Tim Hidalgo Managing Test Data as a Database CI Component – Part 1 Constructing a test environment for your databases can be a difficult task at the best of times. Once you've actually acquired the hardware needed and... 03 February 2015 20 min read
Robert Sheldon The SQL Server Sqlio Utility If, before deployment, you need to push the limits of your disk subsystem in order to determine whether the hardware's I/O capacity meets the needs... 27 January 2014 14 min read
Robert Sheldon The SQL Server Sqliosim Utility The sqliosim utility is provided with SQL Server to test the I/O stability and 'correctness' of a server. It doesn't measure performance but simulates the... 02 January 2014 14 min read
Fabiano Amorim Using Optimizer_WhatIF and StatsStream to Simulate a Production Environment SQL Server's Query optimiser judges the best query plan from the data in the relevant tables and the server's hardware. How, then, can you investigate... 30 January 2013 9 min read
Feodor Georgiev HDDs, SSDs and Database Considerations In this article Feodor clears up a few myths about storage, explains the difference in how HDDs and SSDs work and looks into the considerations... 09 January 2013 11 min read
Brad McGehee Book Review: SQL Server Hardware by Glenn Berry Brad finds Glenn Berry's 'SQL Server Hardware' book to be a valuable reference, not so much for the actual hardware recommendations which will always go... 25 September 2012 9 min read
Shameer Introduction to OpenStack OpenStack is an open-source cloud platform based on Linux. It aims to allow organisations to run cloud services on standard hardware, with interoperability between cloud... 10 April 2012 6 min read
Richard Morris Glenn Berry: DBA of the Day Glenn Berry works as a Database Architect at Avalara in Bainbridge Island, Washington. He is a SQL Server MVP, and has a whole collection of... 23 February 2012 11 min read
Robert Young Relational Databases and Solid State Memory: An Opportunity Squandered? The relational model was devised long before computer hardware was able to deliver an RDBMS that could deliver a fully normalized database with no performance... 17 January 2012 6 min read
Matt Simmons Physical Network Layout for the Reluctant How do you select the hardware for your network, and connect it all together? How do you then test your network and ensure that it... 13 December 2011 50 min read
Grant Fritchey Faster Restores: Best Practices to Increase Speed Backups are an everyday part of DBA life, whereas restores tend to happen on call at 3 a.m. In this article, Grant Fritchey looks at... 02 December 2011 5 min read
Database Administration Glenn Berry in Database Administration Configuring the Storage Subsystem The storage subsystem for a SQL Server can prove to be a bottleneck if the best choices of hardware aren't made, but there are ways... 20 July 2011 42 min read
Glenn Berry SQL Server Hardware SQL Server Hardware will provide the fundamental knowledge and resources you need to make intelligent decisions about choice, and optimal installation and configuration, of SQL... 08 December 2010 3 min read
Sean Duffy Setting up your own free Virtualized test environment If you need to test new software, configurations, or operating systems, a virtual machine saves time, risk and hardware. You can set up a virtual... 26 August 2010 12 min read
Ben Lye Regional Office Virtualization – Less Can Be More The dream of an 'office in a box' has been around for years, but the increasing sophistication of virtualization software has turned the dream into... 14 January 2010 7 min read
Jaap Wesselius Building an Exchange Server 2007 environment Of course, changing a 32,000 mailbox system, based in 40 Exchange Servers, to a centralised 25,000 mailbox solution is not a difficult task as long... 29 June 2009 11 min read
Jaap Wesselius Windows Server Virtualisation: Hyper-V, an Introduction For SQL Server and Exchange Server, Windows Server Virtualization is going to be increasingly important as a way for the administrator to allocate hardware resources... 01 June 2009 11 min read
Brien Posey A Beginner’s Guide to Virtualizing Exchange Server, Part 1 The advantage of virtualizing your servers is that it helps you make better use of your hardware resources, and reduces some of your licensing costs,... 05 May 2009 17 min read
Dan McClain How to Get Management Buy-In for Software purchases There is a good chance that the process of purchasing software or hardware in your organization involves several people. DBAs will often initiate a request,... 02 March 2009 15 min read
Richard Morris Ross Anderson: Geek of the Week Professor Ross Anderson is one of the foremost experts in Computer Security in the world. He has published widely on the economics of security. cryptology,... 31 July 2008 13 min read
