Month: May 2012

7 Tips to Get the Best Free Help

Last Updated May 23, 2012

Right now, people are waiting for your question. They can’t wait to help you out, and they’ll give you incredibly good advice for free. Here’s how to get it: 1. Boil the problem down to one question in one sentence. Technology is complicated, and your question probably has a lot of moving parts. If you…

How Big Are Your Log Writes? Spying on the SQL Server Transaction Log

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Kendra Little

Storage

I’m a bit of a researcher. When I want to know about a topic, I start off by doing a lot of reading. After I take a lot in, I want to make sure I understand the details. At that point, I try to think like a scientist. I come up with ways to test what…

The SQL Server Performance Checkup from a Consultant’s Perspective

Last Updated March 26, 2014

Jes Schultz

SQL Server

Here at Brent Ozar Unlimited®, we offer a server performance checkup to clients. As the newest member of the team, I wasn’t sure what to expect when running one. I found out that it’s pretty cool. I pretend we’re Special Forces operatives, strapped into our parachutes, doing a HALO opening over client servers. (This homemade parachute…

Storage Protocol Basics: iSCSI, NFS, Fibre Channel, and FCoE

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

SQL Server, Storage

Wanna get your storage learn on? VMware has a well-laid-out explanation of the pros and cons of different ways to connect to shared storage. The guide covers the four storage protocols, but let’s get you a quick background primer first. iSCSI, NFS, FC, and FCoE Basics iSCSI means you map your storage over TCPIP. You…

SQL Server Tricks: How Can I Restore a Subset of My Tables to A Prior Point in Time?

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Kendra Little

Backup and Recovery

This question came up when working with a client last week. The team mentioned they were planning to move some tables into a new filegroup. The new filegroup is intended to help quickly restore data in cases when a monthly process goes off the rails and leaves the data in some tables in a bad…

Wanna Get Your FreeCon This Friday?

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Blogging, Professional Development

When I first started going to conferences, I thought all the value was up on the screen. I took copious amounts of notes in every session. I asked questions. I paid close attention. When the sessions were over, I packed up and went home, eager to implement what I’d learned. Of course, reality set in…

Who’s Going to Hire You? Seriously.

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

Professional Development

I got my start in the hospitality business by working at distressed properties. Distressed is the polite term that hotel management companies use when a hotel is in financial trouble, has health violations, and nobody in their right mind would stay there. Thankfully, there are a lot of tourists who are not in their right…

SQL Server RDS

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Jeremiah Peschka

Amazon Web Services (AWS), SQL Server

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a platform that offers a ton of services ranging from block storage, operating systems, to mail queues, DNS, and caching. When you say “cloud”, a lot of people think of AWS. AWS hosts a variety of businesses, large and small. Unfortunately, you still have to administer and configure your servers.…

Today BrentOzar.com Turns 10 Years Old

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Blogging

Happy birthday to my first post from May 7, 2002. BrentOzar.com circa 2001 1,782 posts and over 12,000 comments later, I feel like I’m still winging it, but it’s time to stop and think about the lessons I’ve learned over the last decade. This web site has turned into a consulting company that supports three…

What Does a Good DBA Look Like?

Last Updated April 24, 2012

Brent Ozar

Developers want to work with them. The Classic ASP Developer Hat Sysadmins and SAN admins want to help them. Managers want to hire them. DBAs want to join them. Who are they? They’re the Incredible DBA Team – the group of database administrators with an awesome reputation in their company. When they walk into a…