A DBA in charge of a whole lot of databases and servers has to check regularly that there are no likelihood of problems. The task is well suited for automation as workload increases. Laerte Junior introduces a PowerShell-based reporting framework that aims to simply provide a Word-based report with colour-coded alerts where there are problems or best practices aren't being followed.… Read more
Michael Fal is a huge advocate of automation and many ways it can improve the lives of developers and DBAs alike, but you can't just automate all your problems away. The real challenge is breaking down barriers and having developers and DBAs functioning smoothly together. You may have heard of DevOps, and so Mike explores what the buzz might mean for database administrators.… Read more
It is no good doing some or most of the aspects of SQL Server security right. You have to get them all right, because any effective penetration of your security is likely to spell disaster. If you fail in any of the ways that Robert Sheldon lists and describes, then you can't assume that your data is secure, and things are likely to go horribly wrong.… Read more
Microsoft 'Always On' technology does not support distributed or cross-database transactions. Why not? Grahaeme Ross shows how to investigate cross-database transactions to understand the problem in more detail, and concludes that a Cross-Database transaction can cause loss of data integrity in the commit phase of the two-phase commit… Read more
The job of a DBA requires a fusion of skill and knowledge. To acquire this requires a craftsman mindset. Craftsmen find that the better they get at the work, the more enjoyable the work gets, and the more successful they become. Deliberate practice, Specialization and an appetite for overcoming difficulty are good habits to deliberately adopt to successfully grow those craftsmanlike skills to the point that you become "so good they can't ignore you".… Read more
Database Design is one of those tasks where you have to carefully get all the major aspects right. If you mess-up just one of these, it can all go horribly wrong. So what are these aspects that can ruin database design, and how can you get them right? Robert Sheldon explains.… Read more
You can give a deep-dive presentation about SQL Server's transaction log, and round it off by inviting questions. Your audience will stare awkwardly at their boots. Afterwards, to your surprise there will be a queue of questioners, and the questions are the ones they were too shy to ask out loud. Tony Davis answers these apparently simple, yet tricky questions.… Read more
OLTP databases work best when data that becomes no longer current is then transferred to a separate database for analysis and reporting. There are many ways to do this, but Feodor describes a rapid technique that takes advantage of partitions to automates the rotation of the data and moving it to the analysis server.… Read more
When SQL Server 2014 was released, it included Hekaton, Microsoft's much talked about memory-optimized engine that brings In-Memory OLTP into play. With memory-optimized tables 30 times faster than disk-based tables, higher performance is promised - but at what cost? Jonathan Watts looks at the features that have improved, and those that need careful consideration.… Read more
SQL Server Data Collector, together with Management Data Warehouse, is a fine and useful component for gathering information centrally about how SQL Server instances are being used, and thereby keeping an eye out for problems. It comes into its own when you have figured out how to configure it to run on maybe hundreds of instances using Central Management Server. Dennes describes how to tame the system so that it scales.… Read more
For a number of reasons, it pays to have the up-to-date source of all the databases and servers that you're responsible for in a central archive, in version control, and this is a job that is best automated. If you enlist the help of SQL Compare Pro, you can create a Powershell-based system that can be extended to warn you of changes, roughly when they happened, with a report of exactly what changed and how.… Read more
For data to be usefully analyzed, it must be consistent, accurate, and trustworthy. When incoming data is non-uniform, duplicated records are created and the data starts losing its value. In order counteract this issue, SQL Server's Data Quality Services (DQS) helps monitor and maintain incoming data, and deduplicates existing data using rules-based matching. Feodor Georgiev provides a thorough walkthrough on setting up DQS and creating the rules it uses to function as a first step towards data cleansing.… Read more
SQL Server keeps the most-used execution plans in cache, so it doesn't need to recompile the same queries every time. How can we benefit from this to find potential performance problems in execution plans? Let's see how to find some opportunities for optimization by using information held in SQL Server's plan cache.… Read more
Having described some of the most common database deployability blockers, Matthew Skelton proposes a way to enable database continuous delivery that isn't as outlandish as it first appears. What can Conways Law and Microservices tell us about the future of databases and DBAs? Matthew shows us a glimpse.… Read more
It is not just the rapid and painless testing, deployment and update of databases that requires care in the retention and management of configuration information. Configuration information is also essential for audit, resilience, and support. The range of documentation varies widely with the database and its setting, but the underlying principles remain the same. Without appropriate configuration management, automation is likely to be futile.… Read more
The SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP engine (a.k.a. Hekaton) is a radical change for relational databases. This article, an exerpt from Kalen Delaney's book "SQL Server Internals: In-Memory OLTP", provides a brief overview of what Hekaton is and why it's important.… Read more
A lot of the routine jobs demanded of a DBA can be automated, but a tougher prospect is to automate these jobs in a way that the requestor rather than the DBA can actually set of the job running themselves without compromising security and without risk. Is it true to say that some tasks can be made self-service? In the final part of his series, Joshua considers delegation.… Read more
Most DBAs hoard their own favourite T-SQL scripts to help them with their work, often on a USB 'thumbdrive', but it is rare that one of them offers us a glimpse of the sort of scripts that they find useful. It is our good fortune that Scott Swanberg shows us those scripts he uses for discovering more about database objects.… Read more
After you have done the necessary groundwork of standardizing and centralizing your database administration processes, you are now in a position to implement some effective automation of some of these processes. Which ones do you choose, and how do you set about automating these tasks?… Read more
Although it is possible to provide good service to small to medium companies as a DBA without putting in place systems and processes to manage the workload and the demands of teamwork, it isn't so in the larger enterprise. As well as standardizing and documenting, the enterprise DBA needs to centralize the management of systems. Joshua Feierman explains.… Read more
