This is a collection of the top Microsoft Support solutions to the most common issues experienced using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 (updated quarterly).
1. Solutions related to performance – server:
- Deadlock Troubleshooting, Part 1
- What is Pssdiag/Sqldiag Manager?
- Working with tempdb in SQL Server (download)
- Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008
- What is SQL Nexus?
- Recommendations and guidelines for the "max degree of parallelism" configuration option in SQL Server
- Description of the Replay Markup Language (RML) Utilities for SQL Server
- SQL Server I/O Basics, Chapter 2
2. Solutions related to cluster failover:
- SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance is taken offline when you change the password for the service account on the passive node
- Error during installation of an SQL server Failover Cluster Instance
- Sql Server Resource Fails to come online on Cluster with Error Error Locating Server/Instance Specified [xFFFFFFFF]
- SQL Server Cluster Failover Root Cause Analysis–the what, where and how
- A SQL Server cluster resource goes to a "failed" state when you try to bring the resource online in SQL Server
- How to clean up the cluster resource group and the databases on a shared disk after a failed failover Cluster Complete operation in SQL Server 2008
- List of Cluster Hotfixes for Windows Server 2008 R2
- Recommended hotfixes for Windows Server 2008-based server clusters
- DBA 101: Collecting and Interpreting Failover Cluster Logs
- SQL Server 2005 cluster resources fail after a side by side installation of SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008
3. Solutions related to stand-alone – setup or upgrade:
- How to restore the missing Windows Installer cache files and resolve problems that occur during a SQL Server update
- The installation process of SQL Server 2008 or of SQL Server 2008 R2 may fail if the server alias is defined in the Client Network Utility
- How to use SQL Server in Windows and Windows Server environments
- SQL Server installation fails if the Setup account does not have certain user rights
- Known issues installing SQL Server on Windows 7 or on Windows Server 2008 R2
- How to identify SQL Server 2008 setup issues in the setup log files
- Error message when you try to install SQL Server 2008 R2
- You may encounter problems when installing SQL Server on a domain controller
- SQL Server 2008 setup hangs on a x64 system with more than 32 logical processors
- Access to the installation media for SQL Server 2008 R2 may be required when you install SQL Server 2008 side by side with a SQL Server 2008 R2 instance
- How to uninstall an instance of SQL Server 2008
4. Solutions related to Performance – specific query:
- Tips, Tricks, and Advice from the SQL Server Query Optimization Team
- Statistics Used by the Query Optimizer in Microsoft SQL Server 2008
- Tutorial: Database Engine Tuning Advisor
- Using Statistics to Improve Query Performance
- Query Performance
5. Solutions related to corruption errors and database consistency checks (DBCC):
- How to troubleshoot database corruption errors and System Center…
- How to troubleshoot database consistency errors reported by DBCC CHECKB
- Troubleshooting Error 3313, 3314, 3414, or 3456 (SQL Server)