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Hidden Risks in SQL Agent Job Logging: How Retry Settings Can Compromise Your Logs

In many SQL Server environments, DBAs configure SQL Agent jobs with retry attempts (which is a smart move to handle transient issues gracefully). But with it comes a hidden pitfall that often goes unnoticed:

Retry-enabled job steps can silently overwrite logs or cause runaway log growth, depending on how the output file is configured.

The culprit? Improper use of append settings and missing time-based tokens in output file paths.

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Resolving and Preventing Deadlocks in SQL Server

Deadlocks in SQL Server can be frustrating and can cause significant performance and reliability issues. A deadlock occurs when two or more transactions are waiting for each other to release a lock on a resource, resulting in a situation where no transaction can proceed, and eventually, one of them is automatically killed and rolled back. This can happen when two transactions try to access the same data in a different order or when one transaction holds a lock on a resource while waiting for a lock held by another transaction. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to troubleshoot and prevent deadlocks in SQL Server.

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Incremental Integrity Check for Large Databases

Traditional database integrity checks in SQL Server can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially for large databases, even when using super cool tools like Ola Hallengren’s maintenance solution.

To address this challenge, I developed a TSQL script for performing incremental integrity checks, which significantly optimizes the process and reduces its impact on the server.

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SQL Server Index Mastery: Choosing the Right Column Order

It’s been a while since my last post about SQL Server performance optimization. This one focuses on index design and how the order of columns in your indexes can make or break your database queries. Using my insights from real-world consulting experience, this guide should help you understand the critical decisions that would impact your database performance.

How does SQL Server decide where to look first when executing a query? The answer lies in the structure of your indexes. Learn how the sequence of key columns can optimize your data retrieval, making your database faster and more responsive.

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Understanding ‘ALTER TABLE SWITCH statement failed’ errors 4907, 4908, and 4912

Recently we’ve encountered an interesting use case for a customer.

They had a table with partitioning that they needed to be archived (with the help of said partitioning), but the ALTER TABLE SWITCH commands were failing with a peculiar error:

Error 4907, ‘ALTER TABLE SWITCH’ statement failed. The table ‘MyDB.dbo.PrtTable1’ has 4 partitions while index ‘IX1’ has 6 partitions.

This prompted some insightful research into some of the validations done by SQL Server behind the scenes when executing an ALTER TABLE SWITCH command.

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Solving the Latch Convoy Problem with OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY in SQL Server 2019

Have you ever come across an elusive SQL Server issue known as the “Latch Convoy Problem” or “Last Page Insert Contention”? It’s a rare and challenging problem to encounter in real-world scenarios. In fact, it’s so uncommon that many database professionals may go their entire careers without experiencing it firsthand. But sometimes, the unexpected happens, and you find yourself face to face with this elusive beast.