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RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Todd Janes — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:23:22 GMT

[quote][b]owen.pugh (7/15/2008)[/b][hr]Thanks for the article.:D It provides useful information but is let down by the level of grammar and spelling - making it unlcear in places.:unsure:I'm looking forward to Part 2.Cheers[/quote]Hi,I think that these are what owen.pugh was referring to:IF EXISTS (SELECTname FROM sys.databases WHERE name= N'MyDatabase')should beIF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sysdatabases WHERE name= N'MyDatabase')******IF EXISTS (SELECT* FROM sys.objects WHEREshould beIF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysobjects WHERE******object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[Employee]') ANDtype in (N'U'))should beobject_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[Employee]') AND type in (N'U'))******It might seem nitpicky, but as a newbie it took a while before I was able to figure out that sys.objects and sys.databases were not the correct names. The spaces that were left out weren't such a big deal, but this wouldn't run right from a copy/paste.UPDATE: I missed a page of posts, but I now realize that these were not what owen.pugh was referring to (Sorry owen.pugh for the misinterpretation of your comments). I still believe that the errors I listed above make this article a little harder to follow. All in all, this was a very informative article, though. Thanks, MAK!Cheers,Todd

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

daft — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:07:48 GMT

[quote][b]Loner (7/15/2008)[/b][hr]Is this article discussion thread or grammar discussion thread? Why all of a sudden people pay more attention to grammar and spelling than the content of the article?[/quote]Exactly. Great article Mak, missed it the first time but just came across it after reading part 2. Both very informative, especially for someone like myself - I come from a developer background and my SQL Server knowledge is much more on the "developer dba" side rather than the production dba side. Having recently moved to a smaller company, my role is encompassing a lot more traditional, production dba type work, and the articles and indeed the discussion on these pages are very useful :)I'm also surprised at the number of people "picking holes" in the grammar. This isn't primary school, it's not an English lesson. To point out the minor - or rather miniscule - grammatical errors is extremely pedantic, in fact anal would be more apt. Let's concentrate on the content of the articles please and there's no doubt about the fundamental value of these bread & butter articles - good job! :D

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

sudha-426098 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:24:26 GMT

Hello Thanx for this article. I am a new entrant to DBA field. I have picked up few things like attaching, detaching etc. I think this series would really help me to know DBA activities in a systematic way. I am looking forward for the next articles in this series.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Rob Symonds — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:05:58 GMT

Looking forward to part 2, especially strategies on table backups/restores.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

lfguzman_25 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:20:56 GMT

I Guys i would like to post an article about databases because i am managing an sql server 2005 so i will post the article in a moments and i would explain how to make a full backup, differential backup, transaction log backup and the possibilities to recover the databases.If you find any error in my grammatical just let me now.Luis F Guzman.MCDBA

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

humbleDBA — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:48:08 GMT

Sorry this is a bit off-topic, MAK...Hi Loner,Good advice from the other guys, but I would add that primarily the strategy you chose is should be based on business need for recovery. In other words, how much data can the business afford to lose and how quick they would need to be up-and-running again.As an example, for one set of 3 servers that we managed the business could afford to lose 1/2 an hours worth of data and would need to be up-and-running again within 24 hours. It was also critical to secure a full backup each 24 hour period as there was a daily cycle of data purging. These were 5 largish databases on the instance (one instance per server), approx 60 GB each, with approx 12 GB streaming in and 12 GB purged per database per day. The system was to run 24/7. So from this we developed the backup regime to achieve the business requirements.For other databases, there was less of a requirement and they had a window available of 12 hours. So here we created a different backup regime that was much different to the above.Its worth noting, too, that quite often the business don't know their requirements until you start putting the questions to them about 'how much data can you afford to lose if there was an issue?' or 'how long could you cope without access to xxx database?', etc. Once they start to think about it, it often surprises them at how reliant they are on these systems, and especially the data. HTH

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Alkiris — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:34:15 GMT

@LonerIt depends on the criticity of your database/application, and the number of dbs you have to manage.I manage to backup more than 200 sql dbs from some MB to several TB, and generally doing the following is a good basis.- 1 full backup weekly- 1 differential backup daily- 1 transaction log backup every hour / 2 hoursTo be adapted to your environment.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Aaron Ingold — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:15:06 GMT

