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Decoding sql_handle

February 29, 2016 Andy 0

If you’ve ever looked at sys.sysprocesses or sys.dm_exec_requests (or a number of other DMVs), you’ve noticed there is a column called “sql_handle” that contains some binary gobbledygook. Books Online gives the (un)helpful definition as “Hash map of the SQL text of the request.” sp_WhoIsActive In … [Read More]

Data Compression: How page compression works

February 22, 2016 Andy 1

SQL Server supports two kinds of data compression on rowstore data. Columnstore compression is for a different day. You can compress heaps, clustered indexes (on both tables and views), and nonclustered indexes (on both tables and views). Compression requirements Data compression is available in SQL … [Read More]

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xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs alternative

February 18, 2016 Andy 3

What’s xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs? If you landed on this post, I’m guessing you know the answer to this, so I’ll be quick. xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs is an undocumented (and thus, unsupported) extended procedure that gives information on whether a job is currently running, when it last ran, when it runs … [Read More]

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Data Compression: How row compression works

February 15, 2016 Andy 3

SQL Server supports two kinds of data compression on rowstore data. Columnstore compression is for a different day. You can compress heaps, clustered indexes (on both tables and views), and nonclustered indexes (on both tables and views). Compression requirements Data compression is available in SQL … [Read More]