What is the FirstLSN in a log file?

Eliminating Tape

In response to an editorial on eliminating tape in favor of disk backups, new author Tim OPry brings us a look at his environment and the process by which they eliminated the need for tape in their backup scheme while maintaining a well thought out disaster plan.

Survival of the Prepared: Addressing Disaster Recovery

While no disaster recovery plan provides ironclad protection, your company will be far less vulnerable to an extended business disruption from a disaster with a plan than without one.

Database Snapshots

In the first part of his series on SQL Server Availability, new author Kumar Parthasarathi brings us a look at Database Snapshots in SQL Server 2005.

Backup Basics Part 3: General Tips for a Backup Strategy

Knowing how to configure backup applications and select backup media is half the battle of designing a successful backup strategy. The other half is choosing how and when to back up the specific pieces of data that are stored on your servers, share points, and workstations. In this final article of his series on backup basics for new technicians and administrators, Ryan Faas offers some suggestions to help you make these important decisions.

DBA from Crisis to Confidence

Every DBA needs to know how to do their work under pressure, while facing crisis after crisis. Our most important contribution is to keep the database running. It's an on-call function; you never know what might happen

Differential Backup Tricks

Differential backups are left out of many DBAs backup strategy, but they are a great tool to shrink your backup window, save disk space, and more. However they can be slightly tricky when you look to perform a restore. New author Qian Ye brings us an interesting issue that occured during differential testing.

Achieving Server Redundancy at Remote Offices

Everyone wants a highly available system, but achieving 4 or 5 9s of uptime is hard to do. Especially when you have cost limitations. New author Mark Cook takes a look at how his company analyzed the challenges and which method they chose along with some implementation details.

SQL Server 2005 High Availability

Not the traditional overview here. Steve Jones takes a look at the various high availability technologies from a different perspective.

Back Up Your Database With USB

Disaster recovery solutions is always a concern with SQL Server and when a new or unique solution comes up, we like to get it out there. New author Kevin Parks brings us a look at his way of using a USB hard drive and Windows PE to ensure recovery.