In the previous article of this series on the SQL Server transaction log, we discuss the SQL Server database recovery models, Full, Simple and Bulk-Logged, and the how the recovery model option of the database affects the way the SQL Server Engine works with the transaction logs. In this article, we will discuss the different types of high availability and disaster recovery solutions and the role of the SQL Server transaction log in these technologies.
In this article of the series on SQL Server replication, we will explore ways to configure SQL Server Snapshot replication and Transactional replication step by step.
This article will cover SQL Server replication configuration including Peer to peer replication and merge replication, initial configuration, adding nodes and data verification.
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In this article, we are going to see how to create a multi subnet cluster spanning across multiple subnets for lab purposes. Creating such an environment should help creating Availability groups simulating a far replica residing in a different Data Center (Subnet) acting as a disaster recovery site in your lab for learning/experimenting real world scenarios.
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This article is the continuation of the SQL FILESTREAM series.
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In the continuation of our SQL FILESTREAM article series, we’ll be covering transaction log backups
In SQL Server, we take transaction log backups regularly to have a point-in-time recovery of a database. It is essential to define the backup policy with the combination of full, differential and transaction log backups. A standard configuration of backups for large databases in the production database environment is as follows.
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In the previous articles of this series (see TOC at bottom), we discussed the main concept of the SQL Server transaction, the internal architecture of the SQL Server Transaction Log and finally the Virtual Log File and the best practices in managing the VLFs. In this article, we will go through the relationship between the SQL Server Transaction Log and the three database recovery models.
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In the previous articles of this series, we discussed the reasons behind auditing the different SQL Server instance and database events, how to audit the SQL Server instance manually and using the Extended Events and Triggers methods. In this article, we will show how to audit your SQL Server instance by reading the content of the SQL Transaction Log file of the user database.
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In this article we will discuss about SQL Server Merge Replication Parameterized row filter issues while replicating incremental data changes post initial snapshot.
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In this article we’ll review SQL Virtual Log files aka SQL Server VLFs, providing an overview and review topics related to size, performance, monitoring and troubleshooting.
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This article will cover corruption and recovery scenarios in the context of SQL Server FILESTREAM including missing data, incompatible files types, DBCC checks, orphan files and garbage collection
Corruption is a looming thought through every administrator’s mind, from sysadmins to database administrators there is always a monster hiding in the shadows. SQL Server Database corruption happens all the time around the world and while most of us have been lucky enough to avoid it, we should still be prepared. While there is no way to prevent the corruption from happening, we must work hard to implement practices that minimize damage caused by the corruption. This means good backups and of course running DBCC CHECKDB.
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This article will cover SQL Server transaction log architecture including file topography, basic overview, review of LSN and MinLSN, and log truncation
This article will review performance issues in replicating schema changes on tables involved in SQL Server Replication (Merge).
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This article will show how triggers, indexes, constraints and foreign keys will replicate in snapshot and after snapshot in SQL Server replication.
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This article will cover SQL bulk insert operations deterministic outcomes and responses covering not allowing any bad data to allowing all data to be inserted, regardless of errors.
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This article will focus on the various ways to disable triggers in SQL Server so they won’t interfere with certain operations like bulk inserts.
One of the challenges we face when using SQL bulk insert from files flat can be concurrency and performance challenges, especially if the load involves a multi-step data flow, where we can’t execute a latter step until we finish with an early step. We also see these optimization challenges with constraints as well, as fewer steps to complete a data flow results in saved time, but possibly less accurate data.
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In this article, we’ll discuss security implications of using SQL Bulk Insert and how to mitigate those risks.
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This article will review specific SQL Server merge replication issues related to foreign keys and schema snapshots
In our environment we use SQL Server merge replication to replicate data to multiple subscribers. We had a situation where a table needs to be part of merge replication and the table has more than 246 columns. Merge replication supports tables with maximum of 246 columns. In this article let us see how to replicate a table with more than 246 columns.
In the first part of reviewing the basics of bulk insert, we looked at importing entire files, specifying delimiters for rows and columns, and bypassing error messages. Sometimes we’ll want to skip first and ending lines, log errors and bad records for review after inserting data, and work with data types directly without first importing using a varchar and converting to the data type later. In this part, we look at these techniques using T-SQL’s native bulk insert.
In general, a Transaction is a single unit of work consists of multiple related tasks that should succeed or fail as one atomic unit. To make the concept of the transaction more familiar and why it should go all or none, imagine one of the most critical transaction examples in our daily life, which is withdrawing money from the ATM.
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From troubleshooting many data flow applications designed by others, I’ve seen a common pattern of over complexity with many designs. Putting aside possible risks by introducing too much complexity, troubleshooting these designs often involves opening many different applications – from a notepad file, to SSIS, to SQL Server Management Studio, to a script tool, etc. It may sound like many of these are doing a hundred steps, yet many times, they’re simply importing data from a file, or calling five stored procedures and then a file task of moving a file. This complexity is often unnecessary, as is opening many different tools when we can use a few tools and solve issues faster.
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This article will cover managing a SQL Server database upgrade using new features in SQL Server Management Studio 18 including the query tuning assistant wizard, database upgrade feature, query store and more
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