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November 2008 - Posts

Friday, November 21, 2008 7:53 AM

Importing text files in Excel causes blank spaces in columns to be trimmed. What is the workaround?

Recently we troubleshooted an issue where a text file would have its columns blank spaces to be trimmed when they were imported in Excel. These text files had fixed width columns and when they were imported to Excel, the spaces at the end of data of each
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:14 AM

How to use a server side trace to monitor a SQL Server Instance that resides on a different machine

Consider this scenario: - A SQL administrator (admin01) has access on both SQL Server A (SQLSRVA) and SQL Server B (SQLSRVB). - Another SQL administrator (admin02) has access on SQLSRVB only. - admin01 wants to monitor the activities of SQLSRVB, without
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:14 AM

How to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor (SQL Server 2005)

Ever wonder what you would do if you could not read and understand the execution plans that SQL Server produces and you had to tune a T-SQL query to make it perform better? You would probably need to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor J At first,
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:13 AM

The Microsoft Operations Manager WMI provider 'SNMP Trap Catcher' could not connect to WMI Namespace root\snmp\localhost

This post is about a MOM 2005 alert I was troubleshooting (MOM was on Windows Server 2003): “The Microsoft Operations Manager WMI provider 'SNMP Trap Catcher' could not connect to WMI Namespace root\snmp\localhost. Ensure that the specified WMI Namespace
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:12 AM

Why can't I view the Scheduled Tasks of a remote Windows machine?

We came across this issue while troubleshooting a SQL Server Cluster problem. There was a failure to apply a service pack to the cluster and we found that the root cause was that the active node could not create and execute a remote scheduled task to
Posted by John Daskalakis | 2 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:12 AM

SQL Server strange timeout behavior

Recently, I stumbled into a strange issue. A specific T-SQL query was getting timeouts in different time intervals, depending on where it was executed from: 1. Running it via Query Analyzer was producing no timeout. The T-SQL query was taking 8 minutes
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:11 AM

Changing the IP Address of a SQL Server 2005 failover cluster instance

It is a simple procedure, but it needs some attention to avoid damaging the installation: a. From the Start menu, click Run, and then type cluadmin to launch the Cluster Administrator and connect to the local instance. b. In the left-hand pane, expand
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:10 AM

What are SQL Server Trace Flags?

Trace flags are used in SQL Server 2000, 2005 & 2008 to change the default behavior of SQL Server. They can be described as a switch that changes the source code of SQL server (!), changing the behavior of SQL Server from what the designer meant it
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:07 AM

Why should I use FULL recovery model instead of SIMPLE in my SQL Server database?

Maybe you don't need to :). This is a very frequently asked question that has been asked by SQL Server DBAs about SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008. The truth is that it is the DBAs choice (or his manager's :)), depending on the importance of each database
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:06 AM

How to capture a parallel network trace in order to identify a network error

Sometimes you will not be able to explain a certain issue. Maybe in the course of troubleshooting a SQL Server transaction that gives a General Network Error, suspicion will be drawn to the underlying network infrastructure. But how can a SQL Server administrator
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:05 AM

How to uninstall a SQL Server Failover Cluster

The uninstall procedure is so much simpler than installing one. You simply need to run the SQL Server setup and implement the steps as described here: How to remove a failover clustered instance (Setup) http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa216166(sql.80).aspx
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:03 AM

Merge Replication and maintenance plans that rebuild the indexes don't have the expected result

Imagine this scenario. - You have setup a maintenance plan that rebuilds all the indexes of a database at a weekly schedule. - However you see symptoms of index fragmentation that affect the performance of the merge replication for this database. You
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:01 AM

What happens if the SUSDB database is inaccessible? How do you recover WSUS 3.0?

You can try to: 1. Identify why the SUSDB is inaccessible and resolve this. a. Is it a Windows account permissions issue? b. Is it a SQL login permissins issue? A usual mistake is that the computer account of the frontend WSUS server is not added as a
Posted by John Daskalakis | 2 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:58 AM

MS Access gets timeout errors when connecting to SQL Server via an ADP project

You are using an Access ADP project to connect to a SQL Server database. The user is getting timeout errors when the queries are executing for more than 30 seconds. The solution is simple, you need to go to the Access options and set the OLE/DDE timeout
Posted by John Daskalakis | 2 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:53 AM

Common solutions for the DCOM 10016 error

The 10016 error is a very common error and has some known root causes. Such as: 1. Maybe IIS was installed on this machine after Windows Service Pack 1 (or SP2) was installed on that machine. In that case, you need to apply this Service Pack again, because
Posted by John Daskalakis | 3 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:51 AM

How to prepare a Windows Server to produce a dump file and actually force it to dump its memory when needed

This is useful when troubleshooting blue screen issues or when you want a snapshot of the system's memory at one point in time in order to study it later. At first you need to prepare the server by configuring some settings: 1. Right click "My Computer",
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:50 AM

What documentation you will need to setup a SQL Server 2005 failover cluster on Windows 2003 cluster?

What documentation you will need to setup a SQL Server 2005 failover cluster on Windows 2003 cluster? At first you will need to know what hardware is supported for this scenario and how is it supported: The Microsoft support policy for server clusters,
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:49 AM

ERROR: This software requires GDI+. Please load the Windows 2000 Security Software Prerequisite Pack.

