Featured Article(s)
Tips for using SQL Server 2005 Transactional Replication (Part 1)
Here are some helpful tips to performance tune and optimize SQL Server 2005 Transactional Replication.
Failover Clustering – The Easy Way
If you’ve tried to set up clustering, or failover solutions in general with SQL Server’s native tools, you’ve no-doubt seen that it can be, challenging. It doesn’t have to be so tough, and you don’t have to have the Enterprise Edition of SQL Server, and you can still get the great failover, standby and recovery options you need for your SQL Server. Be sure to check out Steeleye Technologies’ solutions – they might be just the thing to bring some outstanding options to your SQL Server installation. Get more information here.
Webcast: Day 30 as DBA
This follow-on to the Day 1 as DBA show will go into the things you can do now that you’re semi-established in your routines. Daily maintenance, auditing, security checks, best practices and more. There is a lot to consider and think about when you’re putting a good foundation in place for your systems, we’ll cover check point items here and keep you up to speed on "what’s next."
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> Live date: 8/14/2007 12:00pm Noon Pacific
Day 30 as DBA – or "Getting Your Priorities Right"
Craig Mullins wrote in about what types of things you should be thinking about as you settle in (does a DBA ever really "settle in"?) to your duties managing your SQL Servers. Great points – I thought I’d pass them along as food for thought. We’ll be talking about these too in the webcast (see above).
"I think that too little emphasis overall is placed on the integrity and recoverability of the data – and too much is placed on performance. Yes, performance is probably the most visible aspect of database systems, at least from the perspective of the end user. But what good does it do to quickly access the wrong data? By this I mean you better get the integrity of the data correct before you even start to worry about performance. Anyone can give you a wrong answer quickly, but most of us would rather wait a little bit if it means getting the right answer, wouldn’t we? So database design, integrity constraints, and so on need more emphasis in DBA training and in actual database implementations.
Taking this a step further, how sure are you (you meaning the DBA) that every database under you care is recoverable to a useful point-in-time should an error or failure occur? Is there a database backup job running in a timely manner for each and every database structure such that recoverability can be achieved within the agreed service level? What’s that? You don’t have service levels for time to recovery for each database, table space, and/or table? You should! And when was the last time you tested the recoverability of your database(s) using the backups you’ve made? Or do you just assume that they are all there and working as planned and will be available as soon as you need to recover?"
Great points. We’ve gone through being the keeper of your databases and what that means. From supporting them to setting expectations for that support, it’s all part of making sure your systems are working right. Many people do get caught up in the tweaking or really detail-oriented work before having thought about the bigger picture. Availability, recoverability – these are things that should be core to your approach not only from day 30 onward, but from day 1.
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)
Minimizing Downtime and Maximizing Performance in Microsoft® SQL Server 64-bit environments
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SQL Server Performance Analysis
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