Six SQL Server Log Reader Columns Missing After 2019
Tested SQL Server 2022 and 2025 builds have six fewer fn_dblog and fn_dump_dblog columns than SQL Server 2019.
sys.fn_filelog: An Undocumented Log-Reading Function Added in SQL Server 2022
SQL Server 2022 added sys.fn_filelog, an undocumented log reader with the same output columns as fn_dblog and fn_dump_dblog.
Proving the Restore, Part 10: Can You Reach That Point in Time?
Someone asks you to restore a database to 14:30 yesterday, just before a bad deployment. The answer is either a time estimate or “the closest I can get is 14:15”, and which one it is…
Proving the Restore, Part 8: Proving the Log Chain Has No Gaps
Restoring a full backup and then a hundred log backups works only if the logs form an unbroken sequence. One missing backup in the middle and the restore stops there, with the database still in…
Proving the Restore, Part 7: One File, Hundreds of Backup Sets
Point RESTORE HEADERONLY at a full backup and you get one row. Point it at the file a fifteen-minute log backup job has been appending to since Sunday and you get several hundred. Each row…
How Much Transaction Log Does REORGANIZE Really Generate? I Measured It
A while back I published , including the classic advice: reorganize in the middle band of fragmentation, rebuild above it, because “reorganize only logs the pages it actually moves.” In a LinkedIn discussion, Jeff Moden…