Difference between High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Question: What is the difference between High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR)? I often hear these terms being used interchangeably ,and would like to hear some specific definitions . Answer: High Availability and Disaster Recovery are often interchanged but there is a difference - and once we define the attributes of both High Availability and Disaster Recovery , you can then use them accordingly. HA is a system feature , with an objective to achieve an agreed operational uptime for a higher than normal period DR refers to procedures and policies to facilitate recovery of critical systems and infrastructure... Read more →

Disaster Recovery Powershell Script to check for failed Windows services

This Powershell script will Check on all Windows servers that a service which was meant to start has failed. Excludes services which are not meant to start. One of the keys in a disaster recovery plan is the ability to quickly identify issues which may impact business continuity. Part of the DBA responsibility is to identify issues , fixing them and working with other engineering support staff. The purpose of this script is to quickly scan all the servers in the list – and find services which are not 1077 or 0. In other words, the services have attempted to... Read more →

Post disaster recovery SQL Server database checkout script

Question:Post disaster recovery SQL Server database checkout script is required.I need to iterate through hundreds of SQL Server Instances with thousands of databases and return in a readable format the status and if there is any database corruption? I want this script to run fromm one server , work on the assumption the security context of the user has sufficient privileges to query the servers. Answer:When there is a full site failover being able to complete a quick review of SQL Server databases is part of the DBA role. The idea is to query the SQL Server Instances and return... Read more →

Unable to connect to Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) to check the completion status of transaction

How to recover a suspect database in SQL Server? I’ve restarted a SQL Server after an outage to discover a suspect database in SQL Server. A quick check on the SQL Error Logs reports Unable to connect to Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) to check the completion status of transaction (xxxxxxxxx). Fix MS DTC, and run recovery again. What should I do? Currently the database is in suspect mode and I have not done anything. Answer: Before you do anything check the last full backup you have in place. Although at this point you do not need to complete... Read more →

Using SQL Server Express in Production

Question: I’ve had a request to install SQL Server Express to support a Production application. It’s a lightweight application , and doesn’t require some of the added features , such as High Availability , encryption, compliance reporting for audit. Also , the system only requires 4 cores and 1 GB memory. What is your view on using SQL Server Express on a Production environment? Answer: Firstly , SQL Server Express is free to download , use and distribute. That is a tempting proposition for a cost – conscious organisation. But you need to look deeper and at free. It may... Read more →