Imagine getting a phone call in the middle of the night. While still figuring out who it was on the other line, you get a text message from your manager. He’s telling you that the databases are offline and that the operations team have been working on it for the past hour. But they’re stumped […]
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 […]
PostGuest on Brent Ozar’s Office Hours
I was privileged to join one of Brent Ozar’s Office Hours podcast. In case you’re not aware, Brent and his amazing team host weekly podcasts where you can ask your SQL Server-related questions. Since I was joining in, attendees were encouraged to ask SQL Server high availability and disaster recovery-related questions. Here’s the video recording […]
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 […]
PostThe Real Secret to Successfully Upgrade SQL Server Databases
Given Microsoft’s announcement of SQL Server 2022 preview, you somehow get an idea of the frequency of releases for future SQL Server versions. This translates to more database upgrade and migration work that SQL Server DBAs have to do. However, keeping up with the latest and greatest version is not practical from a business standpoint. […]
PostUpcoming Virtual Training Class: SQL Server Always On Availability Groups: The Senior DBA’s Field Guide
In partnership with Brent Ozar (Twitter | blog). The idea behind this partnership started last year when Brent was kind enough to spend one Saturday morning with me over breakfast at the Bar Siena Restaurant in Chicago. I have been thinking about launching my online course – Windows Server Failover Clustering for the Smart SQL Server […]
PostLast call for registration
I teach about failover clustering for SQL Server – whether it’s Failover Clustered Instances or Availability Groups. Failover clustering does not have to be confusing nor complicated. It just has to work. And when things we are responsible for don’t work, we get the blame. There’s a reason behind the running joke about the Default […]