Installation, configuration, automation, health checks, and governance controls.
301 associated posts140 primary posts
Before we get started, we need to talk about something. I'm going to be using the C word - that's right, Clustering. Deep, calming breaths. Relax. We can do this, you and me. This isn't the old-school clustering with shared disks, heartbeat networks, and hardware compatibility lists. This is just another feature you're going to…
You need to poop. Maybe not right now, but in general, you need to breathe, eat, drink, sleep, and poop. If you can't do any of those things, then the rest of your needs will take a back seat until you can accomplish the basics.
Psychology professor Abraham Maslow designed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to illustrate how us meatbags prioritize our daily tasks. It's usually visualized with a pyramid:
I hate the way SSMS tabs look by default. Check this out:
That's nearly useless. The tabs are wide, but they still don't show useful information. Even worse, I've got more tabs than I can fit in the window, so the rest hang out in a meaningless dropdown.
Managing data is about managing risk, but no matter how we good we are at managing risks, they're still risks.
We've seen several high-profile data failures recently:
So you're lazy and you're company's broke - what to do? Here's my favorite free downloads to help manage SQL Server: Understand execution plans with SQL Sentry Plan Explorer - I dunno about you, but viewing execution plans in SQL Server Management Studio is a pain in my rear. The scrolling sucks, the cost numbers…
Paul Randal (Blog - @PaulRandal) nailed a blog post to the church wall entitled, "What 5 things should SQL Server get rid of?" His choices included auto-shrink, putting databases in full recovery by default, GUIDs as clustered indexes, and more. He tagged me, and I knew right away what I'd say. 5. IntelliSense restrictions on…
When someone's got boogers hanging out of their nose, they want to hear about it in the most subtle way possible. Blurting out, "Hey, dude, you've got a booger hanging out of your nose!" won't win you any friends. Sure, people will laugh, but they're not just going to be laughing at the guy diving…
Are all of your servers set up to clean out their backup history periodically?
Are you sure?
In high school, I threw a huge party in Grandma's house. It had long-lasting implications - among other things, I got disinherited. Learn why SQL Server data compression has a lot in common with me after that Jungle Juice bash.
I had sworn to myself that if I saw one more helpful article about how to shrink your SQL Server database files with DBCC SHRINKFILE or how to back up your log with TRUNCATE_ONLY, I was going to write a rant about it.
SQL Server Magazine just tweeted about their latest article, a reader-submitted solution on how to shrink your database files with ease.
I've been really lucky so far: I hardly ever get sick. Every now and then, I engage in risky eating behavior and I come down with food poisoning. I should know better, but I just can't help myself when I get the chance to try steak tartare, sushi, deep fried goat cheese or a Popeye's…
UPDATE 2013: This code is no longer available. The size of the StackOverflow export has grown beyond what you can import with this method.
Want to play around with the StackOverflow database export? Here's how to import the XML files into SQL Server, and some notes about the tables and data schema.
Script to Import StackOverflow XML to SQL Server
This T-SQL script will create six stored procedures:
Richard Jones, a DBA in the UK, asked in with a question, and rather than giving my own opinion, I thought it'd be better to ask it here to get everybody's opinion in the comments: The DB team that I am a member of are about to take control of a number of SQL Server…
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 are written to a file share, never local storage, so there's no additional overhead on the production box for this restore process.
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 the dangers that lurk around every corner?
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.
Production database administrators have to know at least a little about a lot of things:
How to install or upgrade SQL Servers
How to build clusters
How to plan for disaster recovery and high availability
How to do performance tuning
How to secure and protect databases
Got more than one DBA? Want to make your life easier? You might want to configure a Central Management Server.
This is useful for fast-changing shops where there's a lot of servers added and removed. At my last company, we had a hard enough time telling everybody when we'd finished adding a new server, or what the new server's name was, or when we didn't need to look at a server anymore.
I've covered what needs to happen before you install SQL Server - now, let's talk about what to do immediately after the setup finishes.
Install not just the service packs, but also the cumulative updates.
Starting with SQL Server 2005's Service Pack 2, Microsoft releases hotfixes in cumulative packs. These updates do more than just fix bugs: they improve how SQL Server performs. These updates are free performance benefits - and who doesn't like that?
Ever wonder if you’re missing a step when you set up your SQL Server? Get a checklist to install and configure your SQL Server the right way! We've built an easy-to-follow SQL Server Setup Guide for systems administrators, DBAs, and developers that helps you prevent the most common issues we see out in the field. The guide…
