Category: The Sero Group

Restrict access to secure your SQL Servers

Securing Your SQL Servers, What Should You Audit?

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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CHECKDB is a critical for Database Integrity

When Was the Last Known Good DBCC CHECKDB Integrity Check?

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.

Let's count the number of SQL Server tempdb files I have

3 Ways to Find Your SQL Server tempdb Data Files

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.

Avoid working without a net; implement a SQL Server HADR option

High Availability and Disaster Recovery in SQL Server

We’re often asked about SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR) options to help customers protect their data and improve their uptime. No surprise there. When a SQL Server provides a critical component of your daily operations you need those databases to be available. Simply put, when a user needs information from the database…
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Vintage databases are not as good as vintage cars

Should I Upgrade SQL Servers that Are Out of Support?

Do All SQL Servers Need to Be Upgraded? Running production systems on a platform that is no longer supported by the vendor is worrisome. If something goes wrong, you’ll no longer be able to call the vendor and receive technical support. But worse, you’ll no longer release updates, fixes, security patches, etc, for the out…
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Want to Learn SQL Server? Here Are 3 Free Sources

Many companies have lean IT organizations and find themselves with five, ten, or even twenty production SQL Servers and no dedicated Database Administrator to care for them. Instead, they rely on other IT Professionals to ensure the database servers are performant. We’ve worked with many companies where SysAdmins, Application Developers, and Network Administrators have been…
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Is My SQL Server Configured Properly?

Installing SQL Server is surprisingly easy. Download the media, double-click the setup file, answer a few configuration questions, and in less than 15 minutes you have a fully functional database server. And the server performs well. For a while. Then it slows down and maybe even a database corrupts. You recover by restoring the prior…
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4 Options Now That Your SQL Server 2008 Is Out of Support

As of July 9, 2019, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 have officially passed from Extended Support to No Longer Supported. What does that mean? It means that Microsoft will no longer release any updates for any version of SQL Server 2008. That includes security patches and data integrity fixes. If a hacker…
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