I hope I never have to use this article, but if I do, it will be a lifesaver. Check out Paul Randal's post on recovering a SUSPECT database that's been detached. He shows not only how to corrupt a database whilst keeping it functional, he also shows just why detaching a SUSPECT database is a horrible idea....and how …

This set of maintenance plans has been recommended by SQL Pros one too many times to ignore. If you have a rather standard environment, check out Ola Hallengren's scripts for SQL Server Backup, Integrity Check, Index and Statistics Maintenance. Actually, if you have a pretty high end environment, you can explore it as …

I have a relational table in SQL Server that I access in SharePoint 2010 as an External Content Type. The table, disks, has an FK (serverID) that is associated with a PK in another table, servers, via an Association Operation. Once I create a list and add it to a webpage, I am unable to select the serverID column or …

Recently, I worked with a client who uses block level replication software (think XOSoft/ArcServ) for their clustered SQL Server databases. During proactive testing one night, replication was broken and the failover server was brought up. For the first time in years, the procedure failed and the primary application …

One of the biggest annoyances of SharePoint 2007 was the lack of a native ability to work directly with SQL Server tables. SharePoint 2010 has addressed that issue with External Content Types. ECT's combine the best of both worlds -- you can modify and manage tables as usual in SQL Server, and display them (somewhat) …

Recently, I had a database go into the dreaded SUSPECT mode after a failed byte-level replication. Once I brought it into EMERGENCY mode, an unknown, automated program immediately connected to it from several different servers.

Killing the connections and setting the db to single-user mode only created more headaches …

SQL Server 2008 has backup compression built-in, but for SQL Server 2005 and below, you can compress backups using makecab from the command line or xp_cmdshell. Makecab even has a better compression ratio than gzip and does not require additional software to be installed on the server.

makecab D:\backups\dbname.bak …

My hero, Brad McGehee, has often advised against shrinking the transaction log when it's unnecessary. According to his (really amazing) SQL Server DBA Best Practices PowerPoint Presentation, shrinking too often can lead to increased file fragmentation and excessive use of resources allocated to grow/shrink the file. …

I feel that my job as a DBA is very dynamic and usually keeps me busy with new things... except for deploying maintenance plans.  I hate making maintenance plans.  Luckily, I at least have a template that I can use to keep everything uniform, but it requires me opening up the plan in Visual Studio every time I want to …

Recently, we've come across poor SQL performance on a very powerful SQL box and we were having trouble identifying the exact cause. After some talks with the software vendor and Microsoft, we were pointed to the TokenAndPermUserStore cache.

There are an increasing amount of articles online that speak about this cache, …