Installing a SQL Server 2008 Failover cluster is actually fairly easy, once you have the Windows Cluster set up. I experienced an issue adding the failover node, which is now a separate process compared to how it was done in SQL Server 2005. I'm not going to cover the entire process in this post, but I wanted to share …

Recently, I noticed errors occuring daily at 2:00AM on my SQL Cluster. The errors showed Windows logins being routed to the wrong named instances, along with errors from SQL Browser not being able to service client requests. I noticed that all of the instances being affected were SQL Server 2008, but never any of my …

In an effort to protect DBAs and developers from themselves, Microsoft has introduced a new default setting in SQL Server Management Studio. This setting prevents you from saving almost any change to db tables and throws out the following error:

Saving changes is not permitted. The changes that you have made require …

SharePoint Geoff has a SharePoint 2010 Deployment Microsoft Project file (MPP) available for download that lists nearly every step imaginable for deploying SharePoint 2010. From identifying team leaders to installing software to monitoring web performance, it's got a ton of things covered. It's not a tailored solution, …

Recently I've been migrating a lot of databases from stand-alone physical servers into a PolyServe environment. Since this obviously requires a downtime, we have to schedule the moves with limited amounts of time. To add to the issues at night, the NetApp filers are busy so copies are slower.

In order to speed up the …

Recently, SQL Server 2008 was uninstalled from a Windows 2008 Server machine due to some configuration issues with Reporting Services. Attempts to re-install SQL Server with the Reporting Services option would fail. I was tasked with the re-install and as always, I welcome this type of work because there is something …

One of the most important tasks a DBA should perform daily is verifying database backup jobs are successful. Using Database Mail to e-mail upon the failure of a job is something everyone should be doing. But in some cases, that is not enough. You can query the MSDB database in order to find out the last time a database …

There are probably a good number of reasons this error shows up in your SQL Server log, along with the following message:

Source: Backup Message: BACKUP failed to complete the command BACKUP LOG DATABASE_NAME. Check the backup application log for detailed messages.

In my case, the recovery model was set to SIMPLE and …

Recently, I triumphantly setup an asynchronous content mirror between two separate SharePoint farms.

My SharePoint architecture consists of two separate farms in two different cities (San Diego and Las Vegas), both accessible over a corporate intranet.  Each farm is unique and the configuration and administration …

Brad McGehee just published what's sure to be another incredibly informative ebook on SQL Server Maintenance Plans. A list of free eBooks, including the SQL Server Tackle Box, can be found on Brad's blog. Check it, one time.