Loner, to me it really depends. You have to choose the backup/restore strategy which works best with your maintenance window, DR plan, db usage, etc... I manage roughly 20 separate instances at my current job and it's a mixed bag. On our highest use and most high-priority cluster I do a full backup on the weekends, differentials nightly and log backups throughout the day. We just didn't have the time to work in a full backup nightly, and our data storage expenses would've ballooned upward with the tape costs to store backups in compliance with our retention policy. However we have other servers where I just do one full backup of all databases per night and that's it. We've got databases that are only a gig or two in size, don't change that often, and we've determined that we can easily lose up to a single day's worth of data without issue (dev/qa servers usually).

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Loner — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:53:51 GMT

For general practice about backing up the database, I want to know if majority DBAs do a full database backup everyday or every week?I do a full backup every week and everyday I do differential backup, is it alright? The database I am in charge is not changed much everyday and does not need to be up 24/7.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Loner — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:50:21 GMT

Is this article discussion thread or grammar discussion thread? Why all of a sudden people pay more attention to grammar and spelling than the content of the article?

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

timothyawiseman — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:31:04 GMT

Well done article. Thank you. I initially anticipated discussing all 4 types of backups at the same time, but what is present is well done.Incidentally, for any but the smallest SQL Server installations, there are some very nice 3rd party tools which simplify the process. I use SQL Backup 5, but there are a few others out there as well.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

kp_kumar — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:51:26 GMT

MAKlooking forward to the next part.. you have selected the very important topic for all dbas...

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

MAK9974 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:07:03 GMT

There is no need to create a database before restoring a backup. However, I will discuss about creating a database first and restoring the backup is faster in later part of article.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Paul Bhupal — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:38:21 GMT

Great topic. I would add that you need to create a database before you can restore from your backup taken earlier.Cheers,

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

impugn — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:55:29 GMT

[quote][b]Carla Wilson (7/15/2008)[/b][hr]Can we please rise above the "grammar issues".I really enjoy hearing from the global community, and appreciate the effort everyone puts into volunteered articles.I look forward to more articles in the series.[/quote]Since we're here on this Internet thingy...it seems to me that one's grammar comprises a very large part of how one presents oneself to the rest of the world. It actually is important. It actually says something.In any event, pointing out problems with the article's presentation is not mean. It is just plain fact. If my kid spells "cat" like K - A - T, I don't tell him he's 2/3rds right and pat him on the head. Some might, but woe be unto that child when faced with reality, later.I've actually refused to use software at times because either the accompanying literature or the interface, itself, was rife with horribly written prose. Why? Carelessness evident in what I can see only makes me distrust what I can't (i.e. the underlying code).Now, the upside for the article's author: I wouldn't even be able to write out [all 18 words of] Stallone's dialog from [i]Rambo: First Blood[/i] in MAK's native language (whatever that is). Okay. Got it. English is his second language. That is what his grammar is telling us. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Knowing that, though, does not make the grammar right and didn't stop me from chuckling through bits of the article.And furthermore, all your base are belong to us. Make your time. Ha ha ha ha.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

MAK9974 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:54:49 GMT

Steve Jones.Thanks for updating the article.Owen.Please check the article when you get a chance.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

andycao — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:38:31 GMT

It's plain grammar issues. There is no need to place the subject in quotes. The issues are real. Readers will distrust the technical content when the verbiage in the article is flawed.Just because the content is volunteered is not a good reason to look the other way when the prose is riddled with errors.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Carla Wilson-484785 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:14:42 GMT

Can we please rise above the "grammar issues".I really enjoy hearing from the global community, and appreciate the effort everyone puts into volunteered articles.I look forward to more articles in the series.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

MAK9974 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:13:50 GMT

Folks.Thanks you for all the comments.Owen.100% Agreed. I should have double checked and proof read it thoroughly before publishing it. My bad. I relied more on Microsoft word than my English. Microsoft word is more forgiving. Looks like you are not. I was focusing more on the actual technology rather than English language.However when writing articles on technology there is no hard and fast rules. I will be more careful next time.Note: Microsoft word complains that "My Bad" is a fragment and consider revising.http://www.mssqlengineering.com

