Posts by Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar

2446 posts

https://www.brentozar.com

I make Microsoft SQL Server go faster. I love teaching, travel, cars, and laughing. I'm based out of Las Vegas. He/him.

More On the Carbonite Backup Failures

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery

David Friend, the CEO of Carbonite, left a comment on my blog entry about Carbonite. I’d like to applaud his efforts for taking the time to do that, but the comment raised some ugly questions. It appears that they were putting data on 15-drive RAID 5 arrays. RAID 5 is the most cost effective array…

New PASS 2009 Summit Site Unveiled – #SQLPass

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

PASS is on the ball this year! They’ve got the web site and spiffy logo up and running for the 2009 Summit in Seattle. PASS Summit 2009 Logo Looking through the site, one change jumps out at me: the schedule this year will be Tuesday through Thursday, with pre-conferences running on Monday and Friday. In…

Why Your Sysadmin Wants To Virtualize Your Servers

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Virtualization

DBAs and developers: right now, your Windows admin is talking to management about all the time, money and hardware he can save by virtualizing servers. He might not start with SQL Servers first, because frankly, he’s scared of database administrators. DBAs only have one answer: “No.” Your sysadmin knows how you roll. Thing is, though,…

Getting me to speak at your user group

Last Updated March 24, 2009

Brent Ozar

I just updated my Upcoming Events page to include: More upcoming events How to get me to speak at your local user group meeting Links to video archives of my past events To quote Abraham Lincoln, for those who like that sort of thing, I should think it is just about the sort of thing…

Dev, Test and Production SQL Server Environments

Last Updated July 16, 2019

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery

In a perfect world, my test/QA servers get restored nightly from production. Let’s say every night at 9pm, the production full backups kick off, and they’re finished by 10pm. At 11pm, the QA box kicks off a restore job that grabs the latest full backups off the file share and restores them. The production backups…

Another backup failure: Carbonite

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery

TechCrunch reports that Carbonite, an online backup company, lost customer data. But wait, this is different: it’s not their fault. They’re suing Promise Technology, makers of popular storage gear, for selling them bogus equipment. Bogus equipment? You mean, like hard drives that fail? That’s horrible! Who could expect something like that? Who could know about…

Getting Help With A Slow Query

Last Updated October 21, 2017

Brent Ozar

Execution Plans

StackOverflow users often ask, “I’ve got this query that runs slow – can you help?” Here’s a few tips to get better, faster answers, including getting the execution plan and relevant Perfmon data.

PASS Summit 2009 Call to Speakers Open! #SQLPass

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

The Professional Association for SQL Server Summit is being held again this November in Seattle, and the Call to Speakers is now open. You can only submit 4 sessions, which seemed very small to me until I realized that I do entirely too many presentations. In Twitter, somebody mentioned that it’d be a good idea…

Should I Specialize?

Last Updated April 19, 2009

Brent Ozar

A reader asked a great question, and I just had to share it in a more general form because it applies to so many of us production database administrators. He’s currently a production SQL Server DBA, and his company’s bringing in a new application with a SQL Server back end. He’s doing a good job…

Sky Blue Screen of Death

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Microsoft Azure

I don’t have anything insightful to add, but Microsoft’s Azure cloud service suffered its first nearly day-long outage. I have this vision of looking up to the clouds and seeing a giant BSOD, only with lighter colors. Might be the flu medicine, though. I’ll be back in the game tomorrow or Wednesday.

Free SAN 101 video from the SSWUG Virtual Conference

Last Updated March 12, 2009

Brent Ozar

I just flew out to Tucson to film my sessions for the upcoming SSWUG Virtual Conference. It’s a pretty cool setup – SWUG has a full blown TV studio in their offices, and it’s really professional. (Trust me – I know when something’s unprofessional.) Professor Ozar The best way for me to explain it is…

Real SQL Server in the cloud is coming. Fast.

Last Updated March 10, 2009

Brent Ozar

So the news is out – full-blown SQL Server is coming in the cloud – and it’s time to look back at history. When I got started in IT, Novell was the dominant server platform. If you wanted a “real” server, you got a Netware box, and you managed it with a keyboard. None of…

Book Review: SQL Server 2008 Administration in Action

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Book Reviews

Let’s start with the obvious: yes, there’s a man on the cover smoking something. It’s probably not a coincidence that when I started writing this review, the iTunes Genius started playing Poison’s “Nothin’ But A Good Time.” There’s a reason they call it the Genius, and yes, I do have Poison in my MP3 collection,…

#SQLPass – Track SQL Server Talk on Twitter

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

In Twitter, when you put a pound sign or hash tag in front of a phrase, that makes it easier to search for the phrase in past Tweets. If you want to alert your fellow SQL Server peeps about what’s going on at the Professional Association for SQL Server summit or at their regional events,…

Dell PowerEdge 1650 Review

Last Updated August 24, 2009

Brent Ozar

(Warning – blast from the past! This was originally published by HAL-PC’s print magazine. I’m copying it into a blog entry because I’m getting rid of my old review sections in my blog, and this was the only page still getting hits from 2002. It’s funny to read in retrospect, but regular readers can just…

When to Modify Somebody Else’s Code

Last Updated September 5, 2009

Brent Ozar

Tim Ford, aka SQLAgentman, posed a question: when you think you know why something’s not working, when do you modify somebody else’s code, and when do you refuse? I know, I know! I’ve got the perfect answer – “It Depends.” Vendor Apps That Are Under Paid Support I never touch vendor applications when I’m paying…

First Chapter Done

Last Updated March 5, 2009

Brent Ozar

Whew. So my first (of just two) chapters for the upcoming SQL Server Internals and Troubleshooting book is done. I just wish I had more time to add more stuff! I started out with a grand outline of all kinds of storage-related topics, and as I edged closer to the deadline, I had to slice…

Are You Being Treated Fairly?

Last Updated November 1, 2009

Brent Ozar

Chris Shaw posted a question on his blog and tagged me: Do you feel like you are being treated fairly at your current or past employers? The question stems from the fact that very few people today stay at a company 20 to 30 years like they did when I was growing up. Do you…

Meeting Minutes for Trigger Design

Last Updated March 19, 2019

Brent Ozar

Humor

What would it have been like to sit in the first meeting where somebody decided to implement triggers inside a database server? … Manager: “Alright, everybody’s here, let’s get started. First item on the agenda: how’s that self-tuning piece coming along? It’s going to be ready for this version, right?” Developer A: “Yep, lookin’ good. …

Calling Out @RodSloane on his #Twittiquette

Last Updated March 9, 2010

Brent Ozar

Download My Free Twitter Book Twitter is a loud, angry noise of people hollering all kinds of stuff. It’s a casual free-for-all with friends bantering about their day, their work, their trials and their triumphs. I love how open and honest it is. Polished marketing-style people come off as fake and plastic. Rod Sloane says…