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SQL Server Dba / Sme: Me Interviewer

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SQL Server Dba / Sme: Me Interviewer

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mithu241210

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SQL Server DBA / SME

Me: I have gone through the job role description but would like to know more about the responsibilities.

Interviewer: Well to simply describe the job role, SME will be taking care of the entire XXXXX product suite database
systems. He or She should be the point of contact for all database development and administration activities. Also
the role would be responsible for all product related technical escalations.

Me: Got it, but how a SQL Server SME can be a product owner? Apart from the technical point what other skill set
you are looking for?

Interviewer: Well the SME will not responsible from the business or domain prospect. But the person should be able
to handle all product related escalations, if any website is not working or the end customers facing a technical issue
they would come to you and you need to take the ownership and should handle the problem with the help of
concern technical team.

Me: I understand, in fact I am also working for a product development company. Other than the database activities I
need to participate in product enhancements related technical discussions and brainstorming sessions.

Interviewer: Yes I knew that. In our environment you many need to attend the performance issues on frequent
basis. Can we talk something about performance?

Me: Sure! It’s one of my interested areas. I had a very good experience in dealing with the performance issues.

Interviewer: That’s’ great! Ok, let’s say you are newly joined in an environment and you are assigned to handle all
database operations for a mission critical application also from the technical point you are the owner of this
application. The very first day you got a call from a business analyst saying that application is running dead slow and
you are asked to check it immediately. What is your action plan? Tell me how do you handle, please include each and
every step in detail.

Me: As a first step I would check if the entire application is slow or just a specific part is not running well. Also would
check for the details “If Any Errors”, “Time Out”, “Access from My location” etc.

Interviewer: Ok, “entire application is running slow, I am not even able to open the home page. It’s taking a long
time and ended with a timeout error” then what is your next step?

Me: Since it’s a mission critical application I’ll immediately open an incident with a bridge call and will add all the
required teams into that Ex: Application, DBA, Server, Network, Proxy, Storage, Middleware etc. Meanwhile I will
send a high alert notification to all the required teams and business stake holders.

Interviewer: Great, ok all teams are joined the call and you sent the notification too. What next?

Me: First thing I would check if any maintenance activity in place without a proper communication. I would check the
ADM (Application Dependency Mapping) which means all components / layers/ tiers involved in the application. I
would ask the respective teams to quickly perform a high level health check for the components which shouldn’t
take more than 5 min.

Interviewer: As I told you, I need the maximum information, can you please elaborate?

Me: Sure, I would ask

1. Application team to check the exact error message coming in while trying to access the application and ask
them to verify the problem is not location or the resource specific.
2. Server team to perform Health Check for all Servers involved
3. DBA team to check the Database Servers Health
4. Web-service / Middleware team to perform HC on all Middleware components
5. Network / Proxy / DNS Team to perform HC (Health Check) on DNS, Firewall, Load Balancers and Network
Connectivity
6. Also I would check if any recent changes happened on the infrastructure from any of these teams.

Interviewer: Perfect, let’s say you are representing the database systems and you need to take care of Database
Part. Can you tell me what you need to check while doing HC?

Me: I would quickly check:

1. SQL Server Services are up and running
2. All Databases are online
3. Disk Space
4. CPU, Memory Usage
5. Suspected Errors in Log

Interviewer: By the way HC means do you people check it manually?

Me: We do use pre-defined scripts with scheduled jobs. We’ll just run the job and it captures all required
information and email the HC report.

Interviewer: See the problem is Application running slow; does it make sense checking the database Servers? If I say
that I am not able to login to the app then you might check the DB side. But here the case is different and they are
not able to open the application home page.

Me: Yes, it clearly makes sense because we have already insisted the respected teams to investigate from the
different prospects. I have seen applications where the complete metadata is dynamic which means in an application
page everything is dynamic including the text box size, location, label etc. In that case if it fails to establish a
connection with the database may delay the load time.

Interviewer: Agreed! Ok now tell me what is your approach if incase one of the parameter is failing in database
health check. Let’s say CPU / Memory / Disk / Service / Database / page errors in log file. How do you handle these
scenarios?

Me: Well, on a given Server if there is a problem with one of the resources, first thing we need to make sure that the
problem is from the SQL Server. There are chances that a Server can have services other than SQL Server or there
might be more than one SQL Instance on Server. Thereof first and foremost thing is we need to identify the
problematic point.

If it is SQL Server causing high CPU, identify the database and then the query / batch / proc causing the high CPU.
Usually high I/O operations cause the high CPU. The most common issues “Row by Row processing ex: Cursors”,
“User Defined Functions”, “Updating Statistics with Full Scan”, “Parallelism Issues”, etc.

If it is SQL Server causing high Memory, identify the database and then the actual database / query / batch which is
taking the majority portion in memory. There are different caches available, identify the problematic area that’s
might be a data cache or plan cache or wrong memory limit configurations.
Disk is full for some reason, quickly check the options, first try to copy files to other drive and make some free space,
reasons might be a huge log file backup, dump files, ldf file size increased etc.

Just like these I’ll try possible options / solutions when I see the actual problem.

Interviewer: Great! Ok after the initial 10 min investigation, everyone reported back all are working fine, network,
Database Servers, Windows / Linux Servers, Application Servers, Services, Firewall, and Middleware etc. Everyone
reported everything looks good, and of course you also didn’t see any issue from database side. But still the
application is not opening and ending with a timeout message. What’s your next step?

Me: From my experience in technology anything and everything can be traceable, mostly the problem can be
identified from the returning error message and from log files. If still we can’t identify the problem then we would
ask the Change Management team to provide all recent changes implemented on all Application supporting
Servers /components / services. For example Application / Database code changes, Patching related, network /
Firewall changes etc. But I am sure we can find the bottleneck from somewhere in these checks.

Interviewer: By the way from the first step, you are involving the network and firewall teams any specific reason for
that?

Me: See as you said my role is not just restricted for database ownership but extended as an app owner. In this
situation application home page is not opening and failing with a timeout error. From my experience there are more
chances to have a bottleneck at application lever or at network / firewall level and less chances to have a problem
from DB side. And that’s the reason I am involving network and firewall teams along with the app team.

Interviewer: Appreciated! Coming back to our actual question, unfortunately no luck, you got a response from all
teams saying that there are no recent changes implemented on any of these Servers / components which are related
to the application. Time is running out but still application is getting timeout. What’s your next step?

Me: Are there any third party tools / services involved in this entire architecture? As I told you it should be caught in
the initial check itself. I have seen few scenarios where application was down only for the few customers and it was
working for the rest. In that time we had difficulty in identifying the problem. But in the current scenario what we
have been discussing the application is down / not responding for all and still not able to identify the problem.

Interviewer: Application not working only for specific customers? Is that an internal application?

Me: No! It’s a public / internet facing application and the customers from few countries were not able to access it
from internet.

Interviewer: That’s interesting, can you explain more about the situation and how did you resolve it?

Me: It was a problem with third party component and we came to know that after few hours of investigation.

Interviewer: Can you explain the exact situation and how did you resolve it? I need all possible details, I have the
patience can you explain if you have time?

Me: Sure I do.

I was being a database architect for a critical application. We have got an incident as Application was not being
accessible from a specific list of countries. We were surprised to see that the application was not accessible only
from specific locations; unfortunately app architect was not available at that time. We scheduled a meeting with the
end customer who was facing the access issue; network team collected the trace route and other logs information,
even after analyzing that they couldn’t identify the problem. Meantime we have got the application architecture
diagram and we could see there is a third party “XXXXXXXXX” “Content Delivery Network” which was using to
protect our application.

Any request comes from the internet will reach that third party CDN firewall, the request is verified and from there it
is redirected it to our company firewall. Every time when it redirects the request to our company firewall it uses a
predefined list of IP addresses. The third party team added new IP’s to enhance their capability and these IP’s are
not shared with us. When our end customers are trying to access the website their requests were redirecting from
the changed IP addresses to our company firewall. Since our company firewall not able to identify the IP address
(These are the new IP’s) it was dropping the connection. The moment our proxy team added these IP addresses to
our firewall whitelist the application started working in those areas and customers sent the confirmation.

In this scenario I didn’t do anything special from technical point but I analyzed the architecture diagram and
identified the third party network direction provided details to the network and proxy team.

Interviewer: That’s a fantastic experience. Ok, you found there is a problem and you quickly provided the solution
and application started working fine. In this entire incident procedure do you see any process level mistakes either
from my questions or from your answers?
Me: I can’t say it’s a problem but from my point of view, if it is a mission critical application we should already have
all required monitoring in place and from the business prospect any incident should be identified by the automated
alerts or monitoring system. If an incident is identified by a customer or from a business people indicates the failure
from the infrastructure team.

Interviewer: True! Ok, what will be the next step?

Me: I’ll insist to open a Root Cause Analysis with a problem request to provide a long term solution to prevent these
kinds of failures.

Interviewer: Hmm, ok let’s come back to my first question again. Now it’s from a different prospective, they are able
to login to the application without any issue but they are facing an issue with a specific page. The page is getting
timeout. How do you deal with that?

Me: As we discussed earlier in most of the cases when a specific page or part of the application is running slow which
means that problem is with the application / SQL coding or with the underlying database.

Interviewer: Ok, go on how you identify the problem?

Me: I would quickly perform Health Check on database Servers just to make sure no issues from the resource
utilization. Based on a SQL version I’ll quickly run a Server side trace or take the help of extended events to identify
the actual query / SQL code / procedure / function that’s causing the problem. Meantime I would ask application
team to investigate from application side.

Interviewer: Ok you narrow down the filter and identified the bottleneck. One of the procedures is running slow and
it’s taking 7 min. How do you troubleshoot it?

Me: I would check the stored procedure execution plan to identify the primary bottleneck. I handled lot of situations
like these.

Interviewer: Great to know that. So can you tell me the possible failure points which might causes the performance
slow down?

Me:
1. Bad Parameter Sniffing
2. Scalar User Defined functions using in a query or with a loop
3. TEMPDB PAGELATCH contention
4. The CXPACKET WAIT TYPE
5. Blocking or long running transactions
6. Cross Database Queries on huge datasets
7. Poorly written queries
8. Wrongly configuring Server/Database options
9. Poorly designed Indexes
Interviewer: Great! In a project you are representing the technology lead role. You have a scheduled meeting with
the customers and it’s a critical deal. You are going to give them a presentation on how cloud based model works for
Database Management systems. This meeting determines a million dollar deal. You prepared well and all set for
meeting, the moment you are about to enter into meeting room you got a call and unfortunately it’s a medical
emergency at home and no one is there to help at home except you. How do you handle that?

Me: I would inform the situation to my manager and I attend the home emergency. I’ll try to look for an alternative
person who can manage the meeting with my assistance.

Interviewer: Ok tell me what’s your priority family or Career?

Me: Not even my family, it’s always “ME” is a priority for me, my dreams, my wishes, my career, it’s always me. I
work hard, work smart because it’s my career and I have my own goals. To answer your question my priority is “My
Health”, “Family” then my “Career”. In fact these are equally important for anyone but the one who manage or
balance between these parameters can enjoy the success.

Interviewer: So you had an experience with our company isn’t it?

Me: Sorry I didn’t get it

Interviewer: I mean you had discussion with our techies, I think this is the 3rd time you are interacting with us
correct? What’s your opinion on our technical panel?

Me: To be frank I never ever seen a 2 and half hours of technical discussion on the same question. Overall I had a
strange experience with your technical team and unknowingly it created enthusiasm on your work environment.

Interviewer: (A big smile) Any more questions for me?

Me: You still didn’t tell me why the application was down?

Interviewer: I think you covered the maximum scenarios! So what do you think are you going to win this interview?

Me: Certainly!
Interviewer: How do you say that?

Me: I believe you are a good decision maker.

Interviewer: Okhay, would you join us if I offer you less than your current salary?

Me: Of course I would, if I can get a share in product sales profit

Interviewer: Aww, smart enough ….you may expect a call from our team sometime in the next week.

Me: Thank you, I am grateful for your time and patience.

What are the different types of Indexes available in SQL Server?

Normally we are considering 2 types of indexes: cluster index and non cluster index but as per scenario and types of
uses we are having
1. unique index
2. filtered index
3. spatial index
4. column store index
5. Hash index.

How do you troubleshoot errors in a SQL Server Agent Job?

We are following the guidelines to troubleshoot specific errors with SQL Server agent job.
1. Need to check that you use the latest SQL Server service pack.
2. Need to check if the Task Scheduler service is running or not.
3. Check that the SQLServerAgent and Eventlog services are running, if all the jobs are not starting.
4. Check that the job is enabled, if the job is not starting.
5. If the job works fine when you start it manually, but does not start on the scheduled base, check that the
job's schedule is enabled.
6. Check the history values of the job to determine the last date the job worked.
7. Check the SQL Server error log, SQL Server Agent error log and Windows NT or Windows 2000 application
log to get a more detailed error description.

What is Fill Factor?

Its requirement comes to manage data storage in the data pages in the terms of percentages value.
What is the default fill factor value?
The default fill factor value is 0.

Where do you find the default Index fill factor and how to change it?
The default index fill factor is available in index properties to manage data storage in the data pages. You have to
change through SSMS, and in object explorer just right click on the required Server and select the properties and go
to Database settings. In the default index fill factor box, you have to select or change the index fill factor that you
want to change.

What are the different Authentication modes in SQL Server and how can you change authentication mode?
We have windows authentication and Mixed mode available in SQL Server. To change authentication mode you have
to go SSMS, right click the Server and go for properties. On the security page, under Server authentication go to new
Server authentication mode and submit ok.

What is the use of quorum in always on?

Quorum determines regarding the node failures the cluster can sustain.

Due to some maintenance being done, the SQL Server on a failover cluster needs to be brought down. How do you
bring the SQL Server down?
In the cluster administrator, right click on the SQL Server group and from the popup menu item select take offline.

When setting Replication, can you have Distributor on SQL Server 2012, Publisher on SQL Server 2016?
No

What are the different types of database compression introduced in SQL Server 2016?
Row level and page level.

Can we add two columns while creating Primary Key?

In such scenario it’s possible if multiple columns are defined as PRIMARY KEY, then, it is called composite key.

Can we take differential backup of Secondary replica in always on?

No we can’t.

Can we take backup of TempDB database?

No we can’t.

What are different Recovery models in SQL Server?

1. Simple
2. Full
3. bulk logged

Can we have multiple listeners configured in multi-subnet Always-On ?

Yes

Can we take full backup (not copy_only) from secondary replica of Always-On ?
No

What is the default value of Cost Threshold of Parallelism in SQL Server 2016 ?
The default value is 0

What is the minimum permission required to browse a procedure in a database ?

Grant permission

How will you know why your Transactional Log file is waiting to be shrunk in SQL Server 2012?
when the transaction log fills, SQL Server cannot increase the size of the log file so the process fails with the error
and needs to shrink.
What permission is required and for which account to enable Instant File Initialization in SQL Server 2016?
Perform Volume Maintenance Tasks permission should be required.

Is dbcreator a Server role or database role ?

Server role

Which Isolation level in SQL Server resolves both Non-Repeatable Read & Phantom Read problems ?
Serializable Isolation Level

How many synchronous secondary replicas supported in SQL Server 2016 Always-On ?
3 replicas

How many heartbeat IP is required in 2 node active-active SQL Cluster?

One for each node

When was backup compression introduced in SQL Server?

Backup compression was introduced in SQL Server in standard edition of SQL Server 2008.

What is resource database?

Resource database is nothing but hidden and read only SQL Server system database which contains all the system
objects.

How many secondary replicas can you have in always on?

We have multiple secondary replicas in always on depends upon versions. As per SQL Server 2012, up to 4 secondary
replicas and in SQL Server 2014, it supports up to 8 replicas.

What is the purpose of an index and what are different types?

Purpose of an index is based on faster data access and to speed up the performance of queries and to reduce I/O.
We have clustered and non clustered index but as per requirement we have different type of indexing for a verity of
needs.

What are different maintenance and monitoring tools you have worked on?
1. DB Performance Analyzer
2. Red Gate SQL monitor
3. Apex SQL Monitor
4. Activity monitor
5. DTA
6. SQL Profiler
7. PerfMon which is windows native tool
8. SQLDIAG and SQLNEXUS

What is the purpose of transaction log file?

The purpose of a transaction log file is that which records all transactions and the database modifications made by
each transaction and it is a critical component of the database as well. If there is a system failure you will need that
log to bring your database back to a consistent state. The transaction log is the most important component of a SQL
Server database when it comes to the disaster recovery.

Name at-least 5 new features/enhancements in SQL Server 2019?

1. Enable High Availability Configurations for SQL Server Running in Containers
2. Better Scale-out with Automatic Redirection of Connections Based on read/write Intent
3. Certificate Management Functionality in SQL Server Configuration Manager
4. SQL Data Discovery and Classification
5. Intelligent Query Processing Enhancements
What is DBCC?
DBCC statements are Database Console Commands and come in four flavors: Maintenance, Informational,
Validation, and Miscellaneous. Maintenance commands are those commands that allow the DBA to perform
maintenance activities on the database such as shrinking a file.

Informational commands provide feedback regarding the database such as providing information about the
procedure cache. Validation commands include commands that validate the database such as the ever-popular
CHECKDB. Finally, miscellaneous commands are those that obviously don’t fit in the other three categories. This
includes statements like DBCC HELP, which provides the syntax for a given DBCC command.

How can you control the amount of free space in your index pages?
You can set the fill factor on your indexes. This tells SQL Server how much free space to leave in the index pages
when re-indexing. The performance benefit here is fewer page splits (where SQL Server has to copy rows from one
index page to another to make room for an inserted row) because there is room for growth built into the index.

What is Fill Factor?

Fill Factor is a setting that is applicable to Indexes in SQL Server. The fill factor value determines how much data is
written to an index page when it is created / rebuilt. By default, the fill factor value is set to 0.

What are the High-Availability solutions in SQL Server and differentiate them briefly.
Failover Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping, and Replication are the High-Availability features available in
SQL Server

How many files can a Database contain in SQL Server? How many types of data files exist in SQL Server?
1. A Database can contain a maximum of 32,767 files.
2. There are Primarily 2 types of data files Primary data file and Secondary data file(s)
3. There can be only one Primary data file and multiple secondary data files as long as the total # of files is less than
32,767 files

What is a system database and what is a user database?

System databases are the default databases that are installed when the SQL Server is installed. Basically, there are 4
system databases: Master, MSDB, TempDB, and Model. These databases are not modified or altered for the smooth
functioning of the SQL System.
A user database is a database that we create to store data and start working with the data.

What are the different Topologies in which Replication can be configured?

Replication can be configured in any topology depending keeping in view of the complexity and the workload of the
entire Replication. It can be any of the following:
1. Publisher, Distributor, and Subscriber on the same SQL Instance.
2. Publisher and Distributor on the same SQL Instance and Subscriber on a separate Instance.
3. Publisher, Distributor, and Subscriber on individual SQL Instances.

If you are given access to a SQL Server, how do you find if the SQL Instance is a named instance or a default
instance?
I would go to the SQL Server Configuration Manager. In the left pane of the tool, I would select SQL Server Services,
the right side pane displays all of the SQL Server Services/components that are installed on that machine. If the
Service is displayed as (MSSQLSERVER), then it indicates it is a default instance, else there will be the Instance name
displayed.

What is Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)?

Introduced in SQL Server 2008 Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is a mechanism through which you can protect the
SQL Server Database files from unauthorized access through encryption. Also, TDE can protect the database backups
of the instance on which TDE was setup.
What are the operating modes in which Database Mirroring runs?
1. High-Safety Mode: High-Safety Mode is to ensure that the Principal and Mirrored database are synchronized
state, that is the transactions are committed at the same time on both Servers to ensure consistency, but
there is/might be a time lag
2. High-Performance Mode: High-Performance Mode is to ensure that the Principal database run faster, by not
waiting for the Mirrored database to commit the transactions. There is a slight chance of data loss and also
the Mirrored database can be lagging behind (in terms being up to date with the Principal database) if there
is a heavy load on the Mirrored Server

When setting Replication, is it possible to have a Publisher as 64 Bit SQL Server and Distributor or Subscribers as a
32 Bit SQL Server.
Yes, it is possible to have various configurations in a Replication environment.

Which autogrowth database setting is good?

Setting an autogrowth in multiples of MB is a better option than setting autogrowth in percentage (%).

What are the different types of database compression introduced in SQL Server 2008?
Row compression and Page Compression.

What are the different types of Upgrades that can be performed in SQL Server?
1. In-place upgrade
2. Side-by-Side Upgrade

How do you trace the traffic hitting a SQL Server?

It is the SQL Sever profiler to monitor the traffic. By using this utility we control the traffic on a particular instance.

What is fundamental unit of SQL DB?

Page

What is size of page?

8 Kb

What are Extent and its size?

Extents are basic unit where space is allocated to tables and indexes. 8 contiguous pages or 64KB. An extent is eight
physically contiguous pages, or one extent = 64 KB. That means 16 Extents= 1 MB.
There are two types of Extents. Uniform Extents and Mixed Extents.
Uniform extents are owned by a single object;
Mixed extents are shared by up to eight objects

How many types of system databases are present in SQL Server 2008?
SQL Server 2008 (and 2005) contains six special databases: master, model, tempdb, msdb, and
msSQLsystemresource, Distribution.

List few methods of HA technologies in SQL?

Backup, Restore, Replication, Always ON, Mirroring, Log shipping, Clustering etc.

What is database backup?

Backup is copy of data/database.

How many types of backup are there?

Full backup, Differential /Incremental and Transactional Log

What are the methods for backup?

T-SQL & SSMS

What are the services are available along with SQL Server?
Reporting services, Analysis Services, Management Studio, Integration services, Full text search,browser, etc..
What are main services for SQL Server?
SQL Server and SQL Server Agent

What are the methods to start services?

Services.msc and SQL Server Configuration Manager

What are the methods to stop services?

Services.msc, SQL Server Configuration Manager and SSMS

Why we cannot start services via SSMS?

Due to services already stopped state, we cannot access services via SSMS

What is Replication?
The source data will be copied to destination through replication agents

What are the terminology used for Replication?

Publisher Server, Distributor (Optional) and Subscriber Server

What is log shipping?

The source data will be copied to destination via Transaction Log backup jobs

What are the terminology used in log shipping?

Primary Server, Secondary Server and Monitor Server (Optional).

What is mirroring?
The primary data will be copied to secondary via network

What are the terminology used for mirroring?

Principal Server, Mirror Server, Witness Server(Optional).

What is clustering?
The data will be stored in shared location which is used by both primary and secondary Servers based on availability
of the Server.

What are the terminology used for clustering?

Active node and Passive node

What is Always ON Availability Groups?

The primary data will be copied to secondary via network
What are the terminology used for Always ON Availability Groups?
Primary is source Server and Secondary is destination Server.

What is execution plan?

It is the result of query optimizer

What are types of query estimation plans there?

Estimated and Actual

How many types of execution plans formats are available?

Graphical, Text and XML
What is the command to see the execution plan by user?
SHOWPLAN

What Is SQL Profiler?

SQL Profiler is a tool which allows system administrator to monitor events in the SQL Server. This is mainly used to
capture and save data about each event of a file or a table for analysis.
What is SQL Server agent?
The SQL Server agent plays a vital role in day to day tasks of SQL Server administrator(DBA). Server agent's purpose
is to implement the tasks easily with the scheduler engine which allows our jobs to run at scheduled date and time.

What is an IDENTITY column in insert statements?

IDENTITY column is used in table columns to make that column as Auto incremental number or a surrogate key

How do you find the long running queries in SQL Server?

There are multiple ways to find the long running queries:
1. Use Queries: Prepare a list of useful queries and keep the script ready with you and that can be useful as a
quick tool when you find something suspicious on your Server / database.
2. Activity Monitor: Quick way to identify the problematic queries
3. Server Standard Reports: We can see the top costliest queries using the Server native reports
4. Database Standard Reports: We can find the database level long running queries
5. Profiler: Run a profiler trace and find the queries with bad performance
6. Extended Events: Lightweight tool to get the trace
7. Server Side Trace: Using T-SQL commands we can run Server side trace and capture the trace for a certain
time period and we can analyse it to find the long running queries
8. DMV: We can use DMV to scan the buffer cache to identify the long running queries Ex:
sys.dm_exec_query_stats, sys.dm_exec_query_plan etc.
9. DBCC: Sometime DBCC commands can help us to identifying the long running transactions ex: DBCC
OPENTRAN

In your backup strategy you have loss some data, how do you convince your client?
First check that the SLA (Service Level Agreement) and make sure data loss is in acceptable limits as per SLA. If not
you might have missed something in designing backup strategy to matchup the client SLA. However first thing should
be “Identify the possible ways” to get our data back. There are certain things from where we may get our data back
and of course it always depends on the situation. Check if we can get the tail log backup, see if that data is static or
dynamic, if it’s a static / master data then we may get it from the other mirror / partner database, or see if we can
match it with any Pre-Prod environment etc. Even after checking all possible ways you still failed to get data back
then approach your manager with a detailed RCA (Root Cause Analysis) by saying:
Why this happened?
Where is the mistake?
Can we provide any quick / temporary solution to get our data back?
What is the prevention from future failures?
Provide all possible logs / event information that you collected during the RCA

What are the common performance issues in SQL Server?

1. Deadlocks
2. Blocking
3. Missing and unused indexes.
4. I/O bottlenecks
5. Poor Query plans
6. Fragmentation

List the various tools available for performance tuning?

1. Dynamic Management Views
2. SQL Server Profiler
3. Server Side Traces
4. Windows Performance monitor.
5. Query Plans
6. Tuning advisor

What is a performance monitor?

Windows performance monitor is a tool to capture metrics for the entire Server. We can use this tool for capturing
events of the SQL Server also. Some useful counters are – Disks, Memory, Processors, Network, etc.
What are the various editions of SQL Server 2019 that are available in the market?
SQL Server 2019 is available in 5 editions. These are as follows:
1. Enterprise: This delivers comprehensive high-end datacenter capabilities with blazing-fast performance,
unlimited virtualization, and end-to-end business intelligence for mission-critical workloads and end-user
access to data insights.
2. Standard: This delivers basic data management and business intelligence database for departments and
small organizations to run their applications and supports common development tools for on-premises and
cloud-enabling effective database management.
3. Web: This edition is a low total-cost-of-ownership option for Web hosters and Web VAPs to provide
scalability, affordability, and manageability capabilities for small to large-scale Web properties.
4. Express: Express edition is the entry-level, free database and is ideal for learning and building desktop and
small Server data-driven applications.
5. Developer: This edition lets developers build any kind of application on top of SQL Server. It includes all the
functionality of Enterprise edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a
production Server.

Where Does The Copy Job Runs In The Log Shipping Primary Or Secondary?
Secondary Server. This question is basically asked to find out whether you have a hands on work on log shipping or
not.

I Have All The Primary Data Files, Secondary Data Files As Well As Logs. Now, Tell Me Can I Still Restore The
Database Without Having A Full Backup?
You cannot restore the database without having a full database backup. However, if you have
the copy of all the data files (.mdf and .ndf) and logs (.ldf) when database was in working condition (or your desired
state) it is possible to attach the database using sp_attach_db
Can We Perform Backup Restore Operation On Tempdb?
No

What Is Stored In The MsSQLsystemresource Database?

Definition of sys objects, which logically shows into all database and DMVs.

Where The SQL Logs Gets Stored?

It’s stored into root folder SQL Server, LOG folder.

How To Find The Version Of SQL Server?

Select @@version

How To Find The Service Pack Installed?

Select @@version Or select Serverproperty (‘productlevel’)

What Is The Purpose Of SQL Profiler In SQL Server?

SQL profiler is a tool to monitor performance of various stored procedures. It is used to debug the queries and
procedures. Based on performance, it identifies the slow executing queries. Capture any problems by capturing the
events on production environment so that they can be solved.

Where SQL Server User Names And Passwords Are Stored In SQL Server?
They get stored in System Catalog Views sys.Server_principals and sys.SQL_logins.

What Are Sparse Columns In SQL Server?

A sparse column is another tool used to reduce the amount of physical storage used in a database. They are the
ordinary columns that have an optimized storage for null values. Sparse columns reduce the space requirements for
null values at the cost of more overhead to retrieve non null values.

What Is Database Isolation In SQL Server?

Database isolation comes into play when we need to isolate the database and protect it from other things on the
network. This protection is achieved using locks. The type of lock and the level of isolation level needed are referred
as isolation level in SQL Server.
Types of isolation levels:
1. READ COMMITTED: Shared locks are held while any data is being read.
2. READ UNCOMMITTED: Specifies isolation level 0 locking. There are thus no shared locks or exclusive locks.
Lease restrictive of all the isolation levels.
3. REPEATABLE READ: Locks are applied on all data being used by a query. However, new phantom rows can be
inserted into the data set by another user and are included in later reads within the current transaction.
4. SERIALIZABLE: Issues a range lock on data set, preventing other users to update or insert data into dataset
until the transaction is complete.

What are the common issues a SQL DBA should deal with as a part of DBA daily job?
1. Backup Failure
2. Restore Failure
3. Log Full Issues
4. Blocking Alerts
5. Deadlocks Alerts
6. TEMPDB full issues
7. Disk Full Issues
8. SQL Connectivity Issues
9. Access issues
10. Installation and Upgrade Failures
11. SQL Agent Job failures
12. Performance Issues
13. Resource (Memory/IO/CPU etc.) Utilization Alerts
14. High-Availability and Disaster Recovery related issues

“model” system DB is down and we are trying to create a new database. Is it possible to create a new database
when model DB is down?
We can’t create a new database when model database is down. SQL Server restart will be unsuccessful when model
database is down as TEMPDB creation failed. TEMPDB is created based on model DB configurations, since model DB
is down TEMPDB will not be created.

What is the maximum limit of SQL Server instances for a standalone computer?
50 instances on a stand-alone Server for all SQL Server editions. SQL Server supports 25 instances on a failover
cluster.

Can we perform a tail log backup if .mdf file is corrupted?

Yes we can perform a tail log as long as the ldf if not corrupted and no bulk logged changes.
A typical tail log backup is having two options, 1. WITH NORECOVERY 2.Continue After Error.
1. WITH NORECOVERY: To make sure no transactions happens after the tal log backup
2. CONTINUE AFTER ERROR: Just to make sure log backup happens even though some meta data pages corrupted.

Let’s say we have a situation. We are restoring a database from a full backup. The restore operation ran for 2
hours and failed with an error 9002 (Insufficient logspace). And the database went to suspect mode. How do you
troubleshoot this issue?
In that case we can actually add a new log file on other drive and rerun the restore operation using the system
stored procedure “sp_add_log_file_recover_suspect_db”. Parameters are the same as while creating a new log file

What is SQL DUMP? Have you ever dealt with this?

When SQL Server is crashed or in hung state due to a Memory/Disk/CPU problems it creates a SQL DUMP file. A
DUMP files is a file containing a snapshot of the running process (in this case SQL Server) that includes all of the
memory space of that process and the call stack of every thread the process has created. There are two major types
of DUMP files:
1. Full DUMP: It contains entire process space and takes lot of time and space
2. Mini DUMP: It’s a smaller file contains the memory for the call stack of all threads, the CPU registers and
information about which modules are loaded.

Any idea about boot page?

In every database there is a page available which stores about the most critical information about that database. This
page is called boot page. Boot Page is page 9 in first file on primary file group. We can examine the BOOTPAGE using
DBCC PAGE or DBCC DBINFO

Can we uninstall/rollback a service packs from SQL Server 2005?

No not possible for SQL Server 2005. To rollback a SP you have to uninstall entire product and reinstall it.
For SQL Server 2008 you can uninstall a SP from Add/Remove programs.

What are the Hotfixes and Patches?

Hotfixs are software patches that were applied to live i.e. still running systems. A hotfix is a single, cumulative
package that includes one or more files that are used to address a problem in a software product (i.e. a software
bug). In a Microsoft SQL SERVER context, hotfixes are small patches designed to address specific issues, most
commonly to freshly-discovered security holes.
Ex: If a select query returning duplicate rows with aggregations the result may be wrong….

I have my PROD SQL Server all system db’s are located on E drive and I need my resource db on H drive how can
you move it?
No only resource db cannot be moved, Resource db location is always depends on Master database location, if u
want to move resource db you should also move master db.

Can we take the backup for Resource DB?

No way. The only way if you want to get a backup is use windows backup for option resource mdf and ldf files.

What you do if a column of data type int is out of scope?

I do alter column to BigInt

How can I verify that backups are occurring on a daily basis?

1. Check all backup jobs history
2. Review the SQL Server error log for backup related entries.
3. Query the msdb.dbo.backupset table for the backup related entries.
4. Review the file system where the backups are issued to validate they exist.

How is a point in time recovery performed?

1. It depends on which backup types are issued. In this example let’s assume that full, differential and
transaction log backups are issued.
2. Restore the most recent full backup with the NORECOVERY clause
3. Restore the most recent differential backup with the NORECOVERY clause
4. Restore all of the subsequent transaction log backups with the NORECOVERY clause except the last
transaction log backup
5. Restore the last transaction log backup with the RECOVERY clause and a STOPAT statement if the entire
transaction log does not need to be applied

What are the restore options available?

When you restore a backup, you can choose from 3 restore option.
1. With Recovery – Database is ready to use, and user can connect to database, user can change data inside
database.
2. No Recovery – Database is not ready, there are few more backups that has to be applied to this database
instance. User cannot connect to database because it is in Restoring Status. (Exception: Not considering
Database Snapshots )
3. Standby / Read Only – Database is ready to use but database is in Read Only mode, user can connect to
database but they cannot change data inside database. A running database con not be changed to standby
mode. Only a data in no-recovery state can be moved to standby mode. This is an option that is specified
while restoring a database or transaction log.

What is query store in SQL Server?

The SQL Server Query Store feature provides you with insight on query plan choice and performance. ... It separates
data by time windows so you can see database usage patterns and understand when query plan changes happened
on the Server. You can configure query store using the ALTER DATABASE SET option.

Where is query store data stored?

When a query gets submitted against a database that has the Query Store enabled, the compiled query Execution
Plan is written to the Query Store Plan Store and the runtime information of the query is recorded in the Runtime
Stats Store. This information is stored initially in-memory.

How do you check if SQL query is running?

Use SQL Server Profiler (tools menu) to monitor executing queries and use activity monitor in Management studio to
see how is connected and if their connection is blocking other connections.

When was query store introduced?

Why is my stored procedure so slow?

Storage of Execution Plan – One of the biggest reasons why you are facing slow procedures in SQL Server is probably
because your Execution plan is stored in the cache. To find out if it is in the cache, you need to search it there and
see if it exists in the top 10 appearing plans.

Why does SQL query take so long?

There are a number of things that may cause a query to take longer time to execute: ... Table lock - The table is
locked, by global lock or explicit table lock when the query is trying to access it. Deadlock - A query is waiting to
access the same rows that are locked by another query.

How many joining conditions are required to join 4 tables in SQL?

Explanation: To join 'n' tables 'n-1' conditions should be satisfied. So to join 4 tables 3 conditions should be satisfied.

Which JOIN is used to combine tables itself?

The self-join is a special kind of joins that allow you to join a table to itself using either LEFT JOIN or INNER JOIN
clause. You use self-join to create a result set that joins the rows with the other rows within the same table.

HA / DR:
High Availability means your database will be available for usage in a very large proportion of the time. It is
measured in percent of uptime or number of nine's, e.g. 99.99%.Basically it means "your DB and its data will (almost)
always be available to users".
Disaster recovery is a process of getting back to "available" state once your db becomes unavailable to users.
That's why DR is tied to HA, it's a process that resolves other part of those nines percentage (e.g. spending 0.01% of
time in recovery). Sometimes that DR will be with data loss. There should be defined upfront how much data loss is
acceptable.

You need a combination of healthy and redundant hardware and software (not just SQL Server software) to achieve
HA and do DR.

Each solution is different from what it protects from (e.g. user dropped table, motherboard failure, storage failure,
network failure, OS patching downtime, site failure by e.g. fire or tsunami, ww3, earth exploding or getting eaten by
a black hole)

Clustering and mirroring helps you achieve HA. Log shipping will not give you very high availability, but it will be
higher than not having it, and because of time lag there is a data loss. Synchronous mirroring gives you zero data
loss only if it is in "synchronized" (not "synchonizing") state. Cluster protects from motherboard failure and patching
downtime, but does not protect from storage failure. etc.

What is Audit in SQL Server?

Auditing an instance of SQL Server or a SQL Server database involves tracking and logging events that occur on the
system. The SQL Server Audit object collects a single instance of Server- or database-level actions and groups of
actions to monitor. The audit is at the SQL Server instance level. SQL Server auditing is a new feature which makes
use of extended events to allow you to audit everything that happens in your Server, from Server setting changes all
the way down to who modified a value in a specific table in the database.

What is a linked Server in SQL Server?

Linked Servers allows you to connect to other database instances on the same Server or on another machine or
remote Servers. It allows SQL Server to execute SQL scripts against OLE DB data sources on remote Servers using OLE
DB providers. In SQL Server Management Studio, open Object Explorer, expand Server Objects, right-click Linked
Servers, and then click New Linked Server.

How do you delete a linked Server in SQL Server?

To remove a linked Server, use the sp_dropServer system stored procedure. This removes a Server from the list of
known remote and linked Servers on the local instance of SQL Server. This stored procedure accepts two arguments:
the Server name, and an optional argument for removing any logins associated with the Server.

What is CRUD in SQL Server?

CRUD basically for operation purpose only and it’s for Create, Read, Update, and Delete. Most applications have
some kind of CRUD functionality, and we can assume that every programmer had to deal with CRUD at some point.
A CRUD application is one that uses forms to get data into and out of a database. Importance of CRUD
Facilitate operation security control: in the real world, for the same data, some people can read it but not change it,
like your salary, which you can read it but you cannot update/delete it (at least without authorization). Some can
only read/write their own data, but no access to other's data.

What is SQL partitioned tables in SQL Server?

The main of goal of partitioning is to aid in maintenance of large tables and to reduce the overall response time to
read and load data for particular SQL operations. Table partitioning is a way to divide a large table into smaller, more
manageable parts without having to create separate tables for each part. Data in a partitioned table is physically
stored in groups of rows called partitions and each partition can be accessed and maintained separately.
Open SQL Server and right click on the table you want to partition.
1. Go to 'Storage'.
2. Click on 'Create Partition'.
3. Click 'Next' on the Wizard Page.
4. Choose a column that you want to partition by. Name your new Partition Function.
What is fragmentation in SQL Server?
Fragmentation happens when the logical order of pages in an index does not match the physical order in the data
file. Because fragmentation can affect the performance of some queries, you need to monitor the fragmentation
level of your indexes and, if required, perform re-organize or rebuild operations on them. Fragmentation is a
database Server feature that allows you to control where data is stored at the table level. ... When you create
fragmented tables and indexes, the database Server stores the location of each table and index fragment with other
related information in the system catalog table named sysfragments.

How do I fix fragmentation in SQL Server?

Periodic maintenance is necessary to keep your SQL Server index fragmentation from impacting performance. You
can fix index fragmentation by rebuilding or defragmenting the index. If the fragmentation level is low, you can
defragment the index. If it's high, then you should rebuild the index.

How do I resolve SQL Server performance issues?

1. Start by checking your wait stats
2. Ensure your TempDB database is configured optimally.
3. Make sure you're running index maintenance frequently.
4. Implement indexes that provide a benefit to your queries.
5. Check your most expensive queries and stored procedures.
6. Monitor your performance counters.

Troubleshooting Full-text Search Problems:

If you have problems installing the Full-text Search (MSSearch) service, check the Mssearch.log in the \Temp
directory to see if any problems occurred.

Verify that both the MS SQLServer and MSSearch services are running. The full-text search runs as a service named
Microsoft Search Service (MSSearch service). So, if this service was not started, the full-text search cannot work.
If a full-text catalog population or query fails, check that there is no mismatch of user account information between
the MSSQLServer and MSSearch services.

Change the password for the MS SQLServer service using the SQL Server Enterprise Manager (do not use Services in
Control Panel to change user account information). Changing the password for the MSSQLServer service results in an
update of the account the MSSearch service runs under.

Verify that the MSSearch service runs under the local system account. The Microsoft Search service is assigned to
the local system account during full-text search installation. Do not change the MSSearch service account
information after the installation. Otherwise, it cannot keep track of the MSSQLServer service account.

