Have you ever had a conversation with your boss (or customer, if you’re a consultant) that went something like this: Boss: We need a solution where we can run SSIS packages on a secondary server should failures occur. You: Why do we need it? Boss: Because I want to. You: We can run either failover clustering […]
Taking database backups is still considered to be the most important task that any database administrator does. That’s why it is also important to make sure that database backups not only complete successfully but have also been validated and tested. I’ve written several blog posts about the importance of backups and why having successful backups is not enough. […]
More than a decade ago, I wrote a blog post about what I call the poor man’s SQL Server log shipping. In it, I outlined the process of how log shipping works. This became the basis of the chapter I wrote for the SQL Server MVP Deep Dives Volume 1 book. What’s interesting is that while […]
There have been a lot of blog posts and articles written about the Delayed Durability feature in SQL Server 2014. Here are a couple of them to get you started. Delayed Durability in SQL Server 2014 by SQL Server MVP/Regional Director and SQLSkills CEO Paul Randal (blog | Twitter) Delayed Durability in SQL Server 2014 by […]
In a previous blog post, I mentioned why regularly shrinking your databases is not the right way to reclaim space. I also mentioned at the end of the blog post that the proper way to deal with database space issues is to monitor your disk space utilization and do proper capacity planning. That’s where tools like […]
When I started working with virtual machines on Microsoft Azure last year, one of the first test that I did was to configure SQL Server Availability Groups in a hybrid configuration. The configuration consists of a failover clustered instance on production data center for local high availability and an Availability Group replica on Microsoft Azure […]
In a previous blog post, I’ve demonstrated how to install and configure a 2-node SQL Server 2012 failover clustered instance (FCI.) As a follow-up, below is a video on how to install and configure a multi-subnet/geographically dispersed SQL Server 2012 (and higher) FCI. When SQL Server 2012 introduced the support for multi-subnet clustering, there have been […]
This particular question came up while I was delivering a workshop last week on the new features in SQL Server 2014. Since transparent data encryption has been available since SQL Server 2008, why would I still need the backup encryption feature? For one, transparent data encryption is an Enterprise Edition-only feature whereas backup encryption exists in […]
“Today’s DBAs have responsibilities that go far beyond their traditional role of data custodian.” I was reading an infographic that Idera published about their accidental DBA survey results and wasn’t surprised at all by the results. I considered myself an accidental DBA when I was starting out in the industry. And I can […]
In a previous blog post, I talked about Partition-Level Online Index Operations in SQL Server 2014 and how it affects high availability and disaster recovery. With more features being added in every new version of SQL Server, it’s important to understand how its implementation will affect your overall objectives. One feature that got a lot […]
