SQL Server administration, once installed and running, doesn’t vary too much based on your operating system, but the differences in the operating systems are pretty significant. To properly administer a production SQL Server on Linux, an administrator needs to understand the core basics of the Linux operating system. I’m going to limit the scope of…
Month: May 2017
Why shouldn’t I shrink my database log file?
TL;DR: It’s pretty pointless and can cause performance issues. Let’s start by asking why you might want to shrink your log. It’s too big I find that people who say this frequently don’t have a firm idea of what is too big or even why it might be as big as it is. This also…
DBA as a Commodity
If you’ve been working around the IT industry for a few years then you have probably heard mention of commodity servers. These are machines that run a standardized hardware spec, and are easily interchangeable with others. The price point around the machines is that it is typically cheaper to replace than it is to repair them,…
Dynamic SQL and the joys of QUOTENAME
I’m a big fan of dynamic SQL. In the past I’ve written a How to, a Best Practices and even a Generic Dynamic SP although that last one was a bit so so in my opinion. Depending on what type of dynamic code you are writing QUOTENAME will be your best friend. Let’s start with…
Why Log Shipping is Better than Database Mirroring for Migrations
This topic has come up several times recently, so I feel the need to blog on it. As the person who wrote the book on Database Mirroring, it will probably come as a surprise to many of you that I believe that log shipping is a much better tool for database migrations than database mirroring.…