1 DBA's Professional Blog
Runas should be a very common tool in the toolbox of all IT professionals – not just Data Professionals. Learning how to test different accounts is essential to being an effective and efficient professional that can provide solid results.
Starting SQL Server in single-user mode should be a tool every data professional holds in the bag. This is an essential tool that can be used in multiple scenarios and ensure you are able to fully maintain and control your server. This article will show how to start in single-user mode via two methods.
Losing access to a SQL instance is never a desirable situation – for the DBA. When the people that are supposed to have access, lose that access, all hope is not lost. There are plenty of methods available to regain the requisite access to manage the server. Today, I shared one such method that I view as being extremely easy. If you lose access, I would recommend taking the steps shown in this article to regain that access.
Every now and again we have to deal with a sudden requirements change. When that happens, we sometimes just need to take a step back and evaluate the entire situation to ensure we are proceeding down the right path. It is better to be pensive about the course of action rather than to knee jerk into the course of action. Do you want to spend 5 minutes on the solution or 30-40 minutes doing the same thing? Changing collation can be an easy change, or it can be one met with a bit of pain doing a reinstall (more painful if more user databases are present). Keep that in mind and keep cool when you need to make a sudden change.
SQL Server comes with a default SQL agent job installed (for most installations) to help manage the collection of system health data. I would dare say this job is ignored by most people and few probably even know it exists. This job is the syspolicy_purge_history job.
It may come as no surprise to many that Microsoft has hastened the SQL Server development cycle. Furthermore, it may be no surprise to many that Microsoft has also hastened the patch cycle for SQL Server.
One of the recommended methods to trap payload data in an XE session is via the use of the event_file target. Sending data to a file has numerous benefits such as being able to take the trace and evaluate the trace file from a different machine (locally to that machine).
As of SSMS 17.4 we have been given the ability to control XEvents Profiler just a tiny bit more. For what it is worth, we as Database Professionals love to be able to control our database environment. So this teeny tiny bit of new control ability is potentially a huge win, right?
One of my all-time favorite things in SQL Server is security. No matter what, it always seems that there is a new way to abuse permissions. When people abuse their access level or abuse the way permissions should be set in a SQL Server environment, we get the pleasure of both fixing it and then trying to educate them on why what they did was wrong and how to do it the right way.
A quick way to have your day turned upside down and rip your gut out with nerves and anxiety is to come in one day to find that users are panicked, applications are not working and the HelpDesk team is curled up in the fetal position in the corner. Why? The sky is falling and everybody thinks the database has blown up. You appear to have a corrupt database and nasty IO errors.