SQL Server security and Policy Based Management – In practice
March 16, 2014
In the previous introduction article we have described concepts, terms, and common Policy Based Management tasks. The SQL Server Policy Based Management feature can be used in various scenarios and for different purposes. Using once declared policies and the Export/Import feature, maintaining SQL Server security in large enterprises with a number of SQL Server instances can be an automated process
Read more »
SQL Server security and Policy Based Management – Introduction
March 16, 2014
The Policy Based Management feature was introduced in SQL Server 2008. The purpose of the feature is to assists SQL Server administrators in creating and enforcing policies tied to SQL Server instances and their objects. The policies can be configured on one SQL Server and re-used on other SQL Server instances to provide a SQL Server security model for instance
Read more »
Using SSIS packages to import MS Excel data into a database
March 15, 2014
Inserting the data in the database table can be hard and can take a long time. Especially today when the databases becoming bigger and bigger. Automated data importing is possible using different methods, depending on source file type and data organization inside
Read more »
SQL Server query execution plans – Viewing the plans
March 15, 2014In the SQL Server query execution plans – Basics, we described the query execution plans in SQL Server and why they are important for performance analysis. In this article, we will focus on the methods for opening the plans, both actual and estimated ones
Read more »SQL Server query execution plans – Basics
March 15, 2014Why is query execution important for SQL Server performance?
SQL Server performance monitoring depends on the performance goals. The first step in monitoring is to determine optimal performance for your server and create performance trends based on the captured metric information. If performance is not satisfactory, it’s necessary to diagnose performance problems and find their origin. This involves testing how different queries and applications affect performance Read more »What is SQL Server database mirroring?
March 15, 2014
SQL Server database mirroring is a disaster recovery and high availability technique that involves two SQL Server instances on the same or different machines. One SQL Server instance acts as a primary instance called the principal, while the other is a mirrored instance called the mirror. In special cases, there can be a third SQL Server instance that acts as a witness
Read more »
SQL Server alerts in troubleshooting performance issues: How to create and use SQL Server alerts
March 15, 2014
In the first part of this series, we presented the alerting feature available via SQL Server Agent. In this sequel, we will show how to provide all prerequisites, create alerts, and adequate notifications
Before creating a SQL Server alert, make sure that Database Mail and SQL Server Agent properties are properly configured Read more »
SQL Server alerts in troubleshooting performance issues: SQL Server alerting basics
March 14, 2014Why is SQL Server alerting important?
To be aware of what’s going on with your system and how SQL Server performs, monitoring is necessary. However, just monitoring might not be enough. Being notified about a performance issue whenever a specific SQL Server counter meets a threshold value, or a specific event occurs, boosts monitoring usability. These notifications enable DBAs to be aware of every important system performance change as soon as it happens, and therefore they can act immediately to fix the issue and prevent further problems Read more »What is a SQL Server disaster recovery?
March 14, 2014
A SQL Server disaster is an event that causes data loss or any serious SQL Server disruption. Causes of a disaster can be numerous: power failure, hardware failure, virus attack, natural disaster, human error, etc. Some SQL Server disasters cannot be prevented. That’s why a good disaster recovery plan is important
Read more »
What is a SQL Server failover clustering
March 14, 2014What is a failover cluster?
