Error Logs Tips

I manage a team of Oracle and SQL Server DBAs and what often strikes me are the differing tools, methodologies and processes that are used in performing DBA tasks between and Oracle and SQL DBAs. In some cases I find SQL Server more efficient and in some cases Oracle is the clear winner. The Oracle DBAs in my team are touch typists and perform most of their tasks through multiple command line PuTTY windows whereas the SQL Server DBAs perform most of their tasks through Management Studio or other GUIs. A really useful UNIX command which I often see the Oracle DBAs use is "tail -f". Tail is a command-line tool that displays a user-specified number of the last lines of a text file in a console window. This makes Tail great for watchin

When managing SQL Server there are so many different places to look for data. These include the error logs, system event logs, profiler data, performance counter data, etc... Once you have collected the data you then need to parse through and interpret the data you collected. One of these areas where errors and other informational data is stored is the SQL Server error log. The problem with the error log file is that there is so much data collected it is sometimes hard to determine where the real errors lie. So how can you find the errors much easier?

My SQL Server 2005 error log is getting very large due to auditing login activity and freezes Management Studio when it loads. On another SQL Server I have lost much of the historical error log data from SQL Server service restarts and Windows reboots. Do I have any options to address these two needs to review and retain this data in an easy manner?

SQL Server Error Logs often show a message related to error 18456. Although it generally means a login attempt from a client connection has failed. Different State numbers associated with the error can mean different reasons for the failure. One of the error States is 38, which was added with SQL Server 2008, means the database being accessed cannot be found or does not exist. Unfortunately the Error Log entry does not show what database it is, so in this tip we walk through how you can determine which database is causing the error message.

My SQL Server 2005 error log is getting very large due to auditing login activity and freezes Management Studio when it loads. On another SQL Server I have lost much of the historical error log data from SQL Server service restarts and Windows reboots. Do I have any options to address these two needs to review and retain this data in an easy manner?

SQL Server Error Logs often show a message related to error 18456. Although it generally means a login attempt from a client connection has failed. Different State numbers associated with the error can mean different reasons for the failure. One of the error States is 38, which was added with SQL Server 2008, means the database being accessed cannot be found or does not exist. Unfortunately the Error Log entry does not show what database it is, so in this tip we walk through how you can determine which database is causing the error message.

When managing SQL Server there are so many different places to look for data. These include the error logs, system event logs, profiler data, performance counter data, etc... Once you have collected the data you then need to parse through and interpret the data you collected. One of these areas where errors and other informational data is stored is the SQL Server error log. The problem with the error log file is that there is so much data collected it is sometimes hard to determine where the real errors lie. So how can you find the errors much easier?

I manage a team of Oracle and SQL Server DBAs and what often strikes me are the differing tools, methodologies and processes that are used in performing DBA tasks between and Oracle and SQL DBAs. In some cases I find SQL Server more efficient and in some cases Oracle is the clear winner. The Oracle DBAs in my team are touch typists and perform most of their tasks through multiple command line PuTTY windows whereas the SQL Server DBAs perform most of their tasks through Management Studio or other GUIs. A really useful UNIX command which I often see the Oracle DBAs use is "tail -f". Tail is a command-line tool that displays a user-specified number of the last lines of a text file in a console window. This makes Tail great for watchin

SQL Server Error Logs often show a message related to error 18456. Although it generally means a login attempt from a client connection has failed. Different State numbers associated with the error can mean different reasons for the failure. One of the error States is 38, which was added with SQL Server 2008, means the database being accessed cannot be found or does not exist. Unfortunately the Error Log entry does not show what database it is, so in this tip we walk through how you can determine which database is causing the error message.

I manage a team of Oracle and SQL Server DBAs and what often strikes me are the differing tools, methodologies and processes that are used in performing DBA tasks between and Oracle and SQL DBAs. In some cases I find SQL Server more efficient and in some cases Oracle is the clear winner. The Oracle DBAs in my team are touch typists and perform most of their tasks through multiple command line PuTTY windows whereas the SQL Server DBAs perform most of their tasks through Management Studio or other GUIs. A really useful UNIX command which I often see the Oracle DBAs use is "tail -f". Tail is a command-line tool that displays a user-specified number of the last lines of a text file in a console window. This makes Tail great for watchin

When managing SQL Server there are so many different places to look for data. These include the error logs, system event logs, profiler data, performance counter data, etc... Once you have collected the data you then need to parse through and interpret the data you collected. One of these areas where errors and other informational data is stored is the SQL Server error log. The problem with the error log file is that there is so much data collected it is sometimes hard to determine where the real errors lie. So how can you find the errors much easier?

My SQL Server 2005 error log is getting very large due to auditing login activity and freezes Management Studio when it loads. On another SQL Server I have lost much of the historical error log data from SQL Server service restarts and Windows reboots. Do I have any options to address these two needs to review and retain this data in an easy manner?