By What if there was a way to see a graphical timeline of your SQL Server Agent jobs? There is! It’s called SQLjobvis (short for SQL Job Visualizer), and it’s FREE! Cool Features This lightweight app color-codes jobs based on their outcome (green for success, red for failure, blue for currently executing). You
CXPACKET Waits and High CPU Usage
Photo by Sarah Klockars-Clauser Scenario Your SQL box has consistently high CPU usage, possibly pegged at 100%. You look at your favorite DMV or (god forbid) Activity Monitor and see one or more active queries with a CXPACKET wait type. What do you do??? (Try not to Google it.) Solution I specifically
Failing Backups and FlushFileBuffers
SQL Server can be a finicky beast. Powerful, robust, ACID-compliant — yes, of course, we all love SQL Server, but it can be a bit sensitive. Once upon a time, my database backups were failing, and perhaps yours are too. The following message in SQL Server’s error log was my only clue: Executing the