Here's a quick tip for you:During some restore operations on Microsoft SQL Server, the transaction log redo step might be taking an unusually long time.  Depending somewhat on the version and edition of SQL Server you've installed, you may be able to increase performance by tinkering with the readahead performance for the redo operations. ...

The PerfMon Counters That Just Won't DieOne of the things that's simultaneously great and horrible about the Internet is that once something gets posted out in the ether, it basically never goes away.  (Some day, politicians will realize this.  We can easily fact check their consistency).  Because of longevity of content posted to ...

I profiled Adam Machanic's (blog | twitter) excellent stored procedure, SP_WHOISACTIVE, back in August of 2010 in my monthly SQLMag column, Tool Time.  Adam has been diligent about maintaining the tool and adding new features. Read the details on my SQLMag Tool Time column (here - ...

I first wrote about useful database maintenance scripts on my SQLBlog account way back in 2008. Hmmm - now that I think about it, I first wrote about my own useful database maintenance scripts in a journal called SQL Server Professional back in the mid-1990's on SQL Server v6.5 or some such. But I digress... Anyway, I pointed out a couple ...

I'm speaking tonight on Top 10 Mistakes DBAs Make at the Atlanta SQL Server User Group meeting in Alpharetta, GA.  You can find all of the details here.The Best Dang Design Book for SQL Server Professionals - EVER!I thought I'd liven things up a bit with a little contest.  The rules are simple: A. If you don't follow me on ...

Periodically I back up the keys within my servers and databases, and when I do, I blog a reminder here. This should be part of your standard backup rotation – the keys should be backed up often enough to have at hand and again when they change. The first key you need to back up is the Service Master Key, which each Instance already has built-in. ...

Did you know that you already have a Server Master Key (SMK) generated for your system? That’s right – while a Database Master Key (DMK) is generated when you encrypt a certificate or Asymmetric Key with code, the Server Master Key is generated automatically when you start the Instance. So you should back all of those keys up periodically, and ...

In SQL Server, there are times that you need to do things in the operating system, and to allow that there is a feature called CmdExec. This is not always a good thing –whenever you leave the confines of SQL Server and go out to the operating system, you can cause issues, not the least of which are security-related. This best practice is ...

My favorite event at Microsoft's TechEd 2008 conference held in Orlando this year was a roundtable discussion about automating DBA work with several other SQL Server experts.  The session was moderated by Allen White and included myself, Dan Jones (of Microsoft), Steve Jones (of SQL Server Central fame), and Buck Woody (also of Microsoft, ...