[dba-SQLServer] SQL Server is hopelessly slow

John,

Microsoft has a free 360 day trial version of WIndows XP for 64 bit
architecture available:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/evaluation/upgrade.mspx


You might just want to add your ID field from qa rather than using the gui:

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Yourtable] ADD [ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL
                                                         (starting seed #,
increment by)

Jim




-----Original Message-----
From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John W.
Colby
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 9:28 AM
To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [dba-SQLServer] SQL Server is hopelessly slow


I am not running Server 2003 YET.  I have it, but I have to get the drivers
for my motherboard loaded.  The CD that comes with the MB does a system
check at install and prevents loading unless the OS is in a list of
supported OSs and Server 2003 is not in that list.  Tech support for the MB
company says the drivers should work so...  I ended up loading XP Pro just
to get up and running.  I wonder if I could do an OS upgrade to Server 2003
over the top of XP Pro.  Since the drivers are loaded, perhaps I could get
it installed that way.

I can certainly appreciate "a lot going on" but for example I tried to add
an identifier field (auto increment long) to the table.  AFAICT There just
isn't any way to do that before the load so I have to do it when I am done.
I started it running and THREE DAYS LATER my machine is still locked up.
With no feedback from EM I have no idea if it will be finished in an hour or
it is only on the 3 millionth row with 160 million rows to go?  A few hours
left or 3 years?  This is no way to run a company!

I re-imported a single set of 3 million records and am about to try setting
up the identifier field on that subset and time how long it takes.  However
my first machine is still locked up trying to roll back the previous attempt
on the entire database.  Now I start this on my remaining fast machine.
What if it locks that up for days on end?  This is simply silly.  There must
be a way for SQL Server to write a status to a log file or SOMETHING.  I
just can't believe that this superpowerful whizbang database engine won't
tell me whether it is doing something or simply on lunch break.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com