I recently got back from a wilderness camping trip in upstate New York. It’s an opportunity for me to disconnect and enjoy the opportunity to be alone in nature. Wilderness camping means you will be off the grid for a few days. This means no phone signals, no public restrooms, no grocery stores, nothing. […]
PostThe Problem With Most How-To Instructions Regarding Synchronizing Logins Across Availability Group Replicas
A common administrative task that you need to deal with when managing an Always On Availability Group solution is to recreate SQL Server logins on all replicas. That’s just a fact. Because at any given point in time, an automatic failover can happen and move the Availability group to a different replica. If you don’t […]
PostAsk your SQL Server high availability and disaster recovery questions
I did my very first AMA session live almost a month ago and I’ve had great results. People were interacting during the live Q&A session while some sent follow-up questions afterwards. Given the below freezing temperatures where I’m at, I’ll keep doing this indoors for now until I can stay outside for longer than 5 […]
PostWhy DBAs Keep Getting Confused With Complex Always On Availability Group Configuration
One of the subjects I had in senior high school was technology and home economics. Since my teacher majored in architectural drafting, she taught us how to read blueprints to have an idea about how structures are built. That’s when I noticed a crack on our wall near the TV. In the Philippines, walls are mostly […]
PostHave your SQL Server Always On Availability Groups and Windows Server Failover Clustering Questions Answered
For more than a decade-and-a-half of working with SQL Server high availability and disaster recovery, I’ve gotten hundreds of questions from clients, event attendees, and training class students. That number has increased when Microsoft introduced Always On Availability Groups. I’m guessing it’s because of the level of complexity of the technology that tech professionals are […]
PostThe Smart Way to Troubleshoot SQL Server Cluster and Always On Availability Group Outages
A few weeks ago, I was trying to figure out why my Korg X50 music workstation was not sending MIDI data to my MacBook Pro. While the Korg X50 has its own sound library and can function without the MacBook, the use of software made it easy for me to do audio recordings. But what […]
PostHow the Client-Server Model Can Help Make SQL Server Always On Availability Group Replica Configuration A Lot Easier
One of the most common error you’ll encounter when you try to join a SQL Server instance as a replica in an Always On Availability Group is the dreaded Error 35250. You’ll find a ton of blog posts and articles on how to resolve this particular error. The goal of this blog post is […]
PostNOW AVAILABLE: Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) for the Smart SQL Server DBA
SQL Server features like Availability Groups and Failover Clustered Instances rely heavily on Windows Server Failover Clustering. A deep understanding of the underlying principles and fundamental technologies spell the difference between successful implementations and horrible disasters. This advanced, deep-dive course is designed for both beginners as well as advanced senior IT administrators, SQL Server DBAs […]
PostEnd-to-End SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery
High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) is an area that every SQL Server DBA needs to be comfortable with, especially when dealing with mission-critical database systems. One cannot wait until a real disaster strikes before learning how to deal with it. This advanced, deep-dive course is designed for SQL Server DBAs and system administrators to […]
PostInstalling, Configuring and Managing Windows Server Failover Cluster using PowerShell Series
Last year, I started writing an article that was supposed to be a series for Installing, Configuring and Managing Windows Server Failover Cluster using Windows PowerShell. The first of the series came out on July 2013 (which ended up being the last article I wrote for the year 2013 on MSSQLTips.com.) Since then, I’ve been involved […]