Category: SQL Server Internals

• Where are my Rows? – Using the %%physloc%% Virtual Column

  

  2014-06-25 - DMVs & CVs, General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  Sometimes it is helpful to know on which page exactly SQL Server has stored a particular row. You can use the undocumented %%physloc%% virtual column, together with its supporting functions sys.fn_PhysLocFormatter and sys.fn_PhysLocCracker, to find out.

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• B+Trees – How SQL Server Indexes are Stored on Disk

  

  2014-06-18 - General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  How does SQL Server organize clustered and non-clustered indexes on disk? SQL server uses B+Trees. Read on to find out what B+Trees are and how they are implemented in SQL Server.

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• The Server Configuration Page

  

  2014-06-11 - DMVs & CVs, General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  The Server Configuration Page is the place where SQL Server stores its configuration values (sp_configure). It is of a special page type that is found only once per SQL Server instance. Read on to get all the details.

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• The Secret of the Database Boot Page

  

  2014-05-28 - General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  The database boot page contains database settings and configuration values. Read on to discover where to find this page and how to interpret its content.

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• DBCC FILEHEADER: Reading the File Header Page

  

  2014-05-21 - General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  Every SQL Server database file has a dedicated file header page. Read on to discover how to use DBCC FILEHEADER to explore the header of your database files and learn about the one property of file header pages that might just affect your backup and restore strategy.

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