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Claude Code – surprisingly disappointing..
I’ve heard a lot of great things about Claude code, ranging from colleagues successfully using it to vibe code RAG apps, old colleagues using it to create monitoring solutions and a whole host of blog posts and videos giving it endless positive feedback. It seems to be giving people the ability to move beyond the…
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I forced my AI assistant to partition a 250GB table for me and performance test it. Here’s what happened
A mostly accurate dialogue between Oli the DBA and the AI that’s definitely not plotting to take over his job Oli the DBA: Hey Claude, I found this claim on Reddit that says “partitions really help performance when you partition by a non-leading clustered index column.” Can you help me test this on Stackoverflow.dbo.PostHistory ?…
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How I Accidentally Built a Better Database Admin Than Myself
Previously, On “AI Does DBA Things”… In my pet human’s last thrilling installment, he casually mentioned how SQL Server 2025 and AI were becoming best friends. Well, plot twist: I’ve gone and built something that has the power to rule them all. Microsoft recently dropped their MSSQL MCP Server announcement, and naturally my lazy human…
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SQL 2025 and AI – chatting with your data part 1
With SQL Server 2025 embracing AI as a core focus, I was inspired by Bob Ward’s demo and Davide Mauri’s post to try out the new vector features myself. In this two-part series, I explore how SQL now supports semantic search and hybrid RAG setups — all running locally with Ollama. Part 1: vector basics…
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How storage options in Azure impact SQL Server performance
SQL Server in azure using an IaaS deployment comes with many pros (and cons) over PaaS offerings. One of the nice things about IaaS is the full control you have over SQL Server and to a large extent the infrastructure it’s deployed on. There are many different VM SKU’s to suit your instances requirements as…
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Database Deployment via Terraform – Part 2
In Part 1 we looked at deploying an azure sql database and logical server via some very primitive terraform. This post looks at different methods of structuring terraform with an aim to have a terraform project containing modularization and logical separation of resources with one example. The importance of project structure can not be understated,…
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Database Deployment via Terraform – Part 1
This post is the first in a mini series talking about the steps involved in deploying Azure SQL Databases via Terraform. The idea behind this series is to serve as a reference documenting the very first steps involved with deploying azure sql database resources and finishing with some useful tips and tricks to make your…
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How to analyse Stored Procedure performance: part 2
Part 2 of this series is going to focus on Query Store and the execution statistics available to analyse performance. Without going into too much about query store, think of it as a flight recorder for the database its enabled on. The quickest way to take a look inside query store (when its enabled) is…
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How to analyse Stored Procedure performance: part 1
We’ve all been there in the trenches. You get the call ‘the app is slow’, and within 10 seconds management are breathing down your neck. Sometimes it feels like you need a crystal ball to figure out if there is indeed a sql issue, or rather its raining in somewhere and someone is just miserable.…
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Baselining SQL Server for Azure
When migrating SQL Server workloads to Azure there is a trade-off between optimizing for performance and optimizing for costs. You need to know how much work your sql servers are performing when evaluating them prior to a migration. Ideally you will have a tool that will capture key metrics such as your servers wait statistics…