Verify whether you have a UNC path specification in your PATH variable. Having the UNC path specification(s) in
the SYSTEM or USER PATH variables can result in a full-text query failure with the message that full-text catalog is
not yet ready for queries. To work around this, you should replace the UNC path(s) with remapped drive(s) or add
the location \%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Common Files\SYSTEM\ContentIndex in front of any UNC path
specification in the SYSTEM path.

If you encountered error indicating that insufficient memory is available, set the virtual memory setting to an
amount equal to three times the physical memory and set the SQL Server 'max Server memory' Server configuration
option to 1.5 times the physical memory. Because working with full-text search is very resource expensive, you
should make sure you have enough physical and virtual memory. Set the virtual memory size to at least 3 times the
physical memory installed in the computer and set the SQL Server 'max Server memory' Server configuration option
to half the virtual memory size setting (1.5 times the physical memory).

If you encountered an error indicating that your full-text query contains only ignored words, try to rewrite the
query to a phrase-based query, removing the noise words. You will get the error indicating that full-text query
contains ignored words when the CONTAINS predicate is used with words such as 'OR', 'AND' or 'BETWEEN' as
searchable phrase. For example, this select statement returns an error:
SELECT ProductName FROM Products WHERE CONTAINS(ProductName, 'and OR between')
Rewrite the English Query's questions, so that these questions will not require a full-text search on a table with a
uniqueidentifier key. Asking the English Query's questions that require a full-text search on a table with a
uniqueidentifier key may cause English Query to stop responding.
If you decide to install the full-text search by using the BackOffice 4.5 custom setup, after a successful installation of
SQL Server 7.0 (without installing full-text search), you should run SetupSQL.exe from the BackOffice CD-ROM(2) (\
SQL70\Machine_platform\Setup\SetupSQL.exe) You are not allowed to install it by using the BackOffice 4.5 setup,
because the BackOffice Custom Installation dialog box falsely indicates that the full-text search has been installed
already.

If you encountered an error indicating that the full-text query timed out trying to reduce the size of the result set,
increase the 'remote query timeout' setting or insert the full-text query result set into a temporary table instead of
streaming the results directly to the client.

Make a single column unique index for the table you want to be used in a full-text query. The full-text indexing
cannot work on a table that has a unique index on multiple columns. If the table you want to be used in a full-text
query does not currently have a single column unique index, add an IDENTITY column with a UNIQUE index or
constraint. Upgrade to SQL Server 2000 if you need to work with full-text search in a clustered environment. The full
text search is not available in SQL Server 7.0 clustered environments.

Troubleshooting SQL Server Alerts:

Check that you are using the latest SQL Server service pack. Because many alert bugs were fixed in SQL Server service
packs, you should install the latest SQL Server service pack. Check "How can I check what SQL service pack am I
running?" to find out which SQL Server service pack you are running.

If all of the alerts are not firing, check that the SQLServerAgent and EventLog services are running. These services
must be started, if you need the alerts to be fired. So, if these services are not running, you should run them.
If an alert is not firing, make sure that it is enabled. The alert can be enabled or disabled. To check if an alert is
enabled, you can do the following:
1. Run SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
2. Expand a Server group; then expand a Server.
3. Expand Management; then expand SQL Server Agent.
4. Double-click the appropriate alert to see if the alert is enabled.
5. Check the history values of the alert to determine the last date that the alert worked.To view the history
values of the alert, you can do the following:
6. Run SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
7. Expand a Server group; then expand a Server.
8. Expand Management; then expand SQL Server Agent.
9. Double-click the appropriate alert to see the alert history.

Verify that the counter value is maintained for at least 20 seconds. Because SQL Server Agent polls the performance
counters at 20 second intervals, if the counter value is maintained for only a few seconds (less than 20 seconds),
there is a high likelihood that the alert will not fire.
If the alert fires, but the responsible operator does not receive notification, try to send 'e-mail', 'pager', or 'net send'
message to this operator manually. In most cases, this problem arises when you have entered an incorrect 'e-mail',
'pager', or 'net send' addresses. If you can send an 'e-mail', 'pager', or 'net send' message manually to this operator,
check the account the SQL Server Agent runs under, as well as the operator's on-duty schedule.

How do you troubleshoot errors in a SQL Server Agent Job?

1. Need to check that you use the latest SQL Server service pack.
2. Need to check if the Task Scheduler service is running or not.
3. Check that the SQLServerAgent and Eventlog services are running, if all the jobs are not starting.
4. Check that the job is enabled, if the job is not starting.
5. If the job works fine when you start it manually, but does not start on the scheduled base, check that the
job's schedule is enabled.
6. Check the history values of the job to determine the last date the job worked.
7. Check the SQL Server error log, SQL Server Agent error log and Windows NT or Windows 2000 application
log to get a more detailed error description.
What happens at the checkpoint?
Checkpoints, whether scheduled or manually executed, cause the transaction log to be truncated up to the
beginning of the oldest open transaction (the active portion of the log). That is, the dirty pages from the buffer cache
are written to disk. Storing committed transactions in the cache provides a performance gain for SQL Server.
However, you do not want the transaction log to get too big because it might consume too many resources and,
should your database fail, take too long to process to recover the database.
One important thing to note here is that SQL Server can only truncate up to the oldest open transaction. Therefore,
if you are not seeing the expected relief from a checkpoint, it could very well be that someone forgot to commit or
rollback their transaction. It is very important to finalize all transactions as soon as possible.

What are the new features in SQL Server 2005 when compared to SQL Server 2000?
There are quite a lot of changes and enhancements in SQL Server 2005. A few of them are listed here:
1. Database Partitioning
2. Dynamic Management Views
3. System Catalog Views
4. Resource Database
5. Database Snapshots
6. SQL Server Integration Services
7. Support for Analysis Services on a Failover Cluster.
8. Profiler being able to trace the MDX queries of the Analysis Server.
Peer-to peer Replication
Database Mirroring

What is the importance of a recovery model?

Primarily, the recovery model is chosen keeping in view the amount of data loss one can afford. If one expects to
have minimal or no data loss, choosing the Full recovery model is a good choice. Depending on the recovery model
of a database, the behavior of the database log file changes. I would recommend you read more material on log
backups and log file behavior and so on to understand in depth.

If you are given access to a SQL Server, how do you find if the SQL Instance is a named instance or a default instance?
I would go to the SQL Server Configuration Manager. In the left pane of the tool, I would select SQL Server Services,
the right side pane displays all of the SQL Server Services/components that are installed on that machine. If the
Service is displayed as (MSSQLSERVER), then it indicates it is a default instance, else there will be the Instance name
displayed.

What are the differences in Clustering in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 or 2008 R2?
On SQL Server 2005, installing the SQL Server failover cluster is a single-step process whereas on SQL Server 2008 or
above it is a multi-step process. That is, in SQL Server 2005, the Installation process itself installs on all of the nodes
(be it 2 nodes or 3 nodes). In 2008 or above this has changed, we would need to install separately on all the nodes. 2
times if it is a 2 node cluster or 3 times in a 3 node cluster, and so on.

List out some of the requirements to set up a SQL Server failover cluster.
Virtual network name for the SQL Server, Virtual IP address for SQL Server, IP addresses for the Public Network and
Private Network(also referred to as Heartbeat) for each node in the failover cluster, shared drives for SQL Server
Data and Log files, Quorum Disk, and MSDTC Disk.
System stored procedures:
Stored Procedures are a pre-compiled set of one or more statements that are stored together in the database. They
reduce the network load because of the pre-compilation. Systems and procedures are crucial for your admin job, as
well. You have a procedure for processing an expense report; you have a system for doing the monthly accounting.
A procedure is simply one component of a larger system, and most systems are made up of a series of procedures. In
SQL Server, many administrative and informational activities can be performed by using system stored procedures.

Change Data Capture Stored Used to enable, disable, or report on change data capture objects.
Procedures
Cursor Stored Procedures Used to implements cursor variable functionality.
Data Collector Stored Procedures Used to work with the data collector and the following components:
collection sets, collection items, and collection types.
Database Engine Stored Procedures Used for general maintenance of the SQL Server Database Engine.
Database Mail Stored Procedures Used to perform e-mail operations from within an instance of SQL Server.
(Transact-SQL)
Database Maintenance Plan Stored Used to set up core maintenance tasks that are required to manage
Procedures database performance.
Distributed Queries Stored Procedures Used to implement and manage distributed queries.
Filestream and FileTable Stored Used to configure and manage the FILESTREAM and FileTable features.
Procedures (Transact-SQL)
Firewall Rules Stored Procedures Used to configure the Azure SQL Database firewall.
(Azure SQL Database)
Full-Text Search Stored Procedures Used to implement and query full-text indexes.
General Extended Stored Procedures Used to provide an interface from an instance of SQL Server to external
programs for various maintenance activities.
Log Shipping Stored Procedures Used to configure, modify, and monitor log shipping configurations.
Management Data Warehouse Stored Used to configure the management data warehouse.
Procedures (Transact-SQL)
OLE Automation Stored Procedures Used to enable standard Automation objects for use within a standard
Transact-SQL batch.
Policy-Based Management Stored Used for Policy-Based Management.
Procedures
PolyBase stored procedures Add or remove a computer from a PolyBase scale-out group.
Query Store Stored Procedures Used to tune performance.
(Transact-SQL)
Replication Stored Procedures Used to manage replication.
Security Stored Procedures Used to manage security.
Snapshot Backup Stored Procedures Used to delete the FILE_SNAPSHOT backup along with all of its snapshots or
to delete an individual backup file snapshot.
Spatial Index Stored Procedures Used to analyze and improve the indexing performance of spatial indexes.
SQL Server Agent Stored Procedures Used by SQL Server Profiler to monitor performance and activity.
SQL Server Profiler Stored Procedures Used by SQL Server Agent to manage scheduled and event-driven activities.
Stretch Database Stored Procedures Used to manage stretch databases.
Temporal Tables Stored Procedures Use for temporal tables
XML Stored Procedures Used for XML text management.
User Defined Stored Procedures in SQL:
1. Creating a Table
2. User Defined Stored Procedure
3. To Execute the Stored Procedure
4. Stored Procedure with Parameters
5. Modifying the Stored Procedure
6. Deleting the Stored Procedure
7. Adding Security through Encryption
Stored Procedure is the block of the SQL statement in Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), and it is
typically written by the programmer, Database Administrator, Data Analyst, and is saved and re-used for multiple
programs. It can also have different types depending on the various RDBMS. However, the two most crucial Stored
Procedures found in any RDBMS are as follows.
User-defined Stored Procedure
System Stored Procedure
Stored Procedure is a prepared compiled code which is stored or cached and then re-used. You can have cached
code for re-use which makes maintainability far easier, i.e., it doesn't need to be changed multiple times, which can
maintain security.

What is Covering Index?

A covering index is a non clustered index built upon all the columns required to satisfy a SQL query without going to
the base table. If a query encounters an index and does not need to refer to the underlying data table at all, then the
index can be considered a covering index. For Example

Select col1,col2 from table

where col3 = Value
group by col4
order by col5

Now if you create a clustered index for all the columns used in Select statement then the SQL doesn’t need to go to
base tables as everything required are available in index pages.

What is Bookmark Lookup ?

When a SQL query requests a small number of rows, the optimizer can use the nonclustered index, if available, on
the column(s) in the WHERE clause to retrieve the data. If the query refers to columns that are not part of the
nonclustered index used to retrieve the data, then navigation is required from the index row to the corresponding
data row in the table to access these columns.This operation is called a bookmark lookup.

What is query store in SQL Server?

Where is query store data stored?

How do you check if SQL query is running?

Use SQL Server Profiler (tools menu) to monitor executing queries and use activity monitor in Management studio to
see how is connected and if their connection is blocking other connections.

When was query store introduced?

Query store was introduced in SQL Server 2016. It is often referred to as a “flight data recorder” for SQL Server. Its
main function is that it captures the history of executed queries as well as certain statistics and execution plans.
Why is my stored procedure so slow?
Storage of Execution Plan – One of the biggest reasons why you are facing slow procedures in SQL Server is probably
because your Execution plan is stored in the cache. To find out if it is in the cache, you need to search it there and
see if it exists in the top 10 appearing plans.

Why does SQL query take so long?

What is Fill Factor?

Its requirement comes to manage data storage in the data pages in the terms of percentages value.

What is the default fill factor value?

The default fill factor value is 0.

What is the use of quorum in always on?

Quorum determines regarding the node failures the cluster can sustain.

When setting Replication, can you have Distributor on SQL Server 2012, Publisher on SQL Server 2016?
No

What are the different types of database compression introduced in SQL Server 2016?
1. Row level
2. page level.

Can we add two columns while creating Primary Key?

In such scenario it’s possible if multiple columns are defined as PRIMARY KEY, then, it is called composite key.

Can we take differential backup of Secondary replica in always on?

No we can’t.

Can we take backup of TempDB database?

No we can’t.

What Is The Purpose of SQL Profiler In SQL Server?

Where Does The Copy Job Runs In The Log Shipping Primary Or Secondary?
Secondary Server
I Have All The Primary Data Files, Secondary Data Files As Well As Logs. Now, Tell Me Can I Still Restore The
Database Without Having A Full Backup?
You cannot restore the database without having a full database backup. However, if you have the copy of all the data
files (.mdf and .ndf) and logs (.ldf) when database was in working condition (or your desired state) it is possible to
attach the database using sp_attach_db.

One Of The Developers In My Company Moved One Of The Columns From One Table To Some Other Table In The
Same Database. How Can I Find The Name Of The New Table Where The Column Has Been Moved?
This question can be answered by querying system views.

For SQL Server 2005 run the following code:

SELECT OBJECT_NAME(OBJECT_ID) TableName
FROM sys.columns
WHERE name = 'YourColumnName'

The previous query will return all the tables that use the column name specified in the WHERE condition.
What Is Service Broker?
Service Broker is a message-queuing technology in SQL Server that allows developers to integrate SQL Server fully
into distributed applications. Service Broker is feature which provides facility to SQL Server to send an asynchronous,
transactional message. it allows a database to send a message to another database without waiting for the response,
so the application will continue to function if the remote database is temporarily unavailable.

What Are Sparse Columns In SQL Server?

What are The Steps To Take To Improve Performance Of A Poor Performing Query?
1. Use indexes efficiently
2. Create all primary and foreign keys and relationships among tables.
3. Avoid using cursors
4. Avoid using Select*, rather mention the needed columns and narrow the resultset as needed.
5. Denormalize
6. Use partitioned views
7. Use temporary tables and table variables
8. Reduce joins and heavy clauses like GROUP BY if not needed
9. Implement queries as stored procedures.
10. Have a WHERE Clause in all SELECT queries.
11. Use data types wisely
12. Instead of NULLS use string values such as N/A

What is SQL Sandbox in SQL Server?

SQL Sandbox is the safe place in SQL Server Environment where untrusted scripts are executed. There are 3 types of
SQL sandbox, such as

Safe Access Sandbox: Here a user can perform SQL operations such as creating stored procedures, triggers, etc. but
cannot have access to the memory and cannot create files.
External Access Sandbox: User can have access to files without having a right to manipulate the memory allocation.
Unsafe Access Sandbox: This contains untrusted codes where a user can have access to memory.

How to find missing indexes in SQL Server

Using SQL Server DMVs to Identify Missing Indexes
1. dm_db_missing_index_details - Returns detailed information about a missing index.
2. dm_db_missing_index_group_stats - Returns summary information about missing index groups.
3. dm_db_missing_index_groups - Returns information about a specific group of missing indexes.
Different types of backups:
Complete backup :The complete back up is just zipping the content of the entire database in terms of the different
tables and procedures etc. This back up can Server as an independent entity that can be restored in different
systems with just the base SQL Server installed.

Transaction log backup: This is the mechanism of backing up the transaction logs that have been maintained in the
Server. This way the details of the database getting updated is obtained. This cannot be a stand-alone back up
mechanism. But can save a lot of time if we already have the file system related to the DB backed up on the new
deployment Server.

Differential backup: This is a subset of the complete backup, where only the modified datasets are backed up. This
can save the time when we are just trying to maintain a backup Server to main Server.

File backup: This is the quickest way to take the backup of entire database. Instead of taking in the data actually
stored in DB, the files are backed up and the file system thus obtained when combined with the transaction logs of
the original system will render the database that we are trying to back up.

USER DEFINED FUNCTION:

SQL Server allows us to create our functions called as user defined functions in SQL Server. For example, if we want
to perform some complex calculations, then we can place them in a separate function, and store it in the database.
Whenever we need the calculation, we can call it. There are two types of SQL user defined functions:
Scalar Function: It is a function that returns a single value. Generally, we have to define the function body between
BEGIN … END block, but for inline scalar function, you can omit them. We can use any SQL data type as the return
type except text, image, ntext, cursor, and timestamp.
1. Table Valued Functions: It is a user defined function in SQL Server that returns a table.
2. Inline Table valued Functions: This function returns a table data type based on a single SELECT Statement
3. Multi Statement Table valued Functions: This function also returns the tabular result set. But, unlike the
inline table valued function, we can use multiple select statements inside the function body.

Sparse Columns in SQL Server?

How do you find the long running queries in SQL Server?

1. Use Queries: Prepare a list of useful queries and keep the script ready with you and that can be useful as a
quick tool when you find something suspicious on your Server / database.
2. Activity Monitor: Quick way to identify the problematic queries
3. Server Standard Reports: We can see the top costliest queries using the Server native reports
4. Database Standard Reports: We can find the database level long running queries
5. Profiler: Run a profiler trace and find the queries with bad performance
6. Extended Events: Lightweight tool to get the trace
7. Server Side Trace: Using T-SQL commands we can run Server side trace and capture the trace for a certain
time period and we can analyse it to find the long running queries
8. DMV: We can use DMV to scan the buffer cache to identify the long running queries Ex:
sys.dm_exec_query_stats, sys.dm_exec_query_plan etc.
9. DBCC: Sometime DBCC commands can help us to identifying the long running transactions ex: DBCC
OPENTRAN

How is a point in time recovery performed?

What is the 3 2 1 rule for backups and best backup strategy

The 3-2-1 backup strategy simply states that you should have 3 copies of your data (your production data and 2
backup copies) on two different media (disk and tape) with one copy off-site for disaster recovery.

What is the maximum limit of SQL Server instances for a standalone computer?
50 instances on a stand-alone Server for all SQL Server editions. SQL Server supports 25 instances on a failover
cluster.

How do you troubleshoot a Full transaction log issue?

1. Columns log_reuse_wait and log_reuse_wait_desc of the sys.databases catalog view describes what is the
actual problem that causes log full / delay truncation.
2. Backing up the log.
3. Freeing disk space so that the log can automatically grow.
4. Moving the log file to a disk drive with sufficient space.
5. Increasing the size of a log file.
6. Adding a log file on a different disk.
7. Completing or killing a long-running transaction.
When you upgrade a SQL Server, the upgrade wizard seems to stop responding and fails. Why?
If applications or services have opened ODBC connections to SQL Server 2005 during the conversion process, they
may not allow SQL Server to shut down completely. The conversion process will not proceed to the next step if it
does not receive verification that SQL Server has been completely stopped.

What is the difference between the 2 operating modes of Database Mirroring (mentioned in the above answer)?
 High-Safety Mode is to make sure that the Principal and reflected info area unit synchronal state, that is the
transactions are committed at the same time on both Servers to ensure consistency, but there is/might be a
time lag.
 High-Performance Mode is to ensure that the Principal database run faster, by not waiting for the Mirrored
database to commit the transactions. There is a small likelihood of knowledge loss and conjointly the
reflected info may be insulating material behind (in terms being up so far with the Principal database).

How to recover a database that is in suspect stage?

There are times when you connect to an SQL Server Instance you will find the database being marked as SUSPECT. In
such a scenario, you will not be able to connect to the database to read and write data.
Primary reasons when an SQL Server Database is marked in Suspect Mode
1. System Issues
2. Transaction Log File is Missing
3. SQL Server Crash
4. Database Files are inaccessible
5. SQL Server Database Operation Failures
6. Due to Improper shut down of SQL Server System
7. Due to Sudden Power Outage
8. Low Disk Space Issues
9. Hardware Failure

Steps to Fix the SQL Server Database Suspect Mode Error

Step 1: Bring Database Online in EMERGENCY MODE
Step 2: Perform Consistency Check Using DBCC Command DBCC CHECKDB
Step 3: Bring the Database in SINGLE_USER Mode to ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
Step 4: Take a Full Backup of the User Database which was marked Suspect Before
Step 5: Execute DBCC CHECKDB WITH REPAIR ALLOW DATA LOSS (Caution: It will result in Data Loss)
Step 6: Once the above command has executed successful. Bring the Database in MULTI_USER Mode for normal
read and write operations
If you have database backups which allows you Point in Time Recovery then it is always recommended to restore
your database from the available SQL Server Database Backups. However, do consider you have enough space
available on the Server to restore the database.

Steps by Step Guide to Repair Suspect Database in SQL Server are:

1. Execute the below mentioned TSQL code to identify all the databases which are marked as SUSPECT.
USE master
GO
SELECT NAME,STATE_DESC FROM SYS.DATABASES
WHERE STATE_DESC='SUSPECT'
GO
Due to a hardware failure one of our database namely BPO was marked SUSPECT when the SQL Server came back
online. Already due to the hardware failure we had downtime for more than two hours and adding to that when the
Server came back online our mostly critical database was marked as SUSPECT.

2. Open the latest SQL Server Error Log and check for errors logged for the database which is marked as suspect.
You can open SQL Server Error Log by expanding Management Node -> SQL Server Error Logs. In my Server I could
find below mentioned entries in SQL Server Error Logs.
Sample Error Messages within SQL Server Error Log when database is marked as SUSPECT
Starting up database 'BPO'.

Error: 9003, Severity: 20, State: 9.

The log scan number (189624:16:2) passed to log scan in database 'BPO' is not valid.
This error may indicate data corruption or that the log file (.ldf) does not match the data file (.mdf).
If this error occurred during replication, re-create the publication.
Otherwise, restore from backup if the problem results in a failure during startup.

Error: 3414, Severity: 21, State: 1.

An error occurred during recovery, preventing the database 'BPO' (database ID 10) from restarting.
Diagnose the recovery errors and fix them, or restore from a known good backup.
If errors are not corrected or expected, contact Technical Support.
CHECKDB for database 'BPO' finished without errors on 2009-12-15 11:30:28.320 (local time).
This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

3. When a database is in SUSPECT mode you will not be able to get connected to the database. Hence you need to
bring the database first in EMERGENCY mode to repair the database. Execute the below mentioned TSQL code to
bring the database in EMERGENCY mode.
USE master
GO
ALTER DATABASE BPO SET EMERGENCY
GO
Once the database is in EMERGENCY mode you will be able to query the database.

4. Execute the DBCC CHECKDB command which will check the logical and physical integrity of all the objects within
the specified database.
DBCC CHECKDB (BPO)
GO
DBCC CHECKDB will take time depending upon the size of the database. Its always recommended to run DBCC
CHECKDB as part of your regular maintenance schedule for all the SQL Server Databases.
5. Next step will be to bring the user database in SINGLE_USER mode by executing the below mentioned TSQL
code.
ALTER DATABASE BPO SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
GO
When you repair your database using REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS option of DBCC CHECKDB command there can be
some loss of data.
Once the database is successfully repaired using REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS option of DBCC CHECKDB command
then there is no way to go back to the previous state.

6. Once the database is in SINGLE_USER mode execute the below TSQL code to repair the database.
DBCC CHECKDB (BPO, REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS)
GO
7. Finally, execute the below mentioned TSQL command to allow MULTI_USER access to the database.
ALTER DATABASE BPO SET MULTI_USER
GO

How to Start SQL Server with Minimal Configuration or without TempDB database
1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator and then go to the BINN directory where SQL Server is installed
and type SQLservr.exe /f /c. On our Production Server SQL Server is installed on the following drive location
“E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.SQL2014\MSSQL\Binn\“.
SQLservr.exe /f /c
2. Open New Command Prompt window as an administrator and then Connect to SQL Server Instance
Using SQLCMD.
SQLCMD –S localhost –E
3. Once you have performed the troubleshooting steps. Exit SQLCMD window by typing Quit and Press Enter.
For more information. see, How to Start SQL Server without TempDB
4. In the initial window click CTRL C and enter Y to Stop SQL Server Service.
5. Finally, start SQL Server Database Engine Using SQL Server Configuration Manager.
6. Best Practices to follow when connecting to SQL Server Instance with Minimal Configuration
7. It is recommended to use SQLCMD command line utility and the Dedicated Administrator Connection
(DAC) to connect to the SQL Server Instance. In case if you use normal connection then stop SQL Server
Agent service as it will use the first available connection thereby blocking other users.

How many data files I can put in TEMPDB? What is the effect of adding multiple data files?
It is recommended that you have one TempDB data file per CPU core. For example a Server with 2 dual core
processors would recommend 4 TempDB data files. With that in mind, Microsoft recommends a maximum of
8 TempDB files per SQL Server. With that said, there is really no set rule for how many TempDB files you should have
to maximize performance. Each system is different. The only real way to know what will work best for your system is
to scale out the number of TempDB files one at a time and analyze the performance after each additional file is
added.
One of the disk drive is 95% full within a very less time. Now you started getting disk full alerts and you need to
free up the space. What are the different options you try to clear the space? And what are the possible reasons
that cause the sudden disk full issues?
1. To monitor these metrics, and to set up alerts to warn you when:
2. Free disk space dips below a threshold value
3. Unallocated space in a database file dips below a threshold value
4. Database files grow, physically, in size
By monitoring each of these metrics you will, firstly, cut out all the unplanned downtime caused by ‘unexpectedly’
running out of disk space; an event that can adversely affect a DBA’s career. Secondly, you’ll increase the time
available to react. If you can predict when a database is going to need to grow, you can schedule in maintenance
time, to increase capacity, at a point when it will have the least impact on your business. It will also help you avoid
file auto-growth occurring at unpredictable times, when it could block and disrupt important business processes.
Finally, you’ll also be able to investigate and fix any problem that may be causing excessive database growth. All this
will result in much less disruption to business processes, and a drastic reduction in time spent on ad-hoc disk space
management.

Let’s say we are not receiving emails from last 4 hours as there is a problem with database mail. Now we would
like to restart the database mail. Have you ever faced this issue? If yes how do you restart the database mail?
Troubleshooting Database Mail involves checking the following general areas of the Database Mail system. These
procedures are presented in a logical order, but can be evaluated in any order.
Permissions You must be a member of the sysadmin fixed Server role to troubleshoot all aspects of Database Mail.
Users who are not members of the sysadmin fixed Server role can only obtain information about the e-mails they
attempt to send, not about e-mails sent by other users.
Is database mail enabled

In SQL Server Management Studio, connect to an instance of SQL Server by using a query editor window, and then
execute the following code:
SQLCopy
sp_configure 'show advanced', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure;
GO

In the results pane, confirm that the run_value for Database Mail XPs is set to 1. If the run_value is not 1, Database
Mail is not enabled. Database Mail is not automatically enabled to reduce the number of features available for attack
by a malicious user.
If you decide that it is appropriate to enable Database Mail, execute the following code:
SQLCopy
sp_configure 'Database Mail XPs', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

To restore the sp_configure procedure to its default state, which does not show advanced options, execute the
following code:
SQLCopy
sp_configure 'show advanced', 0;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

Are users properly configured to send mail

To send Database Mail, users must be a member of the DatabaseMailUserRole database role in the msdb database.
Members of the sysadmin fixed Server role and msdbdb_owner role are automatically members of the
DatabaseMailUserRole role. To list all other members of the DatabaseMailUserRole execute the following statement:
SQLCopy
EXEC msdb.sys.sp_helprolemember 'DatabaseMailUserRole';
To add users to the DatabaseMailUserRole role, use the following statement:
SQLCopy
USE msdb;
GO

sp_addrolemember @rolename = 'DatabaseMailUserRole'

,@membername = '<database user>';
To send Database Mail, users must have access to at least one Database Mail profile. To list the users (principals) and
the profiles to which they have access, execute the following statement.

SQLCopy
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_principalprofile_sp;
Use the Database Mail Configuration Wizard to create profiles and grant access to profiles to users.
Is database mail started
The Database Mail External Program is activated when there are e-mail messages to be processed. When there have
been no messages to send for the specified time-out period, the program exits. To confirm the Database Mail
activation is started, execute the following statement:
SQLCopy
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_status_sp;
If the Database Mail activation is not started, execute the following statement to start it:
SQLCopy
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_start_sp;
If the Database Mail external program is started, check the status of the mail queue with the following statement:
SQLCopy
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_queue_sp @queue_type = 'mail';
The mail queue should have the state of RECEIVES_OCCURRING. The status queue may vary from moment to
moment. If the mail queue state is not RECEIVES_OCCURRING, try restarting the queue. Stop the queue using the
following statement:
SQLCopy
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_stop_sp;
Then start the queue using the following statement:
SQLCopy
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_start_sp;
Note
Use the length column in the result set of sysmail_help_queue_sp to determine the number of e-mails in the Mail
queue.
Do problems affect some or all accounts
If you have determined that some but not all profiles can send mail, then you may have problems with the Database
Mail accounts used by the problem profiles. To determine which accounts are successful in sending mail, execute the
following statement:
SQLCopy
SELECT sent_account_id, sent_date FROM msdb.dbo.sysmail_sentitems;
If a non-working profile does not use any of the accounts listed, then it is possible that all the accounts available to
the profile are not working properly. To test individual accounts, use the Database Mail Configuration Wizard to
create a new profile with a single account, and then use the Send Test E-Mail dialog box to send mail using the new
account.
To view the error messages returned by Database Mail, execute the following statement:
SQLCopy
SELECT * FROM msdb.dbo.sysmail_event_log;
Note
Database Mail considers mail to be sent when it is successfully delivered to a SMTP mail Server. Subsequent errors,
such as an invalid recipient e-mail address, can still prevent mail from being delivered, but will not be contained in
the Database Mail log.
Retry mail delivery
If you have determined that the Database Mail is failing because the SMTP Server cannot be reliably reached, you
may be able to increase your successful mail delivery rate by increasing the number of times Database Mail attempts
to send each message. Start the Database Mail Configuration Wizard, and select the View or change system
parameters option. Alternatively, you can associate more accounts to the profile so upon failover from the primary
account, Database Mail will use the failover account to send e-mails.
On the Configure System Parameters page, the default values of five times for the Account Retry Attempts and 60
seconds for the Account Retry Delay means that message delivery will fail if the SMTP Server cannot be reached in 5
minutes. Increase these parameters to lengthen the amount of time before message delivery fails.
Note
When large numbers of messages are being sent, large default values may increase reliability, but will substantially
increase the use of resources as many messages are attempted to be delivered over and over again. Address the root
problem by resolving the network or SMTP Server problem that prevents Database Mail from contacting the SMTP
Server promptly.

Can you explain what happens to Virtual log file (VLF’s) when we see the error “Log File is full”?
Each physical transaction log file is divided internally into numerous virtual log files, or VLFs. The virtual log files are
not a certain size nor can you specify how many VLF’s are in a physical log file. The Database Engine does this for us,
but for performance reasons it tries to maintain a small number of virtual files.

System Performance is affected when the virtual log file is defined by small size and growth_increment values
meaning if the log files grow to a large size because of many small increments, it will increase the number of virtual
log files. This is why it’s a good reason to set Autogrow to a larger increment. If the log is set to grow at 1MB at a
time it may grow continuously resulting in more and more virtual log files. An increased number of VLF’s can slow
down database startup and log backup/restore operations.

SQL Server internally manages the Log file into multiple smaller chunks called Virtual Log Files or VLFs. A Virtual Log
File is a smaller file inside Log file which contains the actual log records which are actively written inside them. New
Virtual Log Files are created when the existing ones are already active and new space is required. This brings us to
the point where the value of the Virtual Log Files is created. So, whenever there is a crash and recovery condition,
SQL Server first needs to read the Virtual Log File. Certainly, if the number of Virtual Log Files is huge then the time
taken by the recovery will also be huge which we do not want.

There’s not a right or wrong number of VLF’s per database, but remember, the more you have the worse
performance you may have. You can use DBCC LOGINFO to check the number of VLF’s in your database.
If you found that you have a high number of Virtual Log Files, then you might be at risk, but don’t worry, the solution
is pretty simple.

Just shrink the Log File and re-grow it again. But there is a catch that might require a downtime so just keep it in
mind it’s not really very easy to shrink the Log file all the time. So follow mentioned below steps and you will most
probably be in a safe position.

1. Backup the Transaction Log file if the recovery model of the database is FULL (which generally speaking
should be FULL for all production databases for good recovery processes).
2. Issue a CHECKPOINT manually so that pages from the buffer can be written down to the disk.
3. Make sure there are no huge transactions running and keeping the Log file full.
4. Shrink the Log file to a smaller size
5. Re-grow the log file to a larger size on which your log file generally keeps on working.
6. That’s all! You will have a very low number of Virtual Log Files as of now.

If I apply both FORCESCAN and FORCESEEK on the same query what will happen?
seeks are better than scans in terms of retrieving data from SQL Server. In reality, sometimes a seek is the optimal
approach, but in some cases a scan can actually be better.
Using AdventureWorks2012, create the following index on the Sales.SalesOrderHeader table:
CREATE INDEX IX_SOH_OrderDate
ON Sales.SalesOrderHeader(OrderDate, CustomerID, TotalDue);
Now, compare these two queries:
DECLARE @start_date DATETIME = '20060101', @end_date DATETIME = '20120102';

SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate, CustomerID, TotalDue, OnlineOrderFlag

FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader WITH (FORCESCAN)
WHERE OrderDate >= @start_date
AND OrderDate < @end_date;

SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate, CustomerID, TotalDue, OnlineOrderFlag

FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader WITH (FORCESEEK)
WHERE OrderDate >= @start_date
AND OrderDate < @end_date;
Runtime results, as shown in SQL Sentry Plan Explorer:

Here we see that the query that was forced to seek actually took longer, used more CPU, and had to perform a much
larger number of reads.

Trace flags in profiler to solve dead Locks in SQL Server:

As a DBA, I’ve been, more than, confronted with performance problems. Sometimes, poorly written code or lack of
indexes will generate blocking conditions that we refer to as a“Deadlock”. Due to their nature and like any similar
blocking situation, deadlocks can have a direct impact on user experience and the more they occur, the bigger the
impact.

So, what is a “deadlock”? It can be divided into two root words: “dead” and “lock”. We could intuitively
understand it as a lock that leads to a dead end…
In relational database management systems, locking is a mechanism that happens every time. Actually, we can
acquire a lock on different kind of resources (row identifier, key, page, table…) and using different modes (shared,
exclusive…). Choosing a mode instead of another to access a given resource in a session will either let other sessions
(or transaction) access the same resource or will make other sessions wait for that resource to be unlocked. Let’s
notice that all locking modes are not compatible. For that reason, Microsoft provided a documentation page about
what they call lock compatibility.
Still, intuitively, we could say that a deadlock falls into the second case, the one that tells other sessions to wait for a
resource, but this wait might never end. This second case is commonly referred to as “blocking”.

A blocking situation can be understood with the following example.

Let’s assume that we have two database users already connected to SQL Server using an
application: UserA and UserB.
UserA is currently editing an invoice, which implies an UPDATE statement against an Invoice table with
a WHERE clause that restricts to a particular value of Invoiced column of that table. To perform this operation, the
thread associated to that session inside SQL Server database engine has to acquire and hold:
1. An Intent-Exclusive (IX) lock on the Invoice table and on the page, that contain the row userA is editing. This
lock is used to establish a lock hierarchy in order to perform data modifications.
2. An Exclusive (X) lock on the row userA is editing. This means that the session will be the only one allowed to
modify that row until it releases this lock.
3. At the same time, UserB wants to get a list of the invoices for current month and unfortunately, the
invoice UserA is editing sits in that list. UserB’s thread will:
4. Acquire an Intent Shared (IS) lock on the Invoice table. This lock is used to establish a lock hierarchy in order
to perform read-only operations. This will work as IX and IS on a table are compatible.
Try to attempt a shared (S) lock on the pages needed to display the list. Among them, the page with an X lock
acquired by UserA. However, shared and exclusive locks are incompatible (even semantically). This means that
thread taking care of UserB’s session has to wait for UserA’s session to release this X lock. Until that happen, we can
say that UserB’s session is blocked by UserA’s session.
The situation can be graphically summarized as follows:
This situation will end as soon as the UPDATE query has been completed and UserA has committed their transaction.
As we may expect, we can encounter a lot more complex situations, involving a session holding multiple locks on
multiple resources.

Understanding deadlocks
Although it’s based on the same principles, deadlocks are different from blocking. Actually, when a deadlock
situation happens, there is no identifiable head blocker as both sessions implied hold incompatible locks on objects
the other session needs to access. It’s a circular blocking chain.
For better understanding, we will go back to the situation we used for blocking presentation and add some
complexity to that situation.

Let’s say that in order to modify a row in Invoice table, UserA must also read from an InvoiceDetails table to get the
total that is billed to customer. Let’s say that, no matter the reason, UserB has already acquired an exclusive lock on
a page containing a row of InvoiceDetails table that UserA needs to read.
In such a case, we are in the situation depicted by following figure. (As a reminder, green is used to refer
to UserA and orange for UserB)

As you can see in the figure above, both threads are waiting for a lock that won’t be ever released as the activity of
one is suspended until the other releases its acquired locks. There can be more complicated in real-life situations and
I would suggest those interested in the subject to search the web for resources like the one written by Minette
Steynberg in 2016 entitled What is a SQL Server deadlock?.
Fortunately, the SQL Server database engine comes with a deadlock monitor thread that will periodically check for
deadlock situations, choose one of the processes implied as a victim for termination. While this is a good point for
one of the sessions, this is not for the other. The “victim” is actually terminated with an error and has to be run
again.
Here is some further information about the deadlock monitor thread:
1. It runs every 5 seconds by default
2. When it detects a deadlock, this interval falls from 5 seconds to as low as 100 milliseconds based on
frequency of deadlock occurrences
3. When it finally finds no deadlock, it put the interval to its default of 5 seconds
4. Once the deadlock victim is chosen, it will roll back the transaction of this victim and return a 1205 error
message to the user. The error message looks like follows
5. Transaction (Process ID 89) was deadlocked on resources with another process and has been chosen as the
deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction.
6. By default, the deadlock victim is chosen based on the estimated amount of resource consumption for
rolling back. It’s the least expensive one that is chosen. We can use SET DEADLOCK_PRIORITY
<Value> statement to influence the choice of deadlock victim.

How to keep track of deadlocks details

Option 1: Trace Flags 1204 and 1222
DBAs can tell SQL Server to (temporarily) change its behavior by specifying a trace flag. These trace flags are enabled
and disabled using following instruction:
DBCC TRACEON(<Flag_Number>,-1) ;
DBCC TRACEOFF(<Flag_Number>,-1) ;

There are two trace flags or interest for deadlock monitoring: 1204 and 1222.
According to documentation on Microsoft’s website, the first one will tell SQL Server to return resources and types of
lock participating in a deadlock and also the current command affected while the second one returns the resources
and types of lock that are participating in a deadlock and also the current command affected in an XML format.
Basically, both do the same job and I would recommend using 1222 trace flag in preference to the first one as it will
generate an XML which is easier to parse and integrate.
The output of both trace flags will be visible in SQL Server Error Log.

Option 2: SQL Server Profiler and SQL Server Trace

This is also an old way to get detailed information about deadlock occurrences introduced in SQL Server 2005. This
seems to be the most commonly used by developers and DBAs.
We open SQL Server Profiler and create a new trace with selected Locks/Deadlock Graph item

When this item is selected, we can go to the third tab and specify whether to save deadlock XML events in a
separate results file. We will need to parse this file with a script or something else.
This method is simple and provides a results we can use quite easily to investigate deadlocks. We can also run the T-
SQL equivalent code to generate the trace.
Note: This solution can impact performance as it will use additional resources to collect and provide deadlock
information to user. As such, this isn’t the optional solution

Option 3: Extended Events and system_health session

In SQL Server 2008, Extended Events were introduced and a default Extended Events session
called system_health was defined. This session starts automatically with the SQL Server Database Engine and collects
system data to help DBAs in troubleshooting performance issues.
Actually, it collects information about any detected deadlock into XEL files. We can extract information from these
files either: using Dynamic Management views and functions;
using the function provided by Microsoft to read data from an Extended Events Session file:
sys.fn_xe_file_target_read_file

How to audit a SQL Server instance

ApexSQL Audit is a SQL Server auditing tool that provides a variety of options for auditing SQL Server events, ensures
compliance with policies, and monitors SQL Server security by tracking permission, login and password changes. It
has a range of built-in reports, commonly needed for compliance auditing. For more specific requests, custom
reports can be created using a drag-and-drop technique. The ApexSQL Audit reports that help with SOX compliance
Audit reports should be created regularly in order to confirm company internal controls are enforced, or diagnose
any discrepancy which could lead to failing to comply with SOX.

