Backup and Recovery

Architecture, Backup and Recovery, CHECKDB and Corruption, SQL Server

Most companies come to us saying, “The SQL Server isn’t fast enough. Help us make it go faster.” They’re kinda surprised when one of the first things we fill out together is a variation of our High Availability and Disaster Recovery Planning Worksheet: Download the full PDF in our First Responder Kit They say things like, “Wait,…

Synchronous Always On Availability Groups Is Not Zero Data Loss

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Always On Availability Groups, Backup and Recovery

In theory, when you configure AlwaysOn Availability Groups with synchronous replication between multiple replicas, you won’t lose data. When any transaction is committed, it’s saved across multiple replicas. That’s the way it works, right? I mean, except when you restart your synchronous replicas, or patch them, or they just stop working for any number of reasons.…

Getting the last good DBCC CHECKDB date

Last Updated August 15, 2024

Erik Darling

whether it’s a new job or a new (old) server If you’re reading this, you’ve at some point in your career stared at a server, for the first time, with great trepidation. The smarter you are, the greater your trepidation is. The 2nd century mathematician Trepidatius the Wimpy had an equation that described this, but…

Should You Put Things in the master Database?

Last Updated May 16, 2019

Always On Availability Groups, Backup and Recovery, SQL Server

Growing up as a young boy, my elementary teachers always warned me about the perils of putting stuff in master. But what’s the real deal? Why is this such a bad idea? System databases are often located on space-limited drives. The default installation parameters for SQL Server throw master, model, and msdb all on the…

How to Configure Always On AG Backups with Ola Hallengren’s Scripts

Last Updated March 6, 2019

Always On Availability Groups, Backup and Recovery, Ola Hallengren's Database Maintenance Scripts

With SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups, you can offload backups to a replica rather than running them on the primary. Here’s how to do it: 1. Install Ola Hallengren’s utility scripts on all of the replicas. During the install, it creates a laundry list of SQL Agent jobs, but doesn’t set up schedules for any of them.…

How Do You Manage DBAs? Part 1: Measuring Backups

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Backup and Recovery, Processes and Practices

When the DBA reports to you, ask yourself two questions: “What would I fire the DBA for?” “How can I prove that they’re not doing that?” There’s a lot of possible answers to #1, many of which involve cocaine and the office copier, but let’s focus on one I hear a lot: an inability to restore…

Who’s Backing Up That Database?

Last Updated August 15, 2024

Backup and Recovery

A question came up on Twitter recently– how you can you figure out where a rogue backup is coming from? I’ve run into this question with clients before. In an enterprise environment where backup tools come and go, it’s not unusual to find backups being run by some mysterious account. By the way, when’s the…

Find Corrupted Indexed Views with DBCC CHECKDB

Last Updated February 13, 2017

If you’ve got indexed views, or are thinking of using them, this is important. First, go read the blog post, “An Indexed View Bug with Scalar Aggregates” by Paul White. It will take a minute, but it’s important to understand. Paul shows a scenario where the data in a certain kind of indexed view can…

9 Ways to Lose Your Data

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Every time someone tells me, “This database is mission critical – we can’t have data loss or downtime,” I just smile and shake my head. Technology is seriously difficult. To illustrate, here’s a collection of client stories from the last few years: The DBCC CHECKDB job ran every week just like it was supposed to…

How Many Databases Can I Put on One SQL Server?

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Architecture, Backup and Recovery, ISV and SaaS Database Design, SQL Server

I’ve seen servers with thousands of databases on a single SQL Server, and it works. Sure, opening the databases list in SQL Server Management Studio is painful, and a lot of third party monitoring tools fall over, but it’s not so bad once you know how to work around these issues. But there’s two issues…

How to Restore a Page in SQL Server Standard and Enterprise Edition

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Jes Schultz

One of the many restore features in SQL Server is the ability to restore one or more pages of data. This can be very convenient in some narrow situations – for example, corruption occurs on one page or an oops update is made to one record. The page restore process is not straightforward, however, and,…

How to Back Up Terabytes of Databases

Last Updated February 13, 2017

When you weren’t looking, your databases went and grew up. Now your backup window has grown so large that you’re about ready to open it and jump. Time to make a choice. The Native Way: Tuning SQL Server Backups You can theoretically pull this off by using a combination of tactics: Back up as infrequently as the…

DBCC CheckDB FAQ: Check for Corruption in SQL Server

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Backup and Recovery, CHECKDB and Corruption

DBCC CheckDB: Frequently Asked Questions It’s eating our logo. Will it stop at nothing??? Q: Do I really need to run DBCC CheckDB? Yes. If you’re even partially in charge of a SQL Server and you’d like to keep your job, you should make sure CheckDB is being run regularly. (Seriously!) Q: But WHY do…

Backups, Restores, Corruption, and You: How Strong are You?

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Jes Schultz

Backup and Recovery, CHECKDB and Corruption, SQL Server

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. Don’t let your relationship come to this! Then, one day, your relationship is rocked. The backups are too slow. The restores are too slow. There is…gasp…corruption. Are you prepared…

Doug Broke It: Reporting Services Encryption Keys [Video]

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Doug Lane

Backup and Recovery, Videos

In this 5-minute video, Doug tells about the time he deleted the Reporting Services encryption key, and what it took to fix the damage. You’ll learn about what the SSRS encryption key protects, as well when to: Back up the encryption key Restore the encryption key Change the encryption key Delete the encryption key http://youtu.be/x14pwfuLvgU

New High Availability Planning Worksheet

Last Updated August 15, 2024

One of the questions we ask every new client is, “How much data is this application allowed to lose, and how long is it allowed to be down for?” This leads to some really fun conversations. The business users assume that the database will never lose data and cannot go down. The IT admins assume…

Back Up Transaction Logs Every Minute. Yes, Really.

Last Updated February 9, 2017

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Right now, your transaction log backups are set up to run every 15 minutes, every hour, or maybe every few hours. It’s time for a reality check. Figure out what internal customer owns the data inside the database, and walk into their office. Ask them how much data they’re comfortable losing. You’re probably going to…

Improving the Performance of Backups

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Jes Schultz

There will come a time when your database backups will not be as fast as you would like them to be. Over time, the volume of data you’re storing will grow, and backups will take longer – but your weekly or daily maintenance windows don’t grow as well. Backups can be resource-intensive, using I/O and…

Top 10 Signs Your SQL Server is Neglected

Last Updated February 13, 2017