Faryl O'Neil

Overnight Mid-Level DBA

Faryl is a mid-level DBA with 3+ years of SQL Server experience and 2 years of Oracle experience. A novelist and editor by hobby, Faryl makes up for lack of technical experience by bringing specialized and often intimidating concepts down to a readable (and entertaining) level.

Page Splits and How to Optimize Index Space in SQL Server

If you’re noticing a significant drop in performance, as well as frequent index fragmentation, you might have an issue with page splits, especially if your fill factor is set to default on all of your indexes. What Are Page Splits? Page splits occur when there... read more

Using Replication Monitor in Legacy (Pre-2016) SQL Server Management Studio

Is SQL 2016 older than SQL 2005? Or is your outdated SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) lying to you? Sometimes, the most interesting discoveries come from being lazy. Case in point: I was working with a few other DBAs on a client system having issues with... read more

Explaining Database Normalization Like You’re Five

Normalization is not that complicated. In fact, the beauty of these rules is that you may not know you’re already applying them in your database design. To demonstrate, over the course of this multi-part series, we’ll be covering the three generally... read more

Scripting Basic Backups using SQL Server Agent

The most satisfying meal is the one you make yourself, and database backup jobs are no different. Many DBAs use maintenance plans as a “one-stop-shop” for maintaining their SQL Server databases. After all, they do backups, integrity checks, index... read more