Sean Duffy recently had an unwelcome encounter with Exchange Server Back Pressure, which cut off his message flow due to a lack of space on the server. To make sure it didn't happen again, he found a way to automatically monitor all his servers from afar, with a little PowerShell magic.… Read more
SSIS event handlers are the simplest means of turning an SSIS script into a reliable system that is auditable, reacts appropriately to error conditions, reports progress and allows instrumentation and monitoring your SSIS packages. They are easy to implement, and provide a great deal of flexibility. Rob Sheldon once again provides the easy, clear introduction.… 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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Mailboxes moves happen all the time, and given how precious the data in mailboxes can be, you should know exactly how to monitor their progress and make sure they transition smoothly. You also need to know what happens when something goes wrong. Johan imparts the necessary skills.… Read more
When you have to routinely collect data from Performance Monitor Counters, it soon becomes easier and more convenient to use PowerShell. SQL Server MVP Laerte Junior was inspired to create a script, and guides us through its useful functions.… Read more
To keep the Exchange database healthy, it is important to make sure that online maintenance and online maintenance and online defragmentation are running properly, or are at least conforming to Microsoft's recommendations. Ben shows how easy it is to automate the maintenance and monitor the defragmentation task.… Read more
When you are trying to pin down the cause of a problem with a SQL Server, there is probably going to come a time when you need to get 'trace' information. If you've ever done that, you'll know how easy it is to get overwhelmed by the detail. Here, Shawn McGehee shows how to get round the problem by capturing trace information on a schedule, filtering the captured information, and monitoring it from a central location.
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In part 3 of Dan Sullivan's in-depth exploration of PowerSMO, the versatile command line utility for managing SQL Server databases, he describes how to control the identity that SMO uses to login to SQL Server, how to set up Server activity monitoring, and how to create standalone PowerSMO scripts, suitable for use in a production environment.… Read more
In Windows Forms applications, we often need to perform some complex processing in the background, while still continuing with other tasks, such as monitoring user input and updating the user interface. For example, if you think of a web browser, it fetches and renders a web page without the main form hanging, so we can still press the Stop or Back buttons without waiting for the current page to load. This is achieved through asynchronous processing; that is, processing that takes advantage of Windows' multi-threading abilities to perform (as it appears to the user) two tasks at the same time.… Read more