SQL Server failover clusters are made of group of servers that run cluster enabled applications in a special way to minimize downtime. A failover is a process that happens if one node crashes, or becomes unavailable and the other one takes over and restarts the application automatically without human intervention Read more »A database back up task via SQL Server Maintenance Plans
March 14, 2014
It is essential to create and maintain backups in any database management system. There is a range of scenarios that confirm this statement. Hardware failures, software or user errors, malicious attacks, or system issues can lead to a corrupted database. Even if your database management systems have never experienced such scenarios, you have to be prepared
Read more »
SQL Server Maintenance Plans – benefits, features, and functionalities
March 14, 2014
Any database management system requires constant or at least periodical maintenance of hosted databases. This is the case with SQL Server as well, and in order to make database administration tasks easier for DBAs, SQL Server provides the built-in Maintenance Plans feature
Read more »
Troubleshooting SQL Server issues with sys.dm_os_performance_counters
March 13, 2014sys.dm_os_performance_counters
sys.dm_os_performance_counters is a system Dynamic Management View (DMV) that returns one row for each SQL Server performance counter. It’s useful for obtaining information about current performance counter values. These counter values are also shown in Windows Performance Monitor, besides other operating system counters Read more »Ways to use and execute SQL Server Integration Services packages
March 13, 2014
SSIS packages (SQL Server Integration Services) are a part of the Microsoft SQL Server database platform and a tool for building high performance data integration and workflow applications. It is also a tool for data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL), and can be used to automate maintenance of the SQL Server databases and updates. Basically, they can be used for moving data, with no transformations, from a variety of source types to a variety of destination types, including text files and other SQL Server instances
Read more »
A DBA guide to SQL Server performance troubleshooting – Part 2 – Monitoring utilities
March 13, 2014
In this article, we will present native Windows and SQL Server tools commonly used for troubleshooting SQL Server performance issues. Selecting the right performance monitoring utility depends on your monitoring goals and coding knowledge, as the tools provide different information and have different analysis capability
Read more »
A DBA guide to SQL Server performance troubleshooting – Part 1 – Problems and performance metrics
March 13, 2014
Monitoring SQL Server performance is a complex task, as performance depends on many parameters, both hardware and software. It’s recommended to monitor these parameters proactively in order to prevent any potential performance degradation. However, this is not always the case. If the performance degradation happens, the first step towards the resolution is to determine the problem, find out the cause, and resolve the issue. Severe performance issues require quick actions and resolutions. Less severe problems can have a delayed fix. In either case, DBAs should take actions to prevent these situations in future
Read more »
SQL Server network performance metrics – The most important metrics
March 13, 2014
Memory, processor, and disk performance parameters are most commonly monitored metrics for identifying and troubleshooting SQL Server performance issues. However, sometimes these are not enough. Even with a fast and smooth running server, a client who accesses the server over a slow or saturated network will encounter delays
Read more »
SQL Server performance tuning using Windows Performance Monitor
March 12, 2014
In the Windows Performance Monitor basics article, we described the most important Windows Performance Monitor features, gave general recommendations on how to use it for monitoring and troubleshooting SQL Server performance issues, and showed some of the counters it can monitor
Read more »
Windows Performance Monitor basics
March 12, 2014
Windows Performance Monitor is a tool shipped with Windows that can be used to monitor and examine how applications affect computer performance. It can measure real-time server performance and save the measured values into a log file that can be analyzed later. It enables real time system and SQL Server performance monitoring, tracking the performance impact of applications and services, setting threshold for each monitored metric, and generating an alert or performing a specific action when the defined threshold is exceeded
Read more »
Read more »
SQL Server disk performance metrics – Part 2 – other important disk performance measures
March 12, 2014
In the previous part of the SQL Server performance metrics series, we presented the most important and useful disk performance metrics. Now, we’ll show other important disk performance measures
Read more »
SQL Server disk performance metrics – Part 1 – the most important disk performance metrics
March 12, 2014
So far, we have presented the most important memory and processor metrics. These metrics indicate system and SQL Server performance, and are useful for troubleshooting performance issues and bottlenecks. Besides memory and processor metrics, equally important are SQL Server disk metrics. Sometimes a metric from one category can be masked by other events and be misleading – e.g. a disk issue can cause processor bottlenecks. That’s why it’s necessary to understand the cause and effect of each metric
Read more »
SQL Server processor performance metrics – Part 4 – processor metrics useful for deeper investigation and troubleshooting
March 12, 2014In the previous part of this series, we presented the processor metrics that indicate hardware component problems that can affect SQL Server performance
In this part, we will present processor metrics that are not necessary in every performance monitoring scenario, but are useful for deeper investigation and troubleshooting Read more »SQL Server processor performance metrics – Part 3 – measures that indicate hardware component problems
March 11, 2014
In the Part 1 and Part 2 of the SQL Server processor performance metrics series, we described the most important processor performance metrics – Processor: % Processor Time, Process: % Processor Time, Processor Queue Length, Processor: % User Time, Processor: %Privilege Time, as well as various total times and thread metrics
Read more »
SQL Server processor performance metrics – Part 2 – Processor: % User Time, Processor: % Privilege Time, total times and thread metrics
March 11, 2014In SQL server processor performance metrics – Part 1 – The most important cpu metrics, we described the Processor Queue Length and two most important processor time counters – Processor % Processor Time and Process % Processor time
In this part, we will continue describing important time processor counters Read more »