Backup, Restore, and Database Integrity Archives - Page 13 of 15

News & Opinion

Brent’s Bad Idea Jeans [Video]

December 1, 2014

Over the years, I've come up with some rather “interesting” answers to SQL Server problems including:

Warming up SQL Server's buffer pool by selecting all the data from all the tables
Creating indexes with triggers
Adding nonclustered indexes to clustered columnstore indexes
Compressing backups the hard way
Putting databases on a RAM drive

Production DBA

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

November 11, 2014

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,…

The Second Concern for SQL Server Virtualization: Recoverability

September 25, 2014

Your first concern is licensing, and once you've got that under control, it's time to talk about backups, restores, and uptime.

The business begins by defining the RPO and RTO requirements for high availability, disaster recovery, and "oops" deletions. Use our High Availability Planning Worksheet and fill in the "Current" column on page 1:

Log Shipping Magic: Using A Differential Backup to Refresh a Delayed Secondary

September 4, 2014

Let's say you're a DBA managing a 2TB database. You use SQL Server transaction log shipping to keep a standby copy of the database nice and warm in case of emergency. Lots of data can change in your log shipping primary database: sometimes it's index maintenance, sometimes it's a code release, sometimes it's just natural data processing.

Production DBA

How to Back Up Terabytes of Databases

July 17, 2014

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:

Production DBA

DBCC CheckDB FAQ: Check for Corruption in SQL Server

May 27, 2014

DBCC CheckDB: Frequently Asked Questions

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!)

Production DBA

Doug Broke It: Reporting Services Encryption Keys [Video]

May 19, 2014

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

Production DBA

New High Availability Planning Worksheet

May 14, 2014

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.

When Do You Fire the DBA?

March 13, 2014

I know a lot of DBAs, but it's really, really rare that I've seen one get fired. I don't think it's ever happened during one of my consulting engagements, and I've seen some incredibly horrific database disasters (not to mention a whole lotta ugly near-misses).

So I asked Twitter:

How to Use Partitioning to Make kCura Relativity Faster

February 27, 2014

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 database houses:

Production DBA

Back Up Transaction Logs Every Minute. Yes, Really.

February 26, 2014

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.

What If You Knew The Server Would Crash Today?

February 4, 2014

This morning you woke up with a terrible premonition - you were absolutely sure your most important production database server was going to crash today.

What would you do?

What Do You Ask the Leaving DBA?

January 30, 2014

When the database administrator turns in her notice, what questions should you ask her in her last couple of weeks?

I'm assuming, of course, that it was a friendly departure and you've got the full two weeks to have good conversations.

Production DBA

Improving the Performance of Backups

January 21, 2014

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 network resources – and if they’re running when users are trying to work, the users may notice the performance impact.

Always On Availability Groups, Backup Checksums, and Corruption

December 11, 2013

The latest version of sp_Blitz® alerts you if you haven't been using the WITH CHECKSUM parameter on your backups. This parameter tells SQL Server to check the checksums on each page and alert if there's corruption. But what about corrupt backups? Books Online says: NO_CHECKSUM - Explicitly disables the generation of backup checksums (and the validation…

How to Winterize Your Database

November 14, 2013

In Michigan where I grew up, we pull the boats out of the water at the beginning of the fall. It's a bit of a sad time, realizing we're done having fun on the water, and the seasons are about to change.

To prepare a boat for a few months of storage, we drain some fluids, replace others, give it a good cleaning, do some basic maintenance, and put on a tight waterproof cover.

Introducing the System Databases: Master, Model, MSDB

October 6, 2013

You've been working with SQL Server for a couple of years, but you're not really sure what's going on in the System Databases folder. What gets stored in Master, Model, and MSDB? What processes use them? In the event of a crash, should you restore them? Brent Ozar will give you an introductory tour in this half-hour video:

3 Things You Need to Start Doing to Your Database Server

April 23, 2013

Taking care of your health is incredibly important (says the marathon runner). Eating right, exercising, and getting plenty of rest help you stay healthy and perform optimally. Your database server’s health is important to your company’s health. You need to take regular backups, check for consistency, and keep indexes tuned for optimal performance. Here are…

Production DBA

Answers to Common High Availability and Disaster Recovery Questions

April 22, 2013

In our recent webcast on HA & DR basics for DBAs, we got a bunch of questions that couldn't be answered fast enough. Here you go:

Log Shipping FAQ

March 21, 2013

I've been working with and talking about SQL Server Log Shipping a lot lately!

I've gotten a lot of great questions about log shipping, so I've put together an FAQ.