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.
2012-12-13 (first published: 2010-03-25)
7,373 reads
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.
2012-12-12 (first published: 2012-11-26)
2,382 reads
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.
2012-12-11
3,466 reads
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.
2012-12-10
2,360 reads
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.
2012-12-10
1,163 reads
Occasionally, when deploying a database, you need to copy data out to file from all the tables in a database. Phil Factor shows how to do it, and illustrates its use by copying an entire database from one server to another.
2012-12-07
2,690 reads
SQL Server 2012 Integration Services offers a wide range of powerful features that allow you to streamline and automate tasks involving data extraction, transformation, and loading. However, incorporating these features into your existing business intelligence framework frequently necessitates additional security measures ensuring that data which is being processed remains protected from unauthorized access.
2012-12-06
2,106 reads
I have a requirement to add the Log Shipping Monitor for an existing installation. I have heard you can only complete this by rebuilding the Log Shipping infrastructure. Is that true? Are there any other options? In this tip I will explain how we can add the Log Shipping monitor to a SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2 or 2012 environment without rebuilding the Log Shipping installation.
2012-12-05
2,688 reads
With Report Builder and SSMS, there isn't much you can't do in the way of the common reports and visualisations. One of the more interesting visualisations uses maps, and that, combined with layers, makes for an impressive way of representing data.
2012-12-04
3,269 reads
I have to support a third party application that periodically creates a new database on the fly. This obviously causes issues with our backup mechanisms. The databases have a particular pattern for naming, so I can identify the set of databases, however, I need to make sure I'm always backing up the newest one. Read this tip to ensure you are backing up your latest database in a series.
2012-12-03
2,037 reads
By Steve Jones
We had an interesting discussion about deployments in databases and how you go forward...
By ChrisJenkins
You could be tolerating limited reporting because there isn’t an off the shelf solution...
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
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In SQL Server 2025, what are the most outgoing and incoming FK references a table can have?
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