SQLServerCentral / SQL Server 7,2000 / SQL Server Newbies / Beginning Administration / Latest Posts

RE: Beginning Administration

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:00:09 GMT

Closing this thread as it's drifting a bit.Please post requests in the appropriate forum.

RE: Beginning Administration

grant.collinsworth — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:18:04 GMT

I could use some solid clarification about how to manage transaction logs.. Like for instance, - why its never a good idea to "delete" the primary database's physical transaction log file...(and believe me, that will make the concept of recovery management ridiculously moot...) ;)- What to do with database files that aren't primary or secondary... (Specifically how to manage the transaction log file):hehe:Grant

RE: Beginning Administration

rinu philip — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:10:02 GMT

I would love to see some interesting facts and learn more about Cusors!

RE: Beginning Administration

rinu philip — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:08:36 GMT

[quote][b]Randy Barlow (3/23/2006)[/b][hr]Dumb Question: Can someone direct me to something that tells me how to set up Windows XP to work with SQL. When I click on Query, up junps a box wanting a server name, etc. Where do I get that?[/quote]Hi are you using sql server 2000 or sql server 2005. You could check for the server name from enterprise manager in sql server 2000 or sql server management studio in case of 2005 for the server name. Enter the server name here, it is the name of the instance that you want the query analyser to connect. You should check how you have registered the server, it could be windows authentication or sql server authentication.

RE: Beginning Administration

Mister Sachmo — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:31:00 GMT

As a relatively new DBA myself, I can recommend SQL Books Online as your primary source. Pretty much everything you will need to know is in there. Microsoft pulished administrators guides, which are nice, but if your experience is anything like mine, you will focus on some aspects of Administration at time while barely scratching the surface on others. And when you need the knowledge, you will need it quickly. So BOL is your local and best friend!!

RE: Beginning Administration

Mister Sachmo — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:27:00 GMT

Is it the query analyser box? If so, it wants you to tell it what server to connect to, and what login to use.

RE: Beginning Administration

Sergiy — Thu, 03 May 2007 18:56:00 GMT

They must by log files for other databases.Check the file names and try to find out which database(s) create(s) it.

RE: Beginning Administration

Sergiy — Thu, 03 May 2007 18:55:00 GMT

See "PERMISSIONS function" topic in BOL.And topics linked from there.

RE: Beginning Administration

Steve S. — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:27:00 GMT

Newbie here, to SQL Server 2000 and the forum. Prior post glitched/vanished somehow. short version, this time:SQL 2000.80.2039.0Win2K3ServerSP1SQL Enterprise Manager "Properties" on a db says thattransactionlogs for the db are writing to my D: drive,but .TRN files (BIG ones!) keep appearing on my C: drive.How to fix?MANY Thanks!- S.

RE: Beginning Administration

Jim Russell-390299 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:08:00 GMT

I'd like to see a dummy's guide to assigning permissions to a (new) view for a new user. In particular, defining the logon, creating a group, adding needed permissions for tables/views in other dababases referenced by the view.

I look forward to your beginning administrators material.

RE: Beginning Administration

Belisama — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 07:12:00 GMT

I'm only a beginner myself, but I think you would want to set this up with a Job rather than with a Trigger. Make a stored procedure that does what you want, and then set the job to run that stored procedure each Sunday. Someone please correct me if this is completely in error.

RE: Beginning Administration

Randy Barlow — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:37:00 GMT

Dumb Question: Can someone direct me to something that tells me how to set up Windows XP to work with SQL. When I click on Query, up junps a box wanting a server name, etc. Where do I get that?

RE: Beginning Administration

Muhammed Sajid Hussain — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 09:17:00 GMT

Hi,

Kindly can you help me for the follownig question...

Whenever a user inserts a record into database(sqlserver), i want to write one trigger such that it fires on a particular date(suppose on sunday) and all the records which have been inserted from monday to saturday should be updated to the server on sunday when the trigger fires.

Please suggest me

Thanks in advance

Best Regards

RE: Beginning Administration

AMIT GUPTA-263376 — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:27:00 GMT

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF DBA IS LARGE.

