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How do I clear a SQL database cache?

Author

Mia Moss

Published Feb 20, 2026

How do I clear a SQL database cache?

Use DBCC FREEPROCCACHE to clear the procedure cache. Freeing the procedure cache would cause, for example, an ad-hoc SQL statement to be recompiled rather than reused from the cache. If observing through SQL Profiler, one can watch the Cache Remove events occur as DBCC FREEPROCCACHE goes to work.

Keeping this in consideration, how do I clear my database cache?

Use DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS to test queries with a cold buffer cache without shutting down and restarting the server. To drop clean buffers from the buffer pool, first use CHECKPOINT to produce a cold buffer cache. This forces all dirty pages for the current database to be written to disk and cleans the buffers.

Additionally, how do I clear the query execution plan cache in SQL Server? DBCC FREEPROCCACHE; Use this to clear the plan cache carefully. Freeing the plan cache causes, for example, a stored procedure to be recompiled instead of reused from the cache. This can cause a sudden, temporary decrease in query performance.

Regarding this, how do I clear SQL memory?

DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS: Erases all clear temporary memory from the memory pool. Utilize DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS to check questions with a cold memory cache without stopping the system and reverting the system. DBCC FREEPROCCACHE: Erases all essentials from the function cache.

What is cache memory in SQL Server?

The SQL Server buffer cache holds data pages in memory, in the exact form that they reside on disk. The second execution will not have to perform physical I/O operations to satisfy the query, because it can use the buffer cache. However, it does have to perform all other operations.

How do I shrink tempdb without restarting SQL Server?

Shrinking tempdb without restarting SQL Server

First off, the easy way out. It's worth mentioning.
DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS. Clears the clean buffers.
DBCC FREEPROCCACHE.
DBCC FREESYSTEMCACHE.
DBCC FREESESSIONCACHE.
.. and finally, DBCC SHRINKFILE.
A word about shrinking database files.

What does DBCC Freeproccache do?

Removes all elements from the plan cache, removes a specific plan from the plan cache by specifying a plan handle or SQL handle, or removes all cache entries associated with a specified resource pool. DBCC FREEPROCCACHE does not clear the execution statistics for natively compiled stored procedures.

What is checkpoint SQL Server?

Checkpoint is a process that writes current in-memory dirty pages (modified pages) and transaction log records to physical disk. In SQL Server checkpoints are used to reduce the time required for recovery in the event of system failure. Checkpoint is regularly issued for each database.

How do I clear results in SQL Server Management Studio?

To clear query results of a view

Right-click in the Results pane, point to Pane, and then click Clear Results.

How do I run a checkpoint in SQL Server?

Checkpoint is a process that writes current in-memory dirty pages (modified pages) and transaction log records to physical disk. In SQL Server checkpoints are used to reduce the time required for recovery in the event of system failure. Checkpoint is regularly issued for each database.

Does SQL Server release memory?

5 Answers. SQL Server is indeed designed to request as much RAM as possible which will not be released unless this memory is explicitly required by the operating system. Under Server Memory Options, enter the amount that you want for Minimum server memory and Maximum server memory.

How do I clear the memory clerk in SQL buffer pool?

To drop clean buffers from the buffer pool, first use CHECKPOINT to produce a cold buffer cache. This forces all dirty pages for the current database to be written to disk and cleans the buffers. After you do this, you can issue DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS command to remove all buffers from the buffer pool.

How can I see what memory is assigned to SQL Server?

You can monitor memory use at the database level as follows.

Launch SQL Server Management Studio and connect to a server.
In Object Explorer, right-click the database you want reports on.
In the context menu select, Reports -> Standard Reports -> Memory Usage By Memory Optimized Objects.

Why is SQL Server using so much memory?

SQL Server is designed to use all the memory on the server by default. The reason for this is that SQL Server cache the data in the database in RAM so that it can access the data faster than it could if it needed to read the data from the disk every time a user needed it.

Why does SQL Server not release memory?

