22-25 April 2026 
SQLBits 2023
What the heck is a checkpoint, and why should I care?
This session will explain why you should care and know about the checkpoint process and the different checkpoints that SQL Server does. I will show you exactly what happens during a checkpoint, how you can influence the interval of checkpoints, and changes made with checkpoint settings in SQL 2014 and SQL 2016+.
An 8K page is the fundamental unit of data storage in SQL Server. SQL Server performs every data modification operation in memory (buffer pool) for performance reasons and does not immediately write it back to disk.
This is where checkpoint comes into play. The Database Engine periodically issues a checkpoint on each database. A checkpoint writes the current in-memory modified pages (known as dirty pages) and transaction log information from memory to disk. It also records this information in the transaction log.
This session will explain why you should care and know about the checkpoint process and the different checkpoints that SQL Server does. I will show you exactly what happens during a checkpoint, how you can influence the interval of checkpoints, and changes made with checkpoint settings in SQL 2014 and SQL 2016+.
This is where checkpoint comes into play. The Database Engine periodically issues a checkpoint on each database. A checkpoint writes the current in-memory modified pages (known as dirty pages) and transaction log information from memory to disk. It also records this information in the transaction log.
This session will explain why you should care and know about the checkpoint process and the different checkpoints that SQL Server does. I will show you exactly what happens during a checkpoint, how you can influence the interval of checkpoints, and changes made with checkpoint settings in SQL 2014 and SQL 2016+.
Speakers
Taiob Ali's previous sessions
Break five common myths about SQL Server backup
In this session, I will discuss five common myths about SQL Server backup and demo each to show you the correct answer.
What the heck is a checkpoint, and why should I care?
This session will explain why you should care and know about the checkpoint process and the different checkpoints that SQL Server does. I will show you exactly what happens during a checkpoint, how you can influence the interval of checkpoints, and changes made with checkpoint settings in SQL 2014 and SQL 2016+.
Keynote by The Community
Ben and Rob have found some wonderful folk to actually do the important parts of the community keynote. on the theme of
How to be a nonpassive member of the data community
SQL Assessment - Microsoft's Best Practices Checker
Do you want to get the current 232 suggested best practices from the Microsoft SQL Server Team and evaluate your environments? In this all demo session (Yes, no slides), I will show you both the "what" and "how" to do the same using the SQL assessment API and Azure Data Studio 'SQL Assessment' extension.
Analyzing Azure Monitor Log data in Azure Data Studio
In this 100% demo session, I will show you kql magic, kql kernel, and the recently released Azure Monitor Logs extension for Azure Data Studio to consume event logs of the Azure SQL database.