Day 8 of 31 Days of Disaster Recovery (T-SQL Tuesday #38): Resolutions for All DBAs

By Robert Davis, 2013/01/08

T-SQL Tuesday #38

This post is not only day 7 of my 31 Days of Disaster Recovery series, it is also participating in T-SQL Tuesday #38 hosted this month by Jason Brimhall (blog|@sqlrnnr). The theme for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday is resolutions or resolving or just being resolute. For my part in this monthly blogfest, I am going to list some disaster recovery resolutions that I think every DBA should make.

If you missed any of the earlier posts in my DR series, you can check them out here:

31 Days of disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery Resolutions

Ensure that every database is being backed up.
Prioritize backups. Investigate backup failures as a top priority.
Verify that all of your databases are using the checksum page verification option.
```
Select name, page_verify_option_desc
From sys.databases;
```
Use the WITH CHECKSUM option for all database backups and restores
- See: Use All the Checksums.
Test your backups. Preferably, automate restoring them to a different server.
Test your recovery plan. Anyone who might need to implement should test regularly with different scenarios.
Create alerts and send notifications for the following errors:
- 823 – Error reading page at the OS level.
- 824 – Error reading page at the SQL Server level.
- 825 – Error reading page but was successful on retry.
- 829 – Page has been marked as restore pending.
- Blog post to follow explaining why.