Servicing and support
Version, build, patch level, and old installs.
Use these when you need build lookup, patch context, or a clear call on whether this is still a patching job or already an upgrade job.
hub
Technical
reference hub.
Engineering notes and live tracking for systems that need to stay predictable.
Tracking pages and reference pages that are actually worth checking.
Most people land here for the SQL Server pages. Pick the row below that matches the actual problem: patching, moving the environment, keeping it stable, or dealing with load and contention.
Find the right page fast
Search the hub articles directly when you already know the topic. This keeps the current crawl paths intact and only narrows the next click for people who want it.
hub
Planned change
Migrations, cutovers, and change-window risk.
Use these for migrations, backup credibility, restore confidence, and the practical side of controlling production change windows.
Operational resilience
Health review, visibility, posture, and failover discipline.
Use these for environment review, hardening, monitoring, and HA design when the problem is day-to-day control rather than one bad incident.
Performance and capacity
Contention, workload fit, and capacity pressure.
Use these when the problem looks like concurrency, indexing, workload behavior, or capacity pressure rather than patching or migration work.
Full library
Browse all guides.
If you would rather scan the full set, everything is listed below: SQL Server pages first, then the rest of the hub.
SQL Server error codes
SQL Server error codes
A single lookup for Database Engine error messages, severity, event logging, and Microsoft source links.
SQL Server latest updates
SQL Server latest updates
Latest patches for supported versions, plus the full version history tables from Microsoft.
SQL Server update guide
SQL Server update guide
Use this to sort out CU vs GDR, check build numbers properly, and plan patching without mixing three different questions together.
SQL Server migration guide
SQL Server migration guide
For migrations that need proper inventory, rehearsal, rollback thinking, and a cutover plan that still makes sense under pressure.
SQL Server backup guide
SQL Server backup guide
Backup strategy, retention, restore testing, and the gaps that usually stay hidden until someone needs a real recovery.
SQL Server hardening guide
SQL Server hardening guide
Permissions, service identities, exposure, encryption, and the kind of hardening work that has to survive normal operations.
SQL Server monitoring guide
SQL Server monitoring guide
Baselines, waits, alerts, backup visibility, and the drift signals that usually show up before the outage story is obvious.
SQL Server health check guide
SQL Server health check guide
Health audits, environment reviews, restore confidence, tempdb sanity, ownership gaps, and the practical risks hiding in aging environments.
SQL Server tempdb guide
SQL Server tempdb guide
Tempdb setup, file sizing, growth behavior, version-store pressure, and the wider workload clues that make tempdb matter.
SQL Server recovery guide
SQL Server recovery guide
Restore readiness, recovery timing, runbooks, and the dependency traps that make incidents longer than expected.
SQL Server upgrade guide
SQL Server upgrade guide
When the version is getting old and the team needs a safe upgrade plan, clear rollback, and solid checks after the change.
SQL Server failover guide
SQL Server failover guide
Always On and HA tradeoffs, failover testing, and the operational load that comes with pretending redundancy solved the problem.
SQL Server deadlocks guide
SQL Server deadlocks guide
Deadlock capture, transaction scope, indexing causes, and how to read the pattern instead of just rerunning the victim.
SQL Server blocking guide
SQL Server blocking guide
Blocking chains, head blockers, transaction scope, workload timing, and the practical fixes behind recurring contention.
SQL Server indexing guide
SQL Server indexing guide
Access paths, clustered choices, write tradeoffs, and index review based on workload behavior instead of tuning folklore.
SQL Server sizing guide
SQL Server sizing guide
Workload profiling, hardware fit, concurrency, growth planning, and capacity decisions that hold up outside the sales deck.
AI news
AI news
Model releases, lab updates, tool moves, and selected reporting worth checking.
Technical SEO guide
Technical SEO guide
Crawl paths, indexing decisions, internal links, structured data, and which pages are worth supporting in the first place.
Product page guide
Product page guide
Product positioning, trust, scope, and how to stop a product page from collapsing into feature clutter and weak claims.
Local service site guide
Local service site guide
Service positioning, trust signals, contact friction, local intent, and the pages that turn visits into real inquiries.