SQL Server Preproduction Tasks

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SQL Server Preproduction Tasks

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KenSimmons

Posted Tuesday, November 25, 2008 11:06 PM

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Preproduction Tasks

Ken Simmons
http://twitter.com/KenSimmons

Post #608861

Jeff Moden

Posted Tuesday, November 25, 2008 11:08 PM

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Very nicely done, Ken. Lot's o' work went into that one. Great job.

--Jeff Moden

"RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for "Row-By-Agonizing-Row".

First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
Stop thinking about what you want to do to a row... think, instead, of what you want to do to a column."

For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/

For better answers on performance questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/

Post #608862

humbleDBA

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 1:36 AM

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Ditto Jeff's comments, Ken.

Post #608894

magarity kerns

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 3:09 AM

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Excellent checklist! May I add a caveat to #1: The latest patch level supported by the front end app's picky vendor (if applicable).

Post #608919

Steven Webster-494809

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 3:35 AM

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Great article Ken. Much appreciated.

Can I ask your views on the following - I recently had auditors in and one of their recommendations was to increase the maximum number of error log files to a value of 25000 or higher via a registry hack. In the vulnerability report they give the following reason for this:

To prevent the loss of auditing data, it is recommended that you set this value high enough that the error logs will not be overwritten when restarting the database. Also note that there is a stored procedure, sp_cycle_errorlog, that closes an errorlog and creates a new file. An attacker could attempt to cover their tracks by overwriting files using this stored procedure. It is recommended that you set the value high enough that an attacker could not cycle the logs enough times in a reasonable amount of time to overwrite the error log containing an attack.

Many thanks

Steven

Post #608932

Mohit K. Gupta

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 7:49 AM

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Steve,

For auduting purpose I would recommend saving up the Default Trace log; depending on your work load, you can save that daily, or multiple times/day. And that trace log has alot more information the SQL Server error logs do.

- Mohit.

---

Mohit K. Gupta, MCITP: Database Administrator (2005), My Blog, Twitter: @SQLCAN.
Microsoft FTE - SQL Server PFE

* Some time its the search that counts, not the finding...
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Post #609094

Mohit K. Gupta

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 7:52 AM

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Oops forgot to ask questions regarding the article :P.

Point #2, Enable Successful and Failed logs ...

I understand having that on for the first little while in a new system to make sure you know who is hitting the system. But by enabling both Successfull and Failed will it not fill up the error log alot quicker. Like for example on some of my serers there are over 3000 successful connections/day. I track successful for a while when setting up new server to make sure things are funcitonal; then I switch to Failed log ons only.

Recommendations are both or just failed? Comments?

Point #7, Create a maintenance database ...

I just starting doing that recently on SQL Server 2000 environment because we needed to track access to the user/database login. And be able to report it out quickly. I am also using this for storing some Stored procedure for selective reindexing? What else can be in this database?

Thanks for the Article, really good pointers :D.

I will be reading the articles you posted today they look really good :D. w00t

---

Mohit K. Gupta, MCITP: Database Administrator (2005), My Blog, Twitter: @SQLCAN.
Microsoft FTE - SQL Server PFE

* Some time its the search that counts, not the finding...
* I didn't think so, but if I was wrong, I was wrong. I'd rather do something, and make a mistake than be frightened and be doing nothing. Smooooth

How to ask for help .. Read Best Practices here.

Post #609099

KenSimmons

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:22 AM

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Failed logins are really the most important. It just depends on how busy your system is. It is all preference on what you would like to monitor.

I use the maintenace database to hold procedures and tables for...
reindexing, capturing database size for trending, capturing critical events from the error log, etc.

Jonathan Kehayias did a real good presentation called Automating Common DBA Tasks that has a lot of other good ideas. It can be found under the live meeting recordings here.

http://www.sqlpass.org/Community/SIGs/DatabaseAdministrationSIG/tabid/80/Default.aspx

Ken Simmons
http://twitter.com/KenSimmons

Post #609147

KenSimmons

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:32 AM

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Jeff Moden (11/25/2008)

Very nicely done, Ken. Lot's o' work went into that one. Great job.

Thanks Jeff. It really wasn't that much work. I just wanted to share some of the things I do (or at least think about doing) when setting up a server.

I would love to hear what some other people do as well. I am always looking for new ideas to help improve performance and maintain system stability.

Ken Simmons
http://twitter.com/KenSimmons

Post #609161

Anipaul

Posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:34 AM

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Well written. Excellent article...

Post #609164

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