Category Archives: DBA

Recovery Models and Backups Re-Found

Posted on July 26, 2016 by paulwinans

This is a short version of what got me to understand recovery models and the what happens during a backup. Wow Kimberly Tripp is a great asset. Back in the day I downloaded it as an individual chapter. I’ve forwarded … Continue reading →

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Requesting a SQL Configuration Change Requires Evidence

Posted on May 17, 2016 by paulwinans

Part of a DBA’s job is making sure everyone is comfortable with proposed changes. I recently created a Change Request to increase the SQL setting Cost Threshold for Parallelism. Here is the justification I provided to get sign-off from the responsible … Continue reading →

Posted in Configuration, DBA | Leave a comment

Great post on Compression Options

Posted on October 8, 2015 by paulwinans

We are in the process of implementing Columnstore Indexes. I came across this page while researching and shared it with the DBA Team. http://aboutsqlserver.com/tag/clustered-columnstore-indexes/

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The Roadmap

Posted on September 18, 2015 by paulwinans

We are working on the Roadmap again. It is a great exercise to plan the next 1-5 year’s goals and tie them back to department and company goals. I want to at last get select rights to production a thing … Continue reading →

Posted in DBA, Leadership | Leave a comment

Using SSMS as a Front End

Posted on August 17, 2015 by paulwinans

I was asked to explain my reservations with using SSMS as a front end.  The first issue is concerning our data quality: why are we letting bad data into a database at all? Speak with the data  warehouse group to … Continue reading →

Posted in DBA, Metrics | Leave a comment

The Biggest Variable

Posted on August 10, 2015 by paulwinans

Which is more important, the chariot or the horse? Of course the question assumes it is possible to separate two things which may be inseparable. Is the question reasonable? Better is to strive to be the best and acknowledge the value … Continue reading →

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SQL 2014, BIDS and SQL Server Data Tools

Posted on July 10, 2015 by paulwinans

With SQL 2014 the tools used by developers are not part of the installation media and in fact SSMS is not even necessary for some. Be prepared to discuss with the development group what are the options before any SQL installations take place … Continue reading →

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Using SQL To Configure Database Mirroring

Posted on January 3, 2015 by paulwinans

We use database mirroring for replicating data from physical sql servers to the disaster recovery location; SRM is used for virtual machines. I don’t like the point and click interface though. So many screens for a pretty simple series of … Continue reading →

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The Road to Awareness (aka Event Notifications)

Posted on December 13, 2014 by paulwinans

Getting notified of what is going on is critical to meet SLAs. Plus, who wants to be the second to know about something going on with a production sql server? No thanks. SQL Alerts serve their purpose. The cache hit ratio … Continue reading →

Posted in DBA, SQL | 2 Comments

Setting Up for Success

Posted on November 1, 2014 by paulwinans

A good dba is ready for problems. A key part of being ready is making information available and no joke I like code which broadcasts what is going on. Using raiserror with nowait and 0 or 10 severity is great. Using … Continue reading →

Posted in DBA | 2 Comments