I did a number of posts under the heading “You couldn’t write it”  but in this case it had been so a different subject was required. We’d been looking at an issue which had allegedly been fixed but the testing seemed to present some problems indicating it hadn’t worked. As you would expect there a number of environments, almost all of which contain subsets of production, e.g. obscured data etc. Sometimes however you need to test against an actual production data set, there may be many reasons...(read more)

https://sqlblogcasts.com:443/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2017/01/10/environmental-pollution.aspx

I did a number of posts under the heading “You couldn’t write it”  but in this case it had been so a different subject was required. We’d been looking at an issue which had allegedly been fixed but the testing seemed to present some problems indicating it hadn’t worked. As you would expect there a number of environments, almost all of which contain subsets of production, e.g. obscured data etc. Sometimes however you need to test against an actual production data set, there may be many reasons...(read more)

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2017/01/10/environmental-pollution.aspx

I did a number of posts under the heading “You couldn’t write it”  but in this case it had been so a different subject was required. We’d been looking at an issue which had allegedly been fixed but the testing seemed to present some problems indicating it hadn’t worked. As you would expect there a number of environments, almost all of which contain subsets of production, e.g. obscured data etc. Sometimes however you need to test against an actual production data set, there may be many reasons...(read more)

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2017/01/10/environmental-pollution.aspx

I did a number of posts under the heading “You couldn’t write it”  but in this case it had been so a different subject was required. We’d been looking at an issue which had allegedly been fixed but the testing seemed to present some problems indicating it hadn’t worked. As you would expect there a number of environments, almost all of which contain subsets of production, e.g. obscured data etc. Sometimes however you need to test against an actual production data set, there may be many reasons...(read more)

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2017/01/10/environmental-pollution.aspx

I have grown tired of finding a file on a Microsoft machine. In Windows 2012 server, it gets easier with their "Search everything" feature but sometimes you're not so lucky to be on a machine with a newer OS. Here is a little PowerShell script I use to find files. It is so much easier! $FileName = "MyFile.SQL" Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Recurse -ErrorAction Ignore | select Name, directory | Where name -eq $FileName

https://sqlblogcasts.com:443/blogs/greenmtnsun/archive/2016/12/21/Windows-File-search-is-a-pain-in-the-XXX_2C00_-so-I-PowerShell_2D00_ed-it.aspx

I have grown tired of finding a file on a Microsoft machine. In Windows 2012 server, it gets easier with their "Search everything" feature but sometimes you're not so lucky to be on a machine with a newer OS. Here is a little PowerShell script I use to find files. It is so much easier! $FileName = "MyFile.SQL" Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Recurse -ErrorAction Ignore | select Name, directory | Where name -eq $FileName

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/greenmtnsun/archive/2016/12/21/Windows-File-search-is-a-pain-in-the-XXX_2C00_-so-I-PowerShell_2D00_ed-it.aspx

Let me say that I like log shipping, for me as a DBA it ensures I have a set of backups in a different location, hopefully a different site to my main data centre. Mostly I like log shipping because all of my backups get restored as soon as after being taken and as we all should know “ The only good backup is one that’s been successfully restored” I’ve log shipped since SQL 6.5, I don’t use a third party solution, I mean it’s not difficult is it? 1.    Take backup 2.   ...(read more)

https://sqlblogcasts.com:443/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2016/11/15/when-it-s-gone-it-s-gone.aspx

Let me say that I like log shipping, for me as a DBA it ensures I have a set of backups in a different location, hopefully a different site to my main data centre. Mostly I like log shipping because all of my backups get restored as soon as after being taken and as we all should know “ The only good backup is one that’s been successfully restored” I’ve log shipped since SQL 6.5, I don’t use a third party solution, I mean it’s not difficult is it? 1.    Take backup 2.   ...(read more)

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2016/11/15/when-it-s-gone-it-s-gone.aspx

In my previous post I mentioned what I see as a fatal flaw with the “Alert on Error” scenario, well no sooner posted than to quote Shakespeare “hoisted by my own petard” HA!  I have a log shipped setup where the server communicates alerts using smtp .. well today I discovered that for some reason or another any alerts were not reaching me as it appears there is an issue raising them, no errors on the servers just no emails arriving. In my defence I have a visual display which shows the latency...(read more)

https://sqlblogcasts.com:443/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2016/09/21/oh-the-irony-of-it-all.aspx

In my previous post I mentioned what I see as a fatal flaw with the “Alert on Error” scenario, well no sooner posted than to quote Shakespeare “hoisted by my own petard” HA!  I have a log shipped setup where the server communicates alerts using smtp .. well today I discovered that for some reason or another any alerts were not reaching me as it appears there is an issue raising them, no errors on the servers just no emails arriving. In my defence I have a visual display which shows the latency...(read more)

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2016/09/21/oh-the-irony-of-it-all.aspx

When I first started as a SQL Server DBA / Developer in 1995 working with SQL Server 6.x one of the key steps was to set up alerting and monitoring. I was working for a very rapidly growing mortgage provider and DR, monitoring and performance were critical to the ongoing success of the company. I was very lucky to be working with some very clever and gifted people to whom SQL Server was something new, myself included as my prior experience had been Ingres and a little Oracle, this meant exciting...(read more)

https://sqlblogcasts.com:443/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2016/09/13/how-s-your-email-today-no-alerts.aspx

When I first started as a SQL Server DBA / Developer in 1995 working with SQL Server 6.x one of the key steps was to set up alerting and monitoring. I was working for a very rapidly growing mortgage provider and DR, monitoring and performance were critical to the ongoing success of the company. I was very lucky to be working with some very clever and gifted people to whom SQL Server was something new, myself included as my prior experience had been Ingres and a little Oracle, this meant exciting...(read more)

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/archive/2016/09/13/how-s-your-email-today-no-alerts.aspx