Keep SQL Server backups safe: Best Practices
Did somebody drop a database in production instead of development? Did you run the wrong DELETE statement? Let’s follow these best practices and recommendations for SQL Server backups to make the crisis easier when the catastrophe strikes. By the way, this check is a part of our SQL Server Health Check service. Set up a […]
Increase SQL performance by enabling “Optimize for ad-hoc workloads” option
What is the “Optimize for ad hoc workloads” option? When you write a query in SQL Server, the query optimizer needs to create a “Plan” of how it is going to execute that query. Usually, SQL Servers save that plan in the plan cache to be reused again at a later date. Optimize for Ad […]
Keep your jobs safe using SQL Agent notifications
SQL Agent Jobs without notifications SQL Server Agent permits you to run a wide variety of tasks within SQL Server. Its built-in notification system allows you to define operators and contact them when a job fails. Being able to resolve quickly when an Agent job failed is better than having someone else notice you that […]
SQL Server log file too big
It is not common to have SQL log files larger than data files. If it is, this may indicate a potential problem: A possible bad maintenance plan (backups are not being performed correctly). There is a process that has a massive size transaction. Or transaction is never commited. SQL replication may be broken. By the way, […]
Disabling Windows “Visual Effects” to boost performance
Windows Visual Effects not optimal By default, Windows is optimized for a beautiful display, but this is not very important for a server. These visual effects may cause a virtual machine to appear to run slower. They are not required and consume CPU resources that would be spent in your SQL Server tasks. So, disable […]
Improve SQL Server performance by enabling Instant File Initialization
What’s Instant file initialization (IFI)? Instant file initialization is a Windows feature that enables your SQL Server to skip the zero-writing step and begin using the allocated space immediately for data files. By the way, this check is a part of our SQL Server Health Check service. IFI allows SQL Server to reduce database creation required […]
The proper way to setup SQL Server alerts
Missing alerts Why should you enable SQL Server alerts? Enabling these Alerts can prevent a lot of problems: Potential to miss critical issues. Missing out on catching problems proactively. Increased chance of downtime. By the way, this check is a part of our SQL Server Health Check service. Which alerts should you include? It’s a […]
Best practices for the SQL Server ERRORLOG
SQL Server Error logs not optimally What’s the SQL Server error log? It’s a file used by SQL server to write data about events that occurred as backups, stack dumps, and a lot of other informational events. Why should you care about it? When the SQLError log gets too big, it’s harder to open them […]
Best practices for the SQL Server TempDB
SQL Server Error logs not optimally configured. What is the TempDB database? Tempdb is one of the system databases in Microsoft SQL Server. It’s a global resource that holds temporary user objects, row versioning information and internal objects that are created by the SQL Server engine. SQL Server creates a clean copy of the TempDB every […]
SQL Server – priority boost option
Priority boost is ON What does priority boost option do? The option will make SQL Server run the sqlservr.exe process and threads as High Priority. It has the potential to drain resources from essential OS & networking functions, resulting in problems and shutting down SQL Server. Microsoft’s best practices do not recommend to enable this feature. By […]