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Wednesday, November 11, 2009 7:49 AM

How Microsoft Does IT - Updated

I’ve pointed out this link before, and I’ll definitely bring it up again. Microsoft is one of the few companies I know, especially the big ones, that explains how they run their IT. We have a fantastic, I mean really fantastic site that you should definitely
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 8:37 AM

Color Your Connections

In cyber-space, no one can hear you scream. Have you ever connected to a server, thought it was a testing or development system, and only a split second after you pressed “F5” to run that command, realized that it was the production server? Yeah….me neither
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Monday, September 28, 2009 6:59 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Guard the Backup Files

You probably heard me say (along with a lot of other folks) that you need a good recovery strategy, not just a good backup strategy. The thought here is that you’re not backing up for it’s own sake, you’re taking the backup in case you need to restore
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Thursday, September 24, 2009 6:47 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Set a Fixed Memory Size

SQL Server allows you to set a “bottom” and “top” range for memory that the Instance will use. The memory will dynamically expand and contract based on Instance need and system pressure. But this flexibility and ease of configuration can (not always,
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Thursday, September 10, 2009 6:34 AM

Adding a NIC – Part Two

I got this comment from the post yesterday: “ It's just as easy to use gigabit instead 10/100. Further, where is this administration being done? Most likely there is some other pipe that will have to be shared between any amount of connections. And at
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 9:15 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Separate NIC for Maintenance and Transfers

Many people aren’t aware of how important the Network Interface Card (NIC) in their system really is. If you picture your database as a warehouse, the NIC devices are the doors and bays where stuff comes in and out. Imagine if you had one door, and everyone
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 8:25 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Disk Partition Alignment

OK - this one is a little more involved than the other best practices I've posted here. In fact, I'm going to have to send you off to another document at the end of this post to explain the technical background and the exact steps you need to perform,
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Monday, August 24, 2009 7:19 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Check and Install the "Best" Drivers

Between the hardware in your system and the interaction with the operating system are a set of software programs and code called "drivers". These bits of information have the most impact on how well a particular hardware device works with your system.
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 7:32 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Auto-Create and Auto-Update Statistics Should Be On - Most of the Time

SQL Server uses something called the "Query Optimizer" to find the data you're looking for. To do that, there is another mechanism, called "Statistics", which can be created and maintained on columns in a table - even tables that don't have an Index.
Posted by Buck Woody | 3 Comments
Thursday, August 06, 2009 7:59 AM

The Mythical Silver Bullet

Have you ever sat in a meeting where you either got the distinct impression, or were told directly that you should just use product X or Feature Y to solve a problem?  Sure, we have a lot of features in SQL Server, but I don't think any of them is
Posted by Buck Woody | 3 Comments
Wednesday, August 05, 2009 7:45 AM

The Importance of a Test System

Most of us have three environments in our organizations: Development, Staging, and Production. But I don't count Staging as a test system. Sure, I use it to do an integration test for code before it goes to the users, but that's not the only kind of testing
Posted by Buck Woody | 3 Comments
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 8:06 AM

Commenting your Code

You should always add descriptive comments to any code that will live longer than a single event. It's useful not only for the other unfortunate souls blessed with your code, but for yourself, years later, when you say "what was I thinking here?"
Posted by Buck Woody | 7 Comments
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 8:16 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Install the Latest Service Pack after Testing

Although this one might seem obvious, I've come into quite a few shops lately that don't have the latest service packs. No software goes out the door flawless - regardless of what a vendor tells you!  Microsoft comes out with three or four kinds
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 7:08 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Auto-Shrink Should Be Off

SQL Server is one of the easiest databases to maintain because of all of the automatic settings it has, but as I mentioned with Auto-Close, some of them should be left off. The Auto-Shrink setting is another. That might surprise a few people. You might
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:50 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: AutoClose Should be Off

When SQL Server "opens" a database, resources are assigned to maintaining that state. Memory for locks, buffers, security tokens and so on is assigned, and there is associated CPU and even a little I/O. When connections are made to the database,
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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