SQL Server Settings

As database administrators, we want to get as much performance as we can out of our SQL Servers.  Microsoft has provided a few knobs for us to tweak in the Operating System, the local security policy, and in the engine itself and in episode 50 of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, we review some of these SQL Server settings and how you might take advantage of some and avoid others.

My guest today is Justin Randall, the professional services manager at SQL Sentry.  As someone who is going into many environments he has seen some of these knobs be used wisely and some not so wisely.  Justin lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and is a frequent speaker in the SQL Server community.

This episode touches base on the power settings of the server, instant file initialization, max degree of memory, boost SQL Server priority, shrink database and a few others.

I am also happy to announce Steve Stedman is joining me as co-host of the podcast.  Steve was a guest in episode 13 and since that time we have kept up with each other and as I thought about where I wanted to go with the next 50 episodes, I think Steve can help me get there.  We are introducing a new segment on the show called the Tuning Review which is a short conversation between Steve and I centered around performance, disaster recovery, or questions/interactions we have with listeners of the show.