SQL Server 2014 SP1 Cumulative Update 2

By: Glenn Berry
Posted on: August 18, 2015 10:15 am

On August 17, 2015, Microsoft released SQL Server 2014 SP1 Cumulative Update 2, which is Build 12.0.4422. This CU has 44 hotfixes in the public fix list, which is a relatively high number. This shows that Microsoft has been busy fixing important SQL Server issues, and it also underscores the importance of paying attention to cumulative updates and making an effort to stay current with your builds of SQL Server.

They also released SQL Server 2014 RTM CU9, which is Build 12.0.2553. This CU has 30 hotfixes in the public fix list. Personally, I think you should be moving to the SQL Server 2014 SP1 branch by now, or in the very near future, rather than staying on the RTM branch much longer.

Posted in: Cumulative Updates, Microsoft, SQL Server 2014
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New Benchmark Feature in CPU-Z 1.73

By: Glenn Berry
Posted on: August 14, 2015 10:49 am

Franck Delattre has released CPU-Z 1.73, which adds more Windows 10 support, an L4 cache frequency display (useful for some Intel Broadwell processors), and a CPU Benchmark tab, that lets you run a very quick single-threaded CPU benchmark and a multi-threaded CPU benchmark. This benchmark test takes about 14-15 seconds on my workstation. There is a relatively small selection of “reference processors” that you can select from the Reference drop-down, so you can compare your processor to one of those processors.

You can also run a CPU stress test, that will peg all of your CPU cores at 100% CPU utilization until you stop the test. This is useful for seeing whether Intel Turbo Boost is in effect or whether it is not being used due to some form of power management.

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Figure 1: CPUID Benchmark results for over-clocked Intel Core i7-3770K

 

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Figure 2: Windows 7 Task Manager after starting Stress CPU

 

Just for fun, I grabbed the same information from my World of Tanks gaming rig (which has a slightly over-clocked Intel Core i7-4790K processor), as shown below.

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Figure 3: CPUID Benchmark results for over-clocked Intel Core i7-4790K

 

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Figure 4: Windows 10 Task Manager after starting Stress CPU

Posted in: Benchmarks, Hardware, Processors
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SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for August 2015

By: Glenn Berry
Posted on: August 7, 2015 7:40 am

This month, I have added a new query for SQL Server 2016, that checks your QueryStore options. The SQL Server 2016 version will continue to be improved with more SQL Server 2016-specific queries and new columns in existing queries over the next few months. I am also continuing to add more relevant comments and links to the other active versions of these queries in order to help better interpret the results of these queries.

Rather than having a separate blog post for each version, I have just put the links for all six major versions in this single post. There are two separate links for each version. The first one on the top left is the actual diagnostic query script, and the one below on the right is the matching blank results spreadsheet, with labeled tabs that correspond to each query in the set. 

Here are links to the latest versions of these queries for SQL Server 2016, 2014 and 2012:

SQL Server 2016 Diagnostic Information Queries (August 2015)

SQL Server 2016 Blank Results

SQL Server 2014 Diagnostic Information Queries (August 2015)

SQL Server 2014 Blank Results

SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries (August 2015)

SQL Server 2012 Blank Results

 

Here are links to the most recent versions of these scripts for SQL Server 2008 R2 and older:

Since SQL Server 2008 R2 and older are out of Mainstream support from Microsoft (and because fewer of my customers are using these old versions of SQL Server), I am not going to be updating the scripts for these older versions of SQL Server every single month going forward.  I started this policy four months ago, and so far, I have not heard any complaints.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Diagnostic Information Queries

SQL Server 2008 R2 Blank Results

SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries

SQL Server 2008 Blank Results

SQL Server 2005 Diagnostic Information Queries

SQL Server 2005 Blank Results

 

The basic instructions for using these queries is that you should run each query in the set, one at a time (after reading the directions for that query). It is not really a good idea to simply run the entire batch in one shot, especially the first time you run these queries on a particular server, since some of these queries can take some time to run, depending on your workload and hardware. I also think it is very helpful to run each query, look at the results (and my comments on how to interpret the results) and think about the emerging picture of what is happening on your server as you go through the complete set. I have some comments in the script on how to interpret the results after each query.

You need to click on the top left square of the results grid in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to select all of the results, and then right-click and select “Copy with Headers” to copy all of the results, including the column headers to the Windows clipboard. Then you paste the results into the matching tab in the blank results spreadsheet.

About half of the queries are instance specific and about half are database specific, so you will want to make sure you are connected to a database that you are concerned about instead of the master system database. Running the database-specific queries while being connected to the master database is a very common mistake that I see people making when they run these queries.

Note: These queries are stored on Dropbox. I occasionally get reports that the links to the queries and blank results spreadsheets do not work, which is most likely because Dropbox is blocked wherever people are trying to connect.

I also occasionally get reports that some of the queries simply don’t work. This usually turns out to be an issue where people have some of their user databases in 80 compatibility mode, which breaks many DMV queries, or that someone is running an incorrect version of the script for their version of SQL Server.

It is very important that you are running the correct version of the script that matches the major version of SQL Server that you are running. There is an initial query in each script that tries to confirm that you are using the correct version of the script for your version of SQL Server. If you are not using the correct version of these queries for your version of SQL Server, some of the queries are not going to work correctly.

If you want to understand how to better run and interpret these queries, you should consider listening to my three latest Pluralsight courses, which are SQL Server 2014 DMV Diagnostic Queries – Part 1 ,  SQL Server 2014 DMV Diagnostic Queries – Part 2 and SQL Server 2014 DMV Diagnostic Queries – Part 3. All three of these courses are pretty short and to the point, at 67, 77, and 68 minutes respectively. Listening to these three courses is really the best way to thank me for maintaining and improving these scripts…

Finally, if you want to get even more information about how to run and interpret these queries, you should consider attending my half-day session Dr. DMV’s Troubleshooting Toolkit at the PASS Summit 2015 in Seattle this October.

Please let me know what you think of these queries, and whether you have any suggestions for improvements. Thanks!

Posted in: DMV Queries, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014, SQL Server 2016
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