This post is based on a document I wrote a long time ago as part of my DBA knowledge transfer to other DBAs. It’s also goes hand in hand with a question I like to ask in interviews: ‘Someone has raised a ticket with your IT Service Desk and assigned Continue Reading
Best Practices
Creating Fake Data for Testing
One of the problems facing us in the new GDPR compliance world is scrambling/obfuscating production data in our testing environments. I’ve certainly been guilty in the past of having multiple backups of production data lying around on test servers and also having production data in test environments which should be Continue Reading
Automating SQL Installs
Here’s how I do a basic silent install of SQL Server. Configuration File You can’t start this unless you have an installation configuration file from a previous install. Your Configuration File (ConfigurationFile.ini) can be found in the following location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Setup Bootstrap\Log\ Within this location there will be Continue Reading
Configure Quorum for SQL Server High Availability
Quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum. Quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum and quorum. Quorum, quorum, quorum! Quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum. Quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum, quorum; quorum, quorum, quorum. If you repeat the word quorum enough times, you will eventually learn and understand it. If only that Continue Reading
3 Best Practices for Non-Production
When I set up a new UAT/DEV environment there are some things I tend to do: Change the DB Owner to the SA account or equivalent I do this in Production too, obviously but if you are regularly refreshing UAT databases, this can sometimes be overlooked. Change Recovery Models to Continue Reading
Availability Groups: 5 Things
Here are some configurations that I feel are worth noting about AlwaysOn Availability Groups. There are plenty of other best practices and configuration guides around but these are issues I’ve experienced when supporting existing AlwaysOn AGs and have therefore re-configured them or added these configurations to my standard AG builds. Continue Reading
2 Great Extended Event Sessions
I hate SQL Profiler. It’s clunky, slow, hard to read and filter, and it can suck resources away from the Server you are trying to monitor. However, Extended Events also seemed a little daunting at first but there are other people out there that have taken one for the team Continue Reading
But I’m only running Select Queries!
Just because you only have db_datareader access to production doesn’t mean you can’t cause a great deal of harm. I’ve worked in a few areas where against my advice, we have developers, analysts and report writers who still have access to Production Environments. Normally most business owners have finally relented Continue Reading
Friends of the DBA
No, this is not a new Charity I am setting up although maybe it should be. One of the biggest complaints I hear about fellow DBAs is their failure to provide adequate explanations to issues that have arisen to either key business owners or fellow Infrastructure colleagues. Often I’ve heard Continue Reading
SQL and PowerShell
I’m no PowerShell expert. I wish I was. One day I hope to be better at it. This resource has helped me no end recently: DBATools.IO is a PowerShell module specifically designed for SQL Server and DBAs. It has helped me no end with New Builds, Migrations, Best Practices, Automation, Continue Reading