Once auditing is set properly, it shouldn’t be changed, unless documented. The Audit settings history report shows
the auditing setting changes. Unexpected changes should be investigated, as they can lead to incomplete audit trails,
and thus threaten data security:

Once setting Replication, can you have a Distributor on SQL Server 2005, Publisher of SQL Server 2008?
No, you cannot have a Distributor on a previous version than the Publisher

How to clear all records including data types in a table?

Truncate table Tablename

How to provide access to particular access?

Use <database name>
Grant <permissionname> on <objectname> to <username>

What are the methods for backup: T-SQL & SSMS

The MTs: Mean Time

There are quite a few “MT” abbreviations used in environments that handle outages, downtime, glitches, and other
technical incidents. The most common are MTTR, MTBF, MTTF, and MTTA.
MTTR: Mean Time to respond
MTTR represents more than one single metric or measurement, because the R stands for four different things:
repair, recovery, respond, and resolve. Sometimes, you may come across “restore” for the R as well. There is some
overlap between them in certain cases, but they are not the same. How long it takes to repair an incident can
sometimes be the same as the time it took to recover or resolve, but not always. For example, “mean time to repair”
is the average time required to fix something and return it to production status – this includes finding out about the
problem, analyzing/diagnosing it, and repairing it. On the other hand, “mean time to recovery” is the average time it
will take to recover from the failure, meaning how long it takes for the system to be up and running again. Then we
have “respond”, which is the average time it takes to respond to a problem, and is a critical metric that helps teams
learn where they can improve operational efficiency. When discussing MTTR, it’s important to clarify what metric
you’re referring to exactly.

MTBF: Mean Time Between Failures

MTFB is the average time between repairable failures, and is used to track the availability and reliability of a product
or service. The longer the time between failures, the better (and more reliable) the system. The number is calculated
by simply taking the data from the period you’re analyzing (6 months, a year, five years, etc.) and dividing the
operational time in that period by the number of failures. Since this focuses on failures only, i.e., unexpected issues,
it doesn’t include downtime or outages as a result of planned maintenance.

MTTA: Mean Time to Acknowledge

This metric represents the average time it takes from the moment an alert is triggered to the time work actually
begins to resolve the issue. It’s used to monitor and improve a team’s level of responsiveness and identify when the
team may be suffering from fatigue (due to a sudden increase in MTTA). It’s a great way to flag these times of issues
quickly while also keeping track over the long term of the team’s responsiveness and streamlining efforts.

MTTF: Mean Time to Failure

MTTF is the average time between non-repairable failures and is used to understand how long a product,
component, or system lasts – its lifetime.

SLA: Service-Level Agreement

Put simply, SLA is the level of service a customer expects from the supplier, and lays down metrics by which the
service is measured. In some cases, it will also include penalties if the service levels in the SLA are not met. SLAs are
typically between companies and suppliers, but are also often used between departments within the same company.
For example, the DevOps department may have an SLA in which they commit to ensure network availability of
99.99% for the R&D department. Externally, a web-hosting company may commit to the same level of availability
and uptime to its customers and reduce their annual subscription in the event the SLA terms are not met.

What is difference between SQL Server Standard and Enterprise?

Security Features of Microsoft SQL Enterprise. Like the Standard edition, Enterprise includes basic auditing,
contained databases, encryption and backups, and user-defined roles. It surpasses the Standard edition with its
inclusion of fine grained auditing, transparent database encryption, and extensible key management.

What are sub query and its properties?

1. A sub-query is a query which can be nested inside a main query like Select, Update, Insert or Delete
statements. This can be used when expression is allowed. Properties of sub query can be defined as
2. A sub query should not have order by clause
3. A sub query should be placed in the right hand side of the comparison operator of the main query
4. A sub query should be enclosed in parenthesis because it needs to be executed first before the main query
5. More than one sub query can be included

What are the types of sub query?

There are three types of sub query
1. Single row sub query which returns only one row
2. Multiple row sub query which returns multiple rows
3. Multiple column sub query which returns multiple columns to the main query. With that sub query result,
Main query will be executed.
What are scheduled tasks in SQL Server?
Scheduled tasks or jobs are used to automate processes that can be run on a scheduled time at a regular interval.
This scheduling of tasks helps to reduce human intervention during night time and feed can be done at a particular
time. User can also order the tasks in which it has to be generated.

What is COALESCE in SQL Server?

COALESCE is used to return first non-null expression within the arguments. This function is used to return a non-null
from more than one column in the arguments.
Example –
Select COALESCE(empno, empname, salary) from employee;

Which SQL Server table is used to hold the stored procedure scripts?
Sys.SQL_Modules is a SQL Server table used to store the script of stored procedure. Name of the stored procedure is
saved in the table called Sys.Procedures.

You are working as a database administrator in an international company. You are administrating a SQL Server
database that contains critical data stored in specific columns. What should you use in order to encrypt the critical
data stored in these columns taking into consideration that the database administrators should not be able to
view the critical data?

You should use the Always Encrypted feature, by setting the column master key, the column encryption key then
encrypts the required columns.

You are working as a database administrator in an international company. You are trying to enhance the
performance of the application that is connecting to the SQL Server instance by controlling the parallelism
behavior of the queries. This can be achieved by tuning the Max Degree of Parallelism and Cost Threshold for
Parallelism Server-level configurations. What are the two cases in which you will not consider tuning the Cost
Threshold for Parallelism?

When the Maximum Degree of Parallelism option is set to 1 or the number of logical processors available in the SQL
Server is only one. In this case, the queries will always run in a single thread.

Can we hot add CPU to the SQL Server?

Yes. Adding CPUs can occur physically by adding new hardware, logically by online hardware partitioning, or virtually
through a virtualization layer. Starting with SQL Server 2008, SQL Server supports hot-add CPU.
Requires hardware that supports hot-add CPU. Requires the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Datacenter or
the Windows. Server 2008 Enterprise Edition for Titanium-Based Systems operating system. Requires SQL Server
Enterprise. Once the CPU is added just run RECONFIGURE then the SQL Server recognizes the newly added CPU.

How can we check whether the port number is connecting or not on a Server?
TELNET <HOSTNAME> PORTNUMBER
TELNET PAXT3DEVSQL24 1433
TELNET PAXT3DEVSQL24 1434
Common Ports:
MSSQL Server: 1433
HTTP TCP 80
HTTPS TCP 443

How to recover a database that is in suspect stage?

ALTER DATABASE test_db SET EMERGENCY
After you execute this statement SQL Server will shutdown the database and restart it without recovering it. This will
allow you to view/query database objects, but the database will be in read-only mode. Any attempt to modify data
will result in an error similar to the following:
Msg 3908, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Could not run BEGIN TRANSACTION in database ‘test’ …..etc
ALTER DATABASE test SET SINGLE_USER
GO
DBCC CHECKDB (‘test’, REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS) GO
If the DBCC CHECKDB statement above succeeds the database is brought back online (but you’ll have to place it in
multi-user mode before your users can connect to it). Before you turn the database over to your users you should
run other statements to ensure its transactional consistency. If DBCC CHECKDB fails then there is no way to repair
the database – you must restore it from a backup.

Why SQL Server is better than other databases?

I am not going to say one is better than others, but it depends on the requirements. We have a number of products
in the market. But if I have the chance to choose one of them I will choose SQL SERVER because…..
According to the 2005 Survey of Wintercorp, The largest SQL Server DW database is the 19.5 terabytes. It is a
database of a European Bank High Security. It is offering a high level of security.
Speed and Concurrency, SQL Server 2005 system is able to handle 5,000 transactions per second and 100,000
queries a day and can scale up to 8 million new rows of data per day,
Finally, more technical peoples are available for SQL SERVER when we compare to any other database.
So that we can say SQL SERVER is more than enough for any type of application.

Why Shrink file/ Shrink DB/ Auto Shrink is really bad?

In the SHRINKFILE command, SQL Server isn’t especially careful about where it puts the pages being moved from the
end of the file to open pages towards the beginning of the file.
The data becomes fragmented, potentially up to 100% fragmentation, this is a performance killer for your database;
The operation is slow – all pointers to/from the page/rows being moved have to be fixed up, and the SHRINKFILE
operation is single-threaded, so it can be really slow (the single-threaded nature of SHRINKFILE is not going to
change any time soon)
Recommendations:
Shrink the file by using Truncate Only: First, it removes the inactive part of the log and then performs a shrink
operation. Rebuild / Reorganize the indexes once the shrink is done so the Fragmentation level is decreased

Which key provides the strongest encryption?

AES (256 bit)
The longer the key, the better the encryption, so choose longer keys for more encryption. However, there is a larger
performance penalty for longer keys. DES is a relatively old and weaker algorithm than AES.
 AES: Advanced Encryption Standard
 DES: Data Encryption Standard

What port do you need to open on your Server firewall to enable named pipes connections?
Port 445. Named pipes communicate across TCP port 445.

What are the different log files and how to access it?
SQL Server Error Log: The Error Log, the most important log file, is used to troubleshoot system problems. SQL
Server retains backups of the previous six logs, naming each archived log file sequentially. The current error log file is
named ERRORLOG. To view the error log, which is located in the %Program-Files%Microsoft SQL
ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLLOGERRORLOG directory, open SSMS, expand a Server node, expand Management, and click
SQL Server Logs.

SQL Server Agent Log: SQL Server’s job scheduling subsystem, SQL Server Agent, maintains a set of log files with
warning and error messages about the jobs it has run, written to the %ProgramFiles%Microsoft SQL
ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLLOG directory. SQL Server will maintain up to nine SQL Server Agent error log files. The current
log file is named SQLAGENT.OUT, whereas archived files are numbered sequentially. You can view SQL Server Agent
logs by using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Expand a Server node, expand Management, click SQL Server
Logs, and select the checkbox for SQL Server Agent.

Windows Event Log: An important source of information for troubleshooting SQL Server errors, the Windows Event
log contains three useful logs. The application log records events in SQL Server and SQL Server Agent and can be
used by SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages. The security log records authentication information, and the
system log records service startup and shutdown information. To view the Windows Event log, go to Administrative
Tools, Event Viewer.
SQL Server Setup Log: You might already be familiar with the SQL Server Setup log, which is located at
%ProgramFiles%Microsoft SQL Server90Setup BootstrapLOGSummary.txt. If the summary.txt log file shows a
component failure, you can investigate the root cause by looking at the component’s log, which you’ll find in the
%Program-Files%Microsoft SQL Server90Setup BootstrapLOGFiles directory.

SQL Server Profiler Log: SQL Server Profiler, the primary application-tracing tool in SQL Server, captures the system’s
current database activity and writes it to a file for later analysis. You can find the Profiler logs in the log .trc file in the
%ProgramFiles%Microsoft SQL ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLLOG directory

How many data files I can put in Tempdb? What is the effect of adding multiple data files?
By far, the most effective configuration is to set tempdb on its own separate fast drive away from the user
databases. I would set the number of files based on # of cpu’s divided by 2. So, if you have 8 cpu’s, then set 4
tempdb files. Set the tempdb large enough with 10% data growth. I would start at a general size of 10 GB for each
size. I also would not create more than 4 files for each mdf/ldf even if there were more than 8 cpu’s. you can always
add more later.

Let’s say a user is performing a transaction on a clustered Server and failover has occurred. What will happen to
the Transaction?
If it is active/passive, there is a good chance the transaction died, but active/passive is considered by some the better
as it is not as difficult to administer. I believe that is what we have on active. Still, active/active may be best
depending on what the requirements are for the system.

How you do which node is active and which is passive. What are the criteria for deciding the active node?
Open Cluster Administrator, check the SQL Server group where you can see the current owner. So the current owner
is the active node and other nodes are passive.

What is the common trace flags used with SQL Server?

1. Deadlock Information: 1204, 1205, 1222
2. Network Database files: 1807
3. Log Record for Connections: 4013
4. Skip Startup Stored Procedures: 4022
5. Disable Locking Hints: 8755
6. Forces uniform extent allocations instead of mixed page allocations 1118 – (SQL 2005 and 2008) To reduce
TempDB contention.

I have my PROD SQL Server all system DB's are located on E drive and I need my resource db on H drive how can
you move it?
No only resource db cannot be moved, Resource db location is always depends on Master database location, if u
want to move resource db you should also move master db.

Can we take the backup for Resource DB?

No way. The only way if you want to get a backup is use windows backup for option resource MDF and pdf files.

Any idea what is the Resource db mdf and ldf file names?
1. msSQLsystemresource.mdf
2. msSQLsystemresource.ldf

What you do if a column of data type int is out of scope?

I do alter column to BigInt

What Changes In The Front End Code Is Needed If Mirroring Is Implemented For The High Availability?
You need to add only FAILOVER PARTNER information in your front end code. “Data Source=ServerA;Failover
Partner=ServerB;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;Integrated Security=True;”.

Where Does The Copy Job Runs In The Log Shipping Primary Or Secondary?
Secondary Server. This question is basically asked to find out whether you have hands on work on log shipping or
not.
Which system database is a read-only database that contains copies of all system objects?
Resource system database, that resides in the msSQLsystemresource.mdf file.

Which system database that is only created when the SQL Server instance is configured as a replication
distributor?
The Distribution database that stores replications transactions and metadata.

Which DBCC command should you use to check the consistency of the system tables?
DBCC CHECKCATALOG. The command that checks the catalog consistency.
Q15: After running the DBCC CHECKDB command on a database, it is found that a non-clustered index is corrupted.

How could you repair the corrupted index issue?

By rebuilding the index using ALTER INDEX REBUILD or using the REPAIR_REBUILD option of the DBCC CHECKDB
command.

You are working as a database administrator in an international company. You are administrating a SQL Server
instance on which you need to write a message to the Server security log when a fixed Server role is modified.
How could you achieve that?
You need to define a SQL Server Audit Specification with the Server Audit target to the Server Security Log

As a SQL Server database administrator, what is the main tool that you can use to perform the SQL Server network
configuration changes?
The SQL Server Configuration Manager.

You are a SQL Server database administrator in a company, and you are configuring the firewall rules on the
Windows Server that is hosting your SQL Server. What are the ports that should be considered in the firewall
rules, in order to allow connections to the following SQL Server components?
1. SQL Server Engine default instance: (TCP port 1433)
2. Dedicated Admin Connection: (TCP port 1434)
3. SQL Server Browser Service: (UDP port 1434)
4. Database Mirroring: (No default, but the commonly used is TCP port 5022)
5. SQL Server Analysis Services: (TCP port 2383)
6. Reporting Services Web Services: (TCP port 80)
7. Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator: (TCP port 135)

As a SQL Server database administrator, you are requested to prevent a client who is trying to search for a SQL
Server instance, using the “Connect to Server” Browse button, from seeing that instance. How could you achieve
that?
We can use the HideInstance flag under the Protocols for <Server instance> under the SQL Server Configuration
Manager. In this way, the SQL Server Browser service will not be able to expose the SQL Server instance to that
client. But, to be able to connect to that instance, you should provide the port number that this SQL Server instance
is listening on, in the connection string, even if the SQL Server Browser Service is running.
Take into consideration that, hiding the SQL Server instance may cause an issue when hiding a clustered instance,
where the cluster service will not be able to reach that instance. This can be fixed by creating an alias on each node
that shows the other nodes names and the port numbers that these nodes are listening on.
You are a SQL Server database administrator in a company. One of your clients complains that he is not able to
connect to the SQL Server and getting the error message below. How could you troubleshoot it?
Login Failed for User ‘<domainname>\<username>’
Check that the database is accessible by another authorized user
Check that the user who is trying to connect has permission to perform that action to the database

Which are the third-party tools used in SQL Server and why would you use them?
1. SQL Check (Idera): For monitoring Server activities and memory levels
2. SQL Doc 2 (Redgate): For documenting databases
3. SQL Backup 5 (Redgate): For automating the backup process
4. SQL Prompt (Redgate): For providing IntelliSense for SQL Server 2005/2000
5. LiteSpeed 5.0 (Quest): For backup and restore processes
Benefits of using these third-party tools:
1. Faster and flexible backup and recovery options
2. Secure backups with encryption
3. An enterprise view of the backup and recovery environment
4. Easy identification of optimal backup settings
5. Visibility into the transaction log and transaction log backups
6. A timeline view of backup history and schedules
7. Recovery of individual database objects
8. Encapsulation of a complete database restore into a single file to speed up restore time
9. Improving SQL Server functionality
10. Saving time and proving better information or notification

Which two isolation levels support optimistic/row-version-based concurrency control?

1. One is the READ_COMMITTED isolation level. This is the only level that supports both a pessimistic (locking-
based) and an optimistic (version-based) concurrency control model.
2. The other is the SNAPSHOT isolation level that supports only an optimistic concurrency control model.

What are the different Topologies in which Replication can be configured?

Replication is often designed in any topology relying keeping visible of the quality and therefore the work of the
complete Replication. It can be any of the following:
1. Publisher, Distributor, and Subscriber on the same SQL Instance.
2. Publisher and Distributor on constant SQL Instance and Subscriber on a separate Instance.
3. Publisher, Distributor, and Subscriber on individual SQL Instances.

What are the differences in Clustering in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 or 2008 R2?
On SQL Server 2005, installing the SQL Server failover cluster is a single step process whereas on SQL Server 2008 or
above it is a multi-step process. That is, in SQL Server 2005, the Installation process itself installs on all of the nodes
(be it 2 nodes or 3 nodes). In 2008 or on top of this has modified, we would need to install separately on all the
nodes. 2 times if it’s a two-node cluster or three times in an exceedingly three-node cluster so on.

What are the operating modes in which Database Mirroring runs?

1. High-Safety Mode is to make sure that the Principal and reflected info area unit synchronal state, that is the
transactions are committed at the same time on both Servers to ensure consistency, but there is/might be a
time lag.
2. High-Performance Mode is to ensure that the Principal database run faster, by not waiting for the Mirrored
database to commit the transactions.

What area unit the various kinds of info compression introduced in SQL Server 2008?
Row compression and Page Compression.

What are the different types of Upgrades that can be performed in SQL Server?
In-place upgrade and Side-by-Side Upgrade.
On a Windows Server 2003 Active – Passive failover cluster, how do you find the node which is active?
Using Cluster Administrator, connect to the cluster and select the SQL Server cluster. Once you have selected the
SQL Server group, on the right-hand side of the console, the column“Owner” gives us the information of the node on
which the SQL Server group is currently active.

Once setting Replication, can you have a Distributor on SQL Server 2005, Publisher of SQL Server 2008?
No, you cannot have a Distributor on a previous version than the Publisher.

What are the different types of backups?

1. Complete backup : The complete back up is just zipping the content of the entire database in terms of the
different tables and procedures etc. This back up can Server as an independent entity that can be restored in
different systems with just the base SQL Server installed.
2. Transaction log backup: This is the mechanism of backing up the transaction logs that have been maintained
in the Server. This way the details of the database getting updated is obtained. This cannot be a stand-alone
back up mechanism. But can save a lot of time if we already have the file system related to the DB backed up
on the new deployment Server.
3. Differential backup: This is a subset of the complete backup, where only the modified datasets are backed
up. This can save the time when we are just trying to maintain a backup Server to main Server.
4. File backup: This is the quickest way to take the backup of entire database. Instead of taking in the data
actually stored in DB, the files are backed up and the file system thus obtained when combined with the
transaction logs of the original system will render the database that we are trying to back up.

What are defaults? Is there a column to which a default can't be bound?

A default is a value that will be used by a column, if no value is supplied to that column while inserting data.
IDENTITY columns and timestamp columns can't have defaults bound to them.

What are statistics, under what circumstances they go out of date, and how do you update them?
Statistics determine the selectivity of the indexes. If an indexed column has unique values then the selectivity of that
index is more, as opposed to an index with non-unique values. Query optimizer uses these indexes in determining
whether to choose an index or not while executing a query. Some situations under which you should update
statistics:
1. If there is significant change in the key values in the index
2. If a large amount of data in an indexed column has been added, changed, or removed (that is, if the
distribution of key values has changed), or the table has been truncated using the TRUNCATE TABLE
statement and then repopulated
3. Database is upgraded from a previous version

What is a Schema in SQL Server ? Explain how to create a new Schema in a Database?
A schema is used to create database objects. It can be created using CREATE SCHEMA statement. The objects
created can be moved between schemas. Multiple database users can share a single default schema. CREATE
SCHEMA sample; Table creation Create table sample.sampleinfo { id int primary key, name varchar(20) }

What is the use of check points in the transaction logs?

The check points are restoration points that indicate the specific state of the database. When there is some failure
int he database that is occurring before the next check point, the database can be reverted back to the previous
check point and thus the database would still be consistent.

What is a column with identity?

The column with a defined identity in turn means that there is an unique value that the system assigns to the specific
column. This is similar to the AUTONumber property of the Access backend.

What is RAID? How does it help storage of databases?

The RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. With its own RAID controllers, the RAID implements a
fail-safe storage mechanism with its own backup mechanisms. There are different configurations of the RAID that all
give us the ACID properties of storage along with other such facilities. This kind of storage will make the SQL Server
database to be fail-safe and stable. This can sometimes mean that the backup mechanisms and other such reliability
measures can be taken off from the SQL Server level of operations.
What is SQL Profiler? What are the default templates with it?
SQL Server Profiler is a graphical user interface to SQL Trace for monitoring an instance of the Database Engine or
Analysis Services. You can capture and save data about each event to a file or table to analyze later.

What are the DMVs?

Dynamic Management Views (DMV) returns Server state information that can be used to monitor the health of a
Server instance, diagnose problems, and tune performance.

Which operation is faster COMMIT or ROLLBACK? Why?

It’s obviously COMMIT is faster than ROLLBACK. Let me explain with an example: Let’s say we opened a transaction
and updated 8000 records:
Commit: It’s completed quickly as the operation is already completed and it just marks those dirty pages as
committed and when checkpoint happens all those dirty pages will be written to disk.
Rollback: The operation is already updated 8000 records if we need to rollback then again all these updates has to
be rolled back which means there are another 8000 log records will be written to LDF which will take time when
compared to commit.

What is the maximum limit of SQL Server instances for a standalone computer?
50 instances on a stand-alone Server for all SQL Server editions. SQL Server supports 25 instances on a failover
cluster.

What is the cluster node limitation?

The number of allowable nodes in the SQL Server cluster depends on your SQL Server version and your Windows
Server version. For SQL Server 2008 Standard edition, you can only have two cluster nodes. If you have SQL Server
Enterprise, the limit depends on your Windows Server version, 8 cluster nodes for 2003 and 16 nodes for 2008.

Can we install SQL Server using a configure file?

Yes! We can prepare a configuration file. While installing SQL Server the path to the configuration file is specified in
the “Ready to Install” page in the configuration file path section. Cancel the setup without actually completing the
installation, to generate the INI file.
File Location and Name:
%programfiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\Log\<YYYYMMDD_HHMM>\ConfigurationFile.ini.

How to install a SQL Server using configuration file?

From Command prompt locate the setup.exe file location and can install using config file.
Setup.exe /ConfigurationFile=MyConfigurationFile.INI
Instead of specifying passwords inside the config file specify them explicitly as below.
Setup.exe /SQLSVCPASSWORD=”************” /AGTSVCPASSWORD=”************”
/ASSVCPASSWORD=”************” /ISSVCPASSWORD=”************” /RSSVCPASSWORD=”************”
/ConfigurationFile=MyConfigurationFile.INI

What is the option ”Lock Pages in Memory”?

Lock Pages in Memory is a setting that can be set on 64-bit operating systems that essentially tell Windows not to
swap out SQL Server memory to disk. By default, this setting is turned off on 64-bit systems, but depends on various
conditions this option needs to be turned on.
We must be very careful in dealing with this option. One can enable this after a detailed analysis of current
environment.
Following issues may rise when “Lock Pages in Memory” is not turned on:
1. SQL Server performance suddenly decreases.
2. Application that connects to SQL Server may encounter timeouts.
3. The hardware running SQL Server may not respond for a short time periods.
How do you know how much memory has been allocated to SQL Server using AWE?
We can use DBCC MEMORYSTSTUS command to know the memory allocation information. But it’s trick to
understand the results.
We can use a DMV called “sys.DM_OS_Memory_Clerks”. Sample query to calculate total AWE memory allocated is
“SELECT SUM(awe_allocated_kb) FROM sys.dm_os_memory_clerks”
From 2008 onwards we can get all memory related information using DMV “sys.dm_os_process_memory”.

How to apply service pack on Active / Passive cluster on 2008 and 2012?
1. Freeze the service groups on Node A (active node).
2. Confirm all SQL services are stopped on Node B.
3. Upgrade the SQL Server 2008 instance on Node B.
4. Reboot node B.
5. Unfreeze the service group on node A.
6. Fail over the service group to Node B.
7. After the service group comes online, freeze the service group on Node B.
8. Confirm all SQL services are stopped on Node A.
9. Upgrade the SQL Server 2008 instance on Node A.
10. Reboot Node A.
11. Unfreeze the service group on node B.
12. Fail back the service group to Node A.

Can we configure log shipping in replicated database?

Yes. Replication does not continue after a log shipping failover. If a failover occurs, replication agents do not connect
to the secondary, so transactions are not replicated to Subscribers. If a failback to the primary occurs, replication
resumes. All transactions that log shipping copies from the secondary back to the primary are replicated to
Subscribers.

For transactional replication, the behavior of log shipping depends on the sync with backup option. This option can
be set on the publication database and distribution database; in log shipping for the Publisher, only the setting on
the publication database is relevant.

Setting this option on the publication database ensures that transactions are not delivered to the distribution
database until they are backed up at the publication database. The last publication database backup can then be
restored at the secondary Server without any possibility of the distribution database having transactions that the
restored publication database does not have. This option guarantees that if the Publisher fails over to a secondary
Server, consistency is maintained between the Publisher, Distributor, and Subscribers. Latency and throughput are
affected because transactions cannot be delivered to the distribution database until they have been backed up at the
Publisher.

How to monitor latency in replication?

There are three methods.
1. Replication monitor
2. Replication commands
3. Tracer Tokens

1. Replication Monitor: In replication monitor from the list of all subscriptions just double click on the desired
subscription. There we find three tabs.
1. Publisher to Distributor History
2. Distributor to Subscriber History
3. Undistributed commands
2. Replication Commands:
1. Publisher.SP_ReplTran: Checks the pending transactions at p
2. Distributor.MSReplCommands and MSReplTransactions: Gives the transactions and commands details.
Actual T_SQL data is in binary format. From the entry time we can estimate the latency.
3. Distributor.SP_BrowseReplCmds: It shows the eaxct_seqno along with the corresponding T-SQL command
4. sp_replmonitorsubscriptionpendingcmds: It shows the total number of pending commands to be applied at
subscriber along with the estimated time.
3. Tracer Tokens:
Available from Replication Monitor or via TSQL statements, Tracer Tokens are special timestamp transactions written
to the Publisher’s Transaction Log and picked up by the Log Reader. They are then read by the Distribution Agent and
written to the Subscriber. Timestamps for each step are recorded in tracking tables in the Distribution Database and
can be displayed in Replication Monitor or via TSQL statements.
When Log Reader picks up Token it records time in MStracer_tokens table in the Distribution database. The
Distribution Agent then picks up the Token and records Subscriber(s) write time in the MStracer_history tables also
in the Distribution database.
Below is the T-SQL code to use Tracer tokens to troubleshoot the latency issues.
–A SQL Agent JOB to insert a new Tracer Token in the publication database.
USE [AdventureWorks]
Go
EXEC sys.sp_posttracertoken @publication = <PublicationName>
Go
–Token Tracking Tables
USE Distribution
Go
–publisher_commit
SELECT Top 20 * FROM MStracer_tokens Order by tracer_id desc
–subscriber_commit
SELECT Top 20 * FROM MStracer_history Order by parent_tracer_id desc

Can we perform a tail log backup if .mdf file is corrupted?

Let’s say we have a situation. We are restoring a database from a full backup. The restores operation runs for 2
hours and failed with an error 1105 (Insufficient space on the file group). And the database went to suspect mode.
How do you troubleshoot this issue?
In that case we can actually add a new data file on another drive and rerun the restore operation using the system
stored procedure “sp_add_data_file_recover_suspect_db”. Parameters are the same as while creating a new data
file.
How do you troubleshoot a Full transaction log issue?
1. Columns log_reuse_wait and log_reuse_wait_desc of the sys.databases catalog view describes what is the
actual problem that causes log full / delay truncation.
2. Backing up the log.
3. Freeing disk space so that the log can automatically grow.
4. Moving the log file to a disk drive with sufficient space.
5. Increasing the size of a log file.
6. Adding a log file on a different disk.
7. Completing or killing a long-running transaction.
How MAXDOP impacts SQL Server?
The Microsoft SQL Server max degree of parallelism (MAXDOP) configuration option controls the number of
processors that are used for the execution of a query in a parallel plan. This option determines the computing and
threads resources that are used for the query plan operators that perform the work in parallel.
For Servers that use more than eight processors, use the following configuration:
MAXDOP=8
For Servers that use eight or fewer processors, use the following configuration: MAXDOP=0 to N
What are the phases of SQL Server database restore process?
1. Copy Data: Copies all data,log and index pages from backup file to database mdf, ndf and ldf files
2. REDO: Rollfoward all committed transactions to database and if it finds any uncommitted transactions it goes
to the final phase UNDO.
3. UNDO: Rollback any uncommitted transactions and make database available to users.

See I have an environment, Sunday night full backup, everyday night diff backup and every 45 min a transactional
backup. Disaster happened at 2:30 PM on Saturday. You suddenly found that the last Sunday backup has been
corrupted. What’s your recovery plan?
When you find that the last full backup is corrupted or otherwise unrestorable, making all differentials after that
point useless. You then need to go back a further week to the previous full backup (taken 13 days ago), and restore
that, plus the differential from 8 days ago, and the subsequent 8 days of transaction logs (assuming none of those
ended up corrupted!).
If you’re taking daily full backups, a corrupted full backup only introduce an additional 24 hours of logs to restore.
Alternatively, a log shipped copy of the database could save your bacon (you have a warm standby, and you know
the log backups are definitely good).

What is .TUF file? What is the significance of the same? Any implications if the file is deleted?
.TUF file is the Transaction Undo File, which is created when performing log shipping to a Server in Standby mode.
When the database is in Standby mode the database recovery is done when the log is restored; and this mode also
creates a file on destination Server with .TUF extension which is the transaction undo file. This file contains
information on all the modifications performed at the time backup is taken.

The file plays a important role in Standby mode… the reason being very obvious while restoring the log backup all
uncommitted transactions are recorded to the undo file with only committed transactions written to disk which
enables the users to read the database. So when we restore next transaction log backup; SQL Server will fetch all the
uncommitted transactions from undo file and check with the new transaction log backup whether committed or not.
If found to be committed the transactions will be written to disk else it will be stored in undo file until it gets
committed or rolledback.
If .tuf file is got deleted there is no way to repair log shipping except reconfiguring it from scratch.

Explain how the SQL Server Engine uses an Index Allocation Map (IAM)?
SQL Server Engine uses an Index Allocation Map (IAM) to keep an entry for each page to track the allocation of these
available pages. The IAM is considered as the only logical connection between the data pages, that the SQL Server
Engine will use to move through the heap.

What is the “Forwarding Pointers issue” and how can we fix it?
When a data modification operation is performed on heap table data pages, Forwarding Pointers will be inserted
into the heap to point to the new location of the moved data. These forwarding pointers will cause performance
issues over time due to visiting the old/original location vs the new location specified by the forwarding pointers to
get a specific value.
Starting from SQL Server version 2008, a new method was introduced to overcome the forwarding pointers
performance issue, by using the ALTER TABLE REBUILD command that will rebuild the heap table.

What is a SQL Server Index?

A SQL Server index is considered as one of the most important factors in the performance tuning process. Indexes
are created to speed up the data retrieval and the query processing operations from a database table or view, by
providing swift access to the database table rows, without the need to scan the entire table’s data, in order to
retrieve the requested data.

Describe the structure of a SQL Server Index that provides faster access to the table’s data?
A SQL Server index is created using the shape of B-Tree structure, that is made up of 8K pages, with each page, in
that structure, called an index node. The B-Tree structure provides the SQL Server Engine with a fast way to move
through the table rows based on index key, that decides to navigate left or right, to retrieve the requested values
directly, without scanning all the underlying table rows. You can imagine the potential performance degradation that
may occur due to scanning large database table.
The B-Tree structure of the index consists of three main levels:
1. Root Level, the top node that contains a single index page, form which SQL Server starts its data search,
2. Leaf Level, the bottom level of nodes that contains the data pages we are looking for, with the number of
leaf pages depends on the amount of data stored in the index,
3. Intermediate Level, one or multiple levels between the root and the leaf levels that holds the index key
values and pointers to the next intermediate level pages or the leaf data pages. The number of intermediate
levels depends on the amount of data stored in the index.

Explain Index Depth, Density and Selectivity factors and how these factors affect index performance?
1. Index depth is the number of levels from the index root node to the leaf nodes. An index that is quite deep
will suffer from performance degradation problem. In contrast, an index with a large number of nodes in
each level can produce a very flat index structure. An index with only 3 to 4 levels is very common.
2. Index density is a measure of the lack of uniqueness of the data in a table. A dense column is one that has a
high number of duplicates.
3. Index selectivity is a measure of how many rows scanned compared to the total number of rows. An index
with high selectivity means a small number of rows scanned when related to the total number of rows.

Why it is not recommended to create indexes on small tables?

It takes the SQL Server Engine less time scanning the underlying table than traversing the index when searching for
specific data. In this case, the index will not be used but it will still negatively affect the performance of data
modification operations, as it will be always adjusted when modifying the underlying table’s data.

What are some different ways to create an index?

1. CREATE INDEX T-SQL statement.
2. Using SQL Server Management Studio, by browsing the table on which you need to create an index, right
click on the Indexes node and choose New Index option.
3. Indirectly by defining the PRIMARY KEY and the UNIQUE constraint within the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE
statements.

What are the pros and cons of using ONLINE index creation or rebuilding options?
Setting the ONLINE option to ON when you create or rebuild the index will enable other data retrieving or
modification processes on the underlying table to continue, preventing the index creation process from locking the
table. On the other hand, the ONLINE index creation or rebuilding process will take longer time than the offline
default index creation process.

Which type of indexes are used to maintain the data integrity of the columns on which it is created?
Unique Indexes, by ensuring that there are no duplicate values in the index key, and the table rows, on which that
index is created.

How could we benefits from a Filtered index in improving the performance of queries?
It uses a filter predicate to improve the performance of queries that retrieve a well-defined subset of rows from the
table, by indexing the only portion of the table rows. The smaller size of the Filtered index, that consumes a small
amount of the disk space compared with the full-table index size, and the more accurate filtered statistics, that cover
the filtered index rows with only minimal maintenance cost, help in improving the performance of the queries by
generating a more optimal execution plan.

How can we get the fragmentation percentage of a database index?

Using SSMS, from the Fragmentation tab of the index Properties window. Checking the fragmentation percentage of
all indexes in a specific database, using the UI method requires a big effort, as you need to check one index at a time.
1. The sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats dynamic management function, that was first Introduced in SQL Server
2005. The sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats DMF can be joined with the sys.indexes DMV to return the
fragmentation percentage of all indexes under the specified database.

How can you find the missing indexes that are needed to potentially improve the performance of your queries?
The Missing Index Details option in the query execution plan, if available.
The sys.dm_db_missing_index_details dynamic management view, that returns detailed information about missing
indexes, excluding spatial indexes,
Why is an index described as a double-edged sword?
A well-designed index will enhance the performance of your system and speed up the data retrieval process. On the
other hand, a badly-designed index will cause performance degradation on your system and will cost you extra disk
space and delay in the data insertion and modification operations. It is better always to test the performance of the
system before and after adding the index to the development environment, before adding it to the production
environment.

Describe the different index configurations possible for a table?

Different index configurations possible for a table are:
2. A clustered index: When only a single clustered index is present.
3. A non-clustered index: When only a single non-clustered index is present.
4. Many non-clustered indexes: When more than one non-clustered indexes is present.
5. A clustered index and a non-clustered index: When a single clustered index and a single non-clustered index
is present.
6. A clustered index and many non-clustered indexes: When a single clustered index and more than one non-
clustered indexes are present.
7. No index: When there are no indexes present.

Important wait types: select *from sys.dm_os_wait_stats

ASYNC_NETWORK_IO—The async_network_io wait types point to network-related issues. They are most-often
caused by a client application not consuming and processing results from the SQL Server quickly enough. From a SQL
Server point of view, there’s nothing you can tune. Engage the network team if there’s a long distance between
Servers, or the application team to check on application/Server resources.

CXPACKET—This wait type is involved in parallel query execution and indicates the SPID is waiting on a parallel
process to complete or start. Excessive CXPacket waits may indicate a problem with the WHERE clause in the query.
Look at researching and changing Maximum Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP).

DTC—This wait type is not on the local system. When using Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS-DTC),
a single transaction is opened on multiple systems at the same time, and the transaction cannot be concluded until
it’s been completed on all of the systems.

NETWORKIO—The async_network_io (in SQL 2005/2008) and networkio (in SQL 2000) wait types can point to
network-related issues, but most often are caused by a client application not processing results from the SQL Server
quickly enough.

OLEDB—This wait type indicates that a SPID has made a function call to an OLE DB provider and is waiting for the
function to return the required data. This wait type may also indicate the SPID is waiting for remote procedure calls,
linked Server queries, BULK INSERT commands, or full-search queries.

PAGEIOLATCH_*—Buffer latches, including the PAGEIOLATCH_EX wait type, are used to synchronize access to BUF
structures and associated pages in the SQL Server database. The most frequently occurring buffer latching situation
is when SQL Server is waiting to read a data file page or workload from storage. These pages and workloads were not
cached in memory and need to be retrieved from the disk. Additional memory will help prevent pages from getting
pushed out.

SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD—SQL Server instances with high CPU usage often show the SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD wait
type. This doesn’t mean the Server is underpowered; it means further research is needed to find which individual
task in a query needs more CPU time. Check the Max Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP) to ensure proper core usage.
Ensure high CPU performance from both within Windows and the system BIOS.

WRITELOG—When a SQL Server session waits on the WRITELOG wait type, it’s waiting to write the contents of the
log cache (user delete/update/inserts operations) to the disk where the transaction log is stored and before telling
the end user his or her transactions have been committed. Disabling unused indexes will help, but the disk is the
bottleneck here, and the transition log should be moved to more appropriate storage.
SQL SERVER – ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability)
ACID (an acronym for Atomicity, Consistency Isolation, Durability) is a concept that Database Professionals generally
look for when evaluating databases and application architectures. For a reliable database all these four attributes
should be achieved.
 Atomicity is an all-or-none proposition.
 Consistency guarantees that a transaction never leaves your database in a half-finished state.
 Isolation keeps transactions separated from each other until they’re finished.
 Durability guarantees that the database will keep track of pending changes in such a way that the Server can
recover from an abnormal termination.
Above four rules are very important for any developers dealing with databases.

Atomicity: – The atomicity acid property in SQL. It means either all the operations (insert, update, delete) inside a
transaction take place or none. Or you can say, all the statements (insert, update, delete) inside a transaction are
either completed or rolled back.. Every transaction follows atomicity model, which means that if a transaction is
started, it should be either completed or rollback. To understand this lets take above example, if person is
transferring amount from account “A” to account “B”, it should be credited to account B after completing the
transaction. In case if any failure happens, after debiting amount from account “A” , the change should be rollback.

Consistency: - This SQL ACID property ensures database consistency. It means, whatever happens in the middle of
the transaction, this acid property will never leave your database in a half-completed state. If the transaction
completed successfully, then it will apply all the changes to the database.If there is an error in a transaction, then all
the changes that already made will be rolled back automatically. It means the database will restore to its state that it
had before the transaction started. If there is a system failure in the middle of the transaction, then also, all the
changes made already will automatically rollback. It says that after the completion of a transaction, changes made
during the transaction should be consistent. Let’s understand this fact by referring the above example, if account “A”
has been debited by 200 RS then after completion of transaction account “B” should be credited by 200 RS. It means
changes should be consistent.

