This articles makes the case for using SQL LiteSpeed over other backup solutions and presents some notes about why the DBA should manage backups rather than offloading to network administration.   Read more...

A monster book at 980 pages, it's written in 'how-to' format and has a ton of good material. Andy gave it the once over for us and reports back - see what he thinks!   Read more...

Andy had a semi-disaster similar to the one he wrote about last year. Interesting to see the kinds of problems that happen to other people. This article raises some interesting points that are outside the scope of basic disaster recovery, looking at how/when to move databases to a different server and how to reduce the server load dynamically.   Read more...

Andy takes a look at the new book on DMO and likes what he sees - "great book for beginner and intermediate DMO users!". We've been supporters of DMO for a while and we're glad to see a new book on the subject. Read the review, add your comments, buy the book!   Read more...

Following up on a question posted in our discussion area, Andy demonstrates how to backup/restore a database using DMO, how to get the list of files to be restored, and how to do a restore with no recovery. Lots of sample code!   Read more...

Andy sits down with an entry level book to see if he should use it at work as a teaching aid. Did he like it? Should you buy it? Read the review now!   Read more...

Andy did "Under the Covers" last week, what the heck will it be next week? Read this article to see how maintenance plans update statistics, rebuild indexes, and remove free space from your databases. Add your comments to the article, maybe even a suggestion or two for better titles!   Read more...

In this follow up article Andy looks at how maintenance plans report errors and how they actually accomplish what they do. A little snooping with Profiler reveals all!   Read more...

This book from Microsoft Press has a lot of good information that will help you do capacity planning and performance tuning. Is it worth buying though? Andy just finishing reading it and writing the review, see what he thinks!   Read more...