To continue this series on Installing SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008 Cluster, we will look at installing SQL Server 2008 in a failover cluster. In this tip, we will proceed to install SQL Server 2008 in a clustered Windows Server 2008 environmen
Learn how to implement database mirroring for SQL Server databases where both principal and mirror servers are not members of the domain.
In Part 1, we introduced Windows PowerShell, cmdlets, aliases and how we can take advantage of help available. To continue this series on Introduction to Windows PowerShell for the SQL Server DBA, this tip will look at the pipeline and output processing.
In a previous tip on Database Mirroring Automating Failover for Multiple SQL Server Databases, you've seen how you can failover all of the databases in a mirroring session if one database fails over. However, what happens if you don't have a witness serve
Windows Server 2008 has a lot of differences from its previous versions and one of them is the clustering feature. How do I go about building a clustered SQL Server 2008 running on Windows Server 2008?
In a previous tip on SQL Server 2008 Installation Process, we have seen how different SQL Server 2008 installation is from its previous versions. Now, we have another challenge to face: installing SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008 Cluster.
I have been hearing about Microsoft's scripting language called Windows PowerShell which is extensively used for administering Windows servers. I want to know how Windows PowerShell can help me as a SQL Server DBA.
In a previous tip on SQL Server security settings using the Surface Area Configuration tool (SAC), you have seen how you can use the tool to configure security settings in your SQL Server 2005 instance. Since I manage multiple instances across multiple se
In a previous tip on Switching Execution Context using the REVERT clause, you have seen how to switch execution context to a more privileged user and revert back to the original context of the caller within a programmable object. The REVERT clause accepts
In a previous tip on Auditing SELECT statements in SQL Server 2008, you have seen how you can use SQL Server Management Studio to audit SELECT statements in SQL Server 2008. While it is easy to use the graphical user interface to create audit objects, it
In a previous tip on SQL Server 2005 Disaster Recovery Procedures, we have seen how we can build a disaster recovery procedures. There are other ways to increase availability of your critical databases in SQL Server with Page Level Restore.
In a tip on How to setup SQL Server alerts and email operator notifications, you have seen how you can configure email alert notifications in your SQL Server instance. There are cases where we cannot use SQL Server alerts like in a SQL Server 2005 Express
In a previous tip on Disaster Recovery Procedures in SQL Server, we have learned about SQL Server disaster recovery procedure. There are other ways to increase availability with SQL Server Partitioned Tables with Multiple Filegroups.
To continue the series on disaster recovery scenarios in SQL Server, let us look at Isolating Critical Objects. We tend to forget that filegroups can be used as a means to improve database availability.
SQL Server 2005 has given us a lot of options on implementing high availability and disaster recovery. More than the technologies themselves, it is important to come up with the proper procedures as we manage different disaster recovery scenarios. How do
As we are looking through the new features in SQL Server 2008 we found a potentially interesting one called Data Compression which we can use to reduce the size of tables, indexes or a subset of their partitions. Can you give us a detailed explanation of
In the Granting permission with the EXECUTE AS command in SQL Server 2005 tip, you have seen how you can grant granular permissions using the EXECUTE AS clause. Context switching within a programmable object such as a stored procedure or function is impor
Microsoft products such as Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 and Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) 3.0 ship with SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition. Now called the Windows Internal Database, more and more system administrators charged with managing
SQL Server 2005 supports Database Instant File Initialization which skips zeroing out data pages that can reduce the time when performing operations like creating databases, adding files to an existing database, increasing the size of an existing database
In the Auditing DDL (Create, Alter, Drop) Commands in SQL Server 2005 tip, you have seen how you can track DDL activities in your server instance. But how do we store the events captured by these DDL triggers and store it in a table for reporting purposes
I have been hearing about the Resource database in SQL Server 2005 and that it should be included in our system database backups. Unfortunately, this database does not show up in SQL Server Management Studio for me to include in my database backups. How d
In a recent tip on Querying SQL Server databases using LINQ to SQL, you have described how it can be used to query SQL Server databases. How do I use LINQ to SQL with stored procedures that retrieve database records?
In a recent tip on Language INtegrated Query (LINQ), you have described how it can be used as a query language extension to both VB.NET and C#. How can we use LINQ to SQL in .NET applications to query SQL Server databases?
In a recent tip on Language Integrated Query (LINQ), you have described how it can be used as a query language extension to both VB.NET and C#. As XML has become a popular means to store data for ease of interoperability, how do we use LINQ to query XML d