Featured Article(s)
Troubleshooting SQL Server 2005 CLR Problems
In this article, Alexander Chigrik explains some problems that you can have when you work with CLR objects. He also tells how to resolve these problems.
Thanks To Our Sponsors
We’ve worked with some great companies this year! We really appreciate their support and help in bringing you SSWUG. Over the next few days I’ll be bringing you a list of the different sponsors, big and small. Take a moment and check it out – there are some outstanding products here!
SQL Power Tools – 100% Web Enabled Zero Impact Monitoring
SQL Sentry – Unprecedented Visibility & Control of your Enterprise
SQLdbControl – Source Control for SQL Server
SQLFarms – Execute multiple SQL Scripts on Multiple Servers
SteelEye Technology – SQL High Availability and Disaster Recovery
SuperSpeed – Run Microsoft SQL 500% Faster
SwisSQL – Productivity Tools for Database Pros
Free Product Directory Updated…
Don’t know if you’ve seen it, but we have some new free products in the directory – the directory is here – and you can grab your copies.
For example, check out Idera’s SQL Job Manager, download your free copy by Dec 31, 2007. Manage your jobs, see what’s happening on your system with jobs slowing performance and a whole lot more.
Next, check out DataLinks for MS Access – also free. Preview your data links, link directly to Excel or even an XML data set on the fly and you’ll be on your way. Create dashboards, integration reports and a whole lot more.
OMIGOSH Moments and Getting Your Feet Under You
Yesterday I asked if the readers of the SSWUG newsletter had any specific approaches to addressing "OMIGOSH" triage moments with SQL Server. Those times when you’re dropped into a problem situation and asked to fix it – make the issues go away, ASAP. (Send in your thoughts here) Here are some initial comments:
Josh: "If it needs to be fixed now, make sure the person is reasonably competent with Windows, knows the administrator, and possibly also sa, passwords, and can talk on a phone. Then they just need to pay the money and get Microsoft’s Professional Support group for SQL server on the line. From there, follow their instructions until the problem is solved. The cost of a call to professional support is likely a whole lot less than the amount of money being lost while the problem persists.
The best support folks are the ones who know when they are in over their head and quickly get additional resources."
Stewart: "Rule 1 – Make sure that the backups work and are done reliably. You are going to [botch] things up at some stage in trying to fix things, so you need to be able to recover.
Rule 2 – Find out what doesn’t work – and try to prioritise those from mission-critical to naughty-but-nice. Start at the top of the list and resolve them.
Rule 3 – look at what is soaking up the power and see if you can streamline these.
Rule 4 – it is now time to try to produce some order from the chaos – rationalised tables, tidy queries, standardised tools etc.
Rule 5 – It is time to consider whether the hardware has the power to run what you need.
The big problem with so much modern software is that key routines can be tucked away in all sorts of obscure places. If you start from a clean slate, it would be nice to have the main routines in a central, managed library to be called on as needed, with the routines that are linked directly to buttons being no more than callers. It never happens…
The trouble is, you are like the fire brigade – only called in once the blaze is going!"
More tomorrow – be sure to send in your approach too!
Featured White Paper(s)
Technical Overview of Automating the Upsizing of Microsoft Access Databases to SQL Server
2SQL is designed to remove the software programming and database administration component of Microsoft Access to SQL Server u… (read more)
Improving .NET Application Performance and Reliability with Managed Database Connectivity
Your choices about data access can make the difference between project success and project failure. Read this whitepaper and… (read more)
The Top 5 Challenges of Migrating Lotus Notes Applications
Meeting the challenges of any Lotus Notes replacement initiative is a difficult and time consuming project that requires care… (read more)