In this article, we will demonstrate specific ways to automate table partitioning in SQL Server. This article aims to help you avoid manual table activities of partition maintenance by automating it with T-SQL scripts and SQL Server jobs.
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In this article, I am going to explain how we can refresh a SQL Database using the Maintenance plan. To demonstrate the process, I have configured two virtual machines. I have installed SQL Server 2016 on both. To refresh the SQL database on destination database server, we will generate a copy-only backup of the SQL database on source database server. I have created a network share directory. Both the source and destination server have the read-write permission on it. The backup file will be copied on a shared directory. Once the database is restored to the destination, we will delete the file from the network share directory.
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In this article, I am going to demonstrate how to set up Grafana Dashboard for real-time analytics or data monitoring purposes. Grafana is an open-source, cross-platform analytics service tool that can be used to fetch data from several data sources, and then the data can be visualized in a much intuitive way in the form of bars and graphs. This is quite a useful feature for the DevOps or the IT team as it can make their job easier to find abnormalities or spikes in the production environment by observing the logs generated.
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This article explores SQL Server Update Statistics using the database maintenance plan.
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In this article, we will discuss the actual database file size and free space in the database file size with the help of monitoring script and shrink solutions. While creating a database initial size of the database files (Data File and Log File) can be defined by us, with the Autogrowth and MAXSIZE parameter. The initial size will be the same as the model database if by chance user forgot to define the initial size parameter while creating a database or do the same intentionally.
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This article demonstrates different methods to attach SQL Server MDF files. First, let me explain about the database files.
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This article explores the use of multiple SQL Server Transaction Log Files and the process of removing the secondary transaction log file.
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This article explores the process of moving a SQL database using the detach and attach method.
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In this article, I am going to explain how we can transfer logins to the secondary replica of the Always On availability group using sp_help_revlogin and Transfer Logins Task of the SQL Server Integration Services package.
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This article explains how we can fix SQL Server error “Agent XPs Disabled”. Before we dive into troubleshooting and methods for fixing the error, let me explain about Microsoft SQL Server Agent and the Agent XPs configuration parameter.
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This article gives an overview of Service Principal Name (SPN) for using the Kerberos authentication in SQL Server connections. We use the Kerberos authentication to authenticate windows users securely for providing access to SQL Server.
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This article is about techniques for optimizing the SQL Server indexes strategy. It is an appendix of the SQL index overview and strategy article in which I covered different areas like what indexes actually do, how to create them, and I briefly mentioned some index design guidelines. Furthermore, I also presented an example of how to design them by tuning and optimizing queries, so I’ve really tried to cover all but there is always more when it comes to SQL Server indexes.
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This article provides an overview of indexing tables in Azure SQL database using Azure Automation and how to schedule indexing jobs to run at specific intervals.
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While alerting on failed SQL Server Agent jobs is straightforward, being notified when a job is missed is not a simple or built-in feature.
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One of the main DBA responsibilities is to ensure databases to perform optimally. The most efficient way to do this is through indexes. SQL indexes are one of the greatest resources when it comes to performance gain. However, the thing about indexes is that they degrade over time.
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SQL Server Agent allows us to create jobs and assign any number of schedules to them. This allows for great flexibility when deciding when jobs should run. Over time, as the number of jobs and schedules increase on a given SQL Server, it can become challenging to fully understand when and how often jobs run during a given span of time.
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In this article, we are going to talk about discovering and archiving SQL references to invalid procedures.
SQL Server Agent is a Microsoft Windows service which helps to execute, schedule and automatize T-SQL queries, Integration Service Package, SQL Server Analysis Service queries, executable programs, operating system, and PowerShell commands. These actions which are performed by SQL Server can be called by the SQL Server Agent. Maybe, we can liken SQL Server Agent to an alarm clock because the agent will execute the scheduled task when the time comes
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In this article, you’ll learn the key skills that you need to copy tables between SQL Server instances including both on-premises and cloud SQL databases. In this article, I’ll walk-through several ways of copying a table(s) between SQL databases, helping you to see the benefits and trade-offs of each option.
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This article will cover the process of analyzing and predicting/forecasting the size of a SQL backup as a means to better handle/manage retention of backups.
One of the main database management tenets is “Do not lose your data”. According to this; a database administrator incurs huge responsibilities to protect data. Under these circumstances, taking database backups and archiving SQL backup files is a key task for database administrators. In data protection strategy, taking database backups and archiving backup file processes play the leading role. Especially, backup planning is very significant for disaster recovery scenarios because backup file will be used for restore operation after any failure or data corruption. For this reason, every dba must generate recovery strategies for possible disaster scenarios and ensure that these scenarios can be solvable. At the same time, these backup files must be tested for data integrity; thus process provides to evaluate the recovery time and integrity of backup files. In this Backup and Restore (or Recovery) strategies for SQL Server database article you can find all details about backup and restore strategies.
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If SQL Server needs to allocate space, first it fills the space it needs with zeros. Examples of when it needs to allocate space are creating/restoring a database, growing/allocating data and log files, and finally the troublesome auto growth operation. However, most of these slowdowns/long running actions can be improved by enabling instant file initialization. I say most because the one case where this is required is on log file growth. However, even when Instant file initialization has been enabled the log file will be zeroed out before the space is usable for SQL Server.
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The dedicated admin connection (DAC) can help you out of a sticky situation. This was built to help you connect to SQL Server and run basic queries in cases with critical performance problems. This works by telling SQL Server to reserve a thread specifically for processing your queries in an emergency. While it does reserve a connection for you, it is only one thread, there is no parallelism happening here, in fact, you will receive an error.
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While the article “How to create and configure SQL Server Agent Alerts” created by Minette Steynberg a SQLShack author discusses the features around Alerting through SQL Agent and some conditions for testing. It does not go through some of the common alerts that you should have enabled on your SQL Server.
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SQL Server is pretty good at managing disk space. As long as we do our part to set up appropriate storage types and place files and filegroups properly and set reasonable AUTOGROW settings, it’s almost a set-it-and-forget-it operation. Mind you, I said, “almost!” Sometimes, things do go BUMP! in the night and we need to act. Here’s what happened to me not too long ago:
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In the previous articles of this series (see the full article TOC at bottom), we discussed the internal structure of SQL Server tables and indexes, the guidelines that you can follow in order to design a proper index, the list of operations that can be performed on the SQL Server indexes, how to design effective Clustered and Non-clustered indexes, the different types of SQL Server indexes (above and beyond Clustered and Non-clustered indexes classification), how to tune the performance of the inefficient queries using different types of SQL Server Indexes and finally, how to gather statistical information about index structure and the index usage. In this article, the last article in this series, we will discuss how to benefit from the previously gathered index information in maintaining SQL Server indexes.
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