Isolation: - Every transaction is individual, and One transaction can’t access the result of other transactions until the
transaction completed. Or, you can’t perform the same operation using multiple transactions at the same time.
Isolation states that every transaction should be isolated with each other, there should not be any interference
between two transactions.

Durability: - Once the transaction completed, then the changes it has made to the database will be permanent. Even
if there is a system failure, or any abnormal changes also, this SQL acid property will safeguard the committed
data.Durability means that once the transaction is completed, all the changes should be permanent, it means that in
case of any system failure, changes should not be lost.

Isolation Levels in SQL Server:

SQL Server isolation levels are used to define the degree to which one transaction must be isolated from resource or
data modifications made by other concurrent transactions. The different Isolation Levels are:
1. Read committed - The Default Isolation Level of MS SQL Server
2. Read Uncommitted
3. Repeatable Read
4. Serializable
5. Snapshot
Read Committed is the default isolation level. However, it can be changed from Query Window as well as
Management Studio Tools.
In SSMS tools menu, Options should be selected. Under Query Execution -> Advanced, then the drop down for Set
Transaciton Isolation Level can be modified.

Before further proceed with Isolation level we have to clear understanding about two things
Dirty Reads: This is when we read uncommitted data, when doing this there is no guarantee that data read will ever
be committed.
Phantom Reads: This is when data that we are working with has been changed by another transaction since you first
read it in. This means subsequent reads of this data in the same transaction could well be different.
To Check the Current Isolation Level
DBCC useroptions

1. Read Committed Isolation Level

Specifies that statements cannot read data that has been modified but not committed by other transactions. This
prevents dirty reads. Data can be changed by other transactions between individual statements within the current
transaction, resulting in non repeatable reads or phantom data. This option is the SQL Server default.
-- Query-1 of Session -1
BEGIN TRAN
UPDATE tbl_Test SET Col1 = 2;
WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:10';
ROLLBACK
--Query-2 of Session -2
SELECT * FROM tbl_Test;
In the above example the Query-2 is waiting for Query-1 to complete. When the Query-1 is completed then the
Query-2 retrieves records.
2. Read Uncommitted Isolation Level
In this Isolation level, a transaction can read the data which is modified by some other transactions but still not
committed. This Isolation level do not issue shared locked to prevent data modification which is read by some other
transactions. Also it is not issue exclusive locks to prevent transactions from reading data which is modified from
other transaction by not committed yet. It may results in problem like dirty read, lost updates, phantom reads etc. It
is the least restrictive Isolation level.
-- Query-1 of Session - 1
BEGIN TRAN
UPDATE tbl_Tests SET Col1 = 2;
WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:10';
ROLLBACK
-- Query-2 of Session - 2
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED
SELECT * FROM tbl_Tests;
Here in this example Query-2 is not waiting for Query-1. Query-2 returns records without waiting for Query-1 my
cause of Dirty data.

3. Repeatable Read Isolation Level

This isolation level is higher than the previous two mention isolation level and it does not allows any transaction to
read a data that is being modified by some other transaction but not committed yet. Also it doesn't allow any
transaction to modify a data if it is being read by some other transaction until the transaction reading that data
complete its operation. This way it eliminates the dirty read and Repeatable reads problem but it doesn't eliminates
the Phantom reads.
--Query - 1 of Session - 1
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL REPEATABLE READ
BEGIN TRAN
SELECT * FROM tbl_Tests;
WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:10';
SELECT * FROM tbl_Tests;
ROLLBACK
--Query - 2 of Session - 2
UPDATE tbl_Tests SET Col1 = -1
In the above example Query-1 returns the same data for both selects even though you ran a query to modify the
data before the second select ran. This is because the Update query (Query-2) was forced to wait for Query-1 to
finish due to the exclusive locks that were opened as you specified Repeatable Read.

4. Serializable Isolation Level

This Isolation level do not allow any transaction to read the data unless the other transactions completed their data
modification operation. Also it doesn't allow other transactions to modify the data until the current transaction
completed its read operation. This isolation level allows a transaction to acquire a read lock (if only read operation)
or write lock (for insert,delete,update) for the entire range of records that the transaction is going to affect.
--Query - 1 of Session -1
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
BEGIN TRAN
SELECT * FROM tbl_Tests;
WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:10';
SELECT * FROM tbl_Tests;
ROLLBACK
--Query - 2 of Session -2
INSERT INTO tbl_Tests(Col1,Col2,Col3)
VALUES (100,100,100);
In the above example we will see that the insert in Query-2 waits for Query-1 to complete before it runs eradicating
the chance of a phantom read.
If we change the isolation level in Query-1 to repeatable read, we will see the insert no longer gets blocked and the
two seleclt statements in Query-1 return a different amount of rows.

5. Snapshot Isolation Level

In this isolation level, a transaction recognise only data which is committed before the start of the transaction. Any
modification of the data after the transaction is begin, is not visible to any statements of the currently executing
transaction. It is like a snapshot of data, given to each transaction. It is done with the help of row version where
a separate version of each modified row is maintain in the temp db database dedicated to the transactions. This
isolation level eliminates dirty reads, lost updates, repeatable reads and Phantom reads problem.
ALTER DATABASE myDb
SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION ON;

The Significance of Different Isolation Levels:

Only one of the isolation level options can be set at a time, and it remains set for that connection until it is explicitly
changed. A lower isolation level increases the ability of many users to access data at the same time, but increases
the number of concurrency effects, such as dirty reads or lost updates etc. Conversely, a higher isolation level
reduces the types of concurrency effects that users might encounter, but requires more system resources and
increases the chances that one transaction will block another.
The lowest isolation level, read uncommitted, can retrieve data that has been modified but not committed by other
transactions. All concurrency side effects can happen in read uncommitted, but there's no read locking or versioning,
so overhead is minimized.

READ COMMITTED is the default isolation level for SQL Server. It prevents dirty reads by specifying that statements
cannot read data values that have been modified but not yet committed by other transactions. If the
READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT option is set as ON, the Read transactions need not wait and can access the last
committed records. Other transactions can modify, insert, or delete data between executions of individual SELECT
statements within the current transaction, resulting in non-repeatable reads or phantom rows.
REPEATABLE READ is a more restrictive isolation level than READ COMMITTED. It encompasses READ COMMITTED
and additionally specifies that no other transactions can modify or delete data that has been read by the current
transaction until the current transaction commits. Concurrency is lower than for READ COMMITTED because shared
locks on read data are held for the duration of the transaction instead of being released at the end of each
statement. But Other transactions can insert data between executions of individual SELECT statements within the
current transaction, resulting in phantom rows.

The highest isolation level, serializable, guarantees that a transaction will retrieve exactly the same data every time
it repeats a read operation, but it does this by performing a level of locking that is likely to impact other users in
multi-user systems.

SNAPSHOT isolation specifies that data read within a transaction will never reflect changes made by other
simultaneous transactions. The transaction uses the data row versions that exist when the transaction begins. No
locks are placed on the data when it is read, so SNAPSHOT transactions do not block other transactions from writing
data. Transactions that write data do not block snapshot transactions from reading data. If no waiting is acceptable
for the SELECT operation but the last committed data is enough to be displayed, this isolation level may be
appropriate.

Query tuning and Schema refinement:

The live production database is likely your only source for the latest, up-to-date data. When querying a production
database, optimization is key. An inefficient query will drain the production database’s resources, and cause slow
performance or loss of service for other users if the query contains errors. It’s vital you optimize your queries for
minimum impact on database performance.

1. Define business requirements first

 Identify relevant stakeholders. Make sure all necessary parties are in the discussion to develop your query.
When querying production databases, make sure the DBA team is included.
 Focus on business outcomes. Give the query a definite and unique purpose. Taxing the production database
for exploratory or duplicative reports is an unnecessary risk.
 Frame the discussion for optimal requirements. Define the function and scope of the report by identifying its
intended audience. This will focus the query on the tables with the correct level of detail.
 Ask great questions. Follow the 5 W’s: Who? What? Where? When? Why?
 Write very specific requirements and confirm them with stakeholders. The performance of the production
database is too critical to have unclear or ambiguous requirements. Make sure the requirements are as
specific as possible and confirm the requirements with all stakeholders before running the query.

2. SELECT fields instead of using SELECT *

 When running exploratory queries, many SQL developers use SELECT * (read as “select all”) as a shorthand
to query all available data from a table. However, if a table has many fields and many rows, this taxes
database resources by querying a lot of unnecessary data.
 Using the SELECT statement will point the database to querying only the data you need to meet the business
requirements. Here’s an example where the business requirements request mailing addresses for customers.
Inefficient:
 SELECT *
FROM Customers
 This query may pull in other data also stored in the customer table, such as phone numbers, activity dates,
and notes from sales and customer service.
Efficient:
 SELECT FirstName, LastName, Address, City, State, Zip
FROM Customers
 This query is much cleaner and only pulls the required information for mailing addresses.
 To keep an index of all tables and field names, run a query from a system table such as
INFORMATION_SCHEMA or ALL_TAB_COLUMNS (for MS SQL Server, read this).

3. Avoid SELECT DISTINCT

SELECT DISTINCT is a handy way to remove duplicates from a query. SELECT DISTINCT works by GROUPing all fields in
the query to create distinct results. To accomplish this goal however, a large amount of processing power is
required. Additionally, data may be grouped to the point of being inaccurate. To avoid using SELECT DISTINCT, select
more fields to create unique results.
Inefficient and inaccurate:
SELECT DISTINCT FirstName, LastName, State
FROM Customers
This query doesn’t account for multiple people in the same state having the same first and last name. Popular names
such as David Smith or Diane Johnson will be grouped together, causing an inaccurate number of records. In larger
databases, a large number of David Smiths and Diane Johnsons will cause this query to run slowly.
Efficient and accurate:
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Address, City, State, Zip
FROM Customers
By adding more fields, unduplicated records were returned without using SELECT DISTINCT. The database does not
have to group any fields, and the number of records is accurate.

4. Create joins with INNER JOIN (not WHERE)

Some SQL developers prefer to make joins with WHERE clauses, such as the following:
SELECT Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name, Sales.LastSaleDate
FROM Customers, Sales
WHERE Customers.CustomerID = Sales.CustomerID
This type of join creates a Cartesian Join, also called a Cartesian Product or CROSS JOIN.

In a Cartesian Join, all possible combinations of the variables are created. In this example, if we had 1,000 customers
with 1,000 total sales, the query would first generate 1,000,000 results, then filter for the 1,000 records where
CustomerID is correctly joined. This is an inefficient use of database resources, as the database has done 100x more
work than required. Cartesian Joins are especially problematic in large-scale databases, because a Cartesian Join of
two large tables could create billions or trillions of results.
To prevent creating a Cartesian Join, use INNER JOIN instead:
SELECT Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name, Sales.LastSaleDate
FROM Customers
INNER JOIN Sales
ON Customers.CustomerID = Sales.CustomerID
The database would only generate the 1,000 desired records where CustomerID is equal.
Some DBMS systems are able to recognize WHERE joins and automatically run them as INNER JOINs instead. In those
DBMS systems, there will be no difference in performance between a WHERE join and INNER JOIN. However, INNER
JOIN is recognized by all DBMS systems.

5. Use WHERE instead of HAVING to define filters

The goal of an efficient query is to pull only the required records from the database. Per the SQL Order of
Operations, HAVING statements are calculated after WHERE statements. If the intent is to filter a query based on
conditions, a WHERE statement is more efficient.
For example, let’s assume 200 sales have been made in the year 2016, and we want to query for the number of sales
per customer in 2016.

SELECT Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name, Count(Sales.SalesID)

FROM Customers
INNER JOIN Sales
ON Customers.CustomerID = Sales.CustomerID
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name
HAVING Sales.LastSaleDate BETWEEN #1/1/2016# AND #12/31/2016#

This query would pull 1,000 sales records from the Sales table, then filter for the 200 records generated in the year
2016, and finally count the records in the dataset.
In comparison, WHERE clauses limit the number of records pulled:

SELECT Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name, Count(Sales.SalesID)

FROM Customers
INNER JOIN Sales
ON Customers.CustomerID = Sales.CustomerID
WHERE Sales.LastSaleDate BETWEEN #1/1/2016# AND #12/31/2016#
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name

This query would pull the 200 records from the year 2016, and then count the records in the dataset. The first step in
the HAVING clause has been completely eliminated.
HAVING should only be used when filtering on an aggregated field. In the query above, we could additionally filter
for customers with greater than 5 sales using a HAVING statement.
SELECT Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name, Count(Sales.SalesID)
FROM Customers
INNER JOIN Sales
ON Customers.CustomerID = Sales.CustomerID
WHERE Sales.LastSaleDate BETWEEN #1/1/2016# AND #12/31/2016#
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name
HAVING Count(Sales.SalesID) > 5

6. Use wildcards at the end of a phrase only

When searching plaintext data, such as cities or names, wildcards create the widest search possible. However, the
widest search is also the most inefficient search.
When a leading wildcard is used, especially in combination with an ending wildcard, the database is tasked with
searching all records for a match anywhere within the selected field.
Consider this query to pull cities beginning with ‘Char’:

SELECT City FROM Customers

WHERE City LIKE ‘%Char%’
This query will pull the expected results of Charleston, Charlotte, and Charlton. However, it will also pull unexpected
results, such as Cape Charles, Crab Orchard, and Richardson.
A more efficient query would be:

SELECT City FROM Customers

WHERE City LIKE ‘Char%’
This query will pull only the expected results of Charleston, Charlotte, and Charlton.

7. Use LIMIT to sample query results

Before running a query for the first time, ensure the results will be desirable and meaningful by using
a LIMIT statement. (In some DBMS systems, the word TOP is used interchangeably with LIMIT.) The LIMIT statement
returns only the number of records specified. Using a LIMIT statement prevents taxing the production database with
a large query, only to find out the query needs editing or refinement.
In the 2016 sales query from above, we will examine a limit of 10 records:

SELECT Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name, Count(Sales.SalesID)

FROM Customers
INNER JOIN Sales
ON Customers.CustomerID = Sales.CustomerID
WHERE Sales.LastSaleDate BETWEEN #1/1/2016# AND #12/31/2016#
GROUP BY Customers.CustomerID, Customers.Name
LIMIT 10
We can see by the sample whether we have a useable data set or not.

8. Run your query during off-peak hours

In order to minimize the impact of your analytical queries on the production database, talk to a DBA about
scheduling the query to run at an off-peak time. The query should run when concurrent users are at their lowest
number, which is typically the middle of the night (3 – 5 a.m.).
The more of the following criteria your query has, the more likely of a candidate it should be to run at night:
6. Selecting from large tables (>1,000,000 records)
7. Cartesian Joins or CROSS JOINs
8. Looping statements
9. SELECT DISTINCT statements
10. Nested subqueries
11. Wildcard searches in long text or memo fields
12. Multiple schema queries

What is schema refinement in SQL Server?

Normalization or Schema Refinement is a technique of organizing the data in the database. It is a systematic
approach of decomposing tables to eliminate data redundancy and undesirable characteristics like Insertion, Update
and Deletion Anomalies. Schema refinement is just a fancy term for saying polishing tables. It is the last step before
considering physical design/tuning with typical workloads.
Redundancy refers to repetition of same data or duplicate copies of same data stored in different locations.
Anomalies: Anomalies refers to the problems occurred after poorly planned and normalized databases where all the
data is stored in one table which is sometimes called a flat file database.

How to shrink transaction log file grow and tools used in SQL Server.
It is always better to be a proactive database administrator and keep an eye on the SQL Server Transaction Log file
growth, in order to prevent the issues when having the log file running out of free space for a long time. Rather than
sleeping beside the Server, you can use a monitoring tool such as the System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
tool, Performance Monitor counters, or simply create an alert that reads from one of the system catalog views and
notify an operator by email when the free space of the SQL Transaction Log file becomes under a predefined
threshold.
sys.dm_db_log_space_usage is a dynamic management view, introduced in SQL Server 2012, that is used to return
space usage information for the transaction log. The below query can be used to check the free space percentage in
the SQL Transaction Log file of the current database:
And the result will be like:

If the result returned from the previous query falls down a predefined threshold, before running the SQL Server
Transaction Log file out of free space, the DBA will be notified by an email, SMS or call based on the monitoring tool
used in your entity.

Cause
Transaction log files store all of the transactions and the database modifications made by these transactions as
updates and changes to the database occur. As more and more transactions modify the database and there is more
transaction activity then maintenance activity on the transaction log, these logs will grow. In particular, if there was
some unusual amount of activity on the database, this will cause the logs to grow quickly. Another possible cause,
could be the Automatic grow file option has been set too high such that the transaction log file will grow by x%
resulting in an exponential file growth.

To shrink a data or log file using SQL Management Studio:

In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine and then expand that instance.
1. Expand Databases and then right-click the database that you want to shrink.
2. Point to Tasks, point to Shrink, and then click Files.
3. Select the file type and file name.
4. Optionally, select the Release unused space check box.
Selecting this option causes any unused space in the file to be released to the operating system and shrinks the file
to the last allocated extent. This reduces the file size without moving any data.
Optionally, select the Reorganize files before releasing unused space check box. If this is selected, the Shrink file to
value must be specified. By default, the option is cleared. Selecting this option causes any unused space in the file to
be released to the operating system and tries to relocate rows to unallocated pages.
Optionally, enter the maximum percentage of free space to be left in the database file after the database has been
shrunk. Permissible values are between 0 and 99. This option is only available when Reorganize files before releasing
unused space is enabled.
Optionally, select the Empty file by migrating the data to other files in the same filegroup check box. Selecting this
option moves all data from the specified file to other files in the filegroup. The empty file can then be deleted. This
option is the same as executing DBCC SHRINKFILE with the EMPTYFILE option.
Click OK.

How to transfer user credentials from source to destination Server in SQL Server
Method 1:
1. Reset the password on the destination SQL Server computer (Server B)
2. To resolve this issue, reset the password in SQL Server computer, and then script out the login.

Method 2:
1. Transfer logins and passwords to destination Server (Server B) using scripts generated on source Server
(Server A)
2. Create stored procedures that will help generate necessary scripts to transfer logins and their passwords. To
do this, connect to Server A using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or any other client tool and run the
required script:

Steps on the destination Server (Server B)

Connect to Server B using any client tool (like SSMS) and then run the script generated in Step 4 (output
of sp_helprevlogin) from Server A.
Sometimes, it is necessary to move the database from one Server to another. The problem is that usually the logins
and the database users are mapped. If that is the case, when you backup a Database and restore a database in
another Server.
We will show four alternatives to solve the logins problems.
1. The contained databases
2. The SSIS Transfer Login Task
3. The Database Migration Wizard
4. The Microsoft scripts

What is service improvement plan in SQL Server

1. Setup SQL agent jobs like backup failed alert, blocking alert, db creation or deletion alert, login creation or
deletion alert, monitor disk space, monitor log space etc. to have point in time monitoring
2. Regular backup restore drills to ensure recovery time
3. regular analysis of queries for performance optimization
There are many things you can plan as per your environment.

Effective SQL Server Performance Tuning Tips

1: Be Impatient: Don't let your SQL Server stutter up and freeze. Make sure everything is up and running smoothly
and as intended. Assess anything that may be causing stalls or failures and plan with future solutions to potential
issues. Proper data modeling and input into the programming process can also deter most performance issues
before they happen.

2: Take Note of Monitor Index Usage :Querying the sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats() DMV can yield a plethora
of information regarding your index usage. Use this information to find ways to ensure a smoother user experience.

3: Locate Problem Queries: Up to 80 to 90 percent of poor SQL Server performance is the result of five to ten
queries or stored procedures. This is common for most SQL Server instances. So, if your Server performance is down,
be sure to check your queries and procedures.

4: Utilize the Tools Available: Many performance issues can be resolved using the tools available from Microsoft.
SQL Server comes with Dynamic Management Views or DMVs, SQL Server Profiler, Extended Events, Execution Plans,
and newer versions also contain Live Query Stats and the Query Store tools that provide an arsenal to performance
issues.

5: Find I/O Choke Points: I/O stalls are one of the most common reasons for SQL Server performance issues. Find
any I/O bottlenecks and fix them.

6: Refuse Hardware: Perhaps it's no surprise that one of the biggest IT expenses for most businesses is memory and
CPU hardware for SQL Server instances. Any applications that don't utilize stored procedures or correctly define
queries place extreme load on the Server.

7: Avoid Shrinking Data Files: Contrary to popular belief, shrinking data files should be avoided at all costs, as it can
significantly impact SQL Server performance in a negative way. Shrinking causes fragmentation to occur and any
following queries to suffer.

8: Monitor Log Files: Transaction log files can be vital to monitoring overall performance of your SQL Server. One of
the most common issues is failing to leave enough space for the transaction log file to function normally. In addition,
forcing an autogrow operation may cause issues with SQL Server performance. Decreasing the log file backup
interval can also prevent log files from growing out of control.

9: Organize Data: Just as programmers keep their code clean, any savvy SQL Server user knows why it’s important to
be diligent when it comes to organizing data and log files onto different physical drive arrays to reduce drive
contention and latency. It is also prudent to locate those files away from the operating system drive to remove single
points of failure.

10: Reduce tempdb Contention:Some applications tend to rely heavily on tempdb. If this is the case for your
organization, you may run into some contention relating to internal structures that work with tempdb file. If you
experience contention, you should increase the number of tempdb data files ensuring that the files are equally sized.

11: Modify MAX Memory Limit: Fortunately for 64-bit users, Microsoft has greatly improved memory allocation and
sharing within the OS and other apps in the SQL Server. As a result, the MAX Memory setting being set at default is
not ideal. Don't be excessive when setting the memory on SQL Server; you want the OS and other applications to
have access to this memory. The ideal practice is to set the MAX memory setting to 80-90% of the available memory
on the Server, if there are no other major applications residing on the Server.

SCOM vs SCCM

Both SCOM and SCCM look like named twins with different traits and roles. SCCM is a system center configuration
manager which is also called configuration manager is a kind of tool which helps administrators with a way to
manage all the aspects of a business. SCOM is a system center operations manager also named as operational
manager, with a single interface which displays the crucial piece of our IT environment. In this blog post we are going
to discuss what is SCOM, why SCOM, What is SCCM, Why SCCM, comparison of SCOM vs SCCM, benefits and
disadvantages of SCOM and SCCM, etc.

What is SCOM?
System center operation manager uses a single interface, which shows state, health and information of the
computer system. It creates alerts generated based on availability, configuration, and security situation being
identified, It works with the help of Unix box host and Microsoft windows Server, it refers to a set of filtering rules
which are specific for some monitored applications. It provides customer management packs, when an administrator
role is needed to install agents and create management packs, they are given rights to simply view the list of recent
alerts for any valid user account.

Why is SCOM?
It is employed to connect many various separately managed groups of a central location. Its basic idea is to put a
piece of software on the computer, which may be useful for monitoring. Its agent forwards the alert to a central
Server, during alert occurrence and detection. Its Server application maintains a database which includes a history of
alerts.

What is SCCM?
System center configuration manager is a product from Microsoft, which enables the management, deployment,
security of devices and applications of an enterprise. Administrators commonly used it for patch management,
endpoint protection, and software distribution, it is a part of Microsoft system center systems management suite. It
integrates the console, which enables management of Microsoft applications such as application virtualization. It
relies on single infrastructure, which has a goal of unifying physical and virtual clients under one roof, it adds tools to
help IT administrators with the help of access control.

Why is SCCM
It discovers desktops, Servers and mobile devices that are connected to a network, with the help of the active
dictionary and installs clients software on each node. Then it manages application deployment on a device basis,
which allows it for automated patching with the help of windows Server update services and policy enforcement
with the help of network access protection. Its endpoint protection manager is built into the system center
configuration manager, which helped to secure data stored on devices.

Comparison between SCOM and SCCM

1. SCOM:
System center operation manager is a cross-platform for performance of monitoring system, system center
configuration manager is a configuration and also patch management systems, which are helpful for windows.
SCCM: SCCM may assist you with ongoing tasks which are related to keeping your infrastructure secure and updated,
SCOM can monitor your devices and services which share information that you need. They both are distinct, but they
both are complementary pieces, which belongs to a productive and safe IT landscape.

2. SCCM:
Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager or “Configuration Manager,” as all call it like, is a tool which offers
administrators along with a way to manage all of aspects of an organization’s Windows, that are based desktops,
Servers, and devices which are from a single hub.
SCOM: The Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager , or “Operations Manager,” is as useful as Microsoft’s
System Center Configuration Manager. It is a monitoring tool, which provides a look at the health and performance
of all our services of IT in one spot.
3. SCCM:
The Configuration Manager’s unified infrastructure pulls all of the organization’s clients of physical, virtual, and
mobile under a single large umbrella. It contains tools and resources that provide administrators the ability to
control the access within the cloud and on site. Its Administrators may grant end users access for the devices and
applications they required without the worry of compromised security.
SCOM: The Operations Manager may monitor performance of both Server and client applications, and it may provide
us the information about the health of our services across both datacenter and cloud infrastructures.

4. SCCM:
Unified design of Configuration Manager may help us to do many essential jobs within single platform
1. Deploy software
2. Protect data
3. Manage updates
4. Monitor system health
5. Enforce organizational compliance

SCCM can automate the associated tasks so we may be sure that they happen on the schedule that we set and
within our organization’s policies and standards.
SCOM: Operations Manager with a single interface, shows the administrators a view of the vital pieces of our IT
environment all at a time.
 Status
 Health
 Security
 Performance
 Configuration
5. Both the SCCM and SCOM are just two components in a product of a large family, which help the administrators to
manage the vast array of applications and services which may be found in a business. SCCM may assist us with the
ongoing tasks that are related to keeping our infrastructure secure and up-to-date. SCOM will monitor our devices
and services and then share the information about them that we require. Both the SCOM and SCCM are distinct but
they are complementary pieces of a productive and safe IT landscape

Advantages of SCOM
1. SCOM is user friendly, which doesn't need any maintenance. It has availability of monitoring that looks most
valuable, it also has required capacity and ability to send notifications.
2. Its solutions save you a lot of work by reducing the effort that is required to start monitoring, which creates a
lot of headaches in other places to manage your software and data centers. It also helps our applications
teams, which allow them to drill remaining into issues that perform root cause analysis.
3. It improves our organizations that simplifies the monitoring process, it reports when there is a connectivity
issue which needs to be fixed and easier to concrete on which one needs to get fixed.
4. Extensibility is one of the most valuable features, that has no limits of what you can do with it. It allows to
standardize all the reports for monitoring the network, which helps a lot for auditing purposes.

Disadvantages of SCOM
1. It lacks details of certain products like granular access and application monitoring, it needs Microsoft
provided management packs with products.
2. We may have difficulties integrating Linux into some networking devices, there is a need for drastic al
improvement in on prem network monitoring. It also has issues with capacity and limited space which needs
some improvement.
3. It needs more standard libraries for the market solutions, which are from out of the box, which you don't
need to do a lot of work on.

Advantages of SCCM
1. Graphical based reports of software updates is the most valuable feature, that have been almost successful
except rare cases like security breaches. And saves a lot of money by allowing you to install things
automatically in an exact way on every computer.
2. It updates the patches and updates from windows, one of the main valuable features which we can utilize a
lot. To become more competitive in the marketplace, they are investing a lot in new features.
3. It has a very straightforward initial setup which is not that much complicated, and provides integration
between products. It is a good choice of deployment which performs very well, scalability also another best
feature provided by it.

Disadvantages of SCCM
1. With the help of Microsoft premier support, you may get what you pay for. You will get excellent support by
paying for it. The on-screen display of the main room needs some improvement.
2. We may face a lot of problems initially with its complex set up, for those who are new for this solution. And
the deployment process is lengthy which should be quicker to complete.
3. There is a chance for virus attacks through adding new applications suddenly and silently, and incase of
software installation version flaw all users of it are affected. During software installation there is no
immediate notice for failure until the user gets a pop up warning.

Conclusion
SCOM and SCCM both are a part of the Microsoft system family, which are strictly different but they are
complementary components of safe and productive IT infrastructure. They are part of a large family of products,
which assist the admin that manage a large variety of applications and services,that can be found in
organizations.SCCM can help you to manage ongoing tasks related to maintenance of infrastructure security,SCOM
helps you to monitor the services and devices to share the information regarding them to you as per your needs and
requirements.They both have their own distinctive traits and roles.

Management Data Warehouse (MDW)

Management Data Warehouse (MDW) is an awesome feature in Microsoft SQL Server that allows you to collect data
about your Server and view it in a readable format. MDW is a relational database that contains the data that is
collected from a Server that is a data collection target. This is very useful for DBA’s.
MDW provides 3 reports and you are able to create your own custom reports. The reports will provide suggestions
for improving performance, based on information gathered by the Data Collector.
The 3 main reports are Server Activity History, Query Statistics History and System Disk Usage.
Using a basic configuration of the MDW enables a DBA to perform tasks such as:
1. Proactive Tuning
2. Historical Query Analysis
3. Performance Baselining
4. Database Growth Forecasting
5. Storage Planning

To configure MDW you can follow these steps:

Expand the Management node in Object Explorer and right click on Data Collection and select Configure
Management Data Warehouse. This will open up a wizard.
Select Create or upgrade a management data warehouse. Then click Next.

Type in a Server Name, by default the Server you are currently on will be populated in the name. You are able to set
up MDW on a separate Server and do the data collection for another Server.

Click on New next to Database Name. A pop-up will appear to create a database for the MDW to collect and write
the data to. Type in Database Name and click ok.
The Database Name will now be populated and you can click on next.

Select a user to map to the MDW and set the Database membership role and click Next.

A summary window for the configuration will display and you can click Finish.
Next we need to set up a data collection to collect data from the Server and databases you are interested in getting
information from. Right click on the Data Collection node again and select Configure Management Data Warehouse.
This time you will select Set up data collection and click Next.

Select the Server and Database where you want to store the data and click Next.
A summary screen will display and click Finish. Make sure SQL Server Agent is running, otherwise the setup will fail.

Once complete you will see the Data Collection sets in the Object Explorer

To access the reports, you will right-click on the Data Collection node > Reports > Management Data Warehouse
What is review of KEDB and SOP in SQL Server?
The Known Error Database (KEDB) is created by Problem Management and used by Incident and Problem
Management to manage all Known Error Records.

There are three ITIL terms that you need to be familiar with to understand KEDB. These include
1. Incident
2. Problem
3. known error.
When you face an unplanned interruption to an IT service, it is referred to as an incident. For example, if your email
service goes down without notice from your provider, this could be tagged as an incident.

A problem is the underlying cause of an incident. Simply put, this is the thing that caused the issue in the first place.
In the example above, the reason behind the email outage is the problem. Let's say that the root cause of a problem
is identified. Now it's no longer a problem, but a known error. For the email incident, the root cause is identified as
one of the critical services on the email Server which was in hung mode. So, what was once a problem is now a
known error.

Why do you need KEDB? How exactly does a business justify expending capital and operational costs on the
database?
Getting back to the email incident, let's say that the critical service was in hung mode after running a number of
diagnostics and carrying out a series of tests. After identifying it, the resolution might have been quicker where the
service was stopped and restarted. But to get to the resolution, it took plenty of effort and, more importantly, cut
into some precious time. While the diagnostics and resolution were being applied, the email service was down. This
could result in penalties imposed by customers, and intangible losses like future business opportunities and
customer satisfaction.

However, this organization that provides email services to its customers maintains a KEDB, and this particular
incident was recorded. When the email service goes down again, the technical support team can simply refer to the
previous outage in the KEDB, and can start diagnosis with the service that caused the issue last time. If it happens to
be the same service causing the issue, resolution now happens within fraction of the time. As you can see, this
greatly reduces downtime and all other negative effects that stem from service outages. This is KEDB in action!
A KEDB record will have details of the incident, when the outage happened and what was done to resolve it.
However, for a speedy resolution, the KEDB must be powerful enough to retrieve relevant records using filters and
search keywords. Without a KEDB in place, service management organizations tend to reinvent the wheel time and
again, rather than working toward building a mature organization that allocates its funds toward improving services.
Workaround and permanent solution.

When there are service outages, there are two ways of restoring them. The first, and most ideal, is a permanent
solution. A permanent solution entails a fix that guarantees no more outages, at least on a certain level. The second,
and most common, type of restoration is the workaround, which looks for a temporary, alternate solution. A
workaround is generally followed by identifying and implementing a permanent solution at a later date.
In the email service outage, restarting the service is a workaround. The technical staff knows that this will solve the
issue for the moment (which is of vast importance), but that it is bound to repeat in the future. Before the incident
occurs again, it's on the technical team to investigate why the service is unresponsive and to find a permanent
solution.

Let's look at another classic example that I have used time and again during trainings – this one really drives home
the concepts of workaround and permanent solution. Imagine that the printer in your cabin stops working and you
need it right away. You log an incident with your technical staff, stating that you are about to get into a client
meeting and you need to print some documents. The support person determines that he is unable to fix the printer
in time and provides you a workaround to send your files to a common printer in the foyer.
The workaround helps, as your objective is to get the prints and run into a meeting. But, there's no way you want the
hassle of having to do this every time you need to print. So, when the meeting is over, you push for a permanent
solution. When you return, your printer is working and there is a note from the support staff stating that the power
cable was faulty and has been replaced. This is a permanent solution. And while there's a chance that the new cable
could also go faulty, the odds are in your favor.

Why did I discuss workaround and permanent solution on a post that is aimed at KEDB?
Known errors exist because the fix is temporary. The known error database consists of records where a permanent
solution does not exist, but a workaround does. For a known error record, if a permanent solution was to be
implemented, then the record can be expunged or archived for evidence. Known error records with an implemented
permanent solution must not be a part of the KEDB in principle.

This concept is further built upon in the next section where we'll talk about the various process trees for creating,
using and archiving known error records.

These are the three streams where KEDB is leveraged:

1. When an incident is resolved using temporary means, a known error record is created with the incident summary,
description, symptoms and all the steps involved in resolving it.
Suppose a user has reported that MS Outlook application crashes when emails start to download. The technical staff,
in order to minimize the service outage, advised the customer to access webmail until the issue is resolved. The
details of the incident, along with the symptoms and temporary resolution steps, are to be recorded in a new known
error record.

2. When an incident is reported, the support team refers to the KEDB first to check if a workaround exists in the
database. If it does, they will refer to the known error record and follow the resolution steps involved. Suppose the
fix provided is inaccurate, the support staff can recommend alternate resolution steps to ensure that KEDB is high on
quality.
Let's say that at another time and place, MS Outlook application starts to crash. The technical staff can refer to the
KEDB to check what was done on previous occasions, and can recommend the workaround to the customer until a
permanent solution is in place.
3. If a permanent solution to a known error is identified and implemented, the incident must not happen anymore.
So, the known error record is either taken out of the KEDB or archived with a different status. This is done to ensure
that the database is optimized with only the known errors, and accessing records does not become cumbersome due
to a high volume of known error records.
While the user is accessing email service via webmail, the issue is being investigated to identify that a Bluetooth
extension is causing the outlook to crash. The permanent solution is to disable the extension or even uninstall it. This
solution is implemented not only on the Outlook that crashed, but on all the systems accessing Outlook, to ensure
the same incident doesn't happen again. After implementing and testing the permanent solution, the known error
record can either be archived with a pre-defined status or deleted.

How to configure Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) in SQL Server

Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) was introduced in SQL Server 2008. Its main purpose was to protect data by
encrypting the physical files, both the data (mdf) and log (ldf) files (as opposed to the actual data stored within the
database). Transparent Data Encryption Encrypts SQL Server, Azure SQL Databases, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse
data files.

This technology was designed to have the entire encryption process be completely transparent to the applications
accessing the database. It does this by using either Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), or Triple DES, encrypting
the file pages and then decrypted as the information goes into memory. This inhibits limitations from querying the
data in an encrypted database. This is essentially real time I/O encryption and decryption and does not increase the
size of said database.

Also note, that as a result of Transparent Data Encryption, database backups will also be encrypted. In the event that
a backup of the database gets lost or stolen, the culprit will not be able to restore the database without the
appropriate certificate, keys and passwords.

Also, the TempDB database will be automatically encrypted. Since the tempdb is used by all user databases
(processing/storing temporary objects). You shouldn’t notice much of a difference in how Transparent Data
Encryption operates, but this is good to know and often overlooked. What good is an encrypted database if the data
placed in TempDB isn’t encrypted?

If you’re a DBA there is a very strong chance that you are in charge of securing some very sensitive information.

Transparent Data Encryption Eligible SQL Server Editions

First we must determine the correct version of SQL Server that allows Transparent Data Encryption. I like to call it an
expensive feature as it requires Enterprise Editions. It also works with Developer Edition, but of course, this is just for
testing and development purposes. When implementing this in a production environment you must have the correct
version of SQL Server. I’ve listed the eligible editions below.
 SQL 2016 Evaluation, Developer, Enterprise
 SQL 2014 Evaluation, Developer, Enterprise
 SQL Server 2012 Evaluation, Developer, Enterprise
 SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Evaluation, Developer, Enterprise, Datacenter
 SQL Server 2008 Evaluation, Developer, Enterprise

Transparent Data Encryption Hierarchy

Now let’s have a quick overview of the Transparent Data Encryption architecture and hierarchy. First we have the
Windows Operating System Level Data Protection API, which decrypts the Service Master Key found in the SQL
Server instance level. The Server Master Key is created at the time of the initial SQL Server instance setup. From
there we go the database level. The Service Master Key encrypts the database Master Key for the master database.
The database master key creates a certificate in the master database. Keep in mind that you must create a backup of
this certificate. Not only for environmental refreshes but disaster recovery purposes. Once Transparent Data
Encryption is enabled on the database you won’t be able to restore or move it another Server unless this same
certificate has been installed. Keep good (and secure records) of the certificate and password. The certificate is then
used to enable encryption at the database level, thus creating the database encryption key.

To help visualize this process, please refer to the following diagram:

What is dynamic data masking in SQL Server?

Dynamic data masking helps prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data by enabling customers to specify how
much sensitive data to reveal with minimal impact on the application layer. DDM can be configured on
designated database fields to hide sensitive data in the result sets of queries.

Dynamic Data Masking is a new security feature introduced in SQL Server 2016 that limits the access of unauthorized
users to sensitive data at the database layer.

As an example of the need for such a feature is allowing the applications developers to access production data for
troubleshooting purposes and preventing them from accessing the sensitive data at the same time, without affecting
their troubleshooting process. Another example is the call center employee who will access the customer’s
information to help him in his request, but the critical financial data, such as the bank account number or the credit
card full number, will be masked to that person.
Dynamic Data Masking, also known as DDM, is a very simple security feature that can be fully built using T-SQL
commands which we are familiar with, easy to use and also flexible to design. This data protection method allows
you to determine your “sensitive” data, by field in order to configure the suitable masking function to hide it from
queries. This feature requires no coding effort from the application side or encrypting or applying any change to the
real data stored in the disk.

Dynamic Data Masking masks the sensitive data “on the fly” to protect sensitive data from non-privileged users using
built-in or customized masking functions, without preventing them from retrieving the unmasked data.

To implement DDM, first, you need to specify your sensitive data, the role to mask it and specify designated
privileged users that have access to that sensitive data. The next step is to select and implement a masking function

Masking functions

There are four main types of masking functions that can be configured in Dynamic Data Masking, which we will
introduce briefly here and use in the demo later.

The first type is the Default function that masks the data according to the field data type; if the field data type is
binary, varbinary or image, a single byte of binary value 0 will be used to mask that field. For the date and time data
types, the 01.01.1900 00:00:00.0000000 value will be used to mask that date field. If the data type of the masked
field is one of the numeric data types, a zero value will be used to mask that field. For the string data types, XXXX
value will be used to mask that field. If the field length is less than 4 characters, less number of Xs will be used to
mask its value.
The second masking method is the Email function that is used to mask the fields that store the email address. The
Email function shows only the first character of the email address and mask the rest of the email, same as
[email protected].
The Random masking function is used to mask any numeric data type by replacing the original value with a random
value within the range specified in that function.
The last masking type is the Custom function, that allows you to define your own mask for the specified field by
exposing the first and last letters defined by the prefix and suffix and add a padding that will be shown in the middle
in the form of prefix, [padding value], suffix, taking into consideration that part of the prefix or the suffix will not be
exposed if the field’s original value is too short to be masked.

