Database Maintenance - Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Database Maintenance category.
When was the Last Time You Removed an Index Because it was Never Used?
Database Maintenance,Indexing,Performance Tuning | August 11, 2011 | 11:16 amIndexes can be great for boosting the performance of a query, but if an index is never used, it can drag down an instance’s performance. This is because unused indexes must be maintained just like any index. For example, anytime a row is inserted, updated, or deleted, indexes must be maintained. If a lot of ...read more
Do You Ever Physically Defragment Your SQL Server MDF & LDF Files?
Database Administration,Database Maintenance,Performance Tuning | June 1, 2011 | 12:44 pmEvery since the first file was written to a floppy disk drive using DOS, physical file fragmentation has been a problem. Essentially, when the OS writes a file to a disk subsystem, and if contiguous clusters are not available, they are written elsewhere on disk. So when a file is stored on disk in a ...read more
SQLServerCentral Best Practices Clinic
Database Administration,Database Maintenance | March 7, 2011 | 11:51 amI have just begun a new article series at SQLServerCentral.com called the SQLServerCentral.com Best Practices Clinic. What is this series all about? Our goal is to experiment with getting community feedback on different ways that the two node cluster that is running the backend databases for SQLServerCentral.com and Simple-Talk.com can be optimized. If you would ...read more
Microsoft Codename Atlanta Attempts to Help Out DBAs By Providing Basic Assistance
Database Administration,Database Maintenance | December 8, 2010 | 5:00 pmI have always recommended that DBAs be as proactive as possible, catching potential problems, and actual problems, as soon as possible before they can negatively affect a SQL Server’s performance or availability. In fact, I am working on a new book, tentatively titled, How to Perform a SQL Server Health Check, which will provide a ...read more
How Often Do You Backup Your Transaction Logs?
Database Administration,Database Maintenance | November 15, 2010 | 4:14 pmWhenever I speak about database maintenance, I always recommend that DBAs backup up their production database transaction logs at least once an hour. As is with most things DBA-related, there is no exact answer that will meet every SQL Server environment’s needs. The interval between transaction log backups depend on many factors, including, but not ...read more
How Often Do You Run CHECKDB Against Your Databases?
Database Administration,Database Maintenance | October 20, 2010 | 5:24 pmI recently ran a poll, asking DBAs how often they ran DBCC CHECKDB against their databases. Compared to some of the polls I have run recently, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the results. My first pleasant surprise was that at least 90% of those polled knew what DBCC CHECKDB was. This is a good ...read more
SQL Server Database Maintenance Checklist
Database Administration,Database Maintenance | October 4, 2010 | 7:01 amIn this blog post, I continue my series of SQL Server Health Checklists that I am developing for a new book I am writing. The focus of this checklist is database maintenance. Database maintenance includes a defined set of proactive tasks that a DBA needs to perform on a periodic basis to help ensure that ...read more
Most SQL Server DBAs Still Don’t Know About Instant File Initialization
Database Administration,Database Maintenance,Performance Tuning | September 20, 2010 | 8:53 amIn my most recent poll, I asked DBAs if they have turned on instant file initialization on their SQL Servers. I was a little surprised by the results. Just over half of the DBAs who responded to the poll said that they don’t know what instant file initialization is, and another 13% said that they ...read more
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