The art of SQL Server query tuning and execution plans (with Hugo Kornelis)

Let's talk about query tuning and execution plans.

Tell me, what's the most common problem that you see still? Because I know that you do a lot of work in this area.

What's the most common problem you see that you're like, holy crap, didn't we fix this 20 years ago?

Jeez, that's a difficult question because I...

I tend to get called in by clients that do not have any of the standard problems.

Okay.

And if I think back of the last few times I had to fix actual customer issues, which has been spread out over a few years because due to my illness, I haven't been able to work much.

The times I did actually have to investigate a problem, it always ended up being something that surprised me.

OK, it's never in the never is a big word, but it's often not in the set of standard things that I look at first.

So I guess kudos for my clients.

They are not people who have not read my website first.

They have investigated.

They have studied.

They know execution plans.

They know typical things.

And then it still doesn't work.

And that's when they call me.

And I like that because I like a challenge.

I can tell you it always triggers my imposter syndrome hard.

And I always get nervous.

What if I don't find the issue this time? And when it's not on the standard list of the things I try in the first two or three days, that nerves go up.

But so far, fingers crossed, I have always been able to find what the actual root cause was.

And at times that was fairly surprising.

Oh, cool.

Well, I mean, that's fun because I'm the opposite.

Let's talk about query tuning and execution plans.

Tell me, what's the most common problem that you see still? Because I know that you do a lot of work in this area.

What's the most common problem you see that you're like, holy crap, didn't we fix this 20 years ago?

Jeez, that's a difficult question because I...

I tend to get called in by clients that do not have any of the standard problems.

Okay.

And if I think back of the last few times I had to fix actual customer issues, which has been spread out over a few years because due to my illness, I haven't been able to work much.

The times I did actually have to investigate a problem, it always ended up being something that surprised me.

OK, it's never in the never is a big word, but it's often not in the set of standard things that I look at first.

So I guess kudos for my clients.

They are not people who have not read my website first.

They have investigated.

They have studied.

They know execution plans.

They know typical things.

And then it still doesn't work.

And that's when they call me.

And I like that because I like a challenge.

I can tell you it always triggers my imposter syndrome hard.

And I always get nervous.

What if I don't find the issue this time? And when it's not on the standard list of the things I try in the first two or three days, that nerves go up.

But so far, fingers crossed, I have always been able to find what the actual root cause was.

And at times that was fairly surprising.

Oh, cool.

Well, I mean, that's fun because I'm the opposite.