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June 2015

Interview with Brent Ozar

Almost a month ago Brent Ozar did a blog interview with me regarding the Database Corruption Challenge so I thought I would return the gesture and do the same for him. I ended up going to the Bellingham SQL Server Users Group (PASS Chapter) to build the list of questions. The members of the group helped build the questions, and here is what we came up with, including responses from Brent.

Brent is a Microsoft MVP, Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server, and published author. He lives in Chicago and is the founder of Brent Ozar Unlimited.

Question: For the self-taught or accidental DBA where do you suggest they start to improve their SQL Server Skills?Brent Ozar

Brent: DBAs get in the most trouble when they assume the backups are working. They’re probably not. Go set up a development server or VM, and restore last night’s backups onto it. Figure out what it would take to go live on that newly restored server. Rehearse it a few times, get confident in it, and then build a little checklist with the length of time it will take. Show it to your manager as proof that you’re working to keep the company’s data safe.

After that, it’s so tempting to get caught up just poking around in metrics. Go to your manager or your top power user and ask, “What do you want to do, but the database is holding you back?” These are the people who will give you a raise, and these are the reasons they’ll give it to you. Help them help you.

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Database Health Monitor Version 2 Almost Done

Over the last 4 years I have been working on the Database Health Monitor. I am about a week away from releasing Version 2, which will finally be out of the beta process. In preparation for the release I am sharing some of the history of this program.

In 2011 version 1 was released as a set of my favorite monitoring queries that had been formatted and made available through SSRS. As people started to try it out in late 2011 and early 2012, I quickly discovered that the process for distributing shared queries via SSRS reports wasn’t very easy for the people trying to use them. Many people quickly discovered the difficulty of installing these reports. The set of reports looked something like this.

OnetimeUseQueries

 

There were 10 reports that were linked from the top panel in the SSRS user interface. Although SSRS has some great features, it was challenging to switch database connections and monitor multiple servers.

In April of 2012 I gave up on the concept of using SSRS reports, and converted all the queries into a windows application and started enhancing the program. In September of 2012, I finally had the Beta 1 release of Database Health Reports out. It was a bit rough in the beginning, but from 2012 to 2015 through a series of almost 20 beta releases labeled names like Beta 1, Beta 8.2, Beta 10.1, and so forth I kept enhancing the program. Here is an early screenshot of somewhere around Beta 1 or Beta 2.

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Database Corruption Challenge #8 has Ended

With many participants and 16 who correctly solved Corruption Challenge week 8, the challenge has come to an end. The overall winner was Rob Farley, and there were several new participants this week. The scores page has been updated.

Some participants called this the toughest challenge yet which makes my job even harder to come up with something more challenging for next time.  There were a couple interesting twists in this one. One was the way the corruption caused issues with DBCC Page. On SQL Server 2014 DBCC Page on the corrupt page with the output parameter of 3 didn’t work, and the only output option that worked was option 2. However on SQL Server 2008R2 and 2012, none of the DBCC Page output options worked on the corrupt page, which forced some to open the database file with a hex editor to pull the data in from the corrupt page.

The one thing that I didn’t judge anyone badly with was the capitalization of the person in the corrupt record.  I accepted EMMA, E WILLIAMS, and Emma, E Williams, and Emma, E WILLIAMS all as correct answers, as to figure out any of those it took the same amount of work.

The solution by Rob Farley:

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Corruption Challenge #8

Welcome to the eighth week of 10 in the Database Corruption Challenge (DBCC), this is an about weekly competition. Here is how it works; I have created a corrupt database, hopefully more corrupt or more interesting than the previous week. I then solved the corruption myself in order to prove that it is possible to fix, without data loss. There is a total of 4 points available to be earned this week.

  • 1 point extra for being the first correct answer. Already taken by Rob Farley.
  • 1 point to all who get the correct answer.
  • 1 point extra if you get the correct answer before any hints are given.
  • 1 point extra if your solution is correct the first time you submit it to me.  (check your work)

Week8

Corruption Challenge General Info

The challenge will be to download the corrupt or somehow damaged database and attempt to recover it. If you can recover it, please send me the steps you used to recover the database, along with some proof that the database has been recovered. The goal each week will be the following:

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