Like any feature in SQL Server, there are number of limitations for the Dynamic Data Masking feature, where you
can’t define the DDM on an encrypted column, a column with FILESTREAM, COLUMN_SET or Sparse Column that is
part of the Column_Set, Computed column or a key column in a FULLTEXT index. Also, if the column to be masked is
part of an index or any type of dependencies, we should drop that dependency, configure the DDM on that column
then create the dependency again. Also, Dynamic Data Masking will not prevent privileged users from altering the
masked column or modifying the masked data, though.

How it works

Let’s start our demo to understand how to configure the Dynamic Data Masking feature practically and how it works.
Assume that we need to mask the employees’ critical data in order to prevent the developer who is responsible for
developing and troubleshooting that system from viewing that sensitive data. First, we will create the
Employee_Financial table where we will store the critical data:

Implementation of Dynamic Data Masking in SQL Server

Let us create a table with relevant masking functions as shown in the below table script.

CREATE TABLE EmployeeData

(MemberID INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
FirstName varchar(100) MASKED WITH (Function = 'default()'),
LastName varchar(100) MASKED WITH (Function = 'partial(1,"XXX",1)'),
Email varchar(100) MASKED WITH (function = 'email()'),
Age int MASKED WITH (Function = 'default()'),
JoinDate date MASKED WITH (Function = 'default()'),
LeaveDays int MASKED WITH (FUNCTION = 'random(1,5)')
Let us insert a few records into the table from the following script.
INSERT INTO EmployeeData
(FirstName, LastName, Email,Age,JoinDate,LeaveDays)
VALUES
('Dinesh','Asanka','[email protected]',35,'2020-01-01',12),
('Saman','Perera','[email protected]',45,'2020-01-01',1),
('Julian','Soman','[email protected]',37,'2019-11-01',1),
('Telishia','Mathewsa','[email protected]',51,'2018-01-01',6)

Following is the dataset that was inserted from the above script.

Let us create a user to demonstrate data masking which has the SELECT permissions to the created data.

CREATE USER MaskUser WITHOUT Login;

GRANT SELECT ON EmployeeData TO MaskUser
Please note that the above user is created in order to demonstrate the masking feature.
Let us query the data with the above user.
EXECUTE AS User= 'MaskUser';
SELECT * FROM EmployeeData
REVERT

The following is the output as you can see that data is masked.

When you need to provide the UNMASK permissions to the above user.
GRANT UNMASK TO MaskUser

Then the user will be able to view the data. You cannot grant column level UNMASK permissions to the users. If you
want to hide the data, then you can grant DENY permissions for the relevant column for the user. However, there
are no special permissions needed to create masked columns. You only need the CREATE TABLE permissions and
ALTER column permission to create or alter mask column.

Further, if you want to find out what are the masked columns in the database, you can use the following script.
SELECT OBJECT_NAME(OBJECT_ID) TableName,
Name ,
is_masked,
masking_function
FROM sys.masked_columns

It will have the following output.

Why, when and how to rebuild and reorganize SQL Server indexes?
The purpose of the SQL Server index is pretty much the same as in its distant relative – the book index – it allows you
to get to the information quickly, but instead of navigating through the book, it indexes a SQL Server database.

SQL Server indexes are created on a column level in both tables and views. Its aim is to provide a “quick to locate”
data based on the values within indexed columns. If an index is created on the primary key, whenever a search for a
row of data based on one of the primary key values is performed, the SQL Server will locate searched value in the
index, and then use that index to locate the entire row of data. This means that the SQL Server does not have to
perform a full table scan when searching for a particular row, which is much more performance intensive task –
consuming more time and using more SQL Server resources.

Relational indexes can be created even before there is data in the specified table, or even on tables and views in
another database.

CREATE INDEX MyIndex ON MyTable (Column1);

After indexes are created, they will undergo automatic maintenance by the SQL Server Database Engine whenever
insert, update or delete operations are executed on the underlying data.

Even so, these automatic modifications will continuously scatter the information in the index throughout the
database – fragmenting the index over time. The result – indexes now have pages where logical ordering (based on
the key-value) differs from the physical ordering inside the data file. This means that there is a high percentage of
free space on the index pages and that SQL Server has to read a higher number of pages when scanning each index.
Also, ordering of pages that belong to the same index gets scrambled and this adds more work to the SQL Server
when reading an index – especially in IO terms.

The Index fragmentation impact on the SQL Server can range from decreased efficiency of queries – for Servers with
low-performance impact, all the way to the point where SQL Server completely stops using indexes and resorts to
the last-straw solution – full table scans for each and every query. As mentioned before, full table scans will
drastically impact SQL Server performance and this is the final alarm to remedy index fragmentation on the SQL
Server.

The solution to fragmented indexes is to rebuild or reorganize indexes. But, before considering maintenance of
indexes, it is important to answer two main questions:

1. What is the degree of fragmentation?

2. What is the appropriate action? Reorganize or rebuild?

Detecting fragmentation

Generally, in order to solve any problem, it is essential to first and foremost locate it, and isolate the affected area
before applying the correct remedy.

Fragmentation can be easily detected by running the system function sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats which returns
the size and the fragmentation information for the data and indexes of tables or views in SQL Server. It can be run
only against a specific index in the table or view, all indexes in the specific table or view, or vs. all indexes in all
databases:
The results returned after running the procedures include following information:

 avg_fragmentation_in_percent – average percent of incorrect pages in the index

 fragment_count – number of fragments in index
 avg_fragment_size_in_pages – average number of pages in one fragment in an index

Analyzing detection results

After the fragmentation has been detected, the next step is to determine its impact on the SQL Server and if any
course of action needs to be taken.
There is no exact information on the minimal amount of fragmentation that affects the SQL Server in a specific way
to cause performance congestion, especially since the SQL Server environments greatly vary from one system to
another.
However, there is a generally accepted solution based on the percent of fragmentation
(avg_fragmentation_in_percent column from the previously described sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats function)
Fragmentation is less than 10% – no de-fragmentation is required. It is generally accepted that in majority of
environments index fragmentation less than 10% in negligible and its performance impact on the SQL Server is
minimal.
Fragmentation is between 10-30% – it is suggested to perform index reorganization

 Fragmentation is higher than 30% – it is suggested to perform index rebuild

Here is the reasoning behind the thresholds above which will help you to determine if you should perform index
rebuild or index reorganization:

Index reorganization is a process where the SQL Server goes through the existing index and cleans it up. Index
rebuild is a heavy-duty process where an index is deleted and then recreated from scratch with an entirely new
structure, free from all piled up fragments and empty-space pages.

While index reorganization is a pure cleanup operation that leaves the system state as it is without locking-out
affected tables and views, the rebuild process locks the affected table for the whole rebuild period, which may result
in long down-times that could not be acceptable in some environments.

With this in mind, it is clear that the index rebuild is a process with a ‘stronger’ solution, but it comes with a price –
possible long locks on affected indexed tables.
On the other side, index reorganization is a ‘lightweight’ process that will solve the fragmentation in a less effective
way – since cleaned index will always be second to the new one fully made from scratch. But reorganizing index is
much better from the efficiency standpoint since it does not lock the affected indexed table during the course of
operation.
Servers with regular maintenance periods (e.g. regular maintenance over weekend) should almost always opt for the
index rebuild, regardless of the fragmentation percent, since these environments will hardly be affected by the table
lock-outs imposed by index rebuilds due to regular and long maintenance periods.

How to reorganize and rebuild index: Using SQL Server Management Studio:

1. In the Object Explorer pane navigate to and expand the SQL Server, and then the Databases node
2. Expand the specific database with fragmented index
3. Expand the Tables node, and the table with fragmented index
4. Expand the specific table
5. Expand the Indexes node
6. Right-click on the fragmented index and select Rebuild or Reorganize option in the context menu (depending on the
desired action):

7. Click the OK button and wait for the process to complete

Reorganize indexes in a table using Transact-SQL

Provide appropriate database and table details and execute following code in SQL Server Management Studio to
reorganize all indexes on a specific table:
USE MyDatabase;
GO

ALTER INDEX ALL ON MyTable REORGANIZE;

GO
Rebuild indexes in a table using Transact-SQL
Provide appropriate database and table details and execute following code in SQL Server Management Studio to
rebuild all indexes on a specific table:
USE MyDatabase;
GO
ALTER INDEX ALL ON MyTable REBUILD;
GO
SQL Server Statistics and how to perform Update Statistics in SQL
SQL Server statistics are essential for the query optimizer to prepare an optimized and cost-effective execution plan.
These statistics provide distribution of column values to the query optimizer, and it helps SQL Server to estimate the
number of rows (also known as cardinality). The query optimizer should be updated regularly. Improper statistics
might mislead query optimizer to choose costly operators such as index scan over index seek and it might cause high
CPU, memory and IO issues in SQL Server. We might also face blocking, deadlocks that eventually causes trouble to
the underlying queries, resources.

Options to view SQL Server statistics

We can view SQL Server statistics for an existing object using both SSMS and the T-SQL method.

SSMS to view SQL Server Statistics

Connect to a SQL Server instance in SSMS and expand the particular database. Expand the object ( for example,
HumanResources.Employee), and we can view all available statistics under the STATISTICS tab.

We can get details about any particular statistics as well. Right-click on the statistics and go to properties. It opens
the statistics properties and shows the statistics columns and last update date for the particular statistics.

Click on the Details, and it shows the distribution of values and the frequency of each distinct value occurrence
(histogram) for the specified object.
T-SQL to view SQL Server Statistics
We can use DMV sys.dm_db_stats_properties to view the properties of statistics for a specified object in the current
database.
Execute the following query to check the statistics for HumanResources.Employee table.
SELECT sp.stats_id,
name,
filter_definition,
last_updated,
rows,
rows_sampled,
steps,
unfiltered_rows,
modification_counter
FROM sys.stats AS stat
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_db_stats_properties(stat.object_id, stat.stats_id) AS sp
WHERE stat.object_id = OBJECT_ID('HumanResources.Employee');

 Stats_ID: It is the unique ID of the statistics object

 Name: It is the statistics name
 Last_updated: It is the date and time of the last statistics update
 Rows: It shows the total number of rows at the time of the last statistics update
 Rows_sampled: It gives the total number of sample rows for the statistics
 Unfiltered_rows: In the screenshot, you can see both rows_sampled and unfiltered_rows value the same
because we did not use any filter in the statistics
 Modification_counter: It is a vital column to look. We get the total number of modifications since the last
statistics update

The different methods to perform SQL Server update Statistics

SQL Server provides different methods at the database level to update SQL Server Statistics.
Right-click on the database and go to properties. In the database properties, we can view statistics options under the
Automatic tab.

Auto Create Statistics

SQL Server automatically creates statistics on the individual columns for the query predicate to improve the
cardinality estimate and prepare a cost-effective execution plan.
Auto Create Statistics name starts with _WA
Use the following query to identify statistics auto-created by SQL Server.
SELECT sp.stats_id,
name,
filter_definition,
last_updated,
rows,
rows_sampled,
steps,
unfiltered_rows,
modification_counter
FROM sys.stats AS stat
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_db_stats_properties(stat.object_id, stat.stats_id) AS sp
WHERE stat.object_id = OBJECT_ID('HumanResources.Employee')
and name like '_WA%';

 Auto-created SQL Server statistics are single column statistics

SQL Server creates auto statistics for the columns that do not have a histogram for the existing statistics object
Auto Create Incremental Statistics
Starting from SQL Server 2014, we have a new option Auto-Create Incremental Statistics. SQL Server requires
scanning the entire table for SQL Server update statistics, and it causes issues for the large tables. It is also valid for a
table with partitioning as well. We can use this feature to update only the partition that we require to update. By
default, Auto Create Incremental is disabled for individual databases. You can go through Introducing SQL Server
Incremental Statistics for Partitioned Tables to get more knowledge on incremental statistics.

Auto Update Statistics

We regularly perform DML operations such as insert, update, delete and such operations change the data
distribution or histogram value. Due to these operations, statistics might be out of date, and it might cause issues
with the query optimizer efficiency. By default, the SQL Server database has an option Auto Update Statistics true.
With this Auto Update Statistics option, query optimizer updates the SQL Server update statistics when the statistics
are out of date. SQL Server uses the following method to update statistics automatically.
SQL Server 2014 or before

Number of rows at the time of statistics creation Auto Update Statistics

<=500 Update statistics for every 500 modifications

>500 Update statistics for every 500 + 20 percent modifications

For the large tables, we require to update 20% of a row to auto-update the statistics. For example, a table with 1
million rows requires 20,000 rows updates. It might not be suitable for the query optimizer to generate an efficient
execution plan. SQL Server 2016 onwards, it uses dynamic statistics update threshold, and it adjusts automatically
according to the number of rows in the table.
Threshold = √((1000)*Current table cardinality)
For example, a table with one million rows we can use the formula to calculate the number of updates after which
SQL Server will automatically update statistics.
Threshold = √(1000*1000000) = 31622
SQL Server updates the statistics after the approx. 31622 modifications in the object.
Note: the database compatibility level should be 130 or above to use this dynamic threshold statistics calculations.

Auto Update Statistics Asynchronously

SQL Server uses synchronous mode to update the statistics. If query optimizer finds out of date statistics, it updates
the SQL Server Statistics first and then prepares the execution plan according to the recently updated statistics.
If we enable the Auto Update Statistics Asynchronously, SQL Server does not wait to update the statistics. Instead, it
executes the query with existing statistics and initiates update statistics requests’ in parallel. The next executed
query takes the benefit of the updated statistics. Since SQL Server does not wait for the updated statistics, we also
call it Asynchronous mode statistics.
Manually Update Statistics
In the previous section, we learned that SQL Server automatically updates the out-of-date statistics. We can also
manually update the statistics for improving the query execution plan and performance on a requirement basis. We
can use the UPDATE STATISTICS or Sp_Update stored procedure to update SQL Server statistics.
Let’s use the UPDATE STATISTICS command and its various options to update SQL Server statistics.
Example 1: SQL Server UPDATE STATISTICS for all statistics in an object
Execute the following query to update SQL Server Statistics on HumanResources.Employee table.
Update STATISTICS HumanResources.Employee

In the following screenshot, we can verify that all the stats get an update at the same time.

Example 2: SQL Server UPDATE STATISTICS for specific statistics

Let’s say we want to update SQL Server statistics for statistics IX_Employee_OrganizationNode. Execute the following
code.
Update STATISTICS HumanResources.Employee IX_Employee_OrganizationNode

It updates only specific statistics. In the following screenshot, we can verify this.

Example 3: SQL Server UPDATE STATISTICS with FULL Scan

We use FULL SCAN in the UPDATE STATISTICS to scan all rows of a table. In the previous examples, we did not specify
the FULL SCAN parameter. Therefore, SQL Server automatically decides whether it requires FULL SCAN or not.
The following query does a full scan and updates the statistics for specific statistics in the specified object.
Update STATISTICS HumanResources.Employee IX_Employee_OrganizationNode WITH FULLSCAN
We can also use the WITH SAMPLE 100 PERCENT clause instead of WITH FULLSCAN and both returns the same
result.
Update STATISTICS HumanResources.Employee IX_Employee_OrganizationNode WITH SAMPLE 100 PERCENT
Example 4: UPDATE STATISTICS with SAMPLE
We can use WITH SAMPLE CLAUSE to specify the percentage or number of rows for the query optimizer to update
statistics.

The following query specifies a 10 percent sample to update the statistics.

Update STATISTICS HumanResources.Employee IX_Employee_OrganizationNode WITH SAMPLE 10 PERCENT
The following query specifies 1000 rows sample to update the statistics.
Update STATISTICS HumanResources.Employee IX_Employee_OrganizationNode WITH SAMPLE 1000 ROWS
Note:

 We should not specify 0 PERCENT or 0 Rows to update the statistics because it just updates the statistics
object, but it does not contain statistics data
 We cannot use FULL SCAN and SAMPLE together
 We should use SAMPLE under specific requirements only. We might take less sample size, and it might not
be suitable for the query optimizer to choose the appropriate plan
 We should not disable the auto-update statistics even we are regularly updating the SQL Server Statistics.
Auto Update Statistics allows SQL Server to automatically update stats according to the predefined threshold
 Updating statistics with FULL SCAN might take longer for an extensive data set object. We should plan it and
do it off business hours

We usually perform database maintenance such as index rebuild or index reorganize. SQL Server automatically
updates the statistics after the index rebuild. It is equivalent to update statistics with FULL SCAN however; it does not
update the column statistics. We should update column statistics after index rebuild as well. We can use the
following queries to do the task for all statistics on a specified object.

Update STATISTICS HumanResources.Employee WITH FULLSCAN, COLUMNS

SQL Server does not update statistics with the index reorganize activity. We should manually update the statistics, if
required or need to rely on the automatically updated statistics.

Updating All Statistics with sp_updatestats

We can update use sp_updatestats to update all statistics in the database. It does through each object statistics and
performs the required update. For the large databases, it might take unnecessary longer time and system resources
as well because it performs a check on each statistic on the object.
If the update is not required, we get the following message.
0 index(es)/statistic(s) have been updated, 1 did not require update.
If it updates the statistics, we get the following message.
1 index(es)/statistic(s) have been updated.
exec sp_updatestats

Update STATISTICS using SQL Server Maintenance Plan:

We can configure a SQL Server maintenance plan to update the statistics regularly. Connect to SQL Server instance in
SSMS. Right-click on the Maintenance Plans and go to Maintenance Plan Wizard.

Select the Update Statistics maintenance task from the list of tasks.
Click Next, and you can define the Update Statistics task.
In this page, we can select the database (specific database or all databases), objects (specific or all objects). We can
also specify to update all, column or index statistics only.
We can further choose the scan type as a Full Scan or sample by. In the Sample by, we need to specify the sample
percentage or sample rows as well.

CMDB (configuration management database):

A configuration management database (CMDB) is a file -- usually, in the form of a standardized database -- that
contains all relevant information about the hardware and software components used in an organization's IT
(information technology) services and the relationships between those components. A CMDB provides an organized
view of configuration data and a means of examining that data from any desired perspective.

How CMDBs work and why they're important

As IT infrastructure becomes more complex, the importance of tracking and understanding the information within
the IT environment increases. The use of CMDBs is a best practice for IT leaders who need to identify and verify each
component of their infrastructure to better manage and improve it.
Within the context of a CMDB, components of an information system are referred to as configuration items (CIs). A
CI can be any conceivable IT component, including software, hardware, documentation and personnel, as well as the
way in which each CI is configured, and any relationship or dependencies among them. The processes
of configuration management seek to specify, control and track CIs and any changes made to them in a
comprehensive and systematic fashion.

CMDBs capture attributes of the CIs, including CI importance, CI ownership and CI identification code. A CMDB also
provides details about the relationships (dependencies) between CIs, which is a powerful tool if used correctly. As a
business enters more CIs into the system, the CMDB becomes a stronger resource to predict changes within the
organization. For example, if an outage occurs, IT can understand through the CI data who or which systems will be
affected.

Advantages of using a CMDB

CMDBs provide a centralized view of IT data, which, in turn, offers IT leaders more control over their infrastructure.
A CMDB user can visualize each individual IT infrastructure component -- for example, a storage device or an
application running on a Server -- which prevents administrative and management errors, helps to ensure regulatory
and process compliance, and increases security. CMDBs can also enable IT leaders to spot ways to save within the
organization by eliminating unnecessary or redundant IT resources and their associated costs.

Another benefit of a CMDB is the ability to integrate data from another vendor's software, reconcile that data,
identify any inconsistences within the database and then ensure all data is synchronized. A CMDB system can also
integrate other configuration-related processes, such as change management and incident management, to better
manage the IT environment.

Challenges of using a CMDB

A CMDB can also present a number of challenges. A particularly difficult issue is organizational in nature: to convince
the business of the benefits of a CMDB and then to use the system properly once it is implemented.

Once implemented, an initial challenge is to import all relevant data into the CMDB. This can be a tedious task, as
admins must input a wealth of information about each IT asset, including financial information, upgrade history and
performance profile. Modern CMDB tools offer enhanced discovery capabilities, allowing the tool to find and profile
CIs automatically. However, this data doesn't always come from the same source. In theory, a process called data
federation brings together data from disparate locations to prevent IT from replacing or eliminating other data
systems. In practice, data is dispersed across sources that are not well integrated, which prevents IT managers from
federating data.
Over time, IT must maintain and update the CMDB's data. It's common for a CMDB to fail because IT does not
update the information and, therefore, it becomes stale and unusable.

Evolution of the CMDB

Essentially, a CMDB is a single source of truth of configuration information for IT assets, so they can be managed in
order to deliver services. Visibility and monitoring of assets and dependencies can help smooth upgrades and
deployment of new services -- for example, to identify which Servers run an older OS (operating system) version, and
how patches might alter security and performance. Organizations can track and enforce CMDB information over
time, which improves security and compliance and reduces risks. CMDBs also have played a central role in
automated failover and disaster recovery.

Recently the term configuration management to reflect the increased use of software-based configurations and
interactions: scripting the configuration of a software stack, container management and Kubernetes, automation
down to the code level, and cloud resources and provisioning. The DevOps universe of technologies and practices --
containers, microservices, infrastructure as code (IaC), source control, package management and release automation
-- has changed what it means to map and track assets' configurations and dependencies. Machine learning (ML) and
AI promise to more quickly and accurately predict the impact of undesirable results from configuration changes and
their propagation

How do you trace the traffic hitting a SQL Server?

SQL profiler is the SQL Server utility you can use to trace the traffic on the SQL Server instance. Traces can be filtered
to narrow down the transactions that are captured and reducing the overhead incurred for the trace. The trace files
can be searched, saved off, and even replayed to facilitate troubleshooting.

Why would you use SQL Agent?

SQL Agent is the job scheduling mechanism in SQL Server. Jobs can be scheduled to run at a set time or when a
specific event occurs. Jobs can also be executed on demand. SQL Agent is most often used to schedule
administrative jobs such as backups.

What happens at the checkpoint?

Checkpoints, whether scheduled or manually executed, cause the transaction log to be truncated up to the
beginning of the oldest open transaction (the active portion of the log). That is, the dirty pages from the buffer cache
are written to disk. Storing committed transactions in the cache provides a performance gain for SQL Server.
However, you do not want the transaction log to get too big because it might consume too many resources and,
should your database fail, take too long to process to recover the database.

One important thing to note here is that SQL Server can only truncate up to the oldest open transaction. Therefore,
if you are not seeing the expected relief from a checkpoint, it could very well be that someone forgot to commit or
roll back their transaction. It is very important to finalize all transactions as soon as possible.

Why would you call Update Statistics?

Update Statistics is used to force a recalculation of query optimization statistics for a table or indexed view. Query
optimization statistics are automatically recomputed, but in some cases, a query may benefit from updating those
statistics more frequently.

Beware though that re-computing the query statistics causes queries to be recompiled. This may or may not negate
all performance gains you might have achieved by calling update statistics. In fact, it could have a negative impact on
performance depending on the characteristics of the system.

How do you troubleshoot errors in a SQL Server Agent Job?

Inside SSMS, in Object Explorer under SQL Server Agent look for Job Activity Monitor. The job activity monitor
displays the current status of all the jobs on the instance. Choose a particular job that failed, right-click, and choose
view history from the drop-down menu.

The execution history of the job is displayed and you may choose the execution time (if the job failed multiple times
during the same day). There would information such as the time it took to execute that Job and details about the
error that occurred.

Does Transparent Data Encryption provide encryption when transmitting data across the network?
No, Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) does not encrypt the data during transfer over a communication channel.

Why is SHRINKFILE / SHRINKDB / AUTOSHRINK not preferable?

Slow operation: All pointers, being moved to/from the page/rows, have to be fixed and the SHRINKFILE operation is
single-threaded, so it can be really slow (the single-threaded nature of SHRINKFILE is not going to change any time
soon)

Recommendations: First, use TRUNCATEONLY to shrink the file. It removes the inactive part of the log and then
performs the shrink operation.
Rebuild/reorganize indexes once the shrink is done so that the fragmentation level is decreased.

What are the different backups available in SQL Server?

1. Full backup
2. Differential Backup
3. Transactional Log Backup
4. Copy Only Backup
5. File and Filegroup backup

When is the UPDATE_STATISTICS command used?

As the name implies UPDATE_STATISTICS command updates the statistics used by the index to make the search
easier.

What are the advantages of the Mirroring?

1. It is more robust and efficient than Log shipping.
2. It has an automatic failover mechanism.
3. The secondary Server is synced with the primary in near real-time.

What are the advantages of Log shipping?

1. Easy to set up.
2. The secondary database can be used as a read-only purpose.
3. Multiple secondary standby Servers are possible
4. Low maintenance.

Can we take the full database backup in Log shipping?

Yes, we can take the full database backup. It won’t affect the log shipping.

What is an execution plan?

An execution plan is a graphical or textual way of showing how the SQL Server breaks down a query to get the
required result. It helps a user to determine why queries are taking more time to execute and based on the
investigation user can update their queries for the maximum result.
Query Analyzer has an option, called “Show Execution Plan” (located on the Query drop-down menu). If this option is
turned on, it will display a query execution plan in a separate window when the query is run again.

List the advantages of using Stored Procedures?

1. Stored procedure boosts application performance.
2. Stored procedure execution plans can be reused as they cached in SQL Server’s memory which reduces
Server overhead.
3. They can be reused.
4. It can encapsulate logic. You can change the stored procedure code without affecting clients.
5. They provide better security for your data.

What are the common performance issues in SQL Server?

1. Deadlocks
2. Blocking
3. Missing and unused indexes.
4. I/O bottlenecks
5. Poor Query plans
6. Fragmentation

What is a performance monitor?

What are a Scheduled Jobs?

The scheduled job allows a user to run the scripts or SQL commands automatically on a scheduled basis. The user
can determine the order in which command executes and the best time to run the job to avoid the load on the
system.

What is a Trigger and types of a trigger?

The trigger allows us to execute a batch of SQL code when table event occurs (INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE command
executed against a specific table). Triggers are stored in and managed by DBMS. It can also execute a stored
procedure.
3 types of triggers that are available in the SQL Server are as follows:
 DML Triggers: DML or Data Manipulation Language triggers are invoked whenever any of the DML
commands like INSERT, DELETE or UPDATE happens on the table or the view.
 DDL Triggers: DDL or Data Definition Language triggers are invoked whenever any changes occur in the
definition of any of the database objects instead of actual data. These are very helpful to control the
production and development of database environments.
 Logon Triggers: These are very special triggers that fire in case of the logon event of the SQL Server. This is
fired before the setup of a user session in the SQL Server.

What is Collation?
Collation refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared. Character data is sorted using
rules that define the correct character sequence, with options for specifying case-sensitivity, accent marks, kana
character types, and character width.

Which is the latest version of SQL Server and when it is released?

SQL Server 2019 is the latest version of SQL Server that is available in the market and Microsoft launched this on
November 4th, 2019 with the support of the Linux O/S.
Which TCL Commands are available on the SQL Server?
There are 3 TCL Commands in the SQL Server. These are as follows:
Commit: This command is used to save the transaction permanently in the database.
Rollback: This is used to roll back the changes that are done i.e. to restore the database in the last committed state.
Save Tran: This is used for saving the transaction to provide the convenience that the transaction can be rolled back
to the point wherever required.

Why is replication required on the SQL Server?

Replication is the mechanism that is used to synchronize the data among the multiple Servers with the help of a
replica set. This is mainly used to increase the capacity of reading and to provide an option to its users to select
among various Servers to perform the read/write operations.

How to Configure MS SQL Server Replication: Complete Walkthrough

SQL Server Replication Architecture – SQL Server Entities/Components
1. Article
2. Publication
3. Publisher
4. Distributor
5. Highlights
6. Subscriber
7. Subscriptions
SQL Server Replication Architecture – SQL Server Replication Agents
1. Snapshot Agent
2. Distribution Agent
3. Log Reader Agent
4. Merge Agent
5. Queue Reader Agent
SQL Server Replication Architecture – SQL Server Replication Types
1. Snapshot Replication
2. Transactional Replication
3. Merge Replication

What are the Benefits of SQL Server Replication?

1. It improves performance and reduces locking conflicts among users while they are working from different
locations.
2. It improves the availability and easy to maintain as compared to other databases.
3. It allows the site to work independently. Each site can set up its own rules and procedures to work with its
own copy of the data.
4. It helps to move data closer to the user.
5. In SQL Server 2005, replication was performed to introduce the custom business logic into the
synchronization process. It allows web synchronization options to replicate data over the HTTP. In SQL Server
2005, replication had to be stopped to perform some actions like adding nodes, performing schema changes,
etc. The SQL Server 2008 allows performing all these actions online. In SQL Server 2012, replication features
were stronger and improved over time.

SQL Server Replication Architecture – SQL Server Entities/Components

SQL Server Replication is based on the “Publish & Subscribe” metaphor. Let us discuss each SQL entity or SQL
component in detail below.

Article
An article is the basic unit of SQL Server consisting of tables, views, and stored procedures. With a filter option, the
article in the SQL replication process can be scaled either vertically or horizontally. It is possible to create multiple
articles on the same object with certain limitations or restrictions.
With the help of the New Publication Wizard, you can navigate the properties of an article and set permissions when
needed. You can set permissions at the time of publication as well, and these are read-only permissions only.

SELECT
Pub.[publication] [PublicationName]
,Art.[publisher_db] [DatabaseName]
,Art.[article] [Article Name]
,Art.[source_owner] [Schema]
,Art.[source_object] [Object]
FROM
[distribution].[dbo].[MSarticles] Art
INNER JOIN [distribution].[dbo].[MSpublications] Pub
ON Art.[publication_id] = Pub.[publication_id]
ORDER BY
Pub.[publication], Art.[article]
Once the article has been created successfully and you want to change some properties, then a new replication
snapshot should be generated. If the article has one or more subscriptions, then all of them should be reinitialized
independently. To list all the articles in SQL Server publication, you can use the following commands.
Read: SSRS Sub Reports and deployment process-How to do it
Publication: A publication is the logical collection of articles within a database. It allows us to define and configure
articles’ properties at a higher level so that they can be inherited from to other articles in the group. An article
cannot be distributed independently, but it needs publication.
EXEC sp_helppublication;

Publisher: This is the source database where SQL replication starts and makes data available for the replication.
Publishers define what they publish through a publication. A publisher can have one or more publications where
each publisher defines a data propagation mechanism by creating multiple replications stored procedures together.
USE Distribution
GO
select * from MSpublications

Distributor: A distributor is a storehouse for replication data associated with one or more publishers. In a few cases,
it acts as the publisher and distributor both. In the case of SQL Server replication, it can be termed as the local
distributor. If it is distributed on a different Server, then it is termed as the remote distributor. Each publisher is
associated with a distribution database and a distributor.

The distribution database identifies and stores the SQL replication status data, publication metadata and acts as a
queue sometimes to move the data from Publisher to Subscribers. Based on the replication model, the distributor is
responsible for notifying Subscriber that the user has subscribed to a publication and article properties are changed.
Also, distribution databases help to maintain data integrity. Each distributor should have a distribution database
consisting of article details, replication metadata, and the data. One distributor can have multiple distribution
databases. However, all publications defined on a single Publisher should use the same distribution database.

Here is the command to check whether a database is a distributor or not.

SELECT @@ServerName Servername, case when is_distributor=1 then 'Yes' else 'No' end status FROM sys.Servers
WHERE name='repl_distributor' AND data_source=@@Servername;

Here is the command to check either a distribution database is installed or not.

SELECT name FROM sys.databases WHERE is_distributor = 1
Here is the command to check either a publisher is using Distributor or not.

EXEC sp_get_distributor

Highlights
1. The Distributor acts as the mediator between a Publisher and the Subscriber.
2. It receives snapshots or published transactions and stores or forwards these publications to Subscribers.
3. It includes a set of 6 system databases including Distribution Database.

Subscriber
This is the destination database where replication ends. A subscriber can subscribe to multiple publications from
multiple publishers. A subscriber can send back the data to the publisher and publish data to other subscribers based
on the replication model and the design.

EXEC sp_helpsubscriberinfo;
Subscriptions
Pull Subscriptions Push Subscriptions
This subscription is created at the Subscriber Server. This subscription is created at the Publisher Server.
In this subscription, the publisher is
In this subscription, the subscriber initiates the replication
responsible for updating all changes to the
instead of a publisher.
subscriber.

Snapshot Agent
1. It is an executable file that helps in preparing snapshot files that contain schema and published table data
and database objects.
2. It usually stores data in the snapshot folder and records the synchronized jobs in a distributed database.
3. Distribution Agent
4. It is mainly used with transactional and snapshot replication.
5. It applies the snapshot to the subscriber and moves transactions from the distribution database to
subscribers.
6. It runs at the distributor to push subscriptions, or it runs at the Subscriber to pull subscriptions.
7. Log Reader Agent
8. It is used with the transactional replication that moves transactions that you want to replicate from the
transaction log on the publisher and the distributed database.
9. Each database has its person Log Reader Agent that runs on the distributor and is able to connect with the
Publisher.

Merge Agent
1. It is used with the snapshot file at the beginner level and transfers incremental data changes that happen.
2. Each merge subscription has a personal Merge Agent that could connect with both Publisher and the
Subscriber.
3. It can capture changes with the help of triggers.
Queue Reader Agent
1. It is used with transactional replication along with the queued update option.
2. It runs at the Distributor and moves changes made at the Subscriber back to the Publisher.
3. In the case of Queue Reader Agent, only one instance exists to service all publications and publishers for an
assigned distribution database.
Snapshot Replication
1. The snapshot replication is used to provide an initial set of database objects for merge or transaction
publications.
2. It can copy and distribute database objects in the same manner as they appear at the current moment.
3. It is used to give an initial set of data for merge and transactional replication.
4. It is used when data scenarios and data refreshes are appropriate.
5. It is used when data is not changing frequently.
6. It is used to replicate a small amount of the data.
7. It is used to replicate lookup tables that don’t change frequently.
8. It keeps data copies of data for a certain time as mentioned by developers.
9. For example, if there is one product Company that is changing the price of its whole products frequently
once or twice a year, replicating the complete snapshot of data, in this case, is highly recommended.

How does snapshot replication work?

1. The snapshot agent maintains a connection from the distributor to the publisher and creates fresh snapshots
into the snapshot folder by placing locks.
2. In the next step, the snapshot agent writes a copy of the table schema to each of the articles.
3. It copies data from the published table and writes data to the snapshot folder in the form of the .bcp file.
4. Append rows and release locks on published tables.
5. In simple words, snapshot replication behaves the same way as the name suggests. The publisher simply
takes the snapshot of the entire database and shares it with subscribers change. This is basically a resource-
intensive process and doesn’t use by administrators frequently for databases that frequently. It is mostly
used in two scenarios:
6. First, it is used for databases that change rarely.
7. Secondly, it acts as the baseline to establish replication among systems while future updates can be
propagated using merge or transactional replication.

Transactional Replication
SQL Server Transactional replication offers a more flexible solution for databases that change frequently. Here, the
replication agent monitors the publisher for database changes and transmit those changes to the subscribers. You
can schedule these transmissions in a transactional replication either periodically or regularly.
Merge Replication
This replication allows publishers and subscribers to make changes to the database individually. It is possible to work
together for both entities without any network connection. When they have connected again, the merge replication
agent checks both entities for changes and modifies the database accordingly.
If there are some conflicts in changes, then the agent uses one predefined conflict resolution algorithm to check on
the appropriate data. This type of replication is mainly used by laptop users and others who are not continually
connected to the publisher.

Each of the replication types has its own benefits and needs. They are suitable for different database scenarios. You
can choose any one of them based on your replication needs. It is clear at this point that the SQL Server replication
process offers database administrator a powerful tool for managing or scaling databases in an enterprise
environment.

Where SQL Server Replication goes Wrong?

Think for a while if there are five active subscribers who are allowed to make changes to database copies and send
the same to the publisher. Subscriber A makes some changes and forwards the same to the publisher. Publisher will
update changes to the database, and same changes are reflected by other subscribers as well B, C, D, and E. In the
meantime, other subscribers are also making their own changes and sending transactions to the publisher.

For a complex or bust database application, it will create traffic immediately even if your network links are up to the
date. You are exponentially increasing the workload on each SQL Server, and each Server system must keep changes
and maintain the same on other Servers too. At the same time, the publisher is also consolidating changes.

Query plans and optimization:

The SQL Query Optimizer employs many techniques to create an optimal execution plan

1 – Selectivity
We can define selectivity as: The degree to which one value can be differentiated within a wider group of similar
values. For instance, when Mario Zagalo was a coach of Brazilian soccer team, one of his hardest jobs was select the
players for each match. Brazil is a huge country and, as you probably know, we have a lot of very good players. So,
the selectivity of good players in Brazil is very low, because there are a lot of them. If I ask to you to select just
players who would make good attackers, you would probably return to me with a lot of guys, and returning with
many players lowers the selectivity.
In database terms, suppose we have a table called Internationally_Renown_Players with a column called Country. If
we write:
SELECT * FROM Internationally_Renown_Players WHERE Country= 'Brazil'
… then we can say that this query is not very selective, because many rows will be returned (Update: Sadly, this
didn’t help us in the 2010 World Cup). However, if we write:
SELECT * FROM Internationally_Renown_Players WHERE Location = 'Tuvalu'
… then this query will be very selective, because it will return very few rows (I know if they have a soccer team, but
they have yet to really make a name for themselves.)
Another good (and broader interest) example would be to have a table called Customers, with columns for Gender
and, say, Passport_Number. The selectivity of the Gender column is very low because we can’t do much filtering with
just the F or M values, and so many rows will be returned by any query using it. by contrast, a query filtering with the
Passport_Number column will always return just one row, and so the selectivity of that column is very high.

Why You Should Know This

The Query Optimizer use Selectivity information to create the execution plans, and can decide on an optimal
execution plan based on the selectivity of a given column. It is also clearly good practice is create your indexes on the
columns with a highest selectivity level. That means it is better to create a index on a Name column than a Gender
column. It is also better create a composite index in a order to make use of the most selective column first, and thus
increase the chances that the SQL Server will actually use that index.

2. Density:
The term “density” comes from physics, and is calculated by the dividing the mass of a substance by the volume it
occupies, as represented mathematically below.
Where D = Density, M = Mass and V = Volume.
The explanation can be stretched, as is the case with “Geographic Density” (something we’ve become used to
hearing and understanding); For example, the geographic density of Brazil is calculated by dividing the number of
habitants (or the ‘mass’) by the size of the geographic area (the ‘volume’, which is 187,000,000 people divided by
8,514,215.3 km2, which gives us 21.96 habitants per km2. In SQL Server, we can interpret this as:
The more dense a column is, more rows that column returns for a given query.
Take note that is exactly the opposite of selectivity, for which a higher value means less rows. To calculate the
density of a column, you can run the following query:
SELECT (1.0 / COUNT(DISTINCT <ColumnName>)) FROM <TableName>
… The larger a number that query returns, the more ‘dense’ your column is, and the more duplications it contains.
With this number, the QO can determine two important facts about the frequency of data of a column, and to
explain this better, let’s create an example table.
CREATE TABLE Test(Col1 INT)
GO
DECLARE @i INT
SET @I = 0
WHILE @i < 5000
BEGIN
INSERT INTO Test VALUES(@i)
INSERT INTO Test VALUES(@i)
INSERT INTO Test VALUES(@i)
INSERT INTO Test VALUES(@i)
INSERT INTO Test VALUES(@i)
SET @i = @i + 1
END
GO
CREATE STATISTICS Stat ON Test(Col1)
GO
As you can see, we have a table with 25,000 rows, and each value is duplicated across five rows; so the density is
calculated as 1.0 / 5000 = 0.0002. The first question we can answer that that information is: “How many unique
values do we have in the column ‘Col1’?” Just using the density information we can make the following, 1.0 / 0.0002
= 5000. The second question is: “What is the average number of duplication per value in the ‘Col1’ column?” Using
the density information we can calculate: 0.0002 * 25000 = 5 (Which is exactly the average of duplicated values in
this case).
Why You Should Know This
Using the table created above, let’s see where the SQL Server uses that information in practice. Take the following
query:
DECLARE @I INT
SET @I = 999999
SELECT *
FROM Test
WHERE Col1 = @I

The SQL Server will use the information about the average density to estimate how many rows will be returned (in
this case, 5 rows). We will see more about why the SQL uses the density information in the section 7.
Another example:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Test
GROUP BY Col1
In the first step, the Table Scan operator estimates that 25000 rows will be returned, and then after the Hash Mach
Operator applies the Group By, only 5000 rows will be returned. In that case, SQL Server uses the information about
how many unique rows are in the column.
The density information used to give the QO an impression of how many duplicated rows exist in a column, which
allows it to chose the optimal operator or join algorithm in an execution plan. In certain cases, the QO also uses
density information to guess how many rows will be returned by a query – look at section 5 for more details.

