul S. Randal SQL Server 2016 Extended Security Updates: Stay Protected While You Modernize | Microsoft Community Hub Memory-optimized TempDB metadata | Microsoft Learn Limitations of Memory-optimized TempDB metadata | Microsoft Learn SQL Server 2022 addresses GAM and SGAM contention in TempDB Temporary Table Caching Explained SQL Server Temporary Object Caching

Guy talks about an interesting incident involving performance problems in a virtual environment. And also, we talk about the SSMS StatisticsParser extension and the question of SSMS extensions in general. Relevant links: vmware.com/docs/sql-server-on-vmware-best-practices-guide Hyper-V and SQL Server Best Practices: What We Wish You Knew - SQL Server Consulting - Straight Path Solutions Announcing the SSMS StatisticsParser Extension - Brent Ozar Unlimited® SSMS Extension List Statistics are not collected when creating new table and indexes and loading data after. · Issue #990 · olahallengren/sql-server-maintenance-solution

Guy and Eitan discuss a few new things in the latest SSMS update, and Eitan tells about a very peculiar use case involving transactional replication and AlwaysOn Availability Groups, and Guy talks about a use case involving deletion triggers. Important note: The part about SQL Server 2025 CU4 adding automatic update was an April 1st joke :) Relevant links: SSMS 22.5.2 Release Migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL | Microsoft Learn Introducing optimized locking v2 | Microsoft Community Hub SQL Server 2025 CU4 Adds Automatic Updates - Brent Ozar Unlimited® (April 1st joke) Hot Patching SQL Server Engine in Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Community Hub Configure Replication with Always on Availability Groups

Guy and Eitan discuss several very interesting new features recently announced by Microsoft. Relevant links for more info: Stop defragmenting and start living: introducing auto index compaction | Microsoft Community Hub Automatic Index Compaction - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn Database DevOps (preview) in SSMS 22.4.1 | Microsoft Community Hub Manage SQL database schemas in VS Code: Publish dialog and item templates - Azure SQL Dev Corner Publish SQL Database Projects from Visual Studio Code - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn SQL code analysis in VS Code: Configure rules without editing your project file - Azure SQL Dev Corner SQL Projects Roadmap - DacFx Wiki Author Custom Code Analysis Rules - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn

Guy and Eitan talk about Erik Darling's new monitoring app, which reminds us of similar tools we had experience with long ago. And, again, it's time to talk about AI. Specifically, a side-effect of it called "The Liar's Dividend". Relevant links for more information: Free SQL Server Performance Monitor App by Erik Darling - Brent Ozar Unlimited® Free SQL Server Performance Monitoring | Darling Data The Liar's Dividend - When Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted - Eitan Blumin's blog Dear Copilot, can you help me with SQL? - Azure SQL Dev Corner Public Preview - Data Virtualization for Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Community Hub

Looks like it's that time of the year again, to face the impending death of the DBA role! Or... Is it? Guy and Eitan discuss the topic and raise several interesting points you should listen to. Relevant links: sqlfingers.com: Death of the DBA (Again) (Reddit thread)