Dear all, You will not see any more posts in this blog Unfortunately due to lack of free time, I cannot continue blogging. Please don't send me any more emails, as this blog will be unmanaged from now on. Regarding SQL server, you can instead...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You have multiple SQL Server instances in your environment (e.g. dozens or maybe hundreds). Ø You want to find out if some of them are not patched appropriately. This is what the following vbscript is...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You have multiple SQL Server instances in your environment (e.g. dozens or maybe hundreds). Ø You want to find out what are the storage needs for your databases. Ø You don’t know exactly how many SQL Servers...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You have multiple SQL Server instances in your environment (e.g. dozens or maybe hundreds). Ø You want to make sure that the SA login does not have a blank password. Ø Due to the sheer number of SQL Server...

How to schedule a backup of the transaction log In order to take a transaction log backup, you first need to check if the database is in Full Recovery model, because if the database is in Simple Recovery model, you do not need to take transaction log...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You have a 32-bit SQL Server installed on a 32-bit operating system. Ø Due to the limitations of the 32-bit OS, SQL Server can use up to 2 GB of memory (3 GB if you use the /3GB switch). Ø You want to configure...

Consider the following scenario: Ø Your application is using the ODBC SQL driver to connect to your SQL Server. Ø You perform an operation in your application and after a while you get this error: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Timeout...

If your application is crashing, one common troubleshooting method is to attach a debugger like “adplus” on that process, so that when it crashes, the debugger will generate a process dump. Analyzing the dump is of course another matter entirely :). ...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You are using a 3 rd party backup application to take SQL backups (e.g. Netbackup). Ø Your SQL Server has dozens of databases attached to it. Ø Lately you have been getting these errors when you attempt to...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You already have setup multiple SQL Server failover instances on a Windows 2003 cluster. Ø After setting up one or more SQL Server failover instances, then failover stops working as expected. Ø Specifically...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You have restarted the SQL Server service. Ø After SQL Server comes online again, one or more of the databases are inaccessible. o No queries can be executed on them. o They cannot be managed by SQL server...

Consider the following scenario: Ø You are executing queries on a SQL Server linked server. Ø You are using the linked server option “Connections will be made using the login’s current security context”. Ø You receive the following error:...

Recently we were troubleshooting a SQL Server backup failure and we encountered this error: BackupDiskFile::RequestDurableMedia: failure on backup device '\\server\folder\sqlbackup.bak' Operating system error 1130 The backup was being taken...

Consider this scenario: Ø You are planning to migrate your SQL Server from a physical machine to a virtual machine Ø For some reason you cannot use HYPER-V Ø You are wondering how you will be supported by Microsoft since the virtual solution...

Recently I was asked to create a list of advantages, disadvantages and some best practices when deploying SQL Server in a virtual machine, instead of a physical machine. This information was written with HYPER-V in mind, but they probably apply to most...

Since the Password Age for Machine accounts can be misleading and since I did not find this information logged anywhere in the internet, I thought worthy to dedicate a blog post to some facts, to clear things up for anyone who is worried about Password...

If you are managing a SQL Server you will sooner or later need to schedule some maintenance tasks, like backing up your databases. The easy way to do this is use the SQL Server 2008 Maintenance Plan wizard (SSMPW). Here are some FAQs about SSMPW: ...

A migration to a newer version of SQL Server is usually a very critical process. Everyone is anxious if their old application will work as expected in the new version of SQL Server. Well you won't need to plunge into the deep sea and hope for the...

A matter that constantly comes up when discussing with customers is the size and history of the error log of SQL Server. The first question concerns the size of the ERROLOG file. If a lot of operations take place that log information to the errorlog...

Often I get questions from customers about SQL Server 2008 Express (what is it, what features does it have, e.t.c.) and so I decided to dedicate a blog post to summarize its usage and capabilities. Ø What is SQL Server 2008 Express? SQL Server...

Happy new year, this is my first blog post for 2010 :) My first blog post of 2010 will be about the following scenario: - You want to configure the local security policies of a Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 server. - You open the console secpol...

Recently we were troubleshooting an issue with uploading files on a Sharepoint Site. When we were trying to upload any file we would get an exception message similar to this one: Unable to complete this operation. Please contact your administrator...

Sometimes a Service Pack or a Cumulative Update Package will not be applied successfully to your SQL Server failover instance. It is not always easy to find out the exact root cause – you need to review the hotfix logs which by default are found...

Consider the following scenario: - You are facing a performance issue in your SQL Server. - You suspect that your indexes may be fragmented. - You execute one query that reports the fragmentation, but you do not understand the output. ...

Autogrow of file 'XXXX' in database 'YYYY' was cancelled by user or timed out after ZZZZZ milliseconds Consider the following scenario: - You have not configured the autogrow of your SQL Server files manually and instead rely on the default...