3. Cardinality:
This is used to measure the number of rows which satisfy one condition. For instance, imagine one table with 500
rows, and a query with “WHERE NAME = ‘Joao'” – the Optimizer goes to the statistics and reads from the histogram
that ‘Joao’ represents 5% of the table, so the cardinality is (5% x 500) = 25. In the execution plan, we can think of the
cardinality as the “estimated number of rows” displayed in the tool tips of each operator. I probably don’t need to
spell it out, but a bad estimation of cardinality can easily result in an inefficient plan.
Why you should know that

In my opinion, the cardinality of a column is one of the most important pieces of information to the creation of an
efficient execution plan. To create an execution plan, we really need to know (or at least be able to make a decent
estimate about) how many rows will be returned to each operator. For example, a join query which returns a lot of
rows would be better processed with a hash join; But if the QO doesn’t know about the cardinality, it can mistakenly
chose to use a Loop Join or, even worst, chose to order the key columns to make use of a merge join!

When is the Auto-Update to Statistics Triggered?

Every time a column which belongs to a statistic get a sufficient quantity of modifications, the SQL Server starts
‘Auto-Update Statistics’ to keep the data current. This works in this manner:
If the cardinality of a table is less than six and the table is in the tempdb database, auto update after every six
modifications to the table.
If the cardinality of a table is greater than 6, but less than or equal to 500, update statistics every 500 modifications.
If the cardinality of a table is greater than 500, update statistics when (500 + 20 percent of the table) changes have
occurred.
For table variables, a cardinality change does not trigger an auto-update of the statistics.

what can I do to know when an auto update has started?

There are many ways; Here are a few:
If the column rowmodctr was zero, that means an auto update statistics just run, or the table is empty.
In Profiler you can select the SP:StmtCompleted and SP:StmtStarting columns, and if an auto update statistics is
triggered you will see code which looks like:
SELECT StatMan([SC0])
FROM (
SELECT TOP 100 PERCENT <COLUMN> AS [SC0]
FROM [dbo].<TABLE> WITH (READUNCOMMITTED)
ORDER BY [SC0] ) AS _MS_UPDSTATS_TBL
You can enable the 205 trace flag, and then SQL Server will write that information into the error log.
The 8721 trace flag will write that information into the error log, too.
Why You Should Know This
The information about when and why the auto update statistics is triggered is all about SQL Server internals, and
that knowledge can make your maintenance jobs more accurate. Sometimes the auto update can take a huge
amount of time in the creation of the execution plan, so some problems can be avoided and fixed by analyzing this
point.

Slow-running query (Identifying, analyzing, solution)

Slow performance of a specific query or group of queries. If you are troubleshooting a performance issue, but you
have not isolated the problem to a specific query or small group of queries that perform slower than expected,
see Monitor and Tune for Performance before you continue.

Verify the Existence of the Correct Indexes

One of the first checks to perform when you are experiencing slow query execution times is an index analysis. If you
are investigating a single query, you can use the Analyze Query in Database Engine Tuning Advisor option in SQL
Query Analyzer; if you have a SQL Profiler trace of a large workload, you can use the Database Engine Tuning
Advisor. Both methods use the SQL Server query optimizer to determine which indexes would be helpful for the
specified queries. This is an efficient method for determining whether the correct indexes exist in your database.
For information about how to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor, see the "Start and Use the Database Engine
Tuning Advisor" topic in SQL Server Books Online.

If you have upgraded your application from a previous version of SQL Server, different indexes may be more efficient
in new SQL Server build because of optimizer and storage engine changes. The Database Engine Tuning Advisor helps
you to determine if a change in indexing strategy would improve performance.

Remove All Query, Table, and Join Hints

Hints override query optimization and can prevent the query optimizer from choosing the fastest execution plan.
Because of optimizer changes, hints that improved performance in earlier versions of SQL Server may have no effect
or may adversely affect performance in later SQL Server builds. Additionally, join hints can cause performance
degradation based on the following reasons:

Join hints prevent an ad hoc query from being eligible for auto-parameterization and caching of the query plan.
When you use a join hint, it implies that you want to force the join order for all tables in the query, even if those
joins do not explicitly use a hint.
If the query that you are analyzing includes any hints, remove them, and then reevaluate the performance.
Examine the Execution Plan
After you confirm that the correct indexes exist, and that no hints are restricting the optimizer's ability to generate
an efficient plan, you can examine the query execution plan. You can use any of the following methods to view the
execution plan for a query:

SQL Profiler:
Execution Plan event in SQL Profiler, it would occur immediately before the StmtCompleted event for the query for
the system process ID (SPID).
SQL Query Analyzer: Graphical Show plan
With the query selected in the query window, click the Query menu, and then click Display Estimated Execution Plan.
Note: If the stored procedure or batch creates and references temporary tables, you must use a SET STATISTICS
PROFILE ON statement or explicitly create the temporary tables before you display the execution plan.
SHOWPLAN_ALL and SHOWPLAN_TEXT
To receive a text version of the estimated execution plan, you can use the SET SHOWPLAN_ALL and
SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT options. See the SET SHOWPLAN_ALL (T-SQL) and SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT (T-SQL) topics in SQL
Server Books Online for more details.
Note

If the stored procedure or batch creates and references temporary tables, you must use the SET STATISTICS PROFILE
ON option or explicitly create the temporary tables before displaying the execution plan.
STATISTICS PROFILE
When you are displaying the estimated execution plan, either graphically or by using SHOWPLAN, the query is not
executed. Therefore, if you create temporary tables in a batch or a stored procedure, you cannot display the
estimated execution plans because the temporary tables will not exist. STATISTICS PROFILE executes the query first,
and then displays the actual execution plan. See the SET STATISTICS PROFILE (T-SQL) topic in SQL Server Books
Online for more details. When it is running in SQL Query Analyzer, this appears in graphical format on the Execution
Plan tab in the results pane.

Examine the Showplan Output

Showplan output provides much information about the execution plan that SQL Server is using for a particular query.
The following are some basic aspects of the execution plan that you can view to determine whether you are using
the best plan:

Correct Index Usage

The showplan output displays each table that is involved in the query and the access path that is used to obtain data
from it. With graphical showplan, move the pointer over a table to see the details for each table. If an index is in use,
you see Index Seek; if an index is not in use, you see either Table Scan for a heap or Clustered Index Scan for a table
that has a clustered index. Clustered Index Scan indicates that the table is being scanned through the clustered
index, not that the clustered index is being used to directly access individual rows.
If you determine that a useful index exists and it is not being used for the query, you can try forcing the index by
using an index hint. See the FROM (T-SQL) topic in SQL Server Books Online for more details about index hints.
Correct Join Order
The showplan output indicates in what order tables that are involved in a query are being joined. For nested loop
joins, the upper table that is listed is the outer table and it should be the smaller of the two tables. For hash joins,
the upper table becomes the build input and should also be the smaller of the two tables. However, note that the
order is less critical because the query processor can reverse build and probe inputs at run time if it finds that the
optimizer made a wrong decision. You can determine which table returns fewer rows by checking the Row Count
estimates in the showplan output.

Using a join hint in a large query implicitly forces the join order for the other tables in the query as if FORCEPLAN was
set.
Correct Join Type
SQL Server uses nested loop, hash, and merge joins. If a slow-performing query is using one join technique over
another, you can try forcing a different join type. For example, if a query is using a hash join, you can force a nested
loops join by using the LOOP join hint. See the "FROM (T-SQL)" topic in SQL Server Books Online for more details on
join hints.
Using a join hint in a large query implicitly forces the join type for the other tables in the query as if FORCEPLAN was
set.

Parallel Execution
If you are using a multiprocessor computer, you can also investigate whether a parallel plan is in use. If parallelism is
in use, you see a PARALLELISM (Gather Streams) event. If a particular query is slow when it is using a parallel plan,
you can try forcing a non-parallel plan by using the OPTION (MAXDOP 1) hint. See the "SELECT (T-SQL)" topic in SQL
Server Books Online for more details.

Data Modeling: Conceptual, Logical, Physical Data Model Types

Data modeling is a technique to document a software system using entity relationship diagrams (ER Diagram) which
is a representation of the data structures in a table for a company’s database. It is a very powerful expression of the
company’s business requirements. Data models are used for many purposes, from high-level conceptual models,
logical to physical data models and typically represented by the entity-relationship diagram. It serves as a guide used
by database analysts and software developers in the design and implementation of a system and the underlining
database.

What is Entity Relationship Diagram?

An Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a pictorial representation of the information that can be captured by a
database. Such a “picture” serves two purposes. It allows database professionals to describe an overall design
concisely yet accurately. An ER Diagram can be easily transformed into the relational schema. There are three
components in ERD: Entities, Attributes, and Relationships.
Entities
The number of tables you need for your database – Entities is the basic objects of ERDs. These are the tables of your
database, i.e. students, courses, books, campus, employees, payment, projects. A specific example of an entity is
called an instance. Each instance becomes a record or a row in a table.

Attributes
Information such as property, facts you need to describe each table – Attributes are facts or descriptions of entities.
They are also often nouns and become the columns of the table. For example, for entity students, the attributes can
be first name, last name, email, address, and phone numbers.

Primary Key Is An Attribute Or A Set Of Attributes That Uniquely Identifies An Instance Of The Entity. For Example,
For A Student Entity, Student Number Is The Primary Key Since No Two Students Have The Same Student Number.
We Can Have Only One Primary Key In A Table. It Identifies Uniquely Every Row And It Cannot Be Null.

Foreign Key Is A Key Used To Link Two Tables Together. Typically You Take The Primary Key Field From One Table
And Insert It Into The Other Table Where It Becomes A Foreign Key (It Remains A Primary Key In The Original Table).
We Can Have More Than One Foreign Key In A Table.

Relationships: How tables are linked together – Relationships are the associations between the entities. Verbs often
describe relationships between entities. We will use Crow’s Foot Symbols to represent the relationships. Three types
of relationships are discussed in this lab. If you read or hear cardinality ratios, it also refers to types of relationships.

Cardinality: it defines the possible number of occurrences in one entity which is associated with the number of
occurrences in another. For example, ONE team has MANY players. When present in an ERD, the entity Team and
Player are inter-connected with a one-to-many relationship.
In an ER diagram, cardinality is represented as a crow’s foot at the connector’s ends. The three common cardinal
relationships are one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. Here is some examples cardinality of relationship in
ERD:

ERD Example – Customer Appointment

Suppose we have the following business scenario:
One Customer May Be Making One Or More Appointments
One Appointment Must Be Made By One And Only One Customer
The Cardinality Linked From Customer To Appointments Is 0 To Many
The ERD above using the Crow’s Foot notation:
Entities Are Shown In A Box With Attributes Listed Below The Entity Name.
Relationships Are Shown As Solid Lines Between Two Entities.
The Minimum And Maximum Cardinalities Of The Relationship Linked Between Customer And Appointment Are
Shown With Either A Straight Line And Hash Marks, Or A Crow’s Foot As Shown In The Figure Below.
Data Model

The Data Model is defined as an abstract model that organizes data description, data semantics, and consistency
constraints of data. The data model emphasizes on what data is needed and how it should be organized instead of
what operations will be performed on data. Data Model is like an architect's building plan, which helps to build
conceptual models and set a relationship between data items.
The two types of Data Modeling Techniques are
1. Entity Relationship (E-R) Model
2. UML (Unified Modelling Language)
Why use Data Model?
Types of Data Models
Conceptual Data Model
Logical Data Model
Physical Data Model
Advantages and Disadvantages of Data Model

Why use Data Model?

The primary goal of using data model are:
1. Ensures that all data objects required by the database are accurately represented. Omission of data will lead
to creation of faulty reports and produce incorrect results.
2. A data model helps design the database at the conceptual, physical and logical levels.
3. Data Model structure helps to define the relational tables, primary and foreign keys and stored procedures.
4. It provides a clear picture of the base data and can be used by database developers to create a physical
database.
5. It is also helpful to identify missing and redundant data.
6. Though the initial creation of data model is labor and time consuming, in the long run, it makes your IT
infrastructure upgrade and maintenance cheaper and faster.

Types of Data Models: There are mainly three different types of data models: conceptual data models, logical data
models, and physical data models, and each one has a specific purpose. The data models are used to represent the
data and how it is stored in the database and to set the relationship between data items.

Conceptual Data Model: This Data Model defines WHAT the system contains. This model is typically created by
Business stakeholders and Data Architects. The purpose is to organize, scope and define business concepts and rules.
Logical Data Model: Defines HOW the system should be implemented regardless of the DBMS. This model is
typically created by Data Architects and Business Analysts. The purpose is to developed technical map of rules and
data structures.

Physical Data Model: This Data Model describes HOW the system will be implemented using a specific DBMS
system. This model is typically created by DBA and developers. The purpose is actual implementation of the
database.
Types of Data Model:
Conceptual Data Model
A Conceptual Data Model is an organized view of database concepts and their relationships. The purpose of creating
a conceptual data model is to establish entities, their attributes, and relationships. In this data modeling level, there
is hardly any detail available on the actual database structure. Business stakeholders and data architects typically
create a conceptual data model.
The 3 basic tenants of Conceptual Data Model are
 Entity: A real-world thing
 Attribute: Characteristics or properties of an entity
 Relationship: Dependency or association between two entities
Data model example:
Customer and Product are two entities. Customer number and name are attributes of the Customer entity
Product name and price are attributes of product entity
Sale is the relationship between the customer and product

Conceptual Data Model

Characteristics of a conceptual data model
Offers Organisation-wide coverage of the business concepts.
This type of Data Models are designed and developed for a business audience.
The conceptual model is developed independently of hardware specifications like data storage capacity, location or
software specifications like DBMS vendor and technology. The focus is to represent data as a user will see it in the
"real world."
Conceptual data models known as Domain models create a common vocabulary for all stakeholders by establishing
basic concepts and scope.

Logical Data Model

The Logical Data Model is used to define the structure of data elements and to set relationships between them. The
logical data model adds further information to the conceptual data model elements. The advantage of using a Logical
data model is to provide a foundation to form the base for the Physical model. However, the modeling structure
remains generic.

Logical Data Model

At this Data Modeling level, no primary or secondary key is defined. At this Data modeling level, you need to verify
and adjust the connector details that were set earlier for relationships.

Characteristics of a Logical data model

Describes data needs for a single project but could integrate with other logical data models based on the scope of
the project.
Designed and developed independently from the DBMS.
Data attributes will have datatypes with exact precisions and length.
Normalization processes to the model is applied typically till 3NF.

Physical Data Model

A Physical Data Model describes a database-specific implementation of the data model. It offers database
abstraction and helps generate the schema. This is because of the richness of meta-data offered by a Physical Data
Model. The physical data model also helps in visualizing database structure by replicating database column keys,
constraints, indexes, triggers, and other RDBMS features.

Characteristics of a physical data model:

1. The physical data model describes data need for a single project or application though it maybe integrated
with other physical data models based on project scope.
2. Data Model contains relationships between tables that which addresses cardinality and nullability of the
relationships.
3. Developed for a specific version of a DBMS, location, data storage or technology to be used in the project.
4. Columns should have exact datatypes, lengths assigned and default values.
5. Primary and Foreign keys, views, indexes, access profiles, and authorizations, etc. are defined.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Data Model:

Advantages of Data model:
1. The main goal of a designing data model is to make certain that data objects offered by the functional team
are represented accurately.
2. The data model should be detailed enough to be used for building the physical database.
3. The information in the data model can be used for defining the relationship between tables, primary and
foreign keys, and stored procedures.
4. Data Model helps business to communicate the within and across organizations.
5. Data model helps to documents data mappings in ETL process
6. Help to recognize correct sources of data to populate the model

Disadvantages of Data model:

1. To develop Data model one should know physical data stored characteristics.
2. This is a navigational system produces complex application development, management. Thus, it requires a
knowledge of the biographical truth.
3. Even smaller change made in structure require modification in the entire application.
4. There is no set data manipulation language in DBMS.

Conclusion
1. Data modeling is the process of developing data model for the data to be stored in a Database.
2. Data Models ensure consistency in naming conventions, default values, semantics, security while ensuring
quality of the data.
3. Data Model structure helps to define the relational tables, primary and foreign keys and stored procedures.
4. There are three types of conceptual, logical, and physical.
5. The main aim of conceptual model is to establish the entities, their attributes, and their relationships.
6. Logical data model defines the structure of the data elements and set the relationships between them.
7. A Physical Data Model describes the database specific implementation of the data model.
8. The main goal of a designing data model is to make certain that data objects offered by the functional team
are represented accurately.
9. The biggest drawback is that even smaller change made in structure require modification in the entire
application.

How many types of files are there in a SQL Server database?

1. Primary data files
2. Secondary data files
3. Transaction Log files

Explain each type of database files?

1. Primary data files
The primary data file is the starting point of the database and points to the other files in the database. Every
database has one primary data file. The recommended file name extension for primary data files is.mdf.
2. Secondary data files
Secondary data files make up all the data files, other than the primary data file. Some databases may not
have any secondary data files, while others have several secondary data files. The recommended file name
extension for secondary data files is .ndf.
3. Transaction Log file
This file holds all the log information that is used to recover the database. There must be at least one log file
for each database, although there can be more than one. The recommended file name extension for log files
is .ldf.
What is the major difference between Primary data files and secondary data files?
Primary data file contains system objects where as secondary data files contains all user defined Database objects if
these are not part of the Primary File group.
One of the important difference between Primary and Secondary data files is BOOT PAGE. Page Number 9 is the
boot page Page type 13). Boot page is available as 9th page only in the primary data file.

What is the default File Group in a database? Primary File group

Is it possible to add Transaction Log file in a file group?

Log files are never part of a filegroup. Log space is managed separately from data space.

What is the use of having multiple File Groups?

Below are the major benefits which can be achieved using multiple data files and placing these files in separate file
groups on separate disk drives.
 Disk I\O Performance
 Easy Management and Archiving of the data
 Benefit of doing File Group level Backups and restores
 Usage of File Groups in Portioning of the tables

What are the advantages and disadvantages over using filegroups?

Advantages:
Using filegroups, you can explicitly place database objects into a particular set of database files. For example, you
can separate tables and their nonclustered indexes into separate filegroups. This can improve performance, because
modifications to the table can be written to both the table and the index at the same time. This can be especially
useful if you are not using striping with parity (RAID-5).

Another advantage of filegroups is the ability to back up only a single filegroup at a time. This can be extremely
useful for a VLDB, because the sheer size of the database could make backing up an extremely time-consuming
process.

Yet another advantage is the ability to mark the filegroup and all data in the files that are part of it as either read-
only or read-write.
Disadvantages
The first is the administration that is involved in keeping track of the files in the filegroup and the database objects
that are placed in them.

The other is that if you are working with a smaller database and have RAID-5 implemented, you may not be
improving performance.
Is there any benefit to add multiple log files? Yes/No, Why?
No, there is no benefit of adding multiple log files in a database as the write operations in a Transaction log files are
always serial.

Will the below script work if yes, how?

Create database Test;
Yes, this script will work because rest of the parameters will be taken from model database and Files will be located
to the respective folders which are set at the SQL Server instance level.

What are the recommended settings for transaction Log File for file growth?
If you are required to set the setting for Auto growth of Transaction log file, it should always be in a specific size
instead of percentage.

What is a compatibility level of a database?

Compatibility level sets certain database behaviors to be compatible with the specified version of SQL Server. The
default compatibility level is 110. Databases created in SQL Server 2012 are set to this level unless
the model database has a lower compatibility level.

How to change the Compatibility level of a database?

ALTER DATABASE database_name
SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = { 90 | 100 | 110 }
‘90 = SQL Server 2005
100 = SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2
110 = SQL Server 2012

What’s the difference between database version and database compatibility level?
Database version
The database version is a number stamped in the boot page of a database that indicates the SQL Server version of
the most recent SQL Server instance the database was attached to.
USE master;
GO
SELECT DatabaseProperty ('dbccpagetest', 'version');
GO

Database compatibility level

The database compatibility level determines how certain database behaviors work. For instance, in 90 compatibility,
you need to use the OUTER JOIN syntax to do an outer join, whereas in earlier compatibility levels, you can use ‘*=’
and ‘=*’
SELECT name AS 'DB Name', compatibility_level AS 'Compatibility Level'
FROM master.sys.databases;
GO

What is a Page Verify option in a database?

When CHECKSUM is enabled for the PAGE_VERIFY database option, the SQL Server Database Engine calculates a
checksum over the contents of the whole page, and stores the value in the page header when a page is written to
disk. When the page is read from disk, the checksum is recomputed and compared to the checksum value that is
stored in the page header. This helps provide a high level of data-file integrity.
What are the different Database states in SQL Server instance?
State Definition
Database is available for access. The primary filegroup is online, although the undo phase
ONLINE
of recovery may not have been completed.
Database is unavailable. A database becomes offline by explicit user action and remains
offline until additional user action is taken. For example, the database may be taken offline
OFFLINE
in order to move a file to a new disk. The database is then brought back online after the
move has been completed.
One or more files of the primary filegroup are being restored, or one or more secondary
RESTORING
files are being restored offline. The database is unavailable.
Database is being recovered. The recovering process is a transient state; the database will
RECOVERING automatically become online if the recovery succeeds. If the recovery fails, the database
will become suspect. The database is unavailable.
SQL Server has encountered a resource-related error during recovery. The database is not
RECOVERY damaged, but files may be missing or system resource limitations may be preventing it
PENDING from starting. The database is unavailable. Additional action by the user is required to
resolve the error and let the recovery process be completed.
At least the primary filegroup is suspect and may be damaged. The database cannot be
SUSPECT recovered during startup of SQL Server. The database is unavailable. Additional action by
the user is required to resolve the problem.
User has changed the database and set the status to EMERGENCY. The database is in single-
user mode and may be repaired or restored. The database is marked READ_ONLY, logging is
disabled, and access is limited to members of the sysadmin fixed Server role. EMERGENCY
EMERGENCY is primarily used for troubleshooting purposes. For example, a database marked as suspect
can be set to the EMERGENCY state. This could permit the system administrator read-only
access to the database. Only members of the sysadmin fixed Server role can set a database
to the EMERGENCY state

What is auto close option?

AUTO CLOSE option:
When set to ON, the database is shut down cleanly and its resources are freed after the last user exits. The database
automatically reopens when a user tries to use the database again.
When set to OFF, the database remains open after the last user exits.

What is auto shrink option?

AUTO SHRINK option:
When set to ON, the database files are candidates for periodic shrinking. Both data file and log files can be shrunk
automatically by SQL Server. AUTO_SHRINK reduces the size of the transaction log only if the database is set to
SIMPLE recovery model or if the log is backed up.
When set to OFF, database files are not automatically shrunk during periodic checks for unused space.
SQL Server architectural diagram with all the components

Network Flow – SQL Server Architecture

These steps are defined as follows:
1. The user selects an option in a client application. This option calls a function in the client application that
generates a query that is sent to SQL Server. The application uses a database access library to send the query
in a way SQL Server can understand.
2. The database library transforms the original request into a sequence of one or more Transact-SQL
statements to be sent to SQL Server. These statements are encapsulated in one or more Tabular Data
Stream (TDS) packets and passed to the database network library to be transferred to the Server computer.
3. The database network library uses the network library available in the client computer to repackage the TDS
packets as network protocol packets.
4. The network protocol packets are sent to the Server computer network library across the network, where
they are unwrapped from their network protocol.
5. The extracted TDS packets are sent to Open Data Services (ODS), where the original query is extracted.
6. ODS sends the query to the relational engine, where the query is optimized and executed in collaboration
with the storage engine.
7. The relational engine creates a result set with the final data and sends it to ODS.
8. ODS builds one or more TDS packets to be sent to the client application, and sends them to the Server
database network library.
9. The Server database network library repackages the TDS packets as network protocol packets and sends
them across the network to the client computer.
10. The client computer receives the network protocol packets and forwards them to the network libraries
where the TDS packets are extracted.
11. The network library sends the TDS packets to the database access library, where these packets are
reassembled and exposed as a client result set to the client application.
12. The client application displays information contained in the result sets to the user.

Transaction log Architecture

Can you talk about “Transactionlog” Logical and Physical architecture?
Each log record is identified by a unique number called LSN (Log Sequence Number). A log record contains the LSN,
TransactionID to which it belongs and data modification record.
Data modification record: It’s either operation performed or before and after data image
When recorded “Operation Performed”
 Transaction committed – Logical Operation is permanently applied to the data
 Transaction rollback – Reverse Logical Operation is applied to the data.
 When Recorded “Before and After Data Image”
 Transaction committed – Applied the after transaction image
 Transaction rollback – Applied the before transaction image

Transactionlog Physical Architecture:

 The transaction log is used to guarantee the data integrity of the database and for data recovery.
 The SQL Server Database Engine divides each physical log file internally into a number of virtual log files.
Virtual log files have no fixed size, and there is no fixed number of virtual log files for a physical log file.
 The only time virtual log files affect system performance is if the log files are defined by small size and
growth_increment values. If these log files grow to a large size because of many small increments, they will
have lots of virtual log files. This can slow down database startup and also log backup and restore
operations.
Can you describe SQL Server Memory Architecture
 SQL Server dynamically acquires and frees memory as required. Typically, an administrator need not have to
specify how much memory should be allocated to SQL Server, although the option still exists and is required
in some environments.
 SQL Server supports Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) allowing use of physical memory over 4 gigabytes
(GB) on 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. This feature is deprecated from Dinali
2012.
 SQL Server tries to reach a balance between two goals:
 Keep the buffer pool from becoming so big that the entire system is low on memory.
 Minimize physical I/O to the database files by maximizing the size of the buffer pool.
Do you have any idea about Buffer Management?
A buffer is a 8kb size in memory. To reduce the I/O operations from database to disk buffer manager use the buffer
cache. BM gets the data from database to buffer cache and modifies the data and the modified page is sent back to
the disk

The buffer manager only performs reads and writes to the database. Other file and database operations such as
open, close, extend, and shrink are performed by the database manager and file manager components.

Query Processing Architecture:

I have submitted a Query to SQL Server from an Application and I got the reply as “data inserted successfully”. Can
you demonstrate what the processing done inside?

When you submit a query to a SQL Server database, a number of processes on the Server go to work on that query.
The purpose of all these processes is to manage the system such that it will provide your data back to you, or store
it, in as timely a manner as possible, whilst maintaining the integrity of the data.
All these processes go through two stages:
1. Relational Engine
2. Storage Engine

At Client:
 User enter data and click on submit
 The client database library transforms the original request into a sequence of one or more Transact-SQL
statements to be sent to SQL Server. These statements are encapsulated in one or more Tabular Data
Stream (TDS) packets and passed to the database network library
 The database network library uses the network library available in the client computer to repackage the TDS
packets as network protocol packets.
 The network protocol packets are sent to the Server computer network library across the network
 At Server:
 The extracted TDS packets are sent to Open Data Services (ODS), where the original query is extracted.
 ODS sends the query to the relational engine
 A connection established to the relational engine and assign a SID to the connection

At Relational Engine:
 Check permissions and determines if the query can be executed by the user associated with the request
 Query sends to Query Parser
 It checks that the T-SQL is written correctly
 Build a Parse Tree \ Sequence Tree
 Parse Tree sends to Algebrizer
 Verifies all the columns, objects and data types
 Aggregate Binding (determines the location of aggregates such as GROUP BY, and MAX)
 Builds a Query Processor Tree in Binary Format
 Query Processor Tree sends to Optimizer
 Based on the query processor tree and Histogram (Statistics) builds an optimized execution plan
 Stores the execution plan into cache and send it to the database engine

At Database Engine:
 Database engine map a batch into different tasks
 Each task associated with a process
 Each process assigned with a Windows Thread or a Windows Fiber. The worker thread takes care of this.
 The Thread/Fiber send to the execution queue and wait for the CPU time.
 The Thread/Fiber identifies the table location where the data need to be stored
 Go to the file header, checks the PFS, GAM and GSAM and go to the correct page
 Verifies the page is not corrupted using Torn page Detection / Check SUM and writes the data
 If require allocates new pages and stores data on it. Once the data is stored/updated/added in a page, it
updates the below locations
 Page Header – Checksum / Torn Page Detection (Sector info)
 In this process theMemory manager take care of allocating buffers, new pages etc,
 Lock manager take care of allocating appropriate locks on the objects/pages and releasing them when task
completed
 Thread Scheduler: schedules the threads for CPU time
 I/O manager: Establish memory bus for read/write operations from memory to disk and vice versa
 Deadlock\Resource\Scheduler Monitor: Monitors the processes
 If that is a DML operation, it picks the appropriate page from disk and put the page in Memory.
 While the page is available on Memory based on the ISOLATION LEVEL an shared / exclusive / update /
Schema lock issued on that page.
 Once the page is modified at Memory, that means once the transaction completed the transactional
operation logged into log file (.ldf) to the concerned VLF.
 Here we should understand that only the operation (T-SQL statements) logged into ldf file. The modified
page waits in memory till check point happens. These pages are know as dirty pages as the page data is differ
in between the page on Disk and Memory.
 Once the checkpoint happens the page will be written back to the disk.
 Once the process is completed the result set is submitted to the relational engine and follow the same
process for sending back the result set to client application.
 The connection will be closed and the SID is removed

Network Protocols:
What are the different types of network protocols? Explain each of them in detail
Shared Memory:
Clients using the shared memory protocol can only connect to a SQL Server instance running on the same computer;
it is not useful for most database activity. Use the shared memory protocol for troubleshooting when you suspect
the other protocols are configured incorrectly.
Server – Machine 1
Clients – Machine 1

TCP/IP:
TCP/IP is a common protocol widely used over the Internet. It communicates across interconnected networks of
computers that have diverse hardware architectures and various operating systems. TCP/IP includes standards for
routing network traffic and offers advanced security features. It is the most popular protocol that is used in business
today.
Server – Machine 1
Clients – WAN (Any machine from any network)

Named Pipes:
Named Pipes is a protocol developed for local area networks. A part of memory is used by one process to pass
information to another process, so that the output of one is the input of the other. The second process can be local
(on the same computer as the first) or remote (on a networked computer).
Server – Machine 1
Clients – LAN (Any machine from LAN)

VIA:
Virtual Interface Adapter (VIA) protocol works with VIA hardware. This feature will be deprecated in future releases.

How Min and Max Server memory options impact memory usage from SQL Server?
The min Server memory and max Server memory configuration options establish upper and lower limits to the
amount of memory used by the buffer pool of the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine. The buffer pool starts with
only the memory required to initialize. As the Database Engine workload increases, it keeps acquiring the memory
required to support the workload. The buffer pool does not free any of the acquired memory until it reaches the
amount specified in min Server memory. Once min Server memory is reached, the buffer pool then uses the
standard algorithm to acquire and free memory as needed. The only difference is that the buffer pool never drops its
memory allocation below the level specified in min Server memory, and never acquires more memory than the level
specified in max Server memory.

I have restarted my windows Server. Can you be able to explain how memory allocation happens for SQL Server?
Memory allocation is always depends on CPU architecture.

32 Bit:
 Initially allocates memory for “Memory To Leave” (MTL) also known as VAS Reservation (384 MB). This MTL
value can be modified using the start parameter “–g”
 Then Allocates memory for Buffer Pool = User VAS – MTL (Reserved VAS) = Available VAS
 Maximum BPool Size = 2048 MB – 384 MB = 1664 MB.

64 Bit:
 Allocates Memory for Buffer Pool based on Maximum Server Memory configuration
 Non-Buffer Pool Memory region (MTL / VAS Reservation) = Total Physical Memory – (Max Server Memory +
Physical Memory Used by OS and Other Apps)
 Ex: Windows Server is having 64 GB physical memory; SQL Server Max Server Memory = 54 GB and OS and
other apps are using 6 GB than the memory available for
 Non-BPool (MTL / VAS Reservation) = 64 – (54+6) = 4 GB
 Max Buffer Pool Size = Max Server Memory = 54 GB

Can you technically explain how memory allocated and lock pages works?
Windows OS runs all processes on its own Virtual Memory known as Virtual Address Space and this VAS is divided
into Kernel (System) and User (Application) mode.
Default: No Lock Pages in Memory is enabled
SQL Server memory allocations made under User Mode VAS using VirtualAlloc() WPI function.
Any memory that allocates via VirtualAlloc () can be paged to disk.
SQLOS resource monitor checks QueryMemoryResourceNotification windows API and when windows sets Memory
Low notification, SQLOS responds to that request by releasing the memory back to windows.
Lock Pages in Memory is Enabled for SQL Server:
SQL Server memory allocations are made using calls to the function AllocateUserPhysicalPages () in AWE API.
Memory that allocates using AllocateUserPhysicalPages () is considered to be locked. That means these pages should
be on Physical Memory and need not be released when a Memory Low Notification on Windows.

Can we add a CPU to SQL Server?

Yes. We can add CPUs physically by adding new hardware, either logically by online hardware partitioning or virtually
through a virtualization layer. Starting with its 2008 version, SQL Server supports CPU Hot Add. There are a few
requirements to use CPU Hot Add:

Hardware that supports CPU hot add

64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Datacenter or Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based
system OS
SQL Server Enterprise
Once the CPU is added, we need to run RECONFIGURE, and then SQL Server recognizes the newly added CPU.

Why are SHRINKFILE / SHRINKDB / AUTOSHRINK not preferable?

In the SHRINKFILE command, SQL Server isn’t careful about where it puts the pages that are moved from the end of
the file toward the beginning of the file.
Data becomes fragmented, potentially up to 100 percent, and hence it is a performance killer for the database.
Slow operation: All pointers, being moved to/from the page/rows, have to be fixed and the SHRINKFILE operation is
single-threaded, so it can be really slow (the single-threaded nature of SHRINKFILE is not going to change any time
soon)
Recommendations:
First, use TRUNCATEONLY to shrink the file. It removes the inactive part of the log and then performs the shrink
operation.
Rebuild/reorganize indexes once the shrink is done so that the fragmentation level is decreased.

What is DCM and BCM?

DCM (Differential Changed map): DCM is used by SQL Server for differential backup. DCM pages keep track of all
extents which have changed since the last full database backup.
During SQL Server differential backup, database engine reads the DCM page and takes a backup of only those pages
which has been changed since the last full backup. If the value is 1 means extent has been modified and 0 means not
modified. After each full backup, all these extents are marked to 0.

BCM (Bulk Changed map): BCM page is used in bulk-logged recovery model to track extends changed due to bulk-
logged or minimally logged operations.
During log backup, the database engine reads BCM page and includes all the extents which have been modified by
the bulk-logged process. If the Value 1 means modified extent and 0 means not modified. After each log backup, all
these extents are marked to 0

If a column in the table is having >50% NULL values then which index to use?
If a column in the table is having >50% NULL values then index selection if very selective.
Index schema is based on B-Tree structure and if the column is having more than 50% NULL values then all data will
reside on one side of the tree result ZERO benefits of the index on query execution.
The SQL Server is having a special index called filtered index which can be used here. You can create an index on
column only on NON NULL values. NULL data will not be included in the index.

Log shipping may fail due to multiple issues can cause data long, Here are some possible reasons:
Changes in shared folder or share access permissions:
Copy Job is responsible for copying log backup from primary to the secondary Server. If you have to change
the shared folder permissions on the primary Server, Copy job will not able to access the share of primary
Server to copy Log backups.
A human error like someone deletes the T-log backup file or truncate T-log on the primary Server:
This is the most common issue. If someone has deleted Log backup by mistake log chain will break and
restore might fail. Also if Someone truncates the T-Log file on primary than log chain will break and new log
backup will not generate.
Low Drive free space is low on secondary:
Standard approach is to have similar drive structure and space on secondary like primary. If secondary has
less drive space that it may get full and impact copy or restore process.
Low I/O, Memory, Network resources:
Copy & Restore job needs resource and if you have a long list of databases then you need high resources.
Secondary Server with low network \ IO or memory can cause Server slowness \ crash or delay in the
restore.
TUF file is missing:
TUF is transaction undo file which contains active transaction details. If TUF file is deleted and you do not
have a backup then you have to reset shipping.
MSDB database is full:
MSDB keeps track of log shipping & restore history. If MSDB got full then Copy & Restore jobs will start
failed.

We have 3 Operating Modes in DB Mirroring.

High Availability:
High-Availability operating mode is a combination of principle + mirror + witness with Synchronous. In
Synchronous, The Principal Server sends the log buffer to the mirror Server and then waits for a response
from the mirror Server. Witness Server will monitor principal & Mirror Server, In case Principal is not
available the witness and mirror will decide automatic failover to bring mirror online.
High Protection:
High-Protection operating mode is a combination of principle + mirror with Synchronous. The Principal
Server sends the log buffer to the mirror Server and then waits for a response from the mirror Server but
Automatic failover is not possible.
High Performance:
High- Performance operating mode runs asynchronously and the transaction safety set to off. The Principal
Server sends the log buffer but does not wait for a response from the mirror Server for acknowledgment.
Mirror Server can lag behind from principal and cause data loss.

What are the benefits of readable secondary replica?

AlwaysOn provided you with the feature of Readable replica. This is a long-awaited feature where you can utilize
your passive node. Unlike cluster where your passive node consume all your resources but you cannot utilize them
before the primary node goes.
Benefits:
 Offloads your read-only workload from primary to secondary.
 Utilize your resources of secondary mode
 Temporary statistics on readable secondary help in performance tuning on secondary.
 Offload T-log backups to secondary reduce backup load.

Explain Locks in SQL Server and how many locks are available?
Locks allow seamless functioning of the SQL Server even in concurrent user sessions. As we as a whole know,
different clients need to get to databases simultaneously. So locks come for rescue to keep information from being
undermined or negated when numerous clients endeavor to do data manipulation tasks DML operations, for
example, read, compose and update on database. "Lock is characterized as a component to guarantee information
integration, consistency while enabling simultaneous access to information. It is utilized to execute simultaneous
control when various clients get to Database to control its information in the meantime".
Locks can be applied to various database components. Please find below areas where a lock can be applied :

RID: (Row ID) This helps us in locking a single row inside a table.
Table: It locks the whole table, even data, and indexes as well.
Key: It intends to lock key available in tables. It implies the primary key, Candidate Key, Secondary key and so forth.
Page: The page represents an 8-kilobyte (KB) data page or index page. The lock can be placed on Page Level
additionally, it implies if a specific page is locked so another client can't refresh the information on it.
Extent: Extent is represented by a Contiguous gathering of eight data pages that can incorporate index pages
moreover.
Database: Entire Database can be locked for some sort of clients who have read authorization on the database.

How many models of locks being supported in SQL Server?

The locks which get applied on various resources of SQL Server can be classified into below models :

Exclusive (X): This lock type, when forced, will guarantee that a page or row will be available only for the transaction
that forced the lock, as long as the transaction is running. The X lock will be forced by the transaction when it needs
to manipulate the page or row data by DML operations like inserting, modifying and deleting. This lock can be forced
to a page or row just if there is no other shared or exclusive lock forced as of now on the resources. This ensures that
only one exclusive lock can be applied and no other lock can be applied afterward till the time the previous lock gets
removed.
Shared (S): This lock type, when forced, will save a page or row to be accessible just for reading, which implies that
some other transaction will be not allowed to manipulate record till the time lock remains active. Nonetheless, a
shared lock can be forced by multiple transactions concurrently over a similar page or row and in that manner,
multiple transactions can share the capacity for data reading. A shared lock will permit writing tasks, yet no DDL
changes will be permitted

Update (U): an update lock is like an exclusive lock however is intended to be more adaptable. An update lock can be
forced on a record that as of now has a shared lock. In such a case, the update lock will force another shared lock on
the intended When the transaction that holds the update lock is prepared to change the data, the update lock (U)
will be changed to an exclusive lock (X). While the update lock can be forced on a record that has the shared lock but
the shared lock can't be forced on the record that as of now has the update lock

Intent (I): The idea behind such a lock is to guarantee data modification to be executed appropriately by stopping
another transaction to gain a lock on the next in the hierarchy object. Generally, when a transaction needs to obtain
a lock on the row, it will gain an intent lock on a table, which is a higher chain of the intended object. By obtaining
the intent lock, the transaction won't enable other transactions to procure the exclusive lock on that table.

