Category Archives: Learn SQL Server

What are SQL Server DBA Responsibilities?

Posted on by
8

This is one of the most frequently asked questions by people who are new to SQL Server. Since they are new to SQL Server, their concern is understandable. I was personally asked this question or this list multiple times and most recently, as comments to one of my blogs.

So I decided to list down a list of tasks and responsibilities carried out by a SQL Server DBA. Before further reading, let me tell you that roles and responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA varies from one organization to another as no two organizations IT setup are exactly similar.  For better understanding, the text in the parenthesis (Italicized blue font) is the subject area or chapter that has the topics to carryout the responsibilities…

  • Installation, Administration and Maintenance of SQL Server Instances. (Installing SQL Server)
  • Setup Test, Dev, Staging and Production Environments. (Installing SQL Server)
  • Create Users and assign permissions based on the level of database access the user would need. (Security)
  • Create Linked Servers to SQL Servers and other databases such as Oracle, Access, Informix etc. (Security and General Administration)
  • Design database Backup and Restoration Strategy. (Database Backups and SQL Server Agent)
  • Once created the database Backups, monitor those backups are being performed regularly. (SQL Server Agent)
  • From time to time recover the databases to a specific point of time, as per the requests. (Database Backups and Recovery)
  • Setup High-Availability as part Disaster Recovery Strategy for the Databases. (Failover Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping and Replication)
  • Troubleshoot various problems that arise in a day-to-day work and fix the issues. (Monitoring SQL Server Error Logs and checking your email alert (if there is one configured))
  • Monitoring and Performance Tuning; Physical Server Level, Database level (Database settings and options) and query tuning. (Creating and maintaining those Indexes, not performing database shrinking, memory settings, monitoring CPU usage and Disk I/O activity etc) 
  • Documenting major changes to the SQL Servers. (General)
  • Apply Service Packs. (General)

Note: These are only some of the roles carried out by a SQL Server DBA. If you have more questions, please let me know through comments.. 

Do you like this site? Like our FB page @ Facebook.com\LearnSQLWithBru so that, you know when there is a new blog post.

— Bru Medishetty

What are Versions and Editions in SQL Server?

Posted on by
3

When I was adding (writing) new content in the recently started section Learn SQL Server for Beginners, I mentioned about SQL Server Versions and Editions. That section is written keeping in mind a beginner in SQL Server. In this blog post, I would like to explain in detail, and make things clear for those who have no prior knowledge of SQL Server Editions..

What are Versions and Editions?

When you read or listen something like SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012, they are Versions of SQL Server.. Each time a major release of SQL Server is released, that is called a Version. With each of these new Versions, the SQL Server Software (a more simplistic term, instead of using terms like Database Engine and BI components) are designed for better performance, are more reliable and robust than the previous versions and these feature enhancements go on and on and on….

Now I hope you have a decent understanding of SQL Server Versions, so lets take a look at the what are Editions. Within those SQL Server Versions, there will be different flavors (Editions) of SQL Server released. Some of those Editions are Express, Workgroup, Standard, Developer and Enterprise Edition. Each of these Editions is released, keeping in view the