Monthly Archives: October 2009

What a backed up Database Mirror looks like

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Glenn Berry

One thing you need to be careful about with SQL Server 2005/2008 Database Mirroring is making sure that you don’t exceed the I/O capacity of the storage subsystem of the SQL Server instance where the mirrored database lives. If you … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 5 Comments

A DBA’s Fantasy

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Glenn Berry

I happened upon the screenshot below, showing a stress test in progress against a Windows machine with 64 quad-core CPUs (which gives you 256 cores). This requires Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition, along with SQL Server 2008 R2.  As … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 1 Comment

Very Useful SQL Server 2008 High Availability White Paper On MSDN

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Fellow MVP, Paul Randal from SQLSkills.com has published a 35 page white paper on MSDN called “High Availability with SQL Server 2008”. This is an excellent resource on the subject of high availability, full of useful information and lots of … Continue reading →

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Updated SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Here is the October 2009 version of my SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries. They are very useful for gathering information about a SQL Server 2008 instance and a particular database on that instance. Many of the queries are DMV … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 4 Comments

More SQL Server Benchmarks From AnandTech

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Glenn Berry

AnandTech has another I.T. oriented post up comparing the performance and value of two-socket servers to four-socket servers. The gist of the story is that in most cases, a dual-socket system based on the Intel Xeon 55xx CPU performs as … Continue reading →

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How to Diagnose and Correct a “Runaway” Transaction Log

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Glenn Berry

This shows you how to diagnose and correct a "runaway" transaction log.  This is a very common issue that I often see with customers and on the MSDN forums. You will see the error message below when this happens: "The … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 4 Comments

A Tale of Two Utility Companies

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Glenn Berry

I live in Parker, Colorado, which is a suburb of Denver, about 25 miles southeast of downtown Denver. I have lived here for about ten years, and I have seen Parker grow quite a bit (to a population of about … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments

Stupid DBA Tricks

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Glenn Berry

Well, I just learned a valuable lesson about something you should not do as a DBA… About a month ago, a client of mine called me to report that their main database server was running critically short of disk space … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 8 Comments

SQL Server MVP Deep Dives Book available for pre-order

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Glenn Berry

The "SQL Server MVP Deep Dives" book that I wrote two chapters for is up for pre-order. This will be an amazing book, crammed full of great material, by so many very well known SQL Server experts. Fifty-three SQL MVPs … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server 2008 | 1 Comment