Index Design Guide Updated: Index Types, B+ Trees, and Row Locators, Oh My

We’ve recently updated the SQL Server and Azure SQL index architecture and design guide. This article is an in-depth guide to indexing in databases using the SQL Server engine, including SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and Azure Synapse Analytics.

Our recent update adds a table to categorize the types of indexes discussed in the article, clarifies B-trees vs B+ trees, and describes how row locators (aka “secret columns”) are used in nonclustered indexes.

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Workers vs. Requests in Azure SQL Database

We now explicitly define ‘requests’ and ‘workers’ in the Azure SQL Database documentation, and we’ve cleaned up multiple places where we used to equate the two terms. In this post, I share the history of the two terms when it comes to Azure SQL Database, why the two were ever equated, and why things like this are tricky to change.

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What I Learned Writing About How to Diagnose and Troubleshoot High CPU in Azure SQL Database

Writing helps me learn. In my job as a Content Developer, this is more true than ever: there’s a fantastic group of folks, both in the Database Docs team and in the Microsoft Data Platform engineering team, who review and contribute to content.

I’ve just had the pleasure of publishing my first new article in the Microsoft Docs, Diagnose and troubleshoot high CPU on Azure SQL Database.

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Addressing the Rumors That I Have Been Removed from the MVP Program

I’d like to openly and honestly answer the rumors that I have been removed from the Microsoft MVP program.

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How to Spell and Capitalize tempdb for SQL Server

No matter what I write in this post, some of y’all are going to tell me I’m wrong. That’s inevitable, because I’m writing about tempdb: a database so complex and mysterious in SQL Server, that even the spelling and capitalization of the database name is a topic of great disagreement.

Note: Nearly Everyone Has Been Inconsistent About This

You might think, “This is easy, just check Microsoft’s documentation to find the answer.”

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I laughed, I cried, it was better than CATS: The Fast Track Data Warehouse 3.0 Reference Guide

You know what’s crazy?

A comprehensive, technical, well thought-out, and ENJOYABLE document. One written with the occasional interesting diagram and a reasonable use of acronyms, with effective tables and practical advice. A document that’s written for a human being which has helpful links to supporting documentation, but still makes you think.

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