SysInternals Tools

Sysinternals Suite :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/0e18b180-9b7a-4c49-8120-c47c5a693683.aspx

Includes:

BGInfo – displays configuration, such as its name, IP address, or operating system version as a desktop wallpaper

ZoomIt – screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations

ProcessExplorer – displays which program has a particular file or directory open

Free SQL Server Tools

Mladen Prajdić has compiled a list of free SQL Server tools, some of which I use personally. Visit his site, as he continuously updates the list – http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp/archive/2007/11/20/Free-SQL-Server-tools-that-might-make-your-life-a.aspx.

Thanks Mladen!

Operations That Heavily Stress Out TempDB/SQL Server

Operations that heavily stress out tempdb

Excerpt:

These operations heavily use tempdb:
• Repeated create and drop of temporary tables (local or global). 
• Table variables that use tempdb for storage purposes.
• Work tables associated with CURSORS.
• Work tables associated with an ORDER BY clause.
• Work tables associated with an GROUP BY clause.
• Work files associated with HASH PLANS.

Source:

Concurrency Enhancements for the TempDB database
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328551

Diagnostic Information Queries for SQL Server 2005/2008

Glen Berry posted a collection of queries that can be used in diagnosing SQL Server 2005/2008 metrics/counters.

Excerpt:
"… small collection of queries that can be used to gather a wealth of very useful information about a SQL Server 2005/2008 instance, and about any specific database on that instance.  These queries will tell you the exact version and edition of SQL Server, whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit, the OS version, and some information about the CPUs and memory in the server.  They will also reveal how many databases are present, their recovery models and file layouts.  We also find out what the top wait stats are, along with Page Life Expectancy (PLE) …"

You can find the full post and script here:

http://glennberrysqlperformance.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!45041418ECCAA960!990.entry

Indispensible MySQL Resources

Doug Bromley of Straw Dogs have posted 20 Indispensible MySQL Resources, which include

• SQLYog
• phpMyAdmin

In addition, the following tools are in my MySQL toolbox if I am wearing my MySQL DBA hat on:

• Navicat Lite
• MySQL GUI Tools (Workbench, Query Browser, Migration Toolkit, Administrator)
• Toad for MySQL
• Toad Data Modeler
• DBDesigner

Learning SQLXML on SQL Server 2005 – series of tutorials

Leaning how to manipulate XML in SQL Server 2005? You have to read

Jacob Sebastian’s XQuery Labs (http://www.sqlserverandxml.com/search/label/XQuery%20Lab)

Jacob has done a wonderful job compiling common how-to’s when working with SQLXML. Must read for anyone wanting to move faster with SQLXML.