SQL ConstantCare® Population Report: Winter 2026
It’s time for our quarterly update of our SQL ConstantCare® population report, showing how quickly (or slowly) folks […]
brentozar.com
Announcing the 2026 Data Professional Salary Survey Results, And They’re ...
The results are in! You can download the raw data in Excel for all 10 years and do […]
SQLBits Session Voting is Open Now! Wanna See My Sessions ...
I’d love to come over and speak at SQLBits this April, but for that to happen, the organizers […]
New Year’s Task: Quick, Easy Prep for a Raise
You’re busy, so I’ll keep this short. Several months from now, you’re gonna have a salary review. Your […]
Database Development with AI in 2026
This seems like the appropriate first BrentOzar.com blog post in the year 2026, eh? In the PollGab question […]
Are You Looking for Work? Underpaid? Overpaid? Let’s Find Out.
Every year, I run a salary survey to help folks have better discussions with their managers about salaries, […]
Your Favorite Posts From This Year
Reading is fundamental, and fundamentally, here are the 2025 blog posts that y’all read the most this year. […]
Known Issues So Far in SQL Server 2025
Whenever a brand spankin’ new version of any software comes out, there are bugs, and SQL Server is […]
[Video] Office Hours at the Last Spike
I drove the Graffiti Gulf out to The Last Spike (video) outside of Las Vegas and took your […]
Identity Columns Can Have Gaps, and That’s Okay.
Say you’ve got a table with an identity column, something that’s supposed to start at 1 and go […]
Let’s Build a Better KILL. What Do We Need to ...
When there’s a performance emergency, a lot of us perform the same manual tasks over and over. We […]
Watch My Training Classes Offline with the Latest Teachable App
If you’re the kind of person who likes to learn on the go, my training provider Teachable just […]
[Video] Office Hours: Everything’s Gone Wrong Edition
I threw in the towel on my workday at 3PM when everything started going wrong in the Ozar […]
Update: SQL Server 2025’s REGEX Performance Isn’t So Bad!
Back in March 2025 when Microsoft first announced that REGEX support was coming to SQL Server 2025 and […]
How’s the Job Market? Let’s Find Out Together.
Every year, I run a salary survey to help folks have better discussions with their managers about salaries, […]
Act Fast: The Holiday Speed Round Sale Starting at $129
This holiday season, we’re running a sale specifically for fast learners. For record-low prices, get access to my […]
[Video] Office Hours: Fireside Chat Edition
It’s the perfect time of year in Las Vegas when we can chill outside by the fire, enjoy […]
Get ChatGPT’s Advice On Your Queries with sp_BlitzCache.
First off, I understand if you read the headline and you have a knee-jerk reaction. I totally understand […]
Cyber Monday Sale: $49 Fundamentals, $295 Mastering Classes
You’ve been on the nice list, and Santa has a little something special for you under the tree […]
Query Exercise Answer: Generating Big TempDB Spills
In last week’s Query Exercise, I challenged you to play some code golf to generate big spills with […]
Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for November 2025
This quarter’s release includes new checks for SQL Server 2025’s new memory pressure warnings, Azure SQL DB’s operations […]
This Is It! Our Black Friday Sale Ends Sunday.
You work with Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, and Amazon RDS SQL Server. When people call in […]
Functions in the WHERE Clause Are Bad… Right?
Nah, not necessarily. SQL Server’s query optimizer behavior keeps changing with every freakin’ version. Let’s illustrate it with […]
T-SQL Query Exercise: Generate Big Spills
When I was testing SQL Server 2025’s new ability to limit TempDB usage with Resource Governor, I wrote […]
SQL Server 2025 Is Out, and Standard Goes Up to ...
Today marks the official birthday of Microsoft SQL Server 2025. Here’s where to download the evaluation version. Here […]
I Wish SQL Server Had These Four Innovations.
I love SQL Server, and I’m excited for the release of 2025. I think the query processing keeps […]
How to Query JSON Data Quickly in SQL Server, Part ...
SQL Server 2025 and .NET 10 bring several new improvements to storing JSON natively in the database and […]
How to Query JSON Data Quickly in SQL Server, Part ...
Before SQL Server 2025, if you want to store JSON data in Microsoft SQL Server or Azure SQL […]
[Video] Office Hours in Roatan, Honduras
My cruise ship took a detour to Honduras to avoid the hurricane. Let’s hang out on the beach […]
Who’s Hiring Microsoft Data People? November 2025 Edition
Is your company hiring for a database position as of November 2025? Do you wanna work with the […]
Next Week, Start My Mastering Classes for Free!
You’re a developer, database administrator, or DBRE who’s been working with SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, and Amazon […]
Black Friday Doorbusters End Today: Get In Before the Prices ...
Welcome to my annual Black Friday sale, and I’m running special doorbuster deals to sweet talking you into […]
Black Friday Doorbusters Are Open Now, Closing Monday!
You’ve been telling yourself, “One of these days, I’ll finally take Brent’s classes.” Get ready, because that day […]
[Video] Office Hours at Sea
This Office Hours episode comes to you from Virgin Voyages’ newest cruise ship, the Brilliant Lady, sailing through […]
SQL ConstantCare® Population Report: Fall 2025
In this quarter’s update of our SQL ConstantCare® population report, showing how quickly (or slowly) folks adopt new versions […]
The Version Store Won’t Clear If ANY Database Has Open ...
Short story: what the title says. This is especially problematic for folks who merge multiple databases onto the […]
Query Plan Pop Quiz Answers 2 and 3: I’ve Got ...
In the Query Plan Pop Quiz, questions 2 and 3 asked you about what the sizes of arrows […]
TempDB Filling Up? Try Resource Governor.
TempDB is one of the banes of my existence. Anybody, anybody who can query your server can run a […]
Query Plans Pop Quiz Answer #1: Costs are Garbage.
In last week’s Query Plans Pop Quiz, the first question was, someone hands you these two queries and […]
Announcing the 2025 Black Friday and Doorbusters Deals!
You’ve been telling yourself, “One of these days, I’ll finally take Brent’s classes.” Get ready, because that day […]
Announcing Free MASTERING Week 2025!
You’ve been working with SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, or Amazon RDS SQL Server for years. You’re jaded. […]
Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for October 2025
This quarter’s release includes new checks for SQL Server 2025’s new memory pressure warnings, Azure SQL DB’s operations […]
Query Plans Pop Quiz: Three Simple Questions
Question 1: Pick the Problematic Plan: someone hands you a pair of queries, and you get the estimated […]
Free Fundamentals Classes Are Coming Next Week! Register Now.
You’re a developer, analyst, database administrator, or anybody else working with SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, or Amazon […]
Who’s Hiring Microsoft Data People? October 2025 Edition
Is your company hiring for a database position as of October 2025? Do you wanna work with the […]
Which Should You Use: VARCHAR or NVARCHAR?
You’re building a new table or adding a column, and you wanna know which datatype to use: VARCHAR […]
Set MAXDOP in Azure SQL DB or You’ll Get This ...
Max Degrees of Parallelism (MAXDOP) tells the database engine, “If you decide to parallelize a query, go parallel […]
Here Are the YouTube Channels We Both Loved.
Last week, I announced that we’ve hit 50,000 YouTube subscribers, and I celebrated by letting y’all submit your […]
We Hit 50,000 YouTube Subscribers! Let’s Run a Contest.
This is kinda amazing to me: our YouTube channel has broken the 50,000 subscriber mark! That’s wild to […]
Microsoft Now Recommends You Set Max Memory to 75% and ...
Somehow I missed this a few years ago, and I bet a lot of y’all did too. Note […]