2 Answers. SQL Server doesn't release buffer memory unless the O.S. actively reclaims it; so this is expected behaviour. If there is a memory shortage (f.e. some other application on the system needs some which is not available), SQL Server will release unused memory.

How do you avoid key lookup in execution plan?

The second method is to see if you can create a “covering index” that satisfies the entire query or at least eliminates the key lookups. A “covering index” is simply a non-clustered index that has all of the columns needed to either satisfy the entire query or in our case, eliminate the need for a key lookup operation.

Does SQL Server cache views?

Does SQL Server cache execution plan of a view? In SQL Server, stored procedures execution plans are cached but view execution plan are never cached.

Where are execution plans stored in SQL Server?

It is expensive for the Server to generate execution plans so SQL Server will keep and reuse plans wherever possible. As they are created, plans are stored in a section of memory called the plan cache). When a query is submitted to the server, an estimated execution plan is created by the optimizer.

What is parameter sniffing in SQL Server?

SQL Server uses a process called parameter sniffing when it executes stored procedures that have – you guessed it – parameters. When the procedure is compiled or recompiled, the value passed into the parameter is evaluated and used to create an execution plan.

What is Sp_updatestats?

sp_updatestats updates all statistics for all tables in the database, where even a single row has changed. It does it using the default sample, meaning it doesn't scan all rows in the table so it will likely produce less accurate statistics than the alternatives. It means it is more frequent on large tables.

How do I recompile an option in SQL Server?

OPTION (RECOMPILE) First, let us create a stored procedure that contains the keyword OPTION (RECOMPILE). Now enable the execution plan for your query window in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Next, let us run the following two stored procedures with two different parameters.

How do I recompile SP in SQL Server?

To recompile a stored procedure by using sp_recompile

Select New Query, then copy and paste the following example into the query window and click Execute. This does not execute the procedure but it does mark the procedure to be recompiled so that its query plan is updated the next time that the procedure is executed.

What is stored procedure execution plan?

This refers to the stored procedure query plan that we just executed. Inside the text column, you can also see the information about the stored procedure and the actual query that we executed inside the stored procedure. Here the usecount column displays the number of times query is executed.

What are SQL Server dirty pages?

Whenever data is written to or read from a SQL Server database, it will be copied into memory by the buffer manager. A dirty page is one that has been changed since last being written to disk and is the result of a write operation against that index or table data.

What is OLTP SQL Server?

Introduction. In-Memory OLTP is a specialized, memory-optimized relational data management engine and native stored procedure compiler, integrated into SQL Server. In-Memory optimized tables and indexes. Non-durable tables, traditional temp tables. Natively compiled stored procedures and UDF's.

What is a memory optimized table?

Memory-optimized tables are created using CREATE TABLE (Transact-SQL). Memory-optimized tables are fully durable by default, and, like transactions on (traditional) disk-based tables, transactions on memory-optimized tables are fully atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable (ACID).

What is memory table?

As indicated by the engine name, MEMORY tables are stored in memory. They use hash indexes by default, which makes them very fast for single-value lookups, and very useful for creating temporary tables. However, when the server shuts down, all rows stored in MEMORY tables are lost.

How does SQL Server store data on disk?

The disk space allocated to a data file is logically divided into pages which is the fundamental unit of data storage in SQL Server. A database page is an 8 KB chunk of data. When you insert any data into a SQL Server database, it saves the data to a series of 8 KB pages inside the data file.

How do you create a database in memory?

To create a database with a memory-optimized data filegroup

In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine and then expand that instance.
Right-click Databases, and then click New Database.
To add a new memory-optimized data filegroup, click the Filegroups page.

What is memory optimized table in SQL Server?

A Memory Optimized Table, starting in SQL Server 2014, is simply a table that has two copies, one in active memory and one durable on disk whether that includes data or just Schema Only, which I will explain later.

How can check buffer cache size in SQL Server?

SQL Server can tell you how many of those pages reside in the buffer pool. It can also tell you which databases those pages belong to. We can use sys.

How to Find Buffer Pool Usage Per Database in SQL Server

sp_configure 'min server memory (MB)'
go.
sp_configure 'max server memory (MB)';

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