Ever restored a corrupted database from the backup, only to find that the backups are corrupted too - All the backups? Sure it can happen and it isn't nice when it does. To check that a database backup is internally consistent you have to use DBCC CheckDB. On a huge highly-loaded live system? Grant Fritchey has, as usual, a practical solution.… Read more
Grant Fritchey, The Scary DBA, has now taken the leap from being a Simple-Talk author and FoRG(Friend of Red Gate) to being employed by Red Gate as 'product evangelist'. As Bob Cramblitt finds out, it means that Grant gets more time to do what he enjoys doing; talking and writing about SQL Server topics that fascinate him, such as query tuning, execution plans, performance monitoring and backups.
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Wesley has heard High Availablity touted as all sorts of technological cure-all for busy SysAdmins and DBAs, and now he's taking a stand against it. There are a range of things that High Availability is regularly confused with (either deliberately or innocently), and Wesley's clearing it all up.… Read more
In his previous article, Antoine Khater made sure that every Exchange SysAdmin knew how to backup their servers. Now that you've got your backups running smoothly, his latest no-nonsense guide covers exacty how to restore everything ranging from whole servers down to individual mailboxes and items, and how to do it fast.… Read more
It is scarcely surprising that it can take up to five years to release a new version of SQL Server when one understands the extent of the effort required to test it. When enterprises depend on the reliability of an application or tool such as SQL Backup, the contribution of the tester is of paramount importance. It is an interesting and enjoyable role as well, as Andrew Clarke found out by chatting to testers at Red Gate. … Read more
Brad's Sure Guide to Maintenance Plans shows you how to use the Maintenance Plan Wizard and Designer to configure and schedule eleven core database maintenance tasks, ranging from integrity checks, to database backups, to index reorganizations and rebuilds. … Read more
In this article, taken from Chapter 8 of his new book, SQL Server Tacklebox, Rodney describes how a working DBA goes about troubleshooting data corruption. He demonstrates the tools and scripts required to seek out and fix data corruption in a timely manner, and so prevent it propagating into your backups.… Read more
High-Availability depends on how quickly you can recover a production system after an incident that has caused a failure. This requires planning, and documentation. If you get a Disaster Recovery Plan wrong, it can make an incident into a catastrophe for the business. Hugo Shebbeare discusses some essentials, describes a typical system, and provides sample documentation.… Read more
As a DBA, how well-prepared are you to tackle issues such as backup failure due to lack of disk space, or locking and blocking that is preventing critical business processes from running, or data corruption due to a power failure in the disk subsystem? If you have any hesitation in your answers to these questions, then Rodney Landrum's SQL Server Tacklebox is a must-read.… Read more
One could be forgiven for thinking that there is little more you can do with any third-party Backup software than just ...er... backup databases. It takes a DBA who has to use such software every day in a real commercial setting to appreciate the full implications of the improvements that have been made to SQL Backup for version 6. It is the hard-working DBAs who are best-placed to judge whether it is all worth-while. So we asked DBA Shawn McGehee to give us his true thoughts on SQL Backup 6.… Read more
An interview with William Durkin. When he has the time, William finds it useful to work as a pre-release software tester. His most recent testing work was for Red Gate's SQL Backup 6.0, just released this month. … Read more
For everything you need to know, rather than want to know, about SQL Server Reporting Services, replication, backup, XML, performance, data warehousing and more..… Read more
Jason Cook shows you how you can use SQL Multi Script to install or upgrade your SQL Backup server components across the network in one go, rather than installing the components manually for each server.… Read more
The most important thing you can do as a database administrator is perform regular database maintenance. This includes regular backups, database integrity checks and optimizations. In Part 1 of a three article series, Allen White shows how to automate the backup of all of your databases, using SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) and either native backup or Red Gate's SQL Backup tool.… Read more
