In its release notes, Microsoft says it once again on user feedback from the SQL community to deliver changes customers want. Centered on improving performance and diagnostics, SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 2 (SP2) comes with several changes. In terms of performance and scalability, Microsoft cleaned up the DB cleanup process. The company found large distribution databases were causing blocks. Service Pack 2 improves the process to ensure many blockage situations are resolved. SQL Server 2016 also now supports cancelling requests through setting CPU time in Resource Governor. Furthermore, the platform also gets improved Indirect Checkpoint for TempDB and improved database backup performance. Below is the full changelog for performance and scale:
Supportability and Diagnostics
Microsoft has also detailed the changes made to diagnostics in SQL Server 2016. This Service Pack introduces Full DTC support for databases in Availability Group. New DBCC CLONEDATABASE options have also been added to help users verify clone and backups. Here is the changelog:
