If there’s one thing that remained the same ever since enterprise technology was made available to us, it’s BACKUPS. The way we’ve done backups have evolved – from punch cards, magnetic tape storage, local hard drives, SAN/NAS, all the way to the cloud. Yet we still have the need to do them. While most […]
PostHigh Availability Basics – What SQL Server Cannot Do For You
Ever since I started doing these weekly Q&A sessions, I noticed a trend on the questions that people submit using the online form. More often than not, the questions fall under the “HOW” category. Sure, as technology professionals, we get paid to DO the work. So, it makes sense to know the HOW. I […]
PostThis week on the Practical SQL Server HA/DR Show – Monitoring HA Solutions
I decided to focus on a theme every week for the Practical SQL Server HA/DR Show. This week’s theme – Monitoring HA Solutions. I couldn’t count the number of times that I’ve seen customer environments running complex and expensive Always On Availability Groups yet don’t have a monitoring solution. I don’t understand how someone […]
PostThis week on the Practical SQL Server HA/DR Show – Patching and Maintaining HA Solutions
I decided to focus on a theme every week for the Practical SQL Server HA/DR Show. This week’s theme – Patching and Maintaining HA Solutions. Regular care and feeding of digital assets – servers, apps, platforms, etc. – is essential to keeping them up and running. Hotfixes and patches are being released on a […]
PostWhat’s your personal business continuity plan?
We heard the earthquake warning device echoing loudly throughout the building. This wasn’t a drill. We left everything on our desks and started to head out. Taking the elevator was not an option so it’s a good thing that we were just on the 5th floor and not on the 17th. We spent almost two […]
Post5 Questions To Ask Why Your SQL Server Always On Availability Groups Did Not Automatically Failover
You don’t qualify! Imagine hearing those words from someone telling you that you’re not enough. Insufficient. You didn’t meet the standard. I’ve heard a lot of that when I started looking for a job after graduating from college. An engineering degree wasn’t enough to get hired. It didn’t help that I failed seventeen […]
PostWhy Regular Shrinking is NOT the Right Way to Reclaim Database Space in SharePoint – nor in any SQL Server database
I recently got a question about how to reclaim database space in SharePoint. The specific database mentioned was WSS_Logging although this could have been any of the SharePoint databases or any other SQL Server database for that matter. The database was growing really fast so the farm was configured to only keep a week’s worth […]
PostSQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery Deep Dive Course Now Available
I’ve been working on this personal project since early this year. If you’ve been following my blog posts, my articles on MSSQLTips.com or even my presentations at various events, you know that my area of expertise is on SQL Server high availability and disaster recovery. I’ve compiled years of experience and exposure with SQL Server […]
PostDisaster Recovery Is More Than Just Technology Part 3: The Lion, The Switch and The Wardrobe
You were in your favourite bar one Saturday night when, suddenly, you hear your mobile phone ring. You pick up the phone and heard the sound of a screaming voice on the other end (no, it’s not your wife telling you to go home and take out the trash). The background noise is preventing you […]
PostYour poor man’s SQL Server log shipping-PowerShell version
In 2008, I was privileged to be a part of a project to write a chapter for a book that was for a good cause. SQL Server MVP Deep Dives became an avenue for a lot of the SQL Server MVPs to share their expertise for the benefit of not just the technical community but […]