You and your databases have a strong relationship. You back them up, and check them for corruption. They provide the business with information day after day.

Then, one day, your relationship is rocked. The backups are too slow. The restores are too slow. There is…gasp…corruption. Are you prepared to handle this? Will your working relationship continue? Take this quiz to find out!

1. You run DBCC CHECKDB regularly. Your job fails one day, with an error that corruption was detected. You need to figure out what object has the problem – a clustered index? a nonclustered index? a metadata page? – and repair it.You can identify the object and corruption, and several ways to fix it.
2. After this incident, the business owners of the database would like extra assurance that their data is safe. You’ve identified the steps you could take to validate backups and restores.
3. You have a database that is very large. You have a window of 60 minutes to complete the backup each day, but it’s taking much longer. You implement a process to make backups faster.
4. Due to its size, this database is also exceeding its RTO in a disaster recovery test. You re-architect the database and the restore process to make it faster.
5. There are several related single-tenant databases for an application. You need to ensure that all related databases can be rolled back to immediately before a single transaction when upgrades occur.

0-2 points: Your relationship is doomed.

3-6 points: Your relationship is rocky at best.

7-10 points: Solid, but you still have room for improvement. Perhaps a few days in a test environment, with a little one-on-one attention and a review.

11+ points: You clearly have a great relationship. Take it to the next level by reviewing all of the scenarios outlined above and documenting those you haven’t tackled yet.