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SteveStedman

Week 5 – Alternate Solution

Here is how I solved Week 5 of the Database Corruption Challenge. The following steps were tested and confirmed working on SQL Server 2008R2, SQL Server 2012, and SQL Server 2014.

 

To oversimplify, here are the steps:

  • Restore the last known good database.
  • Shut down the database, and copy off the last good database files.
  • Replace some files and restart it. (Hack Attach)
  • Next realizing that the boot page was corrupt page 1:9.
  • Shut down the database.
  • Copy the boot page from the last good database files and place it in the corrupt file.
  • Restart the database.
  • Realize there is other corruption.
  • Fix the other corruption.

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Week 5 – Winning Solution – Database Corruption Challenge

Find out more about the Week 5 Challenge on the overview blog post.

The winning solution, was submitted by Patrick Flynn, just 3 hours and 18 minutes after the challenge was posted. Patrick provided me with the following steps, and TSQL code to back up the steps:

The process was

(a)    Restore two copies from backup (Old backup has 400 Customers and 1622 Orders)

(b)    Use the supplied MDF, LDF and NDF to hack attach to instance

(c)     Try using tail-log backup but log chain broken also as errors in Boot page (1:9) unable to use all files

(d)    Instead using original backup replace only log file and ndf file (containing user data)

(e)    After switching to emergency mode found errors in Orders table (1:175) but this does not contain new rows

(f)     Able to select the newest 181 rows and insert into original orders table

Final Status was

Orders = 12803 rows

Customers = 400 rows

No corruption remaining

Here is the exact TSQL code that supported that solution.

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An Awesome Day at SQL Saturday Redmond

SQLSat393RedmondBadge

Yesterday was SQL Saturday Redmond. It was a great day, I learned lots, met some great new people, and had a chance to catch up with some old friends. When most people hear about SQL Saturday for the first time, they probably think to themselves “spend all day on a Saturday in technical presentations”, however SQL Saturday is much more than that. The presentations all all great, don’t get me wrong here, but the biggest value that I see is in the people that you get to know, and the things you can learn from the vendors. There were at least 6 people that I know online through Twitter, Fitbit, LinkedIn and other online sites that I had the opportunity to meet in person for the first time this weekend.

SQLSat393FriendsPicture Credit: Thanks Jimmy May (@aspiringgeek)

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