YOU CAN BUY SOME GOOD BOOKS TO START YOUR Journey.

Care fully read all the aspects?

RE: Beginning Administration

Loner — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 09:32:00 GMT

Thanks for all the information. It sure is very helpful to me.

I just start my job as SQL developer in a small company and I find out they don't have a DBA. My boss said the company was too small and could not afford a full time DBA so he expected all developers to learn to be a DBA. Even though I found it was very overwhelming at first to be a developer and DBA at the same time, now I find it very exciting. There is so much to learn and there is not a boring moment at work.

RE: Beginning Administration

Vijay Dixon — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 05:37:00 GMT

All thats here is very useful hope u keep updating this....

RE: Beginning Administration

MegaDBA — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 09:37:00 GMT

I would like to see some sample MS SQL server standards documentation writing guides or similar...Any guidance in that area would be idea...Also, product review to assist the newbie in different dB task would be awesome...like telling newbies about SQL Compare, etc...

Thanks,

Christine

RE: Beginning Administration

mikal r. pippins — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:41:00 GMT

Better do it with a copy first when you have plenty of free time. Things are about to get real different.

RE: Beginning Administration

David Thayer — Tue, 03 May 2005 08:10:00 GMT

Pretty easy to DTS the data into your SQL Server and link to it through Access (ODBC).

RE: Beginning Administration

Frank Kalis — Tue, 03 May 2005 07:06:00 GMT

http://msdn.microsoft.com/sql/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sqlbackend.asp

http://www.support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;237980

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;884457

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;241743

should get you going. A search here in the fora might also be helpful.

RE: Beginning Administration

TIMOTHY A. JUMONVILLE — Tue, 03 May 2005 06:44:00 GMT

I'M NEW TO THIS...HAVE MSACCESS DATABASE SPLIT INTO DATABASE AND DATABASE_BE. GETTING TOO BIG FOR ACCESS. WANT TO PUT THE BACK END INTO SQL SERVER AND USE THE FRONT END TO MANIPULATE, ETC.HOW DO I GET THE BACK END INTO SQL SERVER?THANKS =)

RE: Beginning Administration

David Thayer — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:24:00 GMT

A DBA tale

Bob walked into his new office with overwhelming confidence as the exiting DBA finished packing his belongings. As Bob walked into the room, the DBA stopped a moment, walked to his desk, took out three envelopes and handed them to Bob.The exiting guy told Bob not to open them, as they would only be effective if they were opened at the right time. Bob asked when that would be, and the exiting DBA said that, when a situation came up where you don't know what to do, open #1 before you walk in to talk to the boss.

Bob got busy and got into the work, handled everything that came his way until one day, he was asked to get some data from a backup. Bob found out that his backups were failing. Bob remembered the envelopes, tore open #1 which contained a slip of paper which read "Blame it on the last DBA". Bob walked into the office wondering what to say and thought of how easily it could have been avoided. He checked the SQL Mail setup, even tested it! How was he to know that MIS would change something in the mail setup? Of course, to blame them would incur the wrath of the MIS department, and being a newbie, he didn't want to do that, so he blindly took the advice in the envelope. His boss agreed that it was the fault of the previous DBA, but told Bob that all SQL Server issues were his problem from now on. Bob learned from his mistake and set up SQL Mail to send him email upon success AND failure of any job. This way, if he didn't receive an email, he'd know there was a problem.

Two weeks went by, and Bob was a legend in his own mind. He loved the new backup strategy he'd implemented. It was so sleek and flexible, there was no way he'd lose data. Then, it was put to the test, and the recovery operation failed. He'd had successful emails regarding his backups and couldn't understand how this could happen. Was it the drive or the server??? He had no idea why he couldn't restore from his backups. Then he remembered the envelopes. Tearing open the second one, it said, simply "Blame the hardware." This was a great revelation to Bob. He'd never tested his recovery plan from start to finish, and never restored a backup in test before going live. Bob went to his boss and told him it was the hardware. The boss agreed, but pointed out that the company had just lost 48 hours worth of work. Bob left, with his tail between his legs. Bob learned that it's important to test your recovery plan.