When installing Forefront Client Security on a Windows 2000 box you may encounter this error: "This software requires GDI+. Please load the Windows 2000 Security Software Prerequisite Pack." A common solution is to follow the steps described in KB 915052:
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:48 AM

Virtual Server disk files never reduce in size, even if you delete data

Consider this scenario: - You have setup a machine on a Virtual Server 2005. - The disks you have configured are dynamic. - Even when you delete data from inside the virtual machine, the hard disk space reserved on the host system is nver reduced. This
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:46 AM

How to upgrade WSUS 2.0 to WSUS 3.0

You really can't run the WSUS 3.0 setup and choose to upgrade WSUS 2.0. You will have to schedule a migration. You will at first need to obtain these utilities: - wsusutil.exe (from c:\program files\update services\toolswsusmigrationExport.exe) - WSUSMigrationImport.exe
Posted by John Daskalakis | 2 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:45 AM

You really can't run the WSUS 3.0 setup and choose to upgrade WSUS 2.0. You will have to schedule a migration.

You will at first need to obtain these utilities: - wsusutil.exe (from c:\program files\update services\toolswsusmigrationExport.exe) - WSUSMigrationImport.exe (from the API sample tools 2.0 - http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/d/0/8d068114-bd66-4fde-a04c-aeaa9d1fe640/update%20services%20api%20samples%20and%20tools.exe
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:43 AM

There is insufficient system memory to run this query

This error usually occurs due to MEMTOLEAVE memory area fragmentation, especially if you have many linked servers in your environment. Before doing any in-depth troubleshooting to identify the exact cause, it's worth trying these workarounds: 1. Patch
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:42 AM

What happens when the transaction log of a SQL 2005 Server database gets damaged or lost?

A common configuration is to have all transaction log files on a separate physical hard disk for better performance. What happens if that disk gets damaged, if RAID was not setup and no backup is available? Don't panic :) You should get the SQL Server
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:41 AM

What cluster groups need to be setup for a SQL Server 2005 Failover Cluster?

The answer is it depends: - One cluster group for the Database Engine. - Then one cluster group for the Analysis Services (if decided to install them). - And one group for MSDTC, which should be configured as described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301600
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:37 AM

SQL Server 2000 Maintenance may cause blocking issues

Most DBAs use this maintenance schedule for their databases: - DBCC CHECKB, to perform a healthcheck on the databases. - DBCC DBREINDEX, to reindex the database indexes. However on SQL Server 2000 you have to make sure that DBCC CHECKDB will have finished
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:36 AM

Disk space costs for reindexing in SQL Server

A database that is being reindexed in SQL Server can get bigger up to +20% of the original size (so a 100Gb database may get up to 120 GB while being reindexed). If the reindexing fails due to insufficient disk space it will be rolled back. Do not try
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:35 AM

The logs of DTS tasks could cause MSDB to reach a very big size

These steps are for SQL Server 2000 but they can be easily changed for SQL Server 2005: At first identify which tables are very big: USE MSDB GO SET NOCOUNT ON GO SELECT COUNT(*) AS 'TotalRecords' FROM dbo.sysdtscategories GO SELECT COUNT(*) AS 'TotalRecords'
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:34 AM

Error starting the SQL Server Service (Error getting instance ID from name)

You are trying to start SQL Server from the command prompt: start sqlservr.exe -c -T3608 And you get this error: "Your SQL Server installation is either corrupt or has been tampered with (Error getting instance ID from name.). Please uninstall then re-run
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:32 AM

How to autoforward emails to an external email address when using Exchange Server 2007

Sometimes you will need to autoforward the emails that arrive at your corporate address to an external email address (e.g. a hotmail address). In Exchange Server 2007 you can do this by following these steps: 1. Go to the Exchange Management Console.
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:31 AM

Online index operation cannot be performed for index

You may encounter this error when running a maintenance plan for a database or when you try to rebuild an index online: "Online index operation cannot be performed for index ‘*****’ because the index contains column 'Properties' of data type text, ntext,
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:30 AM

How to upgrade SQL Server 2005 from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition

Insert the SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition DVD in the machine you wish to upgrade. Open a command prompt. If your DVD's drive letter is e.g. D:, execute this command: D:\setup.exe SKUUPGRADE=1 After upgrading to SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition,
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:27 AM

How to force SQL Server 2000 to produce a minidump

Sometimes you will need to force SQL Server to produce a minidump, usually during the time SQL Server experiences some strange behavior. Here are the steps you need to follow: 1. Use the SQL Server service account to log on to the SQL Server machine 2.
Posted by John Daskalakis | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:24 AM

How to use Procmon to troubleshoot a SQL Server permissions problem in either the filesystem or registry

SQL Server needs to be able to read certain registry keys and/or you suspect that a problem is related to permissions in either the registry or the filesystem. How do you troubleshoot this? With Procmon: 1. Download the process monitoring tool (Procmon.exe):
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:19 AM

How to schedule a Profiler Trace in SQL Server

Sometimes you will need to troubleshoot a problem that occurs at 03:00 in the morning by using the SQL Server Profiler. Instead of starting the Profiler Trace manually, you can use these steps to schedule it at a specific time: For SQL Server 2000: 1.
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:16 AM

How to troubleshoot SQL Server performance problems by using Perfmon

The Perfmon tool can be used in identifying the cause of bad performance in SQL Server. Follow these steps to identify the cause: 1. Click on Start | Run and type Perfmon.exe 2. Right click on the Graph and choose Properties 3. Go to the Data tab and
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:16 AM

How to rebuild indexes and update statistics without using a maintenance plan in SQL Server

Sometimes maintenance plans won't execute correctly and you need to have a workaround available while you try to identfy why they don't work. Meanwhile you can use these sample queries that can do the same job as the maintenance plan. They can be executed
Posted by John Daskalakis | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:12 AM

One way to identify which indexes in your database are fragmented

Start a new query in the database you want to check. Execute this command: DBCC SHOWCONTIG WITH FAST We are just checking for fragmentation so we don’t care about page density in order to have to scan the leaf pages (thus why we use the WITH FAST option
Posted by John Daskalakis | 2 Comments
 
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