Enabling TDE is simple to do, but it can be more complex when you look to remove the feature from SQL Server. Steve Perry brings you a procedure you can use to help you.  Read more...

The database recovery model plays a crucial role for the recovery of a database. With several DBAs having access to a SQL Server instance there are bound to be changes that are not communicated. In this tip we cover a monitoring solution we deployed at our company to alert the DBAs if a database recovery model is different than what it is expected.  Read more...

If you have a requirement to install multiple SQL Server instances with the same settings, you most likely want to do it without following the numerous manual installation steps. The below tip will guide you through how to install a SQL Server instance with less effort.  Read more...

This article lists the essential TCP/UDP ports that an administrator running SQL Server or a cluster should know.  Read more...

This article shows an automated reorg/rebuild index for remote servers with notifications for the DBA.  Read more...

Learn the basics of recovery models in this short article from SQL Server guru and MVP, Gail Shaw.  Read more...

This article will help to get some basic information from your databases that may help you in different situations.  Read more...

Find out what you need to learn for the SQL Server 2008 Administration certification exams.  Read more...

This article has a description of an index utilization tool that Ron Johnson uses to analyze the effectiveness and use of indexes in a system.  Read more...

I have seen several tips on SQL Server Central Management Server and I want to implement the technology for my team. The only thing holding me back is security. Can you explain how security works with Central Management Server? What security access is needed to manage CMS? How about connecting to CMS? How about running a query using CMS? Check out this tip to answer these questions.  Read more...

We all know how important tempdb is and know that tempdb gets recreated every time SQL Server is restarted. Here we dig a little deeper to focus on how space is used inside tempdb.  Read more...

The transaction log is used by SQL Server to maintain data consistency and integrity. If the database is not in Simple-recovery mode, it can also be used in an appropriate backup regime to restore the database to a point in time.  Read more...

I work in a fairly large and unwieldy SQL Server shop. Our environment is the wild west. I have DBAs and Developers on my team that create SQL Server Agent Jobs all of the time and there is never an operator setup to email anyone based on a failure condition. I know the right solution here is to "tame the wild west" by locking down the environment and setting up a change management process, but I think that is a topic for another day. Can you give me some idea of how to identify the new recently created SQL Server Agent Jobs and Jobs without an operator setup to email us for a failure condition? I would like to receive emails when either of these conditions occur. Check out the solution to this tip to learn how.   Read more...

For many people, the way that SQL Server uses memory can be a bit of an enigma. A large percentage of the memory your SQL Server instance utilizes is consumed by buffer pool (essentially, data). Without a lot of digging, it can be hard to tell which of your databases consume the most buffer pool memory, and even more so, which objects within those databases. This information can be quite useful, for example, if you are considering an application change to split your database across multiple servers, or trying to identify databases that are candidates for consolidation.  Read more...

This is a real-time production issue I faced with one of our clients  Read more...

Part 3 of the analysis of the SQLServerCentral database cluster by MVP Brad McGehee. Follow along as he talks about some SQL Server settings and gives reasons why they should or should not be changed.  Read more...

On many SQL Servers database file size, either data or log, may be restricted to a maximum size to ensure there is adequate space on the server. The problem with this is that if your data or log file runs out of space you will get an error message  Read more...

I support thousands of databases and I'm running across situations where I have a database that has a data file of a couple hundred megabytes and the associated log file is gigabytes in size! I understand this is because I may not have my transaction log backups scheduled properly. What I'm interested in is an easy way to identify these situations where the SQL log file is too large, so I can go in and further analyze these problem databases without needing to look at each database.  Read more...

TempDB is the ALU of the SQL Server and if somehow this gets deleted Server cannot start. Here is a solution of how to get the server started when TempDB is deleted.  Read more...

Automate patch installations using the task scheduler and command line hotfix options for SQL.  Read more...