SQL Server Diaries

For a while now, business have been more aware of the importance of protecting their data, at least from unwanted changes or deletions.  I will not go into the specifics of which method to use, whether to comply with an international standard or not, or even whether to use in-house... [Read More]

One of the simplest database backup procedures is to back up the database to disk using a script (or the SQL Server Maintenance Plan GUI). The minimum command necessary to back up a database is: [Read More]

We have been migrating and upgrading SQL Server 2000 databases to SQL Server 2005 for a while and the momentum increased soon after Microsoft stopped Mainstream Support in April 2008 (Microsoft Product Lifecycle). During the course of the upgrades we have occasionally been told that certain VIEWs did not return... [Read More]

Last week we implemented a database for which the developer didn’t have the CREATE TRIGGER scripts.  Unfortunately this is quite a frequent occurance and happens when database code (and objects) are implemented directly into a database and an assumption is made that the code is safely stored in the database/... [Read More]

We recently virtualized a server whose hardware was so dated it would probably have been cheaper to buy a new server than to maintain it. After verifying that it was a good candidate for virtualization, we scheduled a downtime and our virtualization experts converted the physical machine. [Read More]