7 Essential Steps to Recover a Corrupt SQL Server Database

This post - 7 Essential Steps to Recover a Corrupt SQL Server Database - is written by a Guest Blogger. Andrew Jackson (LinkedIn - @AndrewJackson) - is a SQL and SQL Server blogger too. He likes to share about SQL Server and the problems related to it as well as their solution and also handles database related user queries, Server or database maintenance, database management etc. How to Deal with Corruption In SQL Server Database ? Backups are evidently a DBAs foremost approach when caught in a critical crisis condition. However, there are instances where responding to corruption is a... Read more →

How to encrypt a file with AES encryption

Question: I have a requirement to encrypt a database backup flat file. The encrypted file will be further encrypted on disk and archived. I don’t need to encrypt the data within the database file . For more information on data encryption: Encrypting data in SQL Server - SQL Server DBA Is there a way to encrypt a file that is straightforward? Answer: Winzip has encryption features. You can easily utilise the Encryption methods within Winzip. It’s important to have some process and control around the encryption. It is possible someone else will be restoring the encrypted file! The Winzip encryption... Read more →

SMB 3.0 and SQL Server reading list

I've been exploring the SQL Server and SMB 3.0 possibilities. There is a large amount of information available on the subject. I've found these articles very useful. I'm interested in : Storage Option Database migration Failover Performance Server Message Block SMB File Share and SQL Server - An option to consider ... SQL Failover Cluster without Shared Storage – SQL Server 2012 and SMB Install SQL Server with SMB fileshare as a storage option Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2012 : Storage Types for Data Files SMB 3.0. Best Feature of Windows Server 2012 How to Increase... Read more →

Backing up the tail log

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is one of the main DBA concerns in creating a Backup policy or disaster recovery plan. The RPO is the acceptable last point in time for recovery. Once established , the DBA creates backup procedures to protect the RPO. Read Last known good backup – Assumption is the mother of all xxxx ups for DBA paranoia motivation In a perfect world the scheduled backups would cover all situations. But there are situations where the last point in time is not sufficient. Unexpected failures occur such as: 1) File corruption 2) Media failure 3) Drives missing 4)... Read more →

Researching FlashCopy Manager for backup and restore management

Data sets are growing. Requirements for increased Production data availability are expanding in the 24 x 7 world. But amongst all this change – there still remains the critical demand for the DBA to support the agreed Recovery Point Objective (RPO). I’m always looking for ways to offload the backup workload . During the backup window, server performance degrades. I’ve recently been researching Flash Copy Manager. These are some scenarios \ thoughts \ issues requiring investigation. When investigating new Backup and Restore products and how they may apply to an environment, simple or obvious questions can sometimes elicit responses revealing... Read more →