Presenting a workshop at PASS Summit West in Seattle!
I’m excited to be presenting at the Pass Summit in November! My pre-con workshop is my absolute favorite […]
sqlskills.com - paul randall
Summer Sale: $699 Blackbelt Bundle!
Summer Sale time! Hundreds of dollars lower-than-ever prices on our signature 158-hour Blackbelt training bundle: US$699 for one-year […]
The SQL Server Transaction Log, Part 4: Log Records
(This post first appeared on SQLperformance.com four years ago as part of a blog series, before that website […]
SQL101: Application data consistency checking
It’s quite common for a company that experiences a corruption-causing disaster, but has no valid backups to restore […]
SQL101: Phishing attacks
I thought it was bad previously, but in 2026 I’ve noticed a big rise in emails trying to […]
SQL101: Top Ten SQL Server Performance Tuning Best Practices
There are a huge number of best practices around SQL Server performance tuning – I could easily write […]
The Curious Case of… no buffer pool memory and no ...
Jonathan had a client issue recently where SQL Server’s buffer pool had been forced down to a ridiculously […]
The SQL Server Transaction Log, Part 3: The Circular Nature ...
(This post first appeared on SQLperformance.com four years ago as part of a blog series, before that website […]
SQL101: Indexing Strategies for SQL Server Performance
One of the easiest ways to increase query performance in SQL Server is to make sure that it […]
March Madness: $699 Blackbelt Bundle!
Spring is already in the air here in Redmond so time for March Madness! Hundreds of dollars lower-than-ever […]
The Curious Case of… finding long IAM chains
In the previous Curious Case I described an issue Jonathan had at a client with very long IAM […]
SQL101: Introduction to SQL Server Transactions
(The original version of this post first appeared on the now-deleted SentryOne blog at the start of 2022.) […]
The SQL Server Transaction Log, Part 2: Log Architecture
(This post first appeared on SQLperformance.com four years ago as part of a blog series, before that website […]
Achievement Unlocked: One Year Sober
(This is from the Insider Newsletter that I sent out earlier today…) Back in early 2023 I wrote […]
The Curious Case of… occasional query failure on a tiny ...
This is a case that happened on a client system last year: occasionally a common query on a […]
New course and bundle: SQL Server 2025 Vector Search in ...
(TL;DR; Video trailer for the new course is here.) Joe’s next course, AIVSP: Vector Search in Practice, is now […]
The SQL Server Transaction Log, Part 1: Logging Basics
(This post first appeared on SQLperformance.com four years ago as part of a blog series, before that website […]
2024: the year in books
Back in 2009 I started posting a summary at the end of the year of what I read […]
2023 (not a typo!): the year in books
(Yes, this is for last year!) Back in 2009 I started posting a summary at the end of […]
Black Friday Super Sale!
It’s the time of year again where companies do crazy sales on the day after Thanksgiving in the […]
Summer School Savings SALE is live!
Happy Fourth of July to all who celebrate! I’m looking forward to a great view Thursday evening looking […]
The Curious Case of… missing log information
(The Curious Case of… used to be part of our bi-weekly newsletter but we decided to make it a regular blog post […]