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

impugn — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:04:56 GMT

Here is the first paragraph of the article...translated from "English" to Chinese and back into "English" again:"And an all database administrator primary mission is spare and restores these backups finally somewhere. The database administrator creates the plan possible defeat which can lean against every time. Microsoft introduced separates and attaches from the SQL server 7.0 orders. These orders also became the DBAs part to make a living, when talked about motion the database or the cleaning diary table and so on."See? Could have been worse.There you have it.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

bondistrict — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:45:05 GMT

Perfect start! The article is concise and accurate!:)

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

rmontena — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:12:32 GMT

Good start. But you need to work on grammar. First paragraph had four grammatical errors.-bob

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

owen.pugh — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:08:19 GMT

Hi SimPlease don't misunderstand, I really do appreciate MAK's efforts and experience in putting this together.I wasn't intending to rip the article to shreds. I thought that, rather than a professional article, it read more like a quick blog - without any editorial quality control.Here are some of the typos I spotted:[quote]One of the Primary tasks of any Database Administrator is Backup and eventually restores those backups somewhere.[/quote]or Two of the primary tasks of any Database Administrator are Backup and, eventually, Restore of those backups.[quote]Database Administrators creates fallback plan for every possible failures.[/quote]orDatabase Administrators create fallback plans for every possible failure.[quote]Database gets corrupted and not recoverable [/quote]orDatabase gets corrupted and is not recoverable [quote]Database Deleted by accident or by purpose[/quote]orDatabase is deleted by accident or on purpose [quote]SQL Server Crashes and data drive is not recoverable[/quote]orSQL Server crashes and data drive is not recoverable[quote]This article series is going to illustrate the various types of backup, take backups, restoring different types of backups, detaching databases, attaching databases, move database, Backup a table, compress a backup, encrypting the backups etc.[/quote]orThis article series is going to illustrate the various types of backup possible, how to take backups, restoring different types of backups, detaching databases, attaching databases, moving databases, backing up a table, compressing a backup, encrypting the backups etc.[quote]Microsoft SQL Server provides three different types of backups. They are Full Backup, Differential Backup and Transactional log backups. There is also another backup called File group backups.[/quote]orMicrosoft SQL Server provides three different types of database backup. They are Full Backup, Differential Backup and Transactional Log Backup. There is also another backup called File Group Backup....CheersOwen

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

santhu — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:53:45 GMT

Gr8 Start, Looking forward for part 2

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

rhall-556945 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:41:45 GMT

Great article, looking forward to DBA Part 2 and more!

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Hari.Sharma — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:36:23 GMT

Good Article

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Robbob — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:26:41 GMT

I enjoyed that first article and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. I have recently been using SS2K5 a lot and although we do have Full Time DBA's I am interested in learning more about the commonly accepted backup and restore strategies. Thanks again for the first article.Rob

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Sim Lever — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:20:05 GMT

I found the grammar and spelling to be fine. Can you point out any typos?

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

owen.pugh — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:16:14 GMT

Thanks for the article.:D It provides useful information but is let down by the level of grammar and spelling - making it unlcear in places.:unsure:I'm looking forward to Part 2.Cheers

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Sim Lever — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:43:39 GMT

Great start

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

Anipaul — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:27:56 GMT

Looks like it is beginning of a excellent series. Looking forward for other parts.

RE: Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

sandrajones25 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:36:12 GMT

Hi,Sorry, because not having that much of knowledge about the topic, but I have given some informations what I have for the time being. Transaction Log is probably one of the most underutilized, underappreciated, and least publicized part of SQL. This is probably due to its simplicity, but this also makes it one of the most misunderstood parts of SQL Server. The transaction log can actually help to lower the server’s resources, increase productivity, all the while providing a method of an additional safety layer for you to fall back on======================================================sandrajones25,Knox Leon[url="http://www.knoxleon.name"]Knox Leon[/url]

Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1

MAK9974 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:31:32 GMT

Comments posted to this topic are about the item [B]Bread and Butter of SQL Server DBA - Part 1[/B]