We’re going to set up backup, DBCC CheckDB, and index maintenance for 5 servers in 10 minutes. Note that doing the same thing for 50 servers would take the same amount of time! Why do backups and CheckDB and index maintenance?
Clumio’s Rapid Recovery is amazing for SQL Server
Clumio’s Rapid Recovery is amazing, and you should know more about it. You might not have heard of Clumio before. Clumio is an upstart SaaS-based backup solution for both cloud and on-premises environments where the storage endpoint is in the cloud instead of a storage platform in your own datacenter. I’ve been exploring their offerings,…
Audit Logons with Extended Events
Some time ago, I wrote an article for SQL Server 2008 to help determine the use of the server since SQL Server 2008 was reaching End Of Life. In that article, I shared a reasonable use of server side trace to capture all of the logon events to the server. Afterall, you have to find…
These five SQL tools are essential for 2020
The tech world is just beginning to adapt to the “new normal”. Businesses are working through the hurdles of remote work environments. We’re all passing around remote working tips on desks, work hours, and hot beverages. That’s good stuff, but you’re going to need more than a good ergonomic chair
Three big reasons T-SQL still beats the GUI
The SQL Server Management Studio makes a lot of operations very simple. Creating a database takes three clicks. A new login is a minimum of two clicks. So why is it that we at MinionWare still write T-SQL over 90% of the time, instead of using the GUI?
Audit Database Offline Events
Knowing when an event occurred within the database environment is a very important thing. Being able to act quickly when certain events occur is equally as important. Sometimes, we may not find out about an event for a few days or weeks and then we are asked to figure out the who, when, why and…
Blogging and coding best practices
I had a discussion a while back, I think it was with Grant Fritchey (b/t) but I just can’t remember. And it wasn’t really a discussion, it was reading a blog and passing back and forth a couple of comments. Regardless. What we talked about was using best practices when coding. Not using *, formatting,…
Debugging techniques (focusing on T-SQL)
tl;dr; Add PRINT and/or SELECT statements. Comment/uncomment out pieces of code to isolate problems. Change INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statements to SELECTs. Disclaimer: These are techniques I use all the time. There are almost certainly others. Use what you find works best for you. Debugging stored procedures, functions, even views is something I end up doing quite a…
What’s the difference between Files and Filegroups?
tl;dr; Filegroups are a logical construct used to separate tables and indexes from each other, files are the physical construct used to store information (log & data) about the database. When creating a database you’ll notice that each database is built of several components. There are two files, one for data and one for the…
5 Tips for Friday: Database Corruption
This week’s 5 tips will be on a topic very near to my heart, database corruption. I want to do the 5 tips a little differently this time. The tips will not just be 5 tips in no particular order. These tips will be tips as well as steps on what to do starting with…