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Page Header

Every page starts with a 96 byte header describing the page and its place in the database.

KeyNameDescription
Allocation Unit IdThe allocation unit the page belongs to. Not stored directly in the header - derived from the Internal Object Id and Internal Index Id via the allocation metadata
00
Page AddressAddress of this page in (File Id:Page Id) format
00
Page TypeWhat the page is used for, e.g. Data, Index, LOB, IAM, PFS, GAM
00
Next PageAddress of the next page at the same index level. (0:0) means no next page. Only maintained for index levels - heap pages are not linked
00
Previous PageAddress of the previous page at the same index level. (0:0) means no previous page
00
Internal Object IdInternal id of the object the page is allocated to
00
Internal Index IdInternal id of the index the page is allocated to within the object
00
Index LevelLevel of the page in the index B-Tree. 0 is the leaf level, the root has the highest level
00
Slot CountNumber of slots (records) on the page, including ghost records
00
Fixed Length SizeSize in bytes of the fixed length portion of the records stored on the page
00
Free CountNumber of free bytes on the page
00
Free Data OffsetOffset of the first byte after the end of the record data - where the next record would be written
00
Reserved CountNumber of bytes reserved by active transactions, e.g. space freed by deletes that have not yet committed
00
Transaction ReservedThe number of bytes of Reserved Count reserved by the most recently started transaction
00
Torn BitsPage verification information - torn page protection bits or the page checksum, depending on the database PAGE_VERIFY option
00
Flag BitsBit flags describing the page, including which page verification type is in use
00
LSN (Log Sequence Number)LSN of the last log record that modified the page, used by recovery to decide if a logged change needs to be applied
00
Header VersionVersion of the page header format - currently always 1
00
Ghost Record CountNumber of ghost records on the page - records logically deleted but not yet physically removed by the ghost cleanup task
00
Type Flag BitsBit flags with a meaning specific to the page type
00
Internal Transaction IdInternal id of the most recent transaction to add to the reserved byte count