There is a certain paradox in being advised to expect the unexpected, but the DBA must plan and prepare in advance to protect their organisation's data assets in the event of an unexpected crisis, and return them to normal operating conditions. To minimise downtime in such circumstances should be the aim of every effective DBA. To plan for recovery, It pays to have the mindset of a pessimist.   Read more...

This week we highlight the practice of being prepared for disasters at SQLServerCentral.  Read more...

After winning a number of awards for our software, Red Gate is giving away books to 300 people as a celebration.  Read more...

Back in April Steve Jones wrote up a disaster at work. Andy had one this week and wrote up the story too. Copy cat! Pretty soon everyone will be having a disaster and writing a story about it! Give these guys credit for letting you see what happens when it ALL goes bad. Disaster recovery is hard to sell and hard to do, reading the article might give you an idea that will save you some time and/or data one day.   Read more...

As part of Simple-Talk's long-running Cribsheet series, they asked William Brewer to write a guide to deployment that described in general terms what is involved in the deployment of a database application, and the sort of issues you're likely to come up against.  Read more...

There are some skills which are extensions of your instincts, and which you can only learn though years of experience. Matt Simmons has this brought home by the fact that he was recently minutes away from a data-loss disaster, and he doesn't quite know how he prevented it.  Read more...

Functionality to help maintain a Disaster/Recovery (D/R) Environment synchronized with production is introduced and the associated challenges are discussed.  Read more...

The backup and restore system in SQL Server hasn't changed a great deal over the years despite a huge growth in the typical size of databases. When disaster strikes, and an important service is taken offline while a restore is performed, there is often time to reflect on whether it might be possible to design databases for a more rapid recovery of the most critical parts of a database application.  Read more...

Learn how you can add custom logging to your Integration Services packages in this installment of our Stairway to Integration Services.  Read more...

A real world account of disaster recovery. (This article is being republished after the recent hurricane that hit the US East Coast).   Read more...

This free ebook from Red Gate Software will take you from the fundamentals of Statistics, Cost Estimation, Index Selection, and the Execution Engine, and guide you through the inner workings of the Query Optimization process, and throws in a pragmatic look at Parameterization and Hints along the way.  Read more...

During presentations about doing database backups and restores, there seem to be two two types of questions that are commonly asked, Those that come from the floor during the presentation, and those that are asked in private afterwards. These are sometimes more interesting, and challenging to answer well.  Read more...

Dave Lumley presents a Reporting services disaster recovery solution for SQL Server Standard Edition, using 2 servers. Worth the read if you don't run Enterprise.  Read more...

A suggested design for creating flight schedules makes querying easy. Includes basic airport and airlines data. Get started now with this tricky query problem.  Read more...

Planning for disaster recovery and business continuity aren't amongst the most exciting IT activities. They are, however, essential and relevant to any Database Administrator who is responsible for the safety and integrity of the companies' data, since data is a key part of business continuity.  Read more...

Author Craig Outcalt gives advice on preparing for the worst with a look at what you should consider putting in your disaster recovery plan and why.  Read more...

This paper provides a foundation for understanding data replication as well as a discussion of the criteria for selecting an appropriate replication technology.   Read more...

The Query Optimiser needs a good estimate of the number of rows likely to be returned by each physical operator in order to select the best query plan from the most likely alternatives. Sometimes these estimates can go so wildly wrong as to result in a very slow query. Joe Sack shows how it can happen with SQL Queries on a data warehouse with a star schema.  Read more...