The Scary DBA

A Year of “Good Morning!”

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

Just a little over a year ago, I started posting a “Good Morning!” tweet on Twitter every work day. I’ve kept it up for over a year and I’d...

2021-04-06

98 reads

Extended Events: Embrace the XML

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

While XML is, without a doubt, a giant pain in the bottom, sometimes, the best way to deal with Extended Events is to simply embrace the XML. Now, I...

2021-04-12 (first published: 2021-04-05)

226 reads

Extended Events: Avoid the XML

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

One story I hear over and over goes like this: I tried setting up Extended Events, but then I saw the output was XML so I stopped. Look, I...

2021-04-08 (first published: 2021-03-29)

354 reads

Query Store as an Upgrade Tool

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

There are a lot of uses for Query Store, but one of the most interesting is as an upgrade tool. We all know that upgrades in SQL Server can...

2021-03-29 (first published: 2021-03-22)

309 reads

Apologies

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

Hello all! I wanted to apologize to you. I haven’t been keeping up with the blog well at all over the last couple of months. I have simply been...

2021-03-15

20 reads

Learning A Little Oracle

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

As part of my job, I’ve been tasked with doing some of my work in Oracle, so I’m learning Oracle. Allow me to share a little of my pain...

2021-02-19 (first published: 2021-02-15)

330 reads

SELECT * Hurts Performance, Badly

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

Quite a few years ago, I wrote a post about SELECT * and performance. That post had a bit of a click-bait title (freely admitted). I wrote the post...

2021-02-01 (first published: 2021-01-25)

678 reads

Getting Started Reading Execution Plans: Highest Cost Operator

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

Reading execution plans in SQL Server is just hard. There’s a lot to learn and understand. I previously outlined the basics I use to get started when I’m looking...

2020-12-22 (first published: 2020-12-14)

488 reads

Why Aren’t You Automating Database Deployments?

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

Building out processes and mechanisms for automated code deployments and testing can be quite a lot of work and isn’t easy. Now, try the same thing with data, and...

2020-12-03 (first published: 2020-11-23)

503 reads

The Learning Curve for DevOps

• by Grant Fritchey

• The Scary DBA

If you’re attempting to implement automation in and around your deployments, you’re going to find there is quite a steep learning curve for DevOps and DevOps-style implementations. Since adopting...

2020-11-25 (first published: 2020-11-16)

223 reads