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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If a user is a member of db_datareader, which grants access to a table, and db_denydatareader, which denies access to a table, which role will take precedent? That’s the question someone on LinkedIn recently posted in the SQL Server Administrators group recently. Here’s a link to the question. The LinkedIn poster essentially wanted to know…
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Backup and restore? Log shipping? Maybe Failover Clustered Instances or Availability Groups can be used? Oh, what about Azure or another cloud provider? Some data centers offer “push button DR,” will that work? There are so many options. Where should we start with Disaster Recovery for our SQL Server? The point of Disaster Recovery Disasters…
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“I want to learn [a technology]. Where should I start?” Since I’ve spent the last 25 year working with SQL Server (no exaggeration, see footnote), the question is usually about learning SQL Server. Sometimes it’s about learning related technologies such as data analytics and visualization, scripting languages such as Python or PowerShell, or the burgeoning…
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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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Some things are scary. Other things are dangerous. And in SQL Server, you can have both scary and dangerous at the same time. Scary, that we can deal with. But dangerous, particularly things that are deceptively dangerous, is bad. Scary things Let’s start with scary. Some things give us pause. We see them, think about…
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“The server is seriously slow! Can’t we add memory or something?” We’ve all heard this before. You may have even thought it yourself. Adding resources could be an easy fix to a troublesome performance problem. After all, SQL Server hungers for memory. The more the better. And a side of processor goes a long way,…
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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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“Do I really need the SQL Server Enterprise Edition license? Or will SQL Server Standard Edition work for us?” That’s a question most every CFO, CIO, VP, and Director with a SQL Server environment and budgetary responsibilities has asked. The reason is obvious. SQL Server Enterprise Edition is expensive. How expensive? According to Microsoft’s web…
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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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