Schema (Sch): This lock is applied on a table or index when we want to manipulate any changes in that resource. We
can have only one Schema lock at a given point of time. This lock gets applied when we perform operations that
depend on the schema of an object.

Bulk update (BU): This lock is required when bulk operations need to perform. At the point when a bulk update lock
is gained, different transactions won't most likely access a table during the mass load execution. Be that as it may, a
bulk update lock won't avoid another bulk update to be executed in parallel.
Locking hierarchy of database objects can be understood by the below diagram and lock is always obtained from top
to bottom:

What is an optimistic and pessimistic lock in SQL Server?

An optimistic lock is the widely used strategy utilized in n tier applications were while reading data from the
database we check versioning of data before writing it back to the database. The versioning is done on a date,
timestamps or checksum/hashes. This approach is used to prevent dirty read scenario where we take a decision
based on data which is not yet committed in the database.

The optimistic approach will ensure that in case dirty read is identified based on versioning we will start from fresh.
This strategy is popular where system deals with a high volume of data and even in the case of n tier applications
where we are not always connected to a database with single connections. It is a pool of connection from which we
connect to the database with any connection which is free and available at that time. We can not apply lock in such
cases. This strategy is applied in most of the banking operations.

Pessimistic is just opposite of Optimistic lock as it takes an exclusive lock on resources till the time we finish with our
operations. It keeps data integrity high but performance will be always slower in this case. We need to connect to a
database with an active connection (which is the case in two-tier application).
What is virtual log file?
Each transaction log file internally divided into several virtual log files. Virtual log files have no fixed size, and there is
no fixed number of virtual log files for a physical log file.

How do you get total no of virtual log files in a transaction log file?
The new DMF sys.dm_db_log_info introduced in SQL Server 2017 that will returns Virtual Log File information of the
transaction log files. If we will specify NULL or DEFAULT value, it will return VLF information of the current database.
The built-in function DB_ID can also be specified to get details of a particular database. The sys.dm_db_log_info DMF
replaces the DBCC LOGINFO statement from earlier versions.

By default, your log file belongs to which filegroup?

Log files do not belong to any file group.

Do you think multiple log files are useful in SQL Server?

Yes, it will be helpful in case you are dealing with space issues. You can add additional log files in another drive if you
stuck by spaces issue in log file/drive during data load/Import. You can also create additional log file in to another
drive if you are frequently facing space issue and cannot extent the existing log file drive.

How many types of checkpoint SQL Server Supports?

There are four types of checkpoint SQL Server supports.
1. Automatic Checkpoint
2. Indirect Checkpoint
3. Manual Checkpoint
4. Internal Checkpoint

1. Automatic Checkpoints
An automatic checkpoint occurs each time the number of log records reaches the number the Database Engine
estimates it can process during the time specified in the recovery interval Server configuration option. You can set
the value of recovery interval using below system stored procedure.
sp_configure 'recovery interval','seconds'
Recovery interval is maximum time that a given Server instance should use to recover a database during a system
restart. Database Engine estimates the maximum number of log records it can process within the recovery interval.
When a database using automatic checkpoints reaches this maximum number of log records, the Database Engine
issues an checkpoint on the database.
The frequency depends on the value of recovery interval option of Server configuration. The time interval between
automatic checkpoints can be highly variable. A database with a substantial transaction workload will have more
frequent checkpoints than a database used primarily for read-only operations.
Database Engine generates automatic checkpoints for every database if you have not defined any value for target
recovery time for a database. If you define user value for target recovery time for any database, database engine will
not use automatic checkpoint and generate indirect checkpoint which I will discuss in next section.
Under the simple recovery model, an automatic checkpoint is also queued if the log becomes 70 percent full.
After a system crash, the length of time required to recover a given database depends largely on the amount of
random I/O needed to redo pages that were dirty at the time of the crash. This means that the recovery
interval setting is unreliable. It cannot determine an accurate recovery duration. Furthermore, when an automatic
checkpoint is in progress, the general I/O activity for data increases significantly and quite unpredictably.
For an online transaction processing (OLTP) system using short transactions, recovery interval is the primary factor
determining recovery time. However, the recovery interval option does not affect the time required to undo a long-
running transaction. Recovery of a database with a long-running transaction can take much longer than the specified
in the recovery interval option.
Typically, the default values provides optimal recovery performance. However, changing the recovery interval might
improve performance in the following circumstances:
If recovery routinely takes significantly longer than 1 minute when long-running transactions are not being rolled
back.
If you notice that frequent checkpoints are impairing performance on a database.
If you decide to increase the recovery interval setting, we recommend increasing it gradually by small increments
and evaluating the effect of each incremental increase on recovery performance. This approach is important because
as the recovery interval setting increases, database recovery takes that many times longer to complete. For example,
if you change recovery interval 10 minutes, recovery takes approximately 10 times longer to complete than
when recovery interval is set to 1 minute.

2. Indirect Checkpoints
This checkpoint was introduced in SQL Server 2012. Indirect checkpoints provide a configurable database-level
alternative to automatic checkpoints. In the event of a system crash, indirect checkpoints provide potentially faster,
more predictable recovery time than automatic checkpoints. We can set the TARGET_RECOVERY_TIME in Indirect
checkpoint for any database by executing below ALTER DATABASE statement.
--Change DBNAME with your database name.
ALTER DATABASE DBNAME SET TARGET_RECOVERY_TIME =target_recovery_time {SECONDS | MINUTES}
The difference between Automatic and Indirect checkpoint is, recovery interval configuration option uses the
number of transactions to determine the recovery time as opposed to indirect checkpoints which makes use of
number of dirty pages.
When indirect checkpoints are enabled on a database receiving a large number of DML operations, the background
writer can start aggressively flushing dirty buffers to disk to ensure that the time required to perform recovery is
within the target recovery time set of the database. This can cause additional I/O activity on certain systems which
can contribute to a performance bottleneck if the disk subsystem is operating above or nearing the I/O threshold.
Indirect checkpoints enable you to reliably control database recovery time by factoring in the cost of random I/O
during REDO.
Indirect checkpoints reduce checkpoint-related I/O spiking by continually writing dirty pages to disk in the
background. However, an online transactional workload on a database configured for indirect checkpoints can
experience performance degradation. This is because the background writer used by indirect checkpoint sometimes
increases the total write load for a Server instance.
Indirect checkpoint is the default behavior for new databases created in SQL Server 2016. Databases which were
upgraded in place or restored from a previous version of SQL Server will use the previous automatic checkpoint
behavior unless explicitly altered to use indirect checkpoint.

3. Manual Checkpoints
Manual checkpoint issued when you execute a T-SQL CHECKPOINT command for a database. By default, manual
checkpoints run to completion. Throttling works the same way as for automatic checkpoints.

4. Internal Checkpoints
Internal Checkpoints are generated by various Server components to guarantee that disk images match the current
state of the log. Internal checkpoint are generated in response to the following events:
Database files have been added or removed by using ALTER DATABASE.
A database backup is taken.
A database snapshot is created, whether explicitly or internally for DBCC CHECK.
An activity requiring a database shutdown is performed. For example, AUTO_CLOSE is ON and the last user
connection to the database is closed, or a database option change is made that requires a restart of the database.
An instance of SQL Server is stopped by stopping the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) service. Either action causes a
checkpoint in each database in the instance of SQL Server.
What is your troubleshooting strategy? Suppose a user reported an issue, how will you start to fix the issue?
Good troubleshooters are those who understand the in-depth information about the product\features where issue
arises. To fix any issue, we should follow below points.
First we should understand the issue/error codes, ask questions to the user about when and how they get error.
If we are not getting anything from step 2, we need to read error log file, Job history log, and Event log files based
on the nature of the issue.
Look into SQL Server transactions and analyze the wait types and other parameters like CPU, IO, Memory if it is
related to performance issue.
If we are still not getting any solution, try to search the error on social sites or take help from your seniors because
you are not the only one who has received this error.

Tell me in which sequence SQL Server databases come ONLINE after starting or restarting a SQL Server Instance.
There is no defined sequence for user databases to come online. Although, below is the sequence in which system
databases come online. User databases can come online anytime after master database become accessible.
1. Master
2. MSDB
3. ResourceDB (Although this database is not visible in SSMS)
4. Model
5. Tempdb

What will you do if your log file drive is full during data load?
 Run Transaction log backup frequently.
 Add another log file in another disk where is enough space to grow the log.
 You can enable Auto shrink during data load if you are running with SIMPLE recovery model.

How many SQL Server Instances we can install on a cluster Instance?

We can install 25 instance on clustered environment and maximum 50 instances on standalone instances.

Do we need to update Statistics after index rebuild operation?

No, Update statistics are not required after index rebuild operations because statistics got updated during index
rebuild operation.

What is Minimal Logging and how is it different from Full Logging?

Minimal logging involves logging only information that is required to recover the transaction without
supporting point-in-time recovery. Under the full recovery model, all bulk operations are fully logged. However, you
can minimize logging for a set of bulk operations by switching the database to the bulk-logged recovery
model temporarily for bulk operations.

Minimal logging is more efficient than full logging, and it reduces the possibility of a large-scale bulk operation filling
the available transaction log space during a bulk transaction. However, if the database is damaged or lost when
minimal logging is in effect, you cannot recover the database to the point of failure.

Can you name few operations that logs Minimally during bulk-recovery model?
The following operations, which are fully logged under the full recovery model, are minimally logged under bulk-
logged recovery model:
 Bulk import operations (bcp, BULK INSERT, and INSERT… SELECT).
 SELECT INTO operations
 CREATE INDEX operations
 ALTER INDEX REBUILD or DBCC DBREINDEX operations.
 DROP INDEX new heap rebuild

If I change my database recovery model from FULL to SIMPLE, does transactions will be logged in to log file?
Yes, Transactions will be logged in SIMPLE recovery model as well. The difference is all logged transactions will be
cleared during checkpoint operation in this recovery model

If yes in above question then how is SIMPLE RECOVERY Model different from FULL Recovery Model?
All logged transactions will be cleared during checkpoint operation and transaction log backup is not allowed so
point-in-time recovery is not possible in SIMPLE recovery model. Whereas transaction backup is allowed in full
recovery model and point-in-time recovery is also supported. Logs got cleared only after taking log backup or
switching the recovery model to SIMPLE.

How differential backup works? Or How differential backup captures only updated data since full backup in its
dump file?
Differential Changed Map is a page type that stores information about extents that have changed since the last full
backup. Database engine reads just the DCM pages to determine which extents have been modified and captures
those extents in differential backup file.

Why cannot we serve copy-only backup as a differential base or differential backup?

The differential changed map page is not updated by a copy-only backup. Therefore, a copy-only backup cannot
serve as a differential base or differential backup. A copy-only backup does not affect subsequent differential
backups.

Why a database log file is growing like anything that is running in SIMPLE Recovery Model?
It means some transactions are active and running on your database. As we know logs are captured in simple
recovery model as well so that active transaction is getting logged there. The inactive portion in log file clears during
checkpoint operation.

Can we restore a database till the specific time?

Yes, if database is running in full recovery model and database has log backups till that specific time. We can use
STOPAT clause to recover till a specific time.

Suppose we are running Daily full backup at 8PM in night and every half an hour transaction log backup. Now your
database is crashed at 3.41PM. How will you recover your database to the point it was crashed?
Below steps we will perform in a sequence manner to recover this database to the point it was crashed.
 First we will run tail log backup to capture all transactions that are not captured in previous log backups at
the point database was crashed.
 Restore last night Full backup with NORECOVERY that was taken at 8PM.
 Apply all transaction log backup since last night full backup with norecovery.
 Apply tail log backup on the database with recovery and with STOPAT parameter.

Take the same scenario as above, now you found that there is one log file let’s say at 2 PM got corrupted and not
restorable. What will be the impact on your database recovery?
We cannot recover this database till that point it was crashed and we would have last data till 1.30PM considering
log backup runs on every half an hour.

Suppose we are running Weekly Sunday full backup at 8PM, daily differential backup at 10PM and every half an
hour transaction log backup. Now your database is crashed on Saturday 3.11PM. What would be your fastest way
to recover this database in point in time?
 We will perform below steps to recover this database in point-in-time:
 Try to run tail log backup at the point database was crashed.
 Restore latest Weekly Sunday Full backup with NORECOVERY that was taken at 8PM.
 Restore Friday night differential backup with NORECOVERY that was taken at 10PM.
 Apply all transaction log backup since Friday differential backup with norecovery.
 Apply tail log backup on the database with recovery and with STOPAT parameter.

In addition to above question, suppose you came to know that Friday night differential backup was corrupted then
what would be your strategy to recovery the database in point-in time?
We will perform below steps to recover this database in point-in-time:
 Try to run tail log backup at the point database was crashed.
 Restore latest Weekly Sunday Full backup with NORECOVERY that was taken at 8PM.
 Restore Thursday night differential backup with NORECOVERY that was taken at 10PM.
 Apply all transaction log backup since Thursday night differential backup with norecovery.
 Apply tail log backup on the database with recovery and with STOPAT parameter.
 Suppose you came to know that differential backups ran on Monday and Wednesday are corrupted and
you have only Tuesday and Thursday differential backups along with full backup and all log backups.
Explain your sequence to restore the database?
 We will follow same sequence that we follow in previous question. We will apply weekly full backup then
Thursday differential backup along with all transaction log backups.

How will you restore tempdb?

We should not restore tempdb as it’s a temporary database and created everytime we restart SQL Server service.

What is COPY_ONLY full backup and how it is different from regular full backups?
Difference between regular full and copy-only full backup is that copy-only full backup does not break the differential
chain. Neither of them breaks the log chain as neither of them truncates the log file. A copy-only backup cannot
serve as a differential base or differential backup and does not affect the differential base.

How data stores in Indexes?

Data stores in indexes or in tables on a series of 8 kb data pages. Indexes Data on these data pages are organized in a
B-Tree structure that supports fast retrieval of the rows, based on their index key values. Each page in an index B-
tree is called an index node. The top node of the B-tree is called the root node. The bottom level of nodes in the
index is called the leaf nodes. The leaf nodes of a nonclustered index is made up of index pages instead of data pages
whereas in a clustered index, the leaf nodes contain the data pages.

What is Fill Factor and what should be the perfect value for it?
A fill factor value determines the percentage of space on each leaf-level page to be filled with data, reserving the
remainder on each page as free space for future growth. Fill factor values 0 and 100 are the same in all respects. The
fill-factor option is provided for fine-tuning index data storage and performance. Although, there is no defined value
that we can say is perfect value for fill factor. You can set it to somewhere around 80% and monitor fragmentation
over time. Then, you can tweak its value up or down depending on how fragmented the indexes get. Read more
about fill factor and its best value.

Explain Page Split and whether it is good for SQL Server or bad?
Whenever you update existing rows with the data that is bigger in size to save on their data page then Page Split
operation occur to make space for this new update. Page split reduces performance so we can say page split is not at
all a good thing for our database.

How page split is bad for performance?

Page split is a resource intensive operation and causes fragmentation that leads to deficient performance in terms of
increased I/O operations. We should take it seriously if there are frequent page splits occur and consider reducing its
occurrences

Does indexes always improve database performance?

NO, sometimes indexes can reduce your database performance if you are running a bulk data upload or your
application has a nature of frequent data Insert operations. Indexes are very useful if you are accessing or reading
the data.

What is filter index?

An optimized nonclustered index, especially suited to cover queries that select from a well-defined subset of data. It
uses a filter predicate to index a portion of rows in the table. A well-designed filtered index can improve query
performance, reduce index maintenance costs, and reduce index storage costs compared with full-table indexes.

What is covering index?

A covering index is one which can satisfy all requested columns in a query without performing a further lookup into
the clustered index.

Explain column store index?

In-memory columnstore index stores and manages data by using column-based data storage and column-based
query processing. Columnstore indexes work well for data warehousing workloads that primarily perform bulk loads
and read-only queries.

Why can’t a table have more than one clustered indexes?

Clustered indexes sort and store the data rows in the table or view based on their key values so you can’t store data
in table based on two index key that’s why you can create only one cluster index on a table.

What is Heap and when it is useful from clustered table?

Heap is a table without having cluster indexes. Heaps are generally useful if you are running huge bulk data load or
frequent DML operations.
How do you find about missing indexes that you need to create to improve database performance?
We can run SQL Server database Tuning Advisor that will suggests us about all the missing indexes that we should
create to improve db performance. We can also use DMVs related to missing indexes
sys.dm_db_missing_index_details, sys.dm_db_missing_index_groups and sys.dm_db_missing_index_columns to get
these details.

Why is Secondary Replica Showing in Resolving state after AOAG Automatic failover?
Sometimes AOAG configuration stuck in resolving state and its secondary Replica does not come online. When you
check the Alwayson Availability Group configuration, you find it showing in resolving state after Automatic failover of
AOAG Configuration. Let us get the reason behind secondary replica stuck in resolving state and solution to
overcome such issues in future.

SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Group is an advanced version of database mirroring and introduced in SQL Server
2012. AOAG is HA & DR solution for SQL Server databases. We can group a bunch of databases as one Availability
Group and failover/failback as one entity whereas it was not possible in database mirroring. Database Mirroring can
be configured only for single database at a time. I have also an AOAG configuration in my environment which is set
for Automatic failover between both replicas. Last week, we faced an issue during automatic failover. Secondary
replica was not transitioning as primary replica during an automatic failover and it was stuck in “Resolving” state. It
was full down time for application because primary replica was lost and availability databases were not coming
online on secondary replica.

Automatic Failover Not Working and Secondary Replica Stuck in Resolving State
As secondary replica is not transitioning as primary replica after failover because secondary replica hung in resolving
state so here, we will check the main root cause and its fix so that secondary replica comes online after every
failover. Let’s check the current configuration of this AOAG. Run below command to get the AOAG details. We can
see the configuration is running into automatic failover mode.
SELECT replica_Server_name, availability_mode, availability_mode_desc, failover_mode, failover_mode_desc
FROM sys.availability_replicas
Now connect to secondary replica in SQL Server Management Studio. Expand the AlwaysOn High Availability folder
followed by Availability Group folder. Here, you can see the current state of this availability group which is showing
in Resolving state.
I checked the SQL Server error log file but i did not get enough information about this issue to proceed. I searched
about this issue and got few suggestions on web that i should check the cluster log. I checked failover cluster
manager for critical events. I got below event in failover cluster manager.

Clustered role 'AG_***' has exceeded its failover threshold. It has exhausted the configured number of failover
attempts within the failover period of time allotted to it and will be left in a failed state.
No additional attempts will be made to bring the role online or fail it over to another node in the cluster.
Please check the events associated with the failure. After the issues causing the failure are resolved the role can
be brought online manually or the cluster may attempt to bring it online again after the restart delay period.

Fix Resolving state and Make Secondary Replica Primary:

Above issue clearly indicates about some cluster configuration related to role created for AOAG. As we can see,
there is one role is showing under roles tab of this cluster group in below image. We can see the current owner of
this role is still showing as node 1.
Now right click on this role and choose properties.
You will get a properties window as shown and now click on “Failover” tab of this screen to check the failover
threshold details.

We can see the failover threshold is set to only 1 in the 6 hours. It means if any failover happen more than once in
the 6 hrs time period it will remain in failed state and will not try to come online. Now increase this value as per your
need. I have changed it to 10. Click on apply and Ok button.
Now, secondary replica of availability databases will not come online automatically. We need to bring them online.
We have multiple options to bring them online from resolving state. You can directly run the failover by right click on
availability group in SSMS and then proceed with failover.

Another option is to bring them online from failover cluster manager. You can either right click on the AOAG role and
click on “Bring Online…” option or you can failover it to best possible node. As primary replica is down and not
accessible so it will be failed over to the secondary replica only because this node is only available this time. Let’s
right click on AOAG role in failover cluster manager, choose move and then click on “Best Possible Node”
It will process and come online within few seconds and this time you can see this role is online from node 2 as
current owner is showing as node 2 now.

We can also validate this change while making a database connection to the secondary replica in SSMS. Connect to
secondary replica and expand the AlwaysOn Availability Group folders. You can see now availability group is showing
as primary. That means your database is online from secondary replica to accept the user connections.
You can also test this exercise to make sure automatic failover is working fine or not to prevent this kind of future
outages. Once your earlier primary replica comes online, you shutdown SQL Server services on secondary
replica/current primary replica. Once it will go down, your current secondary replica becomes primary automatically.
Before shutdown SQL Server services, make sure databases should be fully synchronized.
Hee, we have fixed Alwayson issue where secondary replica is not coming online after failover and hung in resolving
state. I hope you like this article. Please follow us on our facebook page and on Twitter handle to get latest updates.

Why Should You Always Turn Off Database Auto Shrink Property?
Auto Shrink is database property that allow SQL Server to automatically shrink database files if its value set to
ON/True. Shrinking a database is not a good practice because it is very expensive operation in terms of I/O, CPU
usage, locking and transaction log generation. Database auto shrink operation also causes your Indexes to be
fragmented because it runs frequently.

Database Auto Shrink or Manual shrink operation runs at database file level. It is not recommended to shrink
your data files except in case of the few exceptions like data deletion. You can run shrink operation if you have
deleted some portion of the data to reclaim that space. As this shrink operation can cause index fragmentation so
make sure to rebuild your fragmented indexes post performing the shrink operation. Shrinking the log file may be
necessary in some cases if your log file is full and need to clear some space. However, shrinking the log file should
not be part of any regular maintenance activity and should be manually done whenever it will require.

It is always recommended to never run shrink operation as part of maintenance activity even you should avoid
running shrink operation manually if you are doing it. If it is needed to run shrink operation, make sure rebuild your
indexes. So you should always turn off Auto Shrink for all databases to avoid any future performance issue on your
database. By default, SQL Server keeps auto shrink turn off on SQL Server instances.

There will be a bad impact on performance if you turn on database auto shrink and autogrowth settings together for
any database. Most of the database files have some value to autogrowth setting enabled for the databases or we set
the database size to the optimum value keeping some room in the data files to grow and avoid frequent autogrowth
events. If we will enable database auto shrink property for such databases, it will shrink the data files and reclaim the
free space that we have kept intentionally to avoid autogrow events. In that case, both operations will be performed
frequently autogrowth and then autoshrink that ultimately lead to the system level fragmentation which causes
severe performance issue as well.

So in short, Autoshrink should not be turned on for any databases. This is bad for several reasons that I have
concluded in below points.

Database Auto Shrink or Manual Shrink causes index fragmentation that will reduce the database performance.
Shrink operation takes lot of IO and CPU resources. If the Server is already pushing the limits of the IO subsystem,
running shrink may push it over, causing long disk queue lengths and possibly IO timeouts.
Repeatedly shrinking and growing the data files will cause file-system level fragmentation, which can slow down
performance. It wastes a huge amount of resources, basically running the shrink algorithm for no reason.
If you combine the autogrow and autoshrink options, you might create unnecessary overhead. Make sure that the
thresholds that trigger the grow and shrink operations will not cause frequent up and down size changes. So
Autogrow and Autoshrink together can seriously reduce your system performance.

Database Auto Shrink and autogrow must be carefully evaluated by a trained Database Administrator (DBA); they
must not be left unmanaged.
Autoshrink doesn’t work like if the threshold is hit, auto shrink operation will start to reclaim space. It uses round
robin method to shrink databases if you have multiple databases are set to use auto shrink. SQL Server shrinks a
database if needed. Then, it waits several minutes before checking the next database that is configured for auto
shrink so your database will need to wait for his turn to execute auto shrink operation.

How to Enable or Disable Auto Shrink Property in SQL Server?

We can turn on or off database auto shrink using GUI and T-SQL both ways. Both are easiest method. Let us first start
with GUI method.
Right click on your database for which you want to enable or disable auto shrink and choose Properties. You will get
below Database Properties window. Click on Options from left side pane of this window. You can see Auto
Shrink option is showing in right side pane. If you want to turn it on, click on drop down of this option and
select True.
Below is the T-SQL code to enable or disable the Auto_Shrink option for any database. Change the database name
with your database name and execute it.
--Set Auto Shrink ON or True
ALTER DATABASE TechYaz SET AUTO_SHRINK ON
--Set Auto Shrink OFF or False
ALTER DATABASE TechYaz SET AUTO_SHRINK OFF

REFRESHING DATABASE CLONES (MANUAL):

You can refresh your cloned databases to the latest state of your source databases. You refresh database clones
either to a point in time (by using transaction logs) or by using snapshots. For refresh operations, pre-clone and post-
clone scripts should be present on the target database.
Perform the following procedure to refresh a cloned database.
Procedure
 In the drop-down list of the main menu, select Databases.
 Go to Clones, select the cloned database you want to refresh, and click Refresh.
 Select the Nutanix cluster on which you want to refresh the database.
 Select the time to which you want to refresh the database. Do the following to select the time.
On the Month tab, select a day of the month.
Click the Day tab to select the clone time to which you want to clone the database.
Do one of the following:
 Point in time. Select this option if you want to clone the source database to a point in time. If you select this
option, the database is cloned by using the transactional logs.
 Snapshot. Select this option if you want to clone the source database by using the available snapshots.
 Click Next.
 Click Refresh to successfully refresh the database.

Creating a Clone Refresh Schedule

Refresh schedules update the clone with the most recent data available. You can define a frequency and time at
which Era automatically refreshes the database clone. Perform the following procedure to define a clone refresh
schedule.Note: Clone refresh schedules can also be defined when you create a clone. For more information,
see Oracle Database Clone, SQL Server Database Clone, PostgreSQL Database Clone, MySQL Database
Clone, MariaDB Database Clone, and SAP HANA Database Clone.
Procedure
 In the drop-down list of the main menu, select Databases.
 Go to Clones and click the clone for which you want to define a refresh schedule.
 From the Schedule drop-down list, select Refresh > Create. The Create Refresh Schedule window appears.
Do the following in the indicated fields:

Refresh Data Every (days). Enter the number of days after which the clone should get refreshed. For example, if you
have entered seven in this field, then Era refreshes the clone after every seven days.

Refresh Time. Enter the time at which clone refresh operation should start. Click Create.
A message appears indicating that the refresh operation has been created. You can click the message and then go
to Scheduled on the Operations page to view all the scheduled tasks.
To change the frequency and time slot of the schedule, you can select Refresh > Update from the Schedule drop-
down list, and then provide the new frequency and time slot.

Deleting a Clone Refresh Schedule

You can cancel the schedule for clone refresh operation if you do not want to perform the clone refresh at the
scheduled time. Perform the following procedure to remove a clone refresh schedule.
Procedure
In the drop-down list of the main menu, select Databases.
Go to Clones and click the clone for which you want to remove the refresh schedule.
From the Schedule drop-down list, select Refresh > Remove.
Click Yes to confirm.
This step removes the clone refresh schedule from Era. However, you can always create a new schedule if needed.
For more information, see Creating a Clone Refresh Schedule.
Alternatively, you can go to Operations > Scheduled, select the schedule, and then click Delete to remove the
schedule.

Everything You Need to Know about SQL Server Security

Fortunately, SQL Server is designed to be a secure database platform. It holds several features that can encrypt data,
limit access and authorization, and protect data from theft, destruction, and other types of malicious behavior.
SQL Server security has always been a pressing concern even for the most seasoned SQL DBA. Regardless of its
version, the SQL database is constantly under threat as it holds sensitive data malicious hackers want access to.
Source
Being easy to implement and potentially dangerous, SQL injection (SQLi) attacks are the hacker’s favorite choice.
The State of the Internet/ Security report reveals that SQLi alone accounts for 77 percent of all application attacks in
2019 where hackers insert arbitrary SQL into the application database query to destroy it.

Source
Security of SQL Server environments is considered to be among database administrators’ prime responsibilities.
Fortunately, SQL Server is designed to be a secure database platform. It holds several features that can encrypt data,
limit access and authorization, and protect data from theft, destruction, and other types of malicious behavior.
Yet, innumerable organizations continue to experience SQL database vulnerabilities, SQL injection attacks, brute-
forcing SQL credentials, and other attacks launched to manipulate data retrieval.
The threat to SQL Servers is ubiquitous nowadays. But that doesn’t mean we cannot do anything about it. To protect
the organization from such attacks, DBAs and security professionals should understand the potential threats to the
database management platform and take proactive steps to mitigate the security risks.

SQL Server is one of the most popular data platforms in the world. It is used to run an organization’s critical
operations and processes. As a result, it offers a variety of security tools for protection against malicious attacks and
to secure SQL Server instances.
However, using the default security settings can leave security gaps, leaving the network vulnerable to attacks.
Here’s a SQL Server security checklist to effectively sever the threats to your database platform.
1. Run Multiple SQL Server Security Audits
Regular Server security, login, and permission audits are a prerequisite for preventing potential attacks and to aid in
any forensic analysis of a possible data breach. However, an enterprise-level SQL Server security audit isn’t merely a
security investment, it has become a legal requirement following the new legislation like HIPAA and GDPR.
To begin with, define what you want to audit. You may want to monitor the following in your Server audits.
 User logins
 C2 Auditing
 Common Compliance Criteria
 Login Auditing
 Server configuration
 Schema changes
 SQL Server Auditing
 SQL Trace
 Extended Events
 Change Data Capture
 DML, DDL, and Logon Triggers
A routine audit can help in improving the health of your database and network. For instance, if a query won’t run an
audit can point out to the underlying reason. Does it point to a security threat? Is it due to an error with the SQL
order of operations?
Similarly, repeated failed logins to the Server, changes and deletions to restricted database objects, and changes to
configurations and permissions indicate that someone is trying to access your Server. Regular security audits
(including login auditing) can help you spot these signs of potential attacks on the Server and arrest them before
they cause significant damage.

2. Have a Strong Password Policy

 All database administrator accounts must have a strong password that helps combat brute-force attacks.
 Include a minimum of 10 characters, including numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and special
characters. You can also use passphrases consisting of a minimum of 15 characters with both letters and
numbers.
 Avoid easy-to-guess passwords like ‘password,’ ‘qwerty,’ or names and birthdates of your spouse. Also,
refrain from using the same password for multiple systems.
 Change the password periodically.
 Use password management tools with a strong master key to store multiple passwords.

3. Keep It Lean
 Having unnecessary software and extra applications allows hackers to exploit your SQL database Server.
Further, multiple applications are tough to manage and soon get outdated.
 We all know how outdated or unpatched applications introduce security holes in the system, inviting
attackers to run unauthorized code on a SQL Server via an authorized path (SQL injection).
 Limit the installation of the SQL database components and features to the ones that are necessary for
certain tasks. This will reduce the resource utilization by the database and simplify the administration, thus
minimizing the security risk.

4. Apply the Principle of Minimal Privilege

All of us are aware of the principle of least privilege, a common phrase used in the information security and IT fields.
It states that an account should be given only those privileges (in this case, minimum permissions and system rights)
needed for it to function properly.
Determine which accounts should be permitted to run which database services based on this principle. Better still,
assign a separate account to a specific service. That way, if one service gets compromised, the others will be able to
tighten the security further and continue to operate normally.
Here are a few accounts you can have for SQL Server services.
Domain user account:
This is the most commonly used account type to run SQL Server services as it’s quite secure owing to the
absence of administrator privileges.
Active directory managed service account:
This account is safer than a domain user account as one cannot log on to the Server with this account and
doesn’t need to manually manage the password resets.
Local user account:
This is usually a good choice for non-domain environments.
Local system account:
These accounts have extensive privileges and unrestricted access to all local system resources. The local
system account has permissions that a SQL Server doesn’t need, hence you can avoid using them to run
services.
Network service account:
It has fewer privileges than a system account but has more access to network resources and objects than
members of the users group. Avoid using this type of account whenever possible.
Virtual service account:
This account is similar to the AD managed service account but can be used to manage services without a
domain. In technical terms, it’s like a built-in network service account, having its unique identifier. This
makes virtual service accounts ideal for SQL services.

5. Have a Robust Database Backup Strategy in Place

Always take backups for your SQL database and save it in different locations outside your network. Count on third-
party SQL recovery tools to tackle SQL database issues like corruption and inaccessibility of database files.
What’s more? Remember to encrypt the SQL Server database backups. Your backup has the same sensitive data as
your database; hence, it needs to be equally protected. You don’t want to land up with a corrupt backup files. So,
apply the same protocols to them including restricting access, using security measures, and monitoring/controlling
access to the backup data.

6. Use a Suitable SQL Monitoring Tools

A solid SQL monitoring tool should be able to scan the processes of a database application and monitor the changes
in database Server settings. It should promptly detect errors, sessions, and individual SQL statements that allow
access to sensitive information.
Not to miss, the monitoring tool itself may pose a security risk because of the sensitive nature of the system it
monitors. Therefore, the tool should use modern security practices, allowing you to maintain the long-term health of
your database and network.
Deploy a suitable SQL Server monitoring tool to protect your Server from frequent attacks, address performance
issues, and keep your network up and running.
Summing Up
SQL Server offers several features to support and secure database applications. Yet, it’s impossible to predict what
security threats may emerge on the go. Therefore, it’s wise to know the best practices and common security
considerations that go into securing your database applications.
The information shared above will guide you in building a strong SQL Server security strategy, enabling you to
counter the common security threats.

Bottleneck identification in SQL Server:

Common Symptoms of SQL Server Bottlenecks
 SQL Server hogging the processor.
 Longer execution times on queries.
 Excessive I/O.
 Application log showing out-of-memory messages.
 Extreme activity on the disks.
 Long wait times per I/O.

SQL Server is undoubtedly a popular way to manage database. Due to its efficiency, business organizations largely
depend on this for data management. This dependency often causes performance bottlenecks and ultimately
hampers the productivity of the organization itself. So, it is important to find the bottlenecks and avoid them at any
cost. Read on to know everything you need to know about SQL Server bottlenecks, including how to find SQL Server
performance bottlenecks. First, we will see the definition of SQL Server bottlenecks.
What is Bottleneck in SQL Server

The term bottleneck means the neck of a bottle that reduces the flow from the bottle. Similarly, SQL Server
bottleneck means reduction in the performance of SQL Server. This situation usually occurs when any shared
resources like SQL database is concurrently accessed by too many people. Though bottlenecks are inevitable in every
system, it should be addressed to save users from loss of time and effort.
Symptoms of SQL Server Bottleneck
If you have this question in mind, how to find out if SQL having bottlenecks or not, here is the answer. First, you have
set a certain standard for the performance and then consider the symptoms according to that baseline. This baseline
will help you to determine the bottlenecks and low activity period, as well as to compare the effects of the alteration
made. That is why, setting up a good baseline is important. Here are the symptoms you need to consider:

Disk Bottleneck: If the SQL Server is having slower response time or the disk counters are operating close to
maximum values for a longer period of time, it is having bottlenecks. In such cases, users will also get relevant error
messages in SQL application log and hear noises coming from the disks.

Memory Bottleneck: If the application log contains certain messages like out of memory and memory resource
timeout, the memory bottleneck is to blame. Some of the other symptoms of Memory bottleneck are increased
query execution time, decreased active queries, low buffer cache hit ratio, higher I/O usage, slow system, and low
page life expectancy.

CPU Bottlenecks: This type of the bottleneck is easiest to find out. In this case, CPU will be highly utilized by the SQL
Server all the time but have low overall throughput

How to Identify SQL Server Bottleneck Using Tools:

Some bottleneck detection tools are available that you can use. Here is the list of those tools:

SQL Profiler
SQL Profiler is the tool with the ability to fetch and log the complete T-SQL activity of SQL Server. The default
template can be used to capture the execution of SQL statement. In SQL 2005, SQL Profiler also allows users to add
the blocked process report, usually found in the Errors and Warnings Events.

Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)

A useful set of dynamic management views and functions are offered by SQL Server 2005. These views display the
current SQL Server internal metadata and other events like Server restarts and memory pressure. To avoid getting
transitory events and have a meaningful result, use tables to save these views.

How to Fix SQL Server Performance Bottleneck?

According to the SQL experts, certain steps can be taken to avoid bottleneck situations.
Keep Memory Under Supervision:
If the available memory percentage drops below 20%, users will start encountering issues in performance. So
it is necessary to always keep an eye on the memory usage. Review queries and identify the memory leaks
for optimized performance of the SQL Server memory. Add more RAM to increase SQL Server scalability.
Find and Fix CPU Bottlenecks:
To fix CPU bottleneck, find out the worst-performing queries that are giving your CPU a hard time. Then
manage these queries and their underlying indexes. Using all available CPUs and adding faster CPUs can also
resolve this problem.

Strict Monitoring of Disk I/O Usage:

Storage I/O is the slowest of all SQL resources it should be always under observation for bottlenecks. If
bottleneck symptoms are found, see if it is possible to attain better performance by improvising storage
system design. The best techniques to solve I/O bottleneck situations is to introduce faster disks, distribute
the load across different spindles and defragment the disk.
Well Structured Database Design:
Any highly normalized database often causes long-running queries that squander resources like CPU and
memory. Therefore, poor database design has to be avoided. For example, if any operation needs five or
more table joins, the database should be redesigned.
Proper Index Management:
Too many indexes make SQL Server work slowly by making it take more time to update. Duplicate and
unnecessary indexes only drain system resources like CPU and I/O. Use SQL Server DMV or Database Engine
Tuning Advisor (DTA) to determine the unused indexes.

Event viewer in SQL Server:

The Event Viewer is a tool in Windows that displays detailed information about significant events on your
computer. Examples of these are programs that don't start as expected or automatically downloaded updates. Event
Viewer is especially useful for troubleshooting Windows and application errors.

Event Viewer displays these types of events:

Error:
A significant problem, such as loss of data or loss of functionality. For example, if a service fails to load during
startup, an error will be logged.
Warning:
An event that is not necessarily significant, but may indicate a possible future problem. For example, when
disk space is low, a warning will be logged.
Information:
An event that describes the successful operation of an application, driver, or service. For example, when a
network driver loads successfully, an Information event will be logged.
Success Audit:
An audited security access attempt that succeeds. For example, a user's successful attempt to log on to the
system will be logged as a Success Audit event.

Failure Audit:
An audited security access attempt that fails. For example, if a user tries to access a network drive and fails,
the attempt will be logged as a Failure Audit event.

The Event Log service starts automatically when you start Windows. Application and System logs can be viewed by
all users, but Security logs are accessible only to administrators. Using the event logs in Event Viewer, you can gather
information about hardware, software, and system problems and monitor Windows security events.

To access the Event Viewer in Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Server 2012 R2:
Right click on the Start button and select Control Panel > System & Security and double-click Administrative tools
Double-click Event Viewer
Select the type of logs that you wish to review (ex: Application, System)
NOTE: To access the Application Logs once in Event Viewer, go to Windows Logs > Application, for shutdown errors
refer to Application and System logs.

The Application event log is used to log application-specific events, such as Internet Information Server or SQL
Server. You can find the Event Viewer tool under the Start menu in Windows, under the Administrative Tools option.

How do I fix event viewer errors and warnings?

To access the System log select Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer, from the list in the left side
of the window select Windows Logs and System. Place the cursor on System, right click and select Filter Current Log.
Check the box before Error and click on OK and you see only Error reports.

How do I open the event viewer from the command line?

Start Windows Event Viewer through the command line. As a shortcut you can press the Windows key + R to open a
run window, type cmd to open a, command prompt window. Type eventvwr and click enter.

What is event ID in Event Viewer?

The Event Viewer uses event IDs to define the uniquely identifiable events that a Windows computer can encounter.
For example, when a user's authentication fails, the system may generate Event ID 672.

Database tuning proactive and reactive in SQL Server

In Proactive tuning, different strategies are developed for different kinds of processing. It is called proactive as the
administrator proactively devises strategies for the architecture. Reactive tuning involves performance tuning and
troubleshooting within boundaries of existing architecture.

Introduction to SQL Server Monitoring

SQL Server database monitoring and management is something that not only aids businesses in keeping data secure
and available, but it is a process that allows businesses to scale and move towards their enterprise goals. Database
monitoring is the collection and analysis of SQL Server performance and usage of data. With monitoring,
performance optimization can be performed for a data platform. Monitoring your SQL Server instances also provides
the analytics needed to perform a root cause analysis (RCA), which in the long-term, will help to alleviate, if not
diminish, downtime. For any enterprise seeking to engage with a database managed service provider for SQL Server,
or if the business is seeking to have their monitoring and management done in-house, it is important to know the
difference between reactive and proactive monitoring, and why you should solely look to engage with a managed
service provider (MSP) who performs proactive database monitoring.

