Getting locked out of a SQL Server instance can happen due to a number of situations. The most common scenario I’ve encountered is when a SQL Server is moved from one domain to another without the domain being trusted or having a local SQL admin account. I recently encountered another incident where a DBA was […]
SQL Server error 18456
Working with thousands of instances of Microsoft SQL Server, I often encounter users having issues. A common error is 18456 which indicates a login failure.
Can You Restore Multiple Differential Backup Files?
Can you restore multiple differential SQL Server backups
How To Restore Change Data Capture – CDC Tables When Restoring a SQL Server Database
I have recently had the privilege of working with multiple clients who have been taking advantage of Change Data Capture “CDC”. Change Data Capture is a feature that utilizes SQL Server Agent to log inserts, updates, and deletes occurring in a table. It makes these data changes available to be consumed in a relational format. […]
Hidden Killers of SQL Server Performance
I’ve been working with SQL Server for a very long time. Out of the box, SQL Server works great, however there is regular care and feeding that needs to be done to ensure it is running optimally. One of the best analogies is to think about an automobile or airplane and how they need to […]
How to Protect Against Ransomware as a DBA
Over the years I’ve been called in to work with numerous clients that were hit with ransomware. Even the times that the customer paid the ransom to unlock their encrypted files, there were still issues. Often times there were still issues with the files where they will not restore or data/log files can’t attach to […]
SQL Server Error 9002 – Full Transaction Log
A full transaction log can occur for a number of reasons. Typically it is due to the log not being truncated with regular transaction log backups, or something else not allowing the log to truncate. I often find Change Data Capture enabled and the jobs not running, SQL Server Replication in place and replication not […]
SQL Best Practices
SQL Server has evolved a great deal since I first started working with SQL Server 6.5 in 1998. Unfortunately I continually come across newer systems that are configured with old ‘best practices’. Things like 1 tempdb file per core, 1 core per socket on VMware machines, index rebuilds each night, and more. Below are some […]