He was just about to turn in his resignation when he realized he had another envelope. It couldn't possibly help him feel better about the hole he'd dug for himself, but what had he to lose? Bob opened the last envelope, read the note, and smiled. "Create 3 envelopes, label them #1, #2, #3, and create notes that say "Blame it on the last DBA", "Blame the hardware.", and in the third envelope place this note, and start looking for a new job. You're the only one to blame."

RE: Beginning Administration

David Thayer — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 16:13:00 GMT

The first thing a good dba should do, coming into an existing environment, is to put together a backup scheme. Typically, a full backup once a week, and transaction logs more often (depending on how your organization would view data loss in a DR scenario). Secondly, maintenance plans, DBCC checks, reindexing, etc. Some good ones to check out are DBCC CheckDB, DBCC Reindex, DBCC IndexDefrag, DBCC ShowContig. Some of these are very intrusive and should be done off-hours. Capacity planning is also important. Monitor your db sizes and keep tabs on it. Once you have all of these automated, then you can start getting your hands dirty with performance tuning at the query level, DTS, Replication.

Getting back to backups, be sure to test your backups on a regular basis.

RE: Beginning Administration

Phil Henry — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 06:20:00 GMT

Im administrator of an MIS that uses SQL 2000 - and while I can find my way around the db, create backups, use dts, and write Crystal Reports from the data - I find it difficult to understand how to create views ( so that my Crystal Report can report from the view rather than a group of tables.)

eg: I failed miserably at replication ( so I took my ball home and refused to play anymore!)

Im also at a total loss to understand 'joins' - the concept, how they work/how to use them etc etc

Any Steve Jones style prompt sheets would be greatfully appreciated

RE: Beginning Administration

LN-202212 — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 11:01:00 GMT

This should help set something up. This article provides some structure. Hope it helps.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/sqlops4.mspx#ECAA

RE: Beginning Administration

ckentebe — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 05:38:00 GMT

I am definitely interested in the Security and Administration duties of a MS2000 DBA.

RE: Beginning Administration

Courtney Rabuffo — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 14:43:00 GMT

I would definitely be interested in getting some basic information on SQL admin duties. Specifically maintenance plans, security, & optimization.

RE: Beginning Administration

Scott lancaster — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:47:00 GMT

I would be interested in anything you guys can give me on managing all of the above..

Ill keep checking this space..

Scotty

RE: Beginning Administration

Scott lancaster — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:47:00 GMT

I would be interested in anything you guys can give me on managing all of the above..

Ill keep checking this space..

Scotty

RE: Beginning Administration

JGonzales — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:04:00 GMT

TTTI have been "blessed" as my companies SQL dba and I need some good starting guides.

RE: Beginning Administration

Frank Kalis — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:41:00 GMT

Michael,

have I missed something? Any news on this?

RE: Beginning Administration

GilaMonster — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:40:00 GMT

Articles on managing a data warehouse would be greatly appreciated. Specifically any differences between managing a data warehouse as opposed to managing an OLTP system

RE: Beginning Administration

MVDBA — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 02:26:00 GMT

i think we can manage that. watch this space in the next few days.

RE: Beginning Administration

Bill Hazelwood — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 12:01:00 GMT

How about a Security overview and best practice (local logins vs. domain accounts).

How about day to day maintenance and backup plans. What are the necessary jobs that all DBA's should do daily, weekly, monthly.

RE: Beginning Administration

MVDBA — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 07:46:00 GMT

if anyone has any requests for tutorials on specific matters, we are preparing some material for new SQL DBAs and Oracle DBAs making the transition. we would be happy to post these here.

Beginning Administration

Site Owners — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 08:00:00 GMT

No one has responded to this topic yet. Even if you don't have a complete answer, the original poster will appreciate any thoughts you have!

Beginning Administration

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 10:23:00 GMT

The first in a series on basic administration of SQL Server servers and databases.

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/beginningsqlserver2000administrationpart1.asp