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Clients and Case Studies

Why I Love kCura RelativityOne Even Though I Don’t Use It

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

At RelativityFest this week, kCura showed more details about how their upcoming software-as-a-service hosted in Microsoft Azure works. I really like where they’re going with it. Presenting at Relativity Fest 2016 I’ve blogged about Relativity before, especially about how it uses SQL Server, but here’s a quick recap: It hosts legal data (think lawsuits, cases,…

My Favorite Database Disaster Stories

Last Updated February 11, 2017

Backup and Recovery, Clients and Case Studies, Processes and Practices

The statute of limitations has passed, so this week on SQL Server Radio, I get together with Guy Glantser and Matan Yungman to talk about our favorite oops moments. I talked about my very first database disaster ever – done back when I was in my 20s and working for a photo studio, using Xenix, long…

Psst… Hey buddy, you want some E-Discovery?

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

One year ago today! Well, sort of one year ago. Who knows when this thing will get published? Only God and Brent. And part of the calendar year fell during a leap year, which was just plain cruel, like a two part Buffy episode where the second part is the first episode of the next…

What kCura Relativity Best in Service Means for SQL Server DBAs

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

kCura Relativity is a legal e-discovery application that hosts its data in SQL Server. You can host it yourself, or hire a hosting partner who specializes in hosting it for you. The best hosting partners compete for Best in Service status, an award that means what it says on the tin. Starting this year, kCura’s…

How to Download the Stack Overflow Database

Last Updated August 11, 2024

I use a Microsoft SQL Server version of the public Stack Overflow data export for my blog posts and training classes because it’s way more interesting than a lot of sample data sets out there. It’s easy to learn, has just a few easy-to-understand tables, and has real-world data distributions for numbers, dates, and strings.…

I’m Presenting at kCura Relativity Fest 2015 in Chicago

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

This sounds really cheesy, but I’m honestly excited to be presenting again this year at kCura Relativity Fest 2015. Here’s what I’ll be talking about: How to Check Your SQL Server’s Health The Abstract: You’re a system or database administrator responsible for the uptime and performance of Relativity’s SQL Servers, but you’ve never received professional…

Databases Need a Kosher Certification

Last Updated February 9, 2017

ISV and SaaS Database Design, kCura Relativity, SQL Server

As I picked up a nutritious breakfast from my favorite bakery (love ya, Magnolia), I noticed a sign in the window saying they were certified Kosher. As I usually do, I thought about how that kind of thing applied to databases. This database is totally free of heaps. The Star-K symbol on food products or restaurants means…

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…

What Is Commodity Hardware?

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

You may have heard the term “commodity hardware” thrown around when describing solutions like Redis, Elasticsearch, or kCura’s new Data Grid. Commodity hardware refers to cheap, standardized servers that are easy to buy off the shelf from any vendor. Here’s a typical example of a 2u, 2CPU commodity hardware server: Supermicro SYS-1028R-TDW 1U rack server Two Xeon E5-2600…

Who’s Allowed to Add Indexes to ISV Apps?

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Indexing, ISV and SaaS Database Design, SQL Server

Performance tuning of independent software vendor (ISV) databases is a little tricky. To understand who does what, let’s think through all of the work required with building and hosting a database application: Who adds indexes and tunes queries? Typically the two parties involved – the vendor and the customer – start at opposite ends of…

Building a Reliable SQL Server for kCura Relativity [Video]

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

Your users want Relativity to be up at all times. What’s the first step? How much work is involved? What will it all cost? I’ll give you a simple worksheet to get management and the IT team on the same page, and then show you how to turn those specs into a rough project plan and…

Announcing kCura Relativity 9, Data Grid, Elasticsearch, and SQL Server

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

Today at Relativity Fest in Chicago, kCura Relativity 9 introduces the option to move some text storage out of Microsoft SQL Server and into kCura’s new Data Grid, a tool built atop the open source Elasticsearch. Is kCura abandoning SQL Server? No, but understanding what’s going on will help you be a better database administrator and developer.…

I’m Speaking at kCura Relativity Fest 2014 about SQL Server

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

I’m very proud to announce that kCura selected me to speak again this year at Relativity Fest, the annual gathering of e-discovery professionals. I’ve been doing a lot of Relativity work (here’s a recap of my blog posts about it) and I really like working with the company and the product. Heck, I even attended…

The SQL Server Components of kCura Relativity

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

kCura Relativity is a software product for law firms to find interesting stuff to help their case. To get you up to speed on what it does, here’s some of the posts I’ve written about Relativity in the past: Performance Tuning kCura Relativity – explains what the product is for and how DBAs can help…

Tiering kCura Relativity Databases (Or Any SaaS Product)

Last Updated February 9, 2017

ISV and SaaS Database Design, kCura Relativity, SQL Server

When you’re the database administrator working with a software product that stores every client’s data in a different database, the sheer number of databases can be intimidating. As you grow from dozens to hundreds to thousands of databases, you can’t treat all of them equally. Start by making a graph of the database sizes –…

How to Use Partitioning to Make kCura Relativity Faster

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity

kCura Relativity is an e-discovery program used by law firms to find evidence quickly. I’ve blogged about performance tuning Relativity, and today I’m going to go a little deeper to explain why DBAs have to be aware of Relativity database contents. In Relativity, every workspace (case) lives in its own SQL Server database. That one…

Update on Stack Overflow’s Recovery Strategy with SQL Server 2014

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Always On Availability Groups, Stack Overflow

Back in 2009 (wow, seems like only yesterday!), I wrote about designing a recovery strategy for Stack Overflow. Back then, I wrote: With these answers in mind, Stack Overflow’s decisions not to do transaction log backups, offsite log shipping, database mirroring, and so on make good business sense. Us geeks in the crowd may not like it,…

Performance Tuning kCura Relativity

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

In the e-discovery business, kCura Relativity is the big gorilla, and I’ve been working with kCura and their clients since 2011. I think it’s one of the most interesting businesses I’ve ever worked with – up there with StackOverflow – and like Stack, they’re really open with their customers. George Nedwick and I staffing the…

kCura Relativity DBAs – Meet Me at RelativityFest

Last Updated February 9, 2017

kCura Relativity, SQL Server

I’ve been doing a lot of work lately with kCura Relativity, a legal discovery tool with a SQL Server back end. I really enjoy working with George Orr, Scott Ellis, Mike Kolek, and the rest of the team at kCura because they’re fun people solving cool technology problems. It’s not too often that you hear…

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Always On AGs at StackOverflow

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Always On Availability Groups, SQL Server, Stack Overflow

I recently finished helping the StackExchange team migrate their SQL Server 2008 infrastructure to SQL Server 2012. These servers power StackOverflow, DBA.StackExchange.com, the new AskPatents partnership with the US Patent and Trademark Office, and hundreds of other Q&A sites that together form one of the biggest web site networks. It’s one of the most visible…