Disaster recovery 101: backing up the tail of the log
One of the first things you should always check when a database has been damaged and you're going to perform a restore operation is whether you need to back up the tail of the log. The tail of the log...
View ArticleSQL Server Magazine: feature article on advanced BACKUP and RESTORE options
The June SQL Server Magazine articles are now available on the web and include my latest feature article on Advanced BACKUP and RESTORE Options. Rather than covering how BACKUP and RESTORE work or how...
View ArticleTechNet Magazine: July 2011 SQL Q&A column
The July edition of TechNet Magazine is available on the web now and has the latest installment of my regular SQL Q&A column. This month's topics are: Deferred log truncation from concurrent data...
View ArticleSQL Server Magazine: feature article on using database repair
The September SQL Server Magazine articles are now available on the web and include my latest feature article on Using Database Repair for Disaster Recovery. It includes a detailed walk-through of a...
View ArticleUsing fn_dblog, fn_dump_dblog, and restoring with STOPBEFOREMARK to an LSN
I've blogged a bunch about using the undocumented fn_dblog function I helped write (and I've got a lot more to come :-) but here's one I haven't mentioned on my blog before: fn_dump_dblog (although I...
View ArticleSurvey: where do you store your database backups?
In this survey I'd like to know where you store your SQL Server backups. If a disaster occurs, where do you get them from? It doesn't matter what method you use to create the backups (native SQL...
View ArticleSurvey: how often do you perform a full backup?
In this survey, I'm interested in how often you perform a full database backup of your production databases. I'll editorialize the results in a week or two. Thanks! The post Survey: how often do you...
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Importance of where you store your backups
A couple of weeks ago I kicked off a survey about where you store your backups. Here are the results: The’Other’ responses are: 8 x ‘Stored on same SAN, different LUN as databases, with off-site...
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Importance of how often you take full backups
A couple of weeks ago I kicked off a survey asking how often you perform full backups of your databases. Here are the results: The ‘Other’ values are: 20 x ‘Daily for small dbs, weekly (with daily...
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Easy automation of SQL Server database maintenance
A while back I kicked off a survey asking what mechanism you use for running your regular SQL Server database maintenance. Here are the results: The “Other” responses were: 7 x “A combination of...
View ArticleThe Accidental DBA (Day 6 of 30): Backups: Understanding RTO and RPO
This month the SQLskills team is presenting a series of blog posts aimed at helping Accidental DBAs ‘keep the SQL Server lights on’. It’s a little taster to let you know what we’ll be covering in our...
View ArticleThe Accidental DBA (Day 7 of 30): Backups: Recovery Models and Backup Types
This month the SQLskills team is presenting a series of blog posts aimed at helping Accidental DBAs ‘keep the SQL Server lights on’. It’s a little taster to let you know what we’ll be covering in our...
View ArticleThe Accidental DBA (Day 8 of 30): Backups: Planning a Recovery Strategy
This month the SQLskills team is presenting a series of blog posts aimed at helping Accidental DBAs ‘keep the SQL Server lights on’. It’s a little taster to let you know what we’ll be covering in our...
View ArticleThe Accidental DBA (Day 9 of 30): Backups: Essential BACKUP Options
This month the SQLskills team is presenting a series of blog posts aimed at helping Accidental DBAs ‘keep the SQL Server lights on’. It’s a little taster to let you know what we’ll be covering in our...
View ArticleThe Accidental DBA (Day 10 of 30): Backups: Backup Testing for Validation
This month the SQLskills team is presenting a series of blog posts aimed at helping Accidental DBAs ‘keep the SQL Server lights on’. It’s a little taster to let you know what we’ll be covering in our...
View ArticleThe Accidental DBA (Day 11 of 30): Backups: Backup Storage and Retention
This month the SQLskills team is presenting a series of blog posts aimed at helping Accidental DBAs ‘keep the SQL Server lights on’. It’s a little taster to let you know what we’ll be covering in our...
View ArticleWhen is fast recovery used?
It’s been a bit light on technical posts here over the last few months but now that summer’s over I’ll be ramping up again with lots of cool stuff planned. First up is a question that came up on the...
View ArticleFinding a transaction in the log for a particular user
In the last IEHADR class we just had in Chicago, I was doing a demo of looking in the transaction log to find the point at which a table was dropped so a restore could be performed (as described in...
View ArticleWhy is log_reuse_wait_desc saying LOG_BACKUP after doing a log backup?
Here’s an interesting situation that sometimes crops up: you’re performing log backups, your transaction log isn’t growing, and yet the value of log_reuse_wait_desc in sys.databases for your database...
View ArticleYou can upgrade from any version 2005+ to any other version
There’s a persistent myth that you cannot upgrade a database to a version more that is more then two versions newer. It’s not true. You can backup+restore (safest way) or detach+attach (not a safe way)...
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