If you’re like me, you like for things to be semantically reliable. Huh?
Said another way, I like for things to mean what they say and say what they mean. Here are a few examples of I get annoyed by failed sematics – when a footpath is used almost entirely by cyclists, when an escalator is merely stairs, or when a restroom has a huge crowd and long lines. (No rest to be had in that room).
So you can bet that I get a little prickly when the “Error Log” is used to post messages that something completed successfully. Really? I came here to this error log looking for, wait for it, … errors! My biggest annoyance here in the SQL Server sphere is that SQL Server has been posting messages in the error log every time a backup completes successfully for, like, three hundred years or something. I can remember at least five years ago that Microsoft storage PM Kevin Farlee blogging about it. And Kevin has been working on SQL Server for, like, three hundred years too.
In addition, be sure to look at Benjamin Nevarez’s post on cool, undocumented trace flags. He still hasn’t told me the secret trace flag that sends a sock to the Microsoft developer whenever the feature s/he developed causes an end-user to scream in frustration.
One of the things that drives me crazy as I’m getting older is that my brain is losing the capacity to differentiate version numbers. As I speak travel around speaking with customers and at conferences, I find my self saying things like “I can’t recall if this problem was fixed in SQL Server 2000 or 2005. But you don’t have to worry about that any more.” Or things like “That feature was added in SQL Server 2008 R2, eh, or was that version 6.5. DOH!” followed by a loud slapping sound as I whap my palm into my forehead.
The Internet doesn’t forget either. Recommendations that were once helpful, if not outright essential, now are neutral or even downright bad. So now, whenever I put together new presentations, I always spend a lot of time in research, reassessing my knowledge on the topic. (That doesn’t mean that I’ll extemporaneously say it wrong, because I speak in an off-the-cuff and rapid style. But at least my notes are usually correct).
Case In Point
Take backup and recovery (B&R), for example. I’ve been writing about and performing B&R for years. I’m even part of the team that builds the most popular B&R tool in the SQL Server space. It’s an extremely important part of what I do. And yet, even after spending a couple days re-researching topics (yet again), I still manage to get a few of the more specific details wrong because of changes over the years in the feature set. How so?
During an Expert’s Perspective webcast last week (and available on-demand) covering the top backup and recovery mistakes on Microsoft SQL Server, I mis-explained the details concerning how SQL Server performs a differential backup. A very clever SC on our team who was also attending the webcast pointed out to me after the session that I’d described differentials working at an 8k page-level when, in fact, they work at the extend-level (that’s a block of eight 8k pages). #FACEPALM!
When describing the differential backup I said that a bit was flipped on each page header and SQL Server would only back up those pages. Instead, whenever a page is changed a bit is recorded on the differential change map (1bit per extent), the backup process then queries these map pages and backs up those extents that have been marked as changed.
The cool revelation here is not that I can admit my mistakes. The take-away from this blog post are all the great articles I read writing my latest slide deck. These blogs and articles were so good that I needed to spread the word. Add these to your must read list:
Virtual Log Files must be tamed!
Performance impact: a large number of virtual log files Part I and Part II by one of my favorite not-so-prolific bloggers, Linchi Shea (blog). The thing I love about Linchi’s content is its rich benchmarking information. Few SQL Server experts out there routinely test the behavior and performance of specific SQL Server features like Linchi does.
That’s right! An all new version 8.0 of Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise is now GA and updated trials are live on the website. Some cool stuff therein:
• Support for SQL Server 2011 (Denali) – Spotlight can now be used to monitor SQL Server 2011 databases (Denali CTP1 and CTP2 releases).
• Project Lucy integration – Use Project Lucy to analyze the performance of your database and compare your experience with everyone else who uses the service.
• VMware memory diagnostics – Analyze virtual memory using charts similar to that used to analyze virtual CPU.
Version 6.5 is hot off the presses HERE. Some very cool new features include:
Adaptive Compression to continually optimize backup compression for best performance
Backup Templates to easily manage and deploy backup jobs to multiple instances
More powerful remote deployment facility to simplify server deployment and configuration
Fast Compression to deduplicate data at the server and further reduce backup times and data volume
LiteSpeed keeps getting faster and faster!
Toad for SQL Server
Version 5.5 is GA with lots of new features and benefits include:
Greater consistency with Toad for Oracle
- New session browser
- Added filtering to schema compare and synch
- Same installer as Toad for Oracle
- Bundle installers
- Enterprise option in the license key to display “unlimited” seats
Database Administration Enhancements
- Index defragmentation
- Manage database storage
- Discover SQL Server Instances
- Virtual Indexes for User Defined Alternatives (SQL Optimizer)
Database Development Enhancements
- Improved critical Code Completion functionality and overall performance
New bundle executables are now available for download:
Supports EBS – Storage Maximizer works with SharePoint External BLOB Storage (EBS) to leave a GUID behind in the content database that references the location of the external content. The end users will see the same link and can still open the item as if it were stored in the SQL content database. Support for RBS will follow 3 months after the 1.0 release.
