# James Rhoat > Giving back to the community This file is an LLM-friendly index of the site, generated by Hugo. Each link points at a clean Markdown rendering of the page (suffix `/index.md`) — token-optimized for LLM ingestion. ## Posts 2024 - [PVE Resize Disk](https://james.rhoat.com/p/resize-local-lvm/index.md): Extending the local-lvm disk size on a proxmox server - [Building this site](https://james.rhoat.com/p/hugo-website/index.md): How I spun up this Hugo site — picking a theme, wiring deploys, and the bits I'd skip if I started over. ## Posts 2021 - [Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)](https://james.rhoat.com/p/vss-backups/index.md): How VSS and the SQL Writer Service interact with SQL Server backups, including supported operations, limitations around point-in-time recovery, and common troubleshooting steps. - [Vertical Partitioning](https://james.rhoat.com/p/vertical-partitioning/index.md): How vertical partitioning (row splitting) reduces page waste and improves query performance in SQL Server, with a one-million-row demo. - [Understanding Storage in SQL Server](https://james.rhoat.com/p/understanding-storage/index.md): How SQL Server organizes data at the page and extent level, and why LOB, in-row, and row-overflow storage matter for performance and design. - [Transaction Log Management](https://james.rhoat.com/p/transaction-log-management/index.md): A practical Q&A on SQL Server transaction log internals: how transactions work, crash recovery, why logs grow, and the correct way to shrink and resize the log file. - [SSMS Productivity Tips](https://james.rhoat.com/p/ssms-productivity/index.md): Eight practical tips for working faster in SQL Server Management Studio, from block selection and split windows to color-coded connections. - [SQL Server Corruption Post Mortem](https://james.rhoat.com/p/sql-corruption-post-mortem/index.md): A post-mortem guide for SQL Server database corruption: likely causes from I/O subsystem errors to firmware, early detection strategies, and recovery steps. - [Row Structure in SQL Server](https://james.rhoat.com/p/row-structure/index.md): Understanding SQL Server row structure, including fixed and variable length columns, null bitmaps, and how trailing nulls affect storage efficiency. - [Recovery Model Behavior](https://james.rhoat.com/p/recovery-model-behavior/index.md): A comparison of SQL Server's Full, Simple, and Bulk-Logged recovery models, covering transaction log behavior, backup requirements, and disaster recovery implications. - [SQL Server Maintenance Tasks](https://james.rhoat.com/p/maintenance-tasks/index.md): Essential SQL Server maintenance tasks for accidental DBAs: backup strategies, consistency checks with DBCC CHECKDB, index rebuilds, and understanding RPO/RTO. - [Implicit Conversion in SQL Server](https://james.rhoat.com/p/implicit-conversion/index.md): How to audit your database for implicit conversions, identify data type mismatches across columns, and find conversion warnings in the plan cache. - [Understanding HEAP Tables](https://james.rhoat.com/p/heaps/index.md): Why SQL Server heap tables cause performance problems through full table scans and forwarding rows, with a demo showing the I/O impact and how to fix them. - [Database Design - Why Does It Matter](https://james.rhoat.com/p/db-design-part-2/index.md): Why data type selection matters for SQL Server performance, memory usage, backups, and long-term scalability, with concrete byte-savings examples. - [Database Design Part 1](https://james.rhoat.com/p/db-design-part-1/index.md): An introduction to SQL Server database design covering data type selection, table structure, and why thoughtful design matters for long-term performance. - [Database Table Size](https://james.rhoat.com/p/database-table-size/index.md): A reusable SQL query to report row counts, total space, used space, and unused space per table and schema using sys.allocation_units. - [Moving to SQL Server 2014/2016](https://james.rhoat.com/p/moving-to-sql-2014-2016/index.md): Key considerations when migrating to SQL Server 2014 or 2016, including the new cardinality estimator, edition changes, and version downgrades. ## Pages - [Archives](https://james.rhoat.com/archives/index.md): Browse every post on James Rhoat's blog by year — engineering essays, runbooks, and notes on Kubernetes, databases, and infrastructure. - [Links](https://james.rhoat.com/links/index.md): Curated list of James Rhoat's links — GitHub repositories, YouTube channel, podcast appearances, and other places to find him on the internet. - [About](https://james.rhoat.com/about/index.md) - [Search](https://james.rhoat.com/search/index.md): Search every post on James Rhoat's blog. Full-text search across engineering essays, runbooks, and technical notes from across the archive. ## Optional - [Category: Sql-Server](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/sql-server/) - [Category: Accidental DBA Backup Strategy](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/accidental-dba-backup-strategy/) - [Category: ACID Transactions in SQL Server](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/acid-transactions-in-sql-server/) - [Category: ALT Shift Block Selection in SSMS](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/alt-shift-block-selection-in-ssms/) - [Category: Blog](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/blog/) - [Category: Bulk Logged Recovery Model Behavior](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/bulk-logged-recovery-model-behavior/) - [Category: Choosing the Right Data Types](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/choosing-the-right-data-types/) - [Category: Cloudflare](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/cloudflare/) - [Category: Clustered Index vs Heap](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/clustered-index-vs-heap/) - [Category: Color Coded Server Connections](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/color-coded-server-connections/) - [Category: Corruption Post-Mortem Investigation](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/corruption-post-mortem-investigation/) - [Category: Data Type Impact on Memory and Backups](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/data-type-impact-on-memory-and-backups/) - [Category: Data Type Mismatch in SQL Server](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/data-type-mismatch-in-sql-server/) - [Category: Database Compatibility Level Changes](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/database-compatibility-level-changes/) - [Category: Database Page Internals](https://james.rhoat.com/categories/database-page-internals/)