Blogs

Jer and Kendar Explore Optimized Locking

By Kendra Little on September 4, 2023 • 1 min read

Category: query-performance , sql-server , azure-sql

🔥 UPDATE (November 2025): Microsoft has introduced optimized locking v2 with significant improvements. The new version includes Skip Index Locks (SIL) and Query Plan LAQ Feedback Persistence, which further reduce lock overhead. The improvements are most pronounced for nonclustered indexes. Optimized locking v2 is available in SQL Server 2025 and Azure SQL.

SQL Server has a new feature that’s currently only available in Azure SQL Database: Optimized Locking.

Jeremiah Peschka joins Kendra (aka Kendar) to talk through the docs and nerd out on locks, blocks, and how to pronounce the acronym “LAQ”.

Prefer to explore optimized locking with a diagram? I’ve also got a little sketchnote for ya.

Dear SQL DBA - Advice for Technical Leaders with Alex Robson

By Kendra Little on August 31, 2023 • 2 min read

Category: career

Tags: dear-sql-dba , alex-robson , leadership

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a VP or Director of Engineering? I chatted with Alex Robson about leadership in technology, what you can get out of coaching or an MBA program (should you be interested), and what makes a high performing team.

Alex’s site and blog: https://robsonconsulting.services

Msg 195: STRING_SPLIT Is Not a Recognized Built-In Function Name

By Kendra Little on August 25, 2023 • 4 min read

Category: tsql-programming , sql-server

Tags: string-split , table-valued-functions , compatibility-level , cross-apply , outer-apply , functions

Yesterday, I was writing some Transact SQL to dust off the cobwebs. I got confused when I was playing around with the STRING_SPLIT function, and kept getting the error:

Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 2
'STRING_SPLIT' is not a recognized built-in function name.

I checked my database compatibility level, which must be 130 or higher for the function to be available. My database compatibility level was 160, so that was fine.

Dear SQL DBA - Performance Tuning with Erik Darling

By Kendra Little on August 18, 2023 • 1 min read

Category: query-performance , sql-server

Tags: dear-sql-dba , erik-darling

SQL Server performance tuning expert Erik Darling joins the podcast today to chat about how good queries can go bad and how bad queries can get better.

He also answers the question on everyone’s mind: if he was a database, what database would he be?

What To Do When They Are Sure It Was The Database... All The Time

By Kendra Little on August 15, 2023 • 3 min read

Category: database-administration , career

Tags: monitoring , troubleshooting , leadership

It can be tiring to have the database constantly be the Prime Suspect for performance problems.

I’ve had many variations of this conversation over the years:

“Something happened, and we’re pretty sure it was the database. Again.”

Dear SQL DBA: Tech Interviews in 2023 With Jeremiah Peschka

By Kendra Little on August 11, 2023 • 1 min read

Category: career

Tags: dear-sql-dba , jeremiah-peschka , interviewing

Tech interviews are weird and wacky. How did they get this way, and how SHOULD they be? Jeremiah Peschka joins us to discuss.

Database DevOps Core Concepts: Migration Scripts

By Kendra Little on August 9, 2023 • 6 min read

Category: devops-automation

Tags: migration-scripts , version-control , flyway , liquibase , ci-cd

Database migration scripts are a popular and effective way to check database code into version control.

In this post I describe the most common features of popular migration script runners for database code deployment, along with the top gotchas that folks hit when versioning their database code with migrations.