Rules Engine – Storage Maximizer allows a SharePoint administrator to set rules that automatically remove content to selected external repositories based on content criteria, including size, type, date and number of versions. Administrators can quickly deploy rules to reduce content database size without having to perform complicated rule calculations.
Flexible Storage – Offload content to various content repositories within a single install. Utilize various levels of storage that range from direct attached storage, network storage to cloud-based storage. Storage Maximizer works with the following cloud storage providers, Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure.
Content Externalizing Scope – Set the scope for externalizing documents form a Site Collection to a document library.
Reporting Dashboard – View the amount of externalized content in an easy to read graphical chart and view details of how much content is externalized to the various repositories, the status of those repositories and the events happening with content externalization.
Integrated Management – Storage Maximizer integrates with Central Administration and looks indistinguishable from other SharePoint features. It installs no agents or services, but Storage Maximizer is a fully integrated solution that leverages existing APIs and Services.
Encryption and Compression – Secure your external data with Storage Maximizer encryption and compression to ensure only those going through SharePoint with the proper access can view and change the data.
Enabled Search – Storage Maximizer maintains SharePoint search capabilities to ensure you find the data you need.
Document Re-entry – Bring your externalized content back into SharePoint easily with Storage Maximizer. Never lose your external content, when you disable the link between SharePoint and the external content, Storage Maximizer will bring that content back into the SharePoint content database.
First off – the Pain of the Week webcast series has been renamed. It’s now known as The Expert’s Perspective. Please join us for future webcasts and, if you’re interested in speaking, drop me a note to see if we can get you on the roster!
The bigger your databases get, the longer backups take. That doesn’t really seem like a huge problem — until disaster strikes and you need to restore your databases as fast as possible.
Join my buddy Brent Ozar (blog | twitter), a Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server and good friend, as he reveals ways to make these critically important maintenance tasks run faster.
You’ll discover:
Why Instant File Initialization is so important for restores
How to use DMVs to check restore progress
How to find the bottleneck while you’re backing up or restoring data
If managing your corporate data for the long term isn’t currently on your mind, it should be, and in several different ways: cost, performance, business continuity, and compliance. [READ MORE]
LiteSpeed for SQL Server version 6.0 was released in June 2010 and includes these key features:
Fast Compression Backups – Fast Compression is Quest’s patent-pending backup technology which significantly reduces backup times, improves database recoverable, and automatically reduces a database’s backup footprint by up to 85 percent over and above the backup compression algorithms already in the product.
Network Resiliency – Backups will still succeed after network interruptions. User can also customize the number of retries and wait period for a finer level of control.
Easier Restores with Point in Time selection – Restore wizard’s time slider lets user choose exact point in time to recover data.
OLR (object-level recovery) and Log Reader support more funky SQL Server 2008 data types – DATETIMEOFFSET, DATETIME2, DATE, TIME, HIERARCHYID, GEOMETRY, and GEOGRAPHY are now supported.
SmartCleanup – Intelligently remove backups according to a user-supplied retention policy without affecting backup set integrity.
Maintenance Plans reinforced – Import/Export Plans, Copy/Paste Tasks and Sub-Plans, Wildcards and Regular Expressions supported for easier database selections.
New Maintenance Plan Cleanup History Task – Options to delete backup history, log shipping history, job and maintenance plan history, and more…
Updated documentation – New Install and Log Shipping Guides and references to online video content.
Fightin’ For Fast Compression Feedback!
LiteSpeed for SQL Server’s patent-pending Fast Compression (formerly SmartDiff) technology reduces backup size substantially for huge storage savings. It also decreases backup times significantly—from hours to minutes. Are you familiar with this technology? Are you taking full advantage of it?
We’d like your feedback. Tell how much disk space you’re saving and how much faster your backups are when using Fast Compression. Please share your comments with us in the LiteSpeed Forum at our SQL Server community.
We’d like to offer you the latest information to help you get the most out of your investment in LiteSpeed® for SQL Server. Most of these resources are also available through SupportLink, our customer support portal.
LiteSpeed Video Tutorials
Learn LiteSpeed for SQL Server tips and tricks by viewing our free recorded videos online. You’ll see the solution in action and discover how to:
Determine the most appropriate backup options for you
Query backup files without a full restore
Recover just one table or repair a dropped procedure
And just an FYI, but you’ll need to register on the Support website to reach most of those resources.
SQL Server Community Sites
Please join our SQL Server communities today to get the latest product information and find helpful resources. You can also participate in discussions with other community members as well as the Quest product team.
Please do not respond directly to this e-mail notification. You can elect to stop receiving product notifications by changing the ”Product Notification” setting under Edit User Profile on SupportLink.
