A Real World Introduction to SQL Server Internals

SQL Server is a massive, complex product.

One DBCC command can have over one hundred thousand lines of code.

Once you’ve learned the basics… creating tables, inserting data, backing up databases… then what?

The daily routine of a database developer or DBA often doesn't involve internal structures.

I’ve been driving for 30 years but don’t know the parts to my car’s engine. Well, I’m not mechanic either.

If you want to understand how SQL Server really operates then you have to undertake a study of how the two core engines of SQL Server work with one another.

The storage engine stores data and the optimizer processes queries.

This course will provide you with a solid foundation in storage internals. We are going to cover how data is stored at a very low level.

You’ll learn the vernacular specific to the page and several new commands that will provide us with some deep insight into what any how SQL Server stores data.

We will cover the data row structure and the transaction log and by the end of this course you’ll understand how data moves in SQL Server.

This knowledge will help you troubleshoot SQL Server at a level most DBAs simply don’t grasp. We will look at examples and code syntax to determine what works and what doesn’t.

Any relational database is a collection of objects, the table being the most fundamental.