Before we have a DBA contest some one is going to have to define what a DBA does first.............

then only this:

Create a windows group with just the DBAs as members. give that group sysadmin.

HAve a domain user account to run SQL services under. I prefer one per server (or pair of servers if using HA such as logshipping/mirroring) That will have sysadmin rights...

sqlcmd is a command line utility for firing sql commands off within SQL, and so can be incorporated into a .bat file.

powershell can be used to run SQL commands but...

Jason, excellent article, in particular your second method for tracking growth. Thanks for taking the time to develop this and then share it with the community.

In your SQL running code...

YSL,

you seem convinced you have found a scenario where system db backups are not required, but you won't ever get a production DBA worth his salt to agree with you...

good to hear you have made progress.

you may have a timing issue with the logshipping jobs. Adjust the schedules so backups run on the hour, copy 2 mins after and...

shivrampal (3/10/2010)

I...

YSL,

this sounds like a DR strategy put together by a non-DBA, who likely would not even consider backups of the system databases because they did not realise their importance or...

definitely write things down. have standard procedures wherever possible and document them! Saves having to remember it.

Bookmark useful white papers and URLs, maintain a scripts library. All you have to...

can you post the exact error?

Are you sure all logs have been applied at the secondary?

Your plan is fine although note you only strictly need the tail of the log if you intend to point logshipping back the other way on failover. In a TEST...

For all databases or just some?

you must have missed out a log taken via logshipping. Check in the errorlog or logshipping tables that the latest log applied is the latest...

wade your way through this

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc917680.aspx

its giving me a headache.

I think the results would be the same as safety is OFF, and not as bad as you think.

MS do not recommend...

In that scenario the log would begin to fill. Eventually you would have to break mirroring and reinitialise when the network was back.

How long before that was necessary would depend...