Archive for July, 2009

Fun with NEWSEQUENTIALID()

We’re thinking about converting the constrain on an existing column in a table with billions of rows of data.  The column is a uniqueidentifier serving as a nonclustered primary key; we’re planning on replacing the NEWID() constraint to a NEWSEQUENTIALID().  What is challenging me is my concern over primary key collisions; will the new default [...]

July 31, 2009 · stuart · One Comment
Posted in: SQL, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication

SQLSaturday #25 (Gainesville, GA) – No good topic turned away!

I think in my rush to emphasize the hybrid nature of this session of SQLSaturday with its focus on Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Policy, I inadvertently downplayed the fact that this is STILL a SQLSaturday.  If you’re passionate about SQL Server, and you want to share that passion with others, this is a great [...]

July 31, 2009 · stuart · No Comments
Posted in: Conferences, SQLServerPedia Syndication

You CAN teach an old dog….

This is more of a sticky note kind of post, to remind me to use a better syntax in the future.  Maybe it’ll help some of you as well.  A long time ago, when I was starting to write T-SQL, and I needed to extract only the date from a DATETIME column, I used to [...]

July 24, 2009 · stuart · One Comment
Posted in: SQL, SQLServerPedia Syndication

Partitioning computed columns

For a project at work, I’ve been asked to help optimize our ETL process.  Part of that involves taking an existing table, and partitioning it along two existing columns.  Since the partitioning process only supports partitioning on one column, the obvious choice is to use a computed column.  I ran into some issues along the [...]

July 22, 2009 · stuart · No Comments
Posted in: SQL, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication

SQLSaturday #24 & #25 – Oct 9-10, 2009 Gainesville, GA

I’m pushing the envelope again.  I just agreed to help promote another SQLSaturday. AtlantaMDF and Gainesville State College’s Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis are hosting a SQLSaturday.  Well, not just any SQLSaturday; at GSC, Saturday starts on Friday.  Let me try to explain. On Friday, Oct 9, IESA is hosting a student conference to [...]

July 21, 2009 · stuart · No Comments
Posted in: Conferences, SQLServerPedia Syndication

I closed my Facebook account yesterday….

To my friends who have FB accounts, I’m sorry for the abrupt disappearance.  You probably didn’t even notice, given the wads of information you’re processing. BTW, did you see this ad?  I saw it on Facebook.    Sorry for that brief interruption; my brain gets like that lately.  Scattered, random bits of information keep popping [...]

July 20, 2009 · stuart · No Comments
Posted in: SQLServerPedia Syndication, The Social Web

Quick Tip: TempDB on a multi-core SQL Server box

Just learned this today from one of the Microsoft support reps reviewing our SQL Server 2008 box for performance optimizations: if you are running SQL Server on a multi-core box, you should set up tempdb to have as many data files as there are physical CPU’s (up to a reasonable limit).  These files should also [...]

July 9, 2009 · stuart · One Comment
Posted in: SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication