You’ve manually started DBCC CHECKDB to verify the integrity of a database. It churns. And churns. You check the Messages tab on Management Studio. Nothing. So, you start to wonder: Just how much longer will CHECKDB take to complete? A couple of minutes? A couple of hours? Who knows? How long will DBCC CHECKDB take?…
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The call comes in. “Something’s happened. We need to restore the production database. Can you do it? And how long will it take?” No DBA wants to receive that call but, frankly, answering those calls and the ensuing questions are part of a DBA’s job. And there’s no better way to know that you can,…
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Conserving energy is good. It’s good for the environment and it’s good for the bottom line. That’s why Windows Server has built-in power settings. But there’s a trade off. With reduced power comes reduced performance for most SQL Servers. The Windows Power Plan Setting Windows Server has three pre-defined power settings: Balanced, High Performance, and…
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Views in SQL Server are really just queries that have been given a name so that they can be referenced as if they are tables. This can be convenient, especially for code reuse. However, it can also have some unanticipated consequences. Let’s look at an example. Let’s consider the affect joining two views can have…
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“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” In the world of databases, stakeholders don’t care about SQL backups. They care about the ability to restore a SQL database.
We’ve made it! The start of a new year. Now is a great time to reflect on what you’d like to accomplish over the next 12 months at work, and more specifically, what you would like to do with your SQL Server environment this year. To help with that, here are five activities or goals…
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In SQL Server, when someone creates a database, they own it. That means they have elevated permissions on the database. The SQL Server database owner can change configuration parameters, perform maintenance, and grant permissions on the database to other users. The database owner can even drop the database altogether. In highly secure environments (and what…
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Securing and protecting your SQL Servers from the ever present threats of data breaches, ransomware, and even accidental data losses due to errant code or faulty systems is crucial. It’s one of the core responsibilities of a DBA. It would be great if there was a one-size fits all approach to data protection – one…
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Fortunately, DBCC CHECKDB will log each time it completes without finding any errors or corruption in the database. That’s known as the Last Known Good date. Let’s look at three ways you determine the Last Known Good date. We’ll use a T-SQL query, a PowerShell command with dbatools, and the SQL Server Logs via Management Studio.
Checking the number of tempdb data files is straightforward. Here are three easy ways: one graphical, one T-SQL, and one PowerShell, so you can use your tools of choice.
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