This is my ongoing series of answering T-SQL Tuesday posts far too late to be of any use. Click here if you want to read… Read More »T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #012: Why DBA skills are necessary
I have been selected to present a second session for the PASS Summit in November this year. I wrote a few weeks ago about the… Read More »The importance of backups
I’m here for the small organizations, the shops that can’t afford expensive solutions to maintain their environments. I’m here for them because that’s me: the… Read More »Using a home-grown Azure Blob Storage solution for SQL Server backups
Victoria is on an island off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia. The island is wisely called Vancouver Island. It is beautiful there, and I… Read More »Speaking at SQLSaturday 725 in Victoria
Recently, I was asked to assist an organization with getting their data back for a SQL Server that had experienced physical hard drive failure. I… Read More »The perils of RAID
Today’s post is just a bunch of questions, but they are very important questions, all around the main topic of a Backup Retention Policy. How long do… Read More »Backup Retention Policies
SQL Server 2016, released last month, now lets us back up our database files to two locations simultaneously. This is very good news if we’re running… Read More »AzCopy 101 – Copying SQL Server backup files to Azure Blob Storage
Last week I wondered whether a log backup chain would survive a database migration. Unsurprisingly, the answer is “yes”. I also asked if a log… Read More »The Transaction Log Is Very Resilient
During a recent engagement with a client transferring large files from on premises to Azure Storage, we discovered that files over a certain size are automatically… Read More »Saving Time By Splitting Files for a Backup
What does the expiration date mean on SQL Server database backups? In SQL Server Management Studio, there’s an option in the Back Up Database wizard… Read More »Expiration Date on Database Backups
We back up our databases regularly. We store them on a secure network location so that if the database drive fails, we can still satisfy… Read More »Compressed and Encrypted Backups on the Cheap
Yesterday at SQLSaturday #407 in Vancouver, I announced availability of a free tool to synchronise and restore your SQL Server backups using Azure Blob Storage.… Read More »Announcing Azure Blob Storage Sync and Restore
On Saturday, 27 June 2015, I will be presenting at SQLSaturday #407 in Vancouver BC. The session is titled “Restoring a SQL Server Database from… Read More »Pre-Announcement Announcement
I’ve been vocal for some years about the importance of backups, and I have zero sympathy for anyone who does not have good backups*. This… Read More »On the importance of good backups