ClearTrace Performance on 170GB of Trace Files

I’ve always worked to make ClearTrace perform well.  That’s probably because I spend so much time watching it work.  I’m often going through two or three gigabytes of trace files but I rarely get the chance to run it on a really large set of files. One…

Update to SQL Server Configuration Scripting Utility

Last spring I released a utility to script SQL Server configuration [http://scriptsqlconfig.codeplex.com/] information on CodePlex.  I’ve been making small changes in this application as my needs have changed.  The application is a .NET 2.0 console application. [https://billg.sqlteam.com/content/images/61403-script-output_2.png]…

Speaking in Omaha: December 7, 2011

I’m presenting in Omaha on Writing Faster SQL at 6PM on December 7th.  You can find meeting details on the Omaha SQL Server User Group [http://www.omahamtg.com/Events.aspx?ID=138] page. The meeting location requires an RSVP so building security has a list of attendees. The…

PASS: Total Registrations

At the Summit you’ll see PASS announce the total attendance and the “total registrations”.  The total registrations is the sum of the conference attendees and the pre-conference registrations.  A single person can be counted three times (conference plus two pre-cons) in the total registration count. When I was doing…

PASS: Board Q&A at the Summit

The last two years we’ve put the Board in front of the members and taken questions.  We’re going to do that again this year.  It will be in Room 307/308 from 12:15 to 1:30 on Friday. Yes, this time overlaps with the Birds of a…

PASS: Budget Status

Our budget situation is a little different this year than in years past.  We were late getting an initial budget approved.  There are a number of different reasons this occurred.  We had different competing priorities and the budget got pushed down the list.  And that’s completely my fault for…

How to Name Linked Servers

I did another SQL Server migration over the weekend that dealt with linked servers.  I’ve seen all kinds of odd naming schemes and there are a few I like and a few I suggest you avoid. Don’t name your linked server for its IP address.  At some point…

PASS Updates - July 2011

There are a two big items in flight that I want to discuss. Elections We recently published the ERC recommendations and new election procedures [http://erc.sqlpass.org/Documents.aspx].  Unfortunately getting from the recommendations to the new plan took longer than I’d hoped.  And it was mostly me…

TraceTune display Duration in milliseconds. Finally.

SQL Server 2008 started reporting the statement duration in microseconds in scripted traces.  That’s one millionth of a second.  Previously they were reported in milliseconds.  Profiler automatically corrects for this and always displays in milliseconds regardless of the version of SQL Server that generated the trace.  However SMO reported…