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Testing Not using restore verify option The last thing you want is to discover that your backup is not good when trying to restore it. A restore verify does at least give you some peace of mind that SQL Server could read the contents of the backup wi...

SQL Server databases are often repositories for large volumes of business-critical data. As the sizes of databases grow, restore operations become time-consuming. Database professionals need to access data in backup files quickly to reduce ...

We’re excited to announce the release of SQL Safe Backup 9.0 SQL Safe Backup provides the industry's shortest time from starting a SQL Server backup restore to being back online and operating. SQL Safe Backup dramatically lowers the co...

As a seasoned SQL Server database administrator or developer, you already know that there is an abundance of tools you can use to collect server and database information to help you make informed decisions. As someone just starting out, you will find...

Writing and tuning SQL code are two different things. There are many ways to write code so that it does the intended function. But there are also ways to make code more efficient. In most cases, we follow development techniques in repetition based on...

There are several things that could cause performance issues for a query. You can identify these by breaking down the processing time for a query into various wait states, such as locks, input/output, and the central processing unit. This can give yo...

There are many things that can cause slowdowns in SQL Server, such as resources like disk, memory, and network. But the one place where database administrators and developers have the most control and can make the biggest impact is tuning queries. SQ...

Deadlocking is a common problem that can occur in an SQL Server database. This is like blocking. But instead of being blocked forever, SQL Server chooses one session as the deadlock victim and rolls it back so the other process can continue. SQL Diag...

Blocking is a normal activity that occurs in SQL Server and it does that to control data integrity and make sure only one resource can change a set of data at one time. The problem with blocking is if SQL Server blocked a session for a long period, t...

We have Data at Rest, Data in Transit, and Data in Use. Data in Use has been covered pretty well by Data Architecture and Data Governance teams. Data Architects design databases, which are one of the main storage mechanisms, and tools like ER/Studio ...

Data modeling tools should be competent at the basics of database modeling. They should be able to create logical and physical data models, propagate changes from one model to the other in both directions, create database scripts, and reverse-enginee...

There are many advantages of using SQL Diagnostic Manager over building your own tools and one of these is the enterprise management view of all your SQL Servers in one place. We can see the entire environment fast and also see issues that need atten...

As a database administrator, monitoring database systems for performance, corruption, and data issues is an ongoing task. It is also an overwhelming task depending on how large the database environment is and the number of resources there are to mana...

Not having a good recovery process One big part of your backup process needs to include the recovery procedures. You should have a rehearsed recovery plan, so when you need to recover any of your databases, you know the exact steps to follow. Also, k...

Development is a big undertaking and most of the time it focuses on making sure all the features are in place and working. Once this is done, tuning for performance often occurs. But in order to make adjustments, developers need data to understand wh...

One can improve how secure databases are. However, that often degrades how well the database performs. The cost increases to improve database security while maintaining database performance. The trade-off comprises three axes: performance, security, ...

Stricter governmental and industry regulation coupled with the need for improving how secure the sensitive corporate data is has driven up the need to track who is accessing data in corporate databases. Organizations must be ever-vigilant to monitor ...

It is easy and all too common to see the auditing team as adversaries. All the information they want takes time to gather. All the rules and procedures they want added just slow things down. And far too often, it feels like we are trying to pass the ...

In the current IT landscape, we face meeting an ever-increasing number of laws, regulations, and industry standards. The good news is that most of these different requirements overlap with each other and we can configure our SQL Servers in accordance...

Not protecting physical backups You should think about the value of the data or the consequences of it getting into the wrong hands since a full database backup contains all data in your database. You will want to make sure you always protect this da...

To understand how malicious actors can infiltrate SQL Server is the key to understanding how to prevent intrusions. The consequences for inadequate permissions are tremendous. Organizations could incur data breaches, fines, loss of customers, a decre...

There are several examples where data theft has brought organizations to a halt or resulted in a bad press that will leave a tarnished image. For example, in 2017, Equifax disclosed how malicious actors exposed the personal information of over 145 mi...

Today, business is about data. Database systems and the elements they store are the most valuable assets in any enterprise. Not only are business executives and Information Technology leaders responsible for doing what is right to protect the best in...

Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) provides infrastructure features that support the high-availability and disaster recovery scenarios of hosted server applications such as Microsoft SQL Server. If a cluster node or service fails, automaticall...