Reactive SQL Server Monitoring vs. Proactive Monitoring

Reactive SQL Server monitoring may sometimes consist of manual checks and does not include the use of
automation. With this type of monitoring, DBAs on the team are not utilizing tools that highlight problem areas, and
because of this, issues tend to be solved after they have occurred, instead of being prevented. This essentially leads
to increased costs for the business – funds that can be used elsewhere – and it slows the growth of the company.

When a database managed service provider connects their monitoring tools to a business’s database to begin their
proactive monitoring, a throughput baseline is established. The baseline is created for all other operations to be
measured against which is highly important when updating, and for any maintenance events. Proactive SQL Server
monitoring consistently checks whether databases are online at regular intervals during core business hours and
non-core business hours. These checks are done through automation that will alert you of an outage. Poor
performance can come from bad database design, non-existing indexes, unmanaged database statistics, and other
various factors. With proactive monitoring, the technical team is actively troubleshooting the database performance
to prevent issues that can derive from poor performance. Additionally, changes happening within the databases are
also being tracked in the case that database function, views, or tables are dropped because of a modification.

The Importance and Goals of SQL Server Database Monitoring and Management
There are numerous benefits of having a proactive method of database monitoring. With active monitoring and
management, there is an ability to solve and prevent urgent problems. If the method of SQL Server monitoring is
reactive, when an issue occurs, there is a need to replicate the issue which can be difficult and costly. Another
benefit of proactive monitoring is that it provides insight into bottlenecks, “noisy neighbors”, and peak utilization
which can result in a few issues occurring. With fewer issues, there is a reduction in the risk of downtime, and it is no
secret that downtime can be costly to a business due to services not being available to the customers, and loss of
productivity from the team since the team is now focusing on bringing the databases back to optimal availability.
To provide a high-level view, here are the greatest benefits that come from proactive monitoring:
Reduces the need for troubleshooting when a database begins to have performance issues, as proactive monitoring
allows DBAs to correct problems early
DBAs can work on bigger priority business functions as there is no need for the team to be putting out fires when
they occur as the systems become predictable
Database managed service provider gets to know your systems and provides consulting on where improvements
can be made such as consolidations, upgrades, etc.
Health checks are performed so that an awareness of the SQL Server is maintained, and the most critical issues can
be addressed first
Alerting for any crucial issues such as consumption changes; these issues become easy to diagnose and correct to
avoid extended downtime or a slow Server

Essentially, with proactive monitoring from a database managed service provider, a business can free the team from
the task of monitoring and managing which then will allow them to focus on supporting business growth and other
important internal tasks, rather than solving database issues that will arise with only reactive monitoring in place.

SQL Server Metrics Monitored with Database Monitoring and Management

Proactive monitoring and management are not only about putting out fires but can provide insights and metrics that
are important to understanding how your databases are functioning. These metrics are important to have because it
will allow for an establishment and review of baseline performance and a deeper look into the resources being used
by the database.
Here are some of the metrics that are monitored:
1. Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) – determines what is occurring on a particular SQL Server instance
2. Network Traffic and Activity – shows how users are interacting with the Server and are reviewed to look for
issues interfering with the performance
3. Storage – insight into file access, storage capacity and performance, and storage allocation
4. Query Processor – analysis of the queries being processed, the length of time to process, and what
resources are being used

Troubleshoot SQL Server backup failures by using Windows Event Viewer

Common backup types:
 Full database backup: As the name suggests, this is a backup of the whole database as well as parts of the
transaction log. This backup enables you to restore the database from a full backup alone. The Event Viewer
also refers to this backup as a database backup.
 Differential database backup: Based on the most recent full database backup, this backup includes all
changes that you made to the database since the last full backup.
 Log backup: This backup covers the transaction log files, including all logs since the last log backup. Log
backups ensure the least amount of data loss in case of failure.

Access the Event Viewer

The following sections provide instructions for accessing the Event Viewer in different versions of Windows.
Windows Server 2008 R2
Click Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools.
Double-click Event Viewer.
Windows Server 2012
Hover your mouse over the bottom-left corner of the desktop to make the Start button appears.
Right-click Start, select Control Panel -> System Security, and double-click Administrative Tools.
Double-click Event Viewer.
Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016
Right-click Start, select Control Panel -> System & Security, and double-click Administrative Tools.
Double-click Event Viewer.

Locate the event log for backup failure in the Event Viewer
After you access the Event Viewer, use the following steps to review the error logs to establish the cause for the
backup failure:
In the Event Viewer, navigate to Windows Logs -> Application.
On the right-hand side in the Actions menu, navigate to Find.
Type in the name of the database for which the failure occurred, and click Find Next.

Every time you click Find Next, the previous event log for the database displays. Continue clicking Next until you find
the error log, labeled as Error, containing the backup failure. If the error log itself does not include the cause for the
failure, look for logs shortly before or after the error. Refer to the following section, Common reasons for backup
failures, to learn more about the different errors.
If you encounter a log for a successful backup before getting to the failure, you know that a subsequent backup
attempt succeeded. If you want to investigate the root cause for the failure, you can continue until you find the
backup error log and determine the issue.

Common reasons for backup failures:

 No available disk space: The event log entry provides details regarding the drive and file path on which you
attempted the backup. To address this issue, free up disk space.
 Networking issue or invalid file path: When you review the event error log, take note of the physical path
and verify that the location exists on the Server or network share. If you do backups across a network share,
you might have to do more networking troubleshooting.
 Insufficient permissions: The fixed Server role, Sysadmin, and the fixed database
roles, db_owner and db_backupoperator, have BACKUP DATABASE and BACKUP LOG permissions by default.
Permission issues on the backup device’s physical file can interfere with a backup. SQL Server must be able
to read and write to the device, so the account under which the SQL Server service runs needs write
permissions.
 High Server load: The resource usage on the system was high at the time you attempted the backup. Check
for a successful subsequent backup. If the resource usage is still high, open the Task Manager (right-click on
the task bar and select Task Manager) and identify resource-intensive processes under the Processes tab.
 Database recovery model and state: Not all database recovery models allow for all types of backups. Only
databases in the FULL and BULK LOGGED recovery model permit log backups. Databases in the SIMPLE
recovery model cannot perform log backups. The database must be ONLINE to accept backups. Backup
actions do not succeed if a database is in one of the following modes:
 OFFLINE
 EMERGENCY
 SUSPECT
 RECOVERING
 RECOVERY PENDING
 RESTORING
 SINGLE USER mode
Full database backup does not exist: Differential and log backups only succeed if you have taken at least one full
database backup. This error also applies to changes regarding the recovery model of the database. After you switch a
database to a different recovery model, you must take a full database backup to allow for differential and log
backups.

SQL Server Architecture – Terminology

SQL Server Architecture is a very deep subject. Covering it in a single post is an almost impossible task. However, this
subject is very popular topic among beginners and advanced users. I have requested my friend Anil Kumar, who is
expert in SQL Domain to help me write a simple post about Beginning SQL Server Architecture. As stated earlier, this
subject is very deep subject and in this first article series he has covered basic terminologies. In future article he will
explore the subject further down.

The major components of SQL Server are:

 Relational Engine
 Storage Engine
 SQL OS

1) Relational Engine: Also called as the query processor, Relational Engine includes the components of SQL Server
that determine what your query exactly needs to do and the best way to do it. It manages the execution of queries
as it requests data from the storage engine and processes the results returned.
Different Tasks of Relational Engine:
 Query Processing
 Memory Management
 Thread and Task Management
 Buffer Management
 Distributed Query Processing
2) Storage Engine: Storage Engine is responsible for storage and retrieval of the data on to the storage system (Disk,
SAN etc.). to understand more, let’s focus on the concepts.
When we talk about any database in SQL Server, there are 2 types of files that are created at the disk level – Data file
and Log file. Data file physically stores the data in data pages. Log files that are also known as write ahead logs, are
used for storing transactions performed on the database.

Data File: Data File stores data in the form of Data Page (8KB) and these data pages are logically organized in
extents.

Extents: Extents are logical units in the database. They are a combination of 8 data pages i.e. 64 KB forms an extent.
Extents can be of two types, Mixed and Uniform. Mixed extents hold different types of pages like index, system,
data etc (multiple objects). On the other hand, Uniform extents are dedicated to only one type (object).

Pages: As we should know what type of data pages can be stored in SQL Server, below mentioned are some of them:
Data Page: It holds the data entered by the user but not the data which is of type
text, ntext, nvarchar(max), varchar(max), varbinary(max), image and xml data.

Index: It stores the index entries.

Text/Image: It stores LOB ( Large Object data) like text, ntext, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max),
image and xml data.

GAM & SGAM (Global Allocation Map & Shared Global Allocation Map): They are used for saving information related
to the allocation of extents.

PFS (Page Free Space): Information related to page allocation and unused space available on pages.

IAM (Index Allocation Map): Information pertaining to extents that are used by a table or index per allocation unit.

BCM (Bulk Changed Map): Keeps information about the extents changed in a Bulk Operation.

DCM (Differential Change Map): This is the information of extents that have modified since the last BACKUP
DATABASE statement as per allocation unit.
Log File: It also known as write ahead log. It stores modification to the database (DML and DDL).
Sufficient information is logged to be able to:
 Roll back transactions if requested
 Recover the database in case of failure
 Write Ahead Logging is used to create log entries
 Transaction logs are written in chronological order in a circular way
 Truncation policy for logs is based on the recovery model

SQL OS: This lies between the host machine (Windows OS) and SQL Server. All the activities performed on database
engine are taken care of by SQL OS. It is a highly configurable operating system with powerful API (application
programming interface), enabling automatic locality and advanced parallelism. SQL OS provides various operating
system services, such as memory management deals with buffer pool, log buffer and deadlock detection using the
blocking and locking structure. Other services include exception handling, hosting for external components like
Common Language Runtime, CLR etc.

What is blocking and what’s the best way to deal with it?
To deal with reads and writes from multiple inputs in a database, either a read lock or an exclusive lock has to be
applied to a piece of data. To prevent data changes while a person is reading it, a read lock is applied on that data
and, if data needs to be edited, an exclusive lock is used to prevent people from reading the data while it's being
changed.

These two important features of a database result in the intentional blocking of data. Blocking is important for
administrators to understand because it’s a function they may be called upon to use or troubleshoot. Answering this
question also gives you the chance to explain a database issue in simple, clear terms that even people without the
same level of technical expertise can understand.

Example: “Blocking occurs when one connection is holding a lock on a resource while a second connection wants to
read or write to it. An even more complex situation occurs when two connections each hold a lock but want to
access each other’s resource, which is referred to as deadlocking.

Two effective ways of locating and dealing with block issues are:

*The SP_WHO2: This stored procedure will provide you with a list of queries, and any process that is locked will
display the SPID of the process that is causing the block.*

*The DBCC set of commands, and more specifically DBCCINPUTBUFFER, can also be used to trace the “bad query”
that is blocking other processes.*

*SQL Server Management Activity Monitor: This tool can also be used to view processes to find out which ones are
in a blocked state.”*

What is the COALESCE function?

The COALESCE function takes a set of inputs and returns the first non-null value.
Syntax: COALESCE(val1,val2,val3,……,nth val)

Example: SELECT COALESCE(NULL, 1, 2, ‘MYSQL’)

Output:
1

What is wrong with the below-given SQL query?

SELECT gender, AVG(age) FROM employee WHERE AVG(age)>30 GROUP BY gender
When we execute this command, we get the following error:

Msg 147, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

Aggregation may not appear in the WHERE clause unless it is in a subquery contained in a HAVING clause or a select
list, the column being aggregated is an outer reference.

Msg 147, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

Invalid column name ‘gender’.
This basically means that whenever we are working with aggregate functions and we are using GROUP BY, we cannot
use the WHERE clause. Therefore, instead of the WHERE clause, we should use the HAVING clause.

Also, when we are using the HAVING clause, GROUP BY should come first, and HAVING should come next.
select e_gender, avg(e_age) from employee group by e_gender having avg(e_age)>30

What do you know about the stuff() function?

The stuff function deletes a part of the string and then inserts another part into the string starting at a specified
position.

Syntax:
STUFF(String1, Position, Length, String2)
Here, String1 is the one that would be overwritten. Position indicates the starting location for overwriting the string.
Length is the length of the substitute string, and String2 is the string that would overwrite String1.

Example:
select stuff(‘SQL Tutorial’,1,3,’Python’)
This will change ‘SQL Tutorial’ to ‘Python Tutorial’

Output:
Python Tutorial
What are Views? Give an example.
Views are virtual tables used to limit the tables that we want to display, and these are nothing but the result of a SQL
statement that has a name associated with it. Since views are not physically present, they take less space to store.
Let’s consider an example. In the below employee table, say, we want to perform multiple operations on the records
with gender ‘Female’. We can create a view-only table for the female employees from the entire employee table.
Now, let’s implement it on SQL Server.
Below is our employee table:
select * from employee

Now, we will write the syntax for view.

Syntax:
create view female_employee as select * from employee where e_gender=’Female’
select * from female_employee
Output:

What are the types of views in SQL?

In SQL, the views are classified into four types. They are:
 Simple View
A view that is based on a single table and does not have a GROUP BY clause or other features.
 Complex View
A complex view is one that is built from several tables and includes a GROUP BY clause as well as functions.
 Inline View: A view that is built on a subquery in the FROM Clause, which provides a temporary table and
simplifies a complicated query.
 Materialized View: A view that saves both the definition and the details. It builds data replicas by physically
preserving them.

Explain the difference between OLTP and OLAP.

OLTP: It stands for Online Transaction Processing, and we can consider it to be a category of software applications
that is efficient for supporting transaction-oriented programs. One of the important attributes of the OLTP system is
its potential to keep up the consistency. The OLTP system often follows decentralized planning to keep away from
single points of failure. This system is generally designed for a large audience of end-users to perform short
transactions. Also, queries involved in such databases are generally simple, need fast response time, and in
comparison, return only a few records. So, the number of transactions per second acts as an effective measure for
those systems.
OLAP: OLAP stands for Online Analytical Processing, and it is a category of software programs that are identified by a
comparatively lower frequency of online transactions. For OLAP systems, the efficiency of computing depends highly
on the response time. Hence, such systems are generally used for data mining or maintaining aggregated historical
data, and they are usually used in multi-dimensional schemas.

Explain database white box testing and black box testing.

white box test:
 This method mainly deals with the internal structure of a particular database, where users hide specification
details. The white box testing method involves the following:
 As the coding error can be detected by testing the white box, it can eliminate internal errors.
 To check for the consistency of the database, it selects the default table values.
 This method verifies the referential integrity rule.
 It helps perform the module testing of database functions, triggers, views, and SQL queries.

black box test:

 This method generally involves interface testing, followed by database integration. It includes:
 Mapping details
 Verification of the incoming data
 Verification of the outgoing data from the other query functions

What does it mean to normalize a database and why would you do it?
Normalization is the process of organizing data in the most optimized way. This includes creating tables and
establishing relationships between those tables to eliminate redundancy and inconsistant data.
There are rules for database normalization. Each rule is called a “normal form”. If the first rule is observed, the
database is said to be in “first normal form”. If the first three rules are observed, the database is considered to be in
“third normal form”. Although additional levels of normalization are possible, third normal form is considered the
highest level necessary for most applications. If a database adheres to the first rule and the third rule, but is not in
accordance with the second rule, it is still considered in the first normal form.

Benefits of Normalization:
 Minimizes amount of space required to store the data by eliminating redundant data.
 Minimizes the risk of data inconsistencies within a database.
 Minimizes the introduction of possible update and delete anomalies.
 Maximizes the stability of the data structure.

What is denormalization?
Denormalization is the opposite of normalization process. It is deliberately introducing redundancy into a table
design. In some situation, redundancy helps query performance as the number of joins can be reduced, and some
calculated values can be kept in a column reducing the overhead of doing calculations with every query. An example
of denormalization is a database that stores the quartely sales figures for each item as a separate piece of data. This
approach is often used in data warehouse or in on-line analytical processing applications.

How can I detect whether a given connection is blocked?

A connection is blocked when it requires an object that another connection is using and has a lock on. One way is to
use SQL Enterprise; Click on Node Management to expand it, then expand Current Activity by clicking on it, then click
on Locks. Once you will click on Lock/Process ID, it will show all the Locks on the right hand side window.

You are testing the performance of a query. The first time you run the query, the performance is slow. The second
time you run the query, the performance is fast. Why is this?
The second query is faster bacause SQL Server caches the data, and keeps the query plans in memory.

What you can do to remove data from the cache and query plans from memory for testing the performance of a
query repeatedly?
If you want to run your query and test its performance under the same circumstances each time, use command
DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS after each run to remove the data from the memory and DBCC FREEPROCCACHE to
remove the query plans from the memory.
How can you fix a poorly performing query?
Some general issues that would cause a query to perform poorly that you could talk about would be: no indexes,
table scans, missing or out of date statistics, blocking, excess recompilations of stored procedures, having
procedures and triggers without the SET NOCOUNT ON directive, unnecessarily complicated joins, excessive
normalization of the database, or inappropriate or unnecessary usage of cursors and temporary tables.
Some of the tools and techniques that help you troubleshoot performance problems are: SET SHOWPLAN_ALL ON,
SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT ON, SET STATISTICS IO ON, SQL Server Profiler, Windows NT /2000 Performance monitor, and
the graphical execution plan in Query Analyzer.

In which database can extended stored procedures be added?

Extended stored procedures can only be added to the master database. In SQL Enterprise Manager, the master
database must be selected to activate the extended stored procedures option. Only a person in the sysadmin role
can add extended stored procedures.
Extended stored procedures may also be installed via sp_addextendedproc, which will register the procedure in the
master database.

Where are full-text indexes stored?

Full-text indexes are stored in the Server’s file system. Regular SQL indexes are stored in the database in which they
are defined.

How many full-text indexes can a table have?

One. Each table can have only one full-text index. Each table can have several regular SQL indexes.

Indexes are updated automatically. Is the full-text index also updated automatically?
No. Full-text indexes are not updated automatically.

How is a full-text index updated?

Full-text indexes are not updated automatically. The stored procedure sp_fulltext_catalog must be run to update the
full-text indexes. Regular SQL indexes are updated automatically as data is modified.
Full-text indexes are grouped into a catalog of full-text indexes for the database in which the index is defined.
Regular SQL indexes are not grouped.
Full-text indexes are created, managed, and dropped via stored procedures.

Can a table be moved to different Filegroup?

Once a table is created it cannot be moved to a different file group.

Can a database be shrunk to 0 Bytes, if not, why?

A database cannot be shrunk smaller than the Model system database, which starts at 1.5 MB.

You have a table with close to 100 million records. Recently, a huge amount of this data was updated. Now,
various queries against this table have slowed down considerably. What is the quickest option to remedy the
situation?
Run the UPDATE STATISTICS command.
UPDATE STATISTICS will update the statistics for the table. The sp_updatestats stored procedure will update all the
tables in the database, which is not required in the situation. There is no need to recreate the index, as the updating
statistics should be first step to see the query reached to the optimized level of speed.
Once the statistics have been updated, the query analyzer will be able to make better decisions about which index to
use.
If Auto update Statitics is on, then you don’t have to do any of this.

You have developed an application which uses many stored procedures and triggers to update various tables.
Users ocassionally get locking problems. Which tool is best suited to help you diagnose the problem?
SQL Server Profiler. Use SQL Server Profiler with a trace to observe Lock conflicts.

Which table keeps the locking information?

SysLockInfo contains information on all granted, converting, and waiting lock requests. This table is a denormalized
tabular view of internal data structures of the lock manager and is stored only in the master database.
What is the difference between a fill factor of 100 and 0?
The fill factor value is a percentage from 0 to 100 that specifies how much to fill the data pages after the index is
created. A value of 100 means the pages will be full and will take the least amount of storage space. This setting
should be used only when there will be no changes to the data, for example, on a read-only table. A lower value
leaves more empty space on the data pages, which reduces the need to split data pages as indexes grow but requires
more storage space. This setting is more appropriate when there will be changes to the data in the table. A value of 0
behaves like 100 but leaves some extra space in the upper level of the data tree.

How will you know when statistics on a table are obsolete?

Looking at the query plan and look at the numbers for ‘Estimated Row count’ and ‘Row Count’, if the difference is
very big, say more than double or three times, it means the statistics are obsolete on the table. You should run
update statistics on the table to make the statistics current.

What is Connection Pooling and why it is used in SQL Server?

Connection pooling reduces the number of times that new connections must be opened. The pooler maintains
ownership of the physical connection. It manages connections by keeping alive a set of active connections for each
given connection configuration.

For performance, for application stability, for avoiding exhaustion of database connection pools, and more. For
example, in order to establish a single database connection from a C# program to a SQL Server instance, there is a
series of steps that takes place in the background. These steps can include: establishing the actual network
connection to a physical channel (i.e. a TCP/IP socket/port), the initial handshake between the source and the
destination, the parsing of connection string information, database Server authentication, authorization checks, and
much more.

Now, imagine having an application opening and closing database connections all the time (or even worse; not
closing the database connections), without reusing at least some of the already cached database connection pools.
In some cases, this could be a situation that would lead to an exhaustion of database connection pools, and
consequently would possibly lead to an application crash (if not proper exception handling is in place).

The connection pooler removes connections from the pool after they have been idle for a few minutes, or in the case
where they are no longer connected to SQL Server. Connection pooling is very useful. Even though it works
automatically in the background in .NET, it is also indirectly depended on the quality of data access code we write.
Always try to reuse connection strings as much as possible, as well as close each database connection right after the
database tasks are completed. By applying this practice, you will help connection pooler to handle your database
connection needs faster and more efficiently, by reusing connections from the pool.

Why can there be only one Clustered Index and not more than one?
There can be only one clustered index per table, because the data rows themselves can be stored in only one order.
The only time the data rows in a table are stored in sorted order is when the table contains a clustered index. When
a table has a clustered index, the table is called a clustered table.

Clustered index defines the way in which data is ordered physically on the disk. And there can only be one way in
which you can order the data physically. Hence there can only be one clustered index per table.

Why the Trigger Fires Multiple Times in Single Login?

It depends on the Client tool / data Access component. E.g. SSMS establish on logon several Connection, one for
"Object Explorer" and one for each query Windows. Also it's common to close a connection after each command
finished and open it again for the next command; because of connection pooling this works quite fast. It happens
because multiple SQL Server services are running as well as intellisense is turned on.

Let us verify the above answer.

First, run the following script to create database and logon Audit table.
/* Create Audit Database */
CREATE DATABASE AuditDb
GO
USE AuditDb
GO
/* Create Audit Table */
CREATE TABLE ServerLogonHistory
(SystemUser VARCHAR(512),
DBUser VARCHAR(512),
SPID INT,
LogonTime DATETIME)
GO
/* Create Logon Trigger */
CREATE TRIGGER Tr_ServerLogon
ON ALL SERVER FOR LOGON
AS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO AuditDb.dbo.ServerLogonHistory
SELECT SYSTEM_USER,USER,@@SPID,GETDATE()
END
GO

After that, disable all the other SQL Server Services as delineated in the image below using SQL Server Configuration
Manager.

Next, try to logon to the system only one more time.

Check the audit table again to verify if there is a single entry for single login.
Logon Trigger on All Servers
I was recently working on security auditing for one of my clients. In this project, there was a requirement that all
successful logins in the Servers should be recorded. The solution for this requirement is a breeze! Just create logon
triggers. I created logon trigger on Server to catch all successful windows authentication as well SQL authenticated
solutions. When I was done with this project, I made an interesting observation of executing a logon trigger multiple
times. It was absolutely unexpected for me! As I was logging only once, naturally, I was expecting the entry only
once. However, it did it multiple times on different threads – indeed an eccentric phenomenon at first sight!
Let us first pore over our example.
Create database, table and logon trigger
1 /* Create Audit Database */
2 CREATE DATABASE AuditDb
3 GO
4 USE AuditDb
5 GO
6 /* Create Audit Table */
7 CREATE TABLE ServerLogonHistory
8 (SystemUser VARCHAR(512),
9 DBUser VARCHAR(512),
10 SPID INT,
11 LogonTime DATETIME)
12 GO
13 /* Create Logon Trigger */
14 CREATE TRIGGER Tr_ServerLogon
15 ON ALL SERVER FOR LOGON
16 AS
17 BEGIN
18 INSERT INTO AuditDb.dbo.ServerLogonHistory
19 SELECT SYSTEM_USER,USER,@@SPID,GETDATE()
20 END
21 GO
Login using SQL Authentication and check audit table

Login using Windows Authentication and check audit table

The above example clearly demonstrates that there are multiple entries in the Audit table. Also, on close observation
it is evident that there are multiple process IDs as well. Based on these two observations I can come to one
conclusion. Similar actions like login to the Server took place multiple times.

How to Enable/Disable Indexes in SQL Server.

Click the plus sign to expand the Indexes folder. Right-click the index you want to enable and select Rebuild. In the
Rebuild Indexes dialog box, verify that the correct index is in the Indexes to rebuild grid and click OK.
Many times I have seen that the index is disabled when there is large update operation on the table. Bulk insert of
very large file updates in any table using SSIS is usually preceded by disabling the index and followed by enabling the
index. I have seen many developers running the following query to disable the index.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
----Diable Index
ALTER INDEX [IX_StoreContact_ContactTypeID] ON Sales.StoreContact DISABLE
GO
While enabling the same index, I have seen developers using the following INCORRECT syntax, which results in error.
USE AdventureWorks
GO
----INCORRECT Syntax Index
ALTER INDEX [IX_StoreContact_ContactTypeID] ON Sales.StoreContact ENABLE
GO
Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 1
Incorrect syntax near ‘ENABLE’.
This is because once the index is disabled, it cannot be enabled, but it must be rebuilt. The following syntax will
enable and rebuild the index with optimal performance.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
----Enable Index
ALTER INDEX [IX_StoreContact_ContactTypeID] ON Sales.StoreContact REBUILD
GO

I hope that now you have understood why enabling this syntax in the index throws an error and also how to enable
an index with optimal performance.

Disable an Index using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

You can also disable an index form Index Properties dialog box
Click Options under Select a page, column and uncheck Use index option as shown below

Enable Index using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

In Object Explorer expands the database by clicking on the plus sign until you get
the IX_Address_StateProvinceID index. Then right click on the IX_Address_StateProvinceID and from the drop
down list select Rebuild. Click OK on Rebuild Indexes dialog box, to enable the index
You can also enable an index form Index Properties dialog box
Click Options under Select a page, column and check Use index option as shown below

Explain intelliSense for query editing in SQL Server?

IntelliSense for SQL Server Management Studio which was first introduced in SQL 2008 is an intelligent code
completion mechanism which increases development productivity by making code snippets, definitions and syntax
checking available to you without having to leave the editor.
In SQL Server 2008, Microsoft had introduced IntelliSense feature in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). As a
Developer or as a DBA you may face issues with IntelliSense feature not to be working or not displaying latest
scheme changes when you are writing TSQL code within the Query Window of SQL Server Management Studio
(SSMS). In this tip, we will take a look at the steps you can follow to quickly enable and refresh IntelliSense in SSMS
to resolve this issue of IntelliSense not displaying the latest schema changes.

What is IntelliSense feature and how it can help?

IntelliSense feature reads internal metadata and lists all of the available objects and its properties, thereby helping
Database Developers, DBAs effectively and quickly write TSQL scripts.
However, there are certain occasions when the IntelliSense feature in SSMS doesn’t work. During such scenarios,
one can follow the below-mentioned steps to refresh the IntelliSense feature of SQL Server Management Studio
(SSMS). The fix mentioned in this article is applicable for SSMS 2008 and higher versions.
How to Enable IntelliSense Feature in SSMS
Open SSMS, click Tools -> Options -> Expand Text Editor -> Expand Transact-SQL and click on IntelliSense as shown
in the snippet below. Under Transact-SQL IntelliSense Settings ensure “Enable IntelliSense” checkbox is enabled.

How to Verify Whether IntelliSense Feature is enabled in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS )
One can verify whether IntelliSense feature is enabled in SSMS click on Query menu and see whether “IntelliSense
Enabled” as highlighted in the snippet below.

How to Refresh IntelliSense feature to view Latest Schema Changes in SSMS

If you are unable to see the latest scheme changes using IntelliSense feature, then you can refresh it using the
following method. This method will help you Troubleshoot IntelliSense in SQL Server Management Studio.
Open New Query Window -> Go to Edit -> Expand IntelliSense -> Click Refresh Local Cache or press the shortcut
key (CTRL + SHIFT + R) to refresh the local cache as shown in the snippet below.
There are a couple of different symptoms that can lead you to believe that IntelliSense is "not working." One is
where the IntelliSense features (auto-complete / list members / tool-tips / underlining invalid references) do not
function at all. Another is where the completion list appears, but it does not contain the object(s) you're trying to
use.

IntelliSense does not function at all

There are several potential reasons why IntelliSense may not be working at all; some are more obvious than others.
Make sure that IntelliSense is enabled for Management Studio under Tools > Options > Text Editor > Transact-SQL >
IntelliSense:

Make sure that IntelliSense is enabled for the current query window by checking the Query > IntelliSense Enabled
menu option (it should be enabled):

...or by checking that the toolbar icon is enabled:

Since IntelliSense does not work in SQLCMD mode, ensure that you haven't enabled this by checking the Query >
SQLCMD Mode menu option (it should NOT be enabled):
Explain Query Editor Regions
SSMSBoost adds the possibility to use common regions syntax in SQL Editor:
--#region [Name]
--#endregion

Regions will be recognized and processed by our add-in and expand/collapse symbols will be placed near a region
head.
Regions functionality is available at SSMSBoost->Query->Regions:
This feature exists in many programming languages already, but now it is newly introduced in SSMS 2008. The
reason I am highlighting this feature is because there are cases when T-SQL code is longer than hundreds of lines and
after a while it keeps on getting confusing.
The regions are defined by the following hierarchy:

From first GO command to next GO command.

Statements between BEGIN – END, BEGIN TRY – END TRY, BEGIN CATCH – END CATCH
Multiline statements
In the following code snippet I have reported an example which has five coding regions (you can find it in the sample
code for this article). I have made a small comment besides them describing their region type.

1 CREATE PROCEDURE MyTest -- Region Type 1

2 AS
3 BEGIN --Region Type 2
4 SELECT 1
5 BEGIN -- Region Type 2
6 SELECT 2;
7 SELECT * -- Region Type 3
8 FROM sys.objects;
9 SELECT * -- Region Type 3
10 FROM sys.columns;
11 SELECT 3;
12 END
13 END
14 GO
Regions can be collapsed as well as expanded by clicking the small sign of ‘-’ or ‘+’ besides them. The following image
shows a fully expanded region code snippet and a fully collapsed code snippet.
If there is any single-line statement, it does not qualify for a coding region.

Following commands are available:

Create region creates unnamed region. If you run it with some part of code selected - it will be wrapped into newly
created region.
Create named region creates a region with a name:

If you run it when some part of code is selected - it will be wrapped into a newly created region.
Reparse/Refresh regions forces re-processing of the current document. All regions will be recreated. This can be
necessary if you apply massive changes to the document. Regions are parsed automatically when a script is opened
in the editor.
Make sure you check SSMSBoost->Settings->Regions for fine-tuning options. For example, you can customize
region Start and End markers.
Object Explorer Enhancements:
Object Explorer Detail initially looks the same as the previous version, but when right clicked on the bar with labels it
reveals what it can do. This feature looks the same as the Vista OS folder option but when looked at how it is
implemented for SQL Server data, it is really amazing. The Object Explorer Detail view can be enabled by either going
to Menu >> View >> Object Explorer Detail or pressing F7.

In Object Explorer Detail the new feature is Object Search. Enter any object name in the object search box and the
searched result will be displayed in the same window as Object Explorer Detail.

Additionally, there are new wizards which help you perform several tasks, from a policy management to disk
monitoring. One cool thing is that everything displayed in the object explorer details screen can be right away copied
and pasted into Excel without any formatting issues.

MultiServer Query:
Usually DBA don’t manage only one database; they have many Servers to manage. There are cases when DBA has to
check the status of all the Servers. I have seen one of the DBA who used to manage 400 Servers, writing query using
XML_CMDSHELL where he wanted to find out what the status of full back up on all the Servers was. In one of the
recent consultancy job, when I had to find out if all the three Servers were upgraded with Services Packs (SP), I ran a
query to find version information on all the three instances separately in three windows.
SSMS 2008 has a feature to run a query on different Servers from one query editor window. First of all make sure
that you registered all the Servers under your registered Server. Once they are registered Right Click on Server group
name and click New Query as shown in the image below.
Now in the opened query window run the following query (you can find it in the sample code for this article):
1 SELECT
2 SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') AS Edition,
3 SERVERPROPERTY('ProductLevel') AS ProductLevel,
4 SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') AS ProductVersion
The query above will give the result shown in the image below. Note that we have only three columns in the SELECT
but our output contains four columns. The very first column is the “Server Name” and it is added by SQL Server to
identify rows belonging to a specific Server.

If all of the above Servers are registered with “central Server” – the option which is right below it, other
administrators can also register to those entire Servers by simple registering one central Server.

Difference between Fact Table and Dimension Table

Fact Table:
 A fact table is a primary table in a dimensional model.
 A Fact Table contains
 Measurements/facts
 Foreign key to dimension table
Dimension table:
 A dimension table contains dimensions of a fact.
 They are joined to fact table via a foreign key.
 Dimension tables are de-normalized tables.
 The Dimension Attributes are the various columns in a dimension table
 Dimensions offers descriptive characteristics of the facts with the help of their attributes
 No set limit set for given for number of dimensions
 The dimension can also contain one or more hierarchical relationships
KEY DIFFERENCE
 Fact table contains measurements, metrics, and facts about a business process while the Dimension table is
a companion to the fact table which contains descriptive attributes to be used as query constraining.
 Fact table is located at the center of a star or snowflake schema, whereas the Dimension table is located at
the edges of the star or snowflake schema.
 Fact table is defined by their grain or its most atomic level whereas Dimension table should be wordy,
descriptive, complete, and quality assured.
 Fact table helps to store report labels whereas Dimension table contains detailed data.
 Fact table does not contain a hierarchy whereas the Dimension table contains hierarchies.

DIMENSION MODEL
A dimension model is a database structure technique. The dimensional model contains two entities: Facts and
Dimensions.
The Dimensional model is to optimize the database for the fast retrieval of data.
The center of the star can have one fact table and several associated dimension tables.

FACT TABLE
 The fact table is central in a star or snowflake schema.
 The primary key in the fact table is mapped as foreign keys to dimensions.
 It contains fewer attributes and more records.
 The fact table comes after the dimension table.
 It has a numeric and text data format.
 It is utilized for analysis and reporting.
TYPES OF FACT:-
 A Snapshot Fact Table stores some kind of measurements and is captured against a specific time.
 Cumulative Fact Table describes what has happened over a while.
 The Transaction Fact Table represents an event that occurred at an instantaneous point in time.
DIMENSIONAL TABLE
 The dimensional table is located at the edge of a star or snowflake schema.
 Dimension tables are used to describe dimensions; they contain dimension keys, values, and attributes.
 When we create a dimension, we logically define a structure for our projects.
 The foreign key is mapped to the facts table.
 The dimensional table is in text data format.
TYPES OF DIMENSIONS:-
 Junk Dimensions used to implement the rapidly changing dimension where we can store the attribute that
changes rapidly.
 A Conformed Dimension is shared across multiple data marts.
 A Degenerated Dimension derived from the fact table and does not have its dimension table.
 Role-playing Dimensions are often used for multiple purposes within the same database.
Based on the frequency of data change below represent the types of Dimension tables:-
 Static Dimension values are static and will not change.
 Slowly Changing Dimensions attribute values changes slowly based on the frequency of data change and
historic preservation.
 Rapidly Changing Dimensions attribute values change rapidly.

Logical and physical reads in SQL Server:

Execute SQL statement is a three steps process.

QUERY PLAN
PARSE:
 When we execute the SQL statement firstly SQL engine checks the syntax like compilation error etc.
 After that, It generates the Query Processor Tree. And this query processor fetches to the optimizer.
OPTIMIZE:
 The optimizer takes the data and analyzes the data statistics. It analyzes how many rows on the table? Is
there unique key on the table? etc.
 Thereafter depending on data statistics and query processing tree, it generates estimate plan.
Execute:
 Finally, this estimated plan fetches the SQL engine for execution. After execution, the actual plan is
prepared.
LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL OPERATORS
 The logical operator has a conceptual plan whereas the Physical operator has actual logic.

Display Estimated Execution Plan:

 The estimated plan will provide you how your query will execute on the Server without actually running it.
 This will gives you an idea of whether you need to tune to create a better plan or the estimated plan looks
ok.

Include Actual Execution Plan:

The actual plan shows what actually happened when the Server executed the query.

PHYSICAL AND LOGICAL READ

 SET STATISTICS IO ON statement displays the Physical and Logical reads. It displays statistical information
generated by SQL statement.

 When data read on actual database then it called physical read. When data read on cache then it called
logical read.
 Logical read = page access in memory. Physical read = page access from disk.
 The SQL Server allocates some kind of memory for SQL cache. When we fire SQL statements, again and
again, those records in SQL cache.

Disabling or Enabling SQL Server Agent Jobs

As a portion of our backup and recovery process I need to disabled (or enable) all of our SQL Server Agent Jobs
depending on the situation and the SQL Server instance. I know I can use the GUI to click through and make the
changes, but on a number of our SQL Server instances we have 50+ jobs, so this is a monotonous task. Do you have
any scripts to enable or disable all SQL Server Jobs? What about enabling or disabling all SQL Server Jobs by Job
name or Job Category name?

Solution:
The SQL Server Agent system tables can be updated without setting any sp_configure parameters, or an equivalent
command, as is the case with the Master database. So building a script to meet your needs should be simple and
straightforward. Before we dive into some scripts to address your need, another option to consider is just stopping
or starting the SQL Server Agent service. Since the SQL Server Agent service is responsible for permitting the Jobs to
run in the first place, then stopping and starting this service would also prevent and then enable the Jobs to run. The
one short coming to that approach may be that you might not always have rights to manage the service or that only
specific types of jobs need to be enabled or disabled. As those conditions arise, using the scripts below may be the
best approach.
Disable All SQL Server Agent Jobs
USE MSDB;
GO
UPDATE MSDB.dbo.sysjobs
SET Enabled = 0
WHERE Enabled = 1;
GO

Enable All SQL Server Agent Jobs

USE MSDB;
GO
UPDATE MSDB.dbo.sysjobs
SET Enabled = 1
WHERE Enabled = 0;
GO
Disable Jobs By Job Name
USE MSDB;
GO
UPDATE MSDB.dbo.sysjobs
SET Enabled = 0
WHERE [Name] LIKE 'Admin%';
GO

Next Steps
Depending on your needs and your rights, keep in mind that SQL Server Agent can be stopped to prevent Jobs from
running. When you need them to run based on the schedule simply enable SQL Server Agent and the Jobs should
fire as expected.
SQL Server provide us different system tables those provide us information related to SQL Server objects. For jobs
and schedules we have tables available in MSDB system database.

--Get Information for all SQL Server Agent Jobs

USE msdb
GO
SELECT * FROM dbo.sysjobs

People often make this mistake, they update the enabled column to 0 in sysjobs table. By doing that you will see
graphically the jobs are disabled but job/s will keep running if schedule is enabled. If you want to go by this route,
you have to disable the schedule for job in sysschedules tables as well.

--Wrong Way to disable SQL Server Agent Jobs.

--If Schedule will be enabled, Job will keep Running.
UPDATE dbo.sysjobsSET enabled=1
--Update the related schedule as well if you want to disable by updating sysjobs table
SELECT * FROM dbo.sysschedules

By using the Sp_update_job stored procedure is correct way to enable/disable job. If you use this stored procedure,
you don't have to worry about disabling schedule for the job. Below script can be used to generate disable/enable
script for all the jobs. You simple have to change @enabled=0 to disable and @enabled=1 in below script.

--Right Way to Disable/Enable Jobs. Generate Scripts for Enable/Disable

SELECT 'EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_name = ''' + name + N''', @enabled = 1;'

FROM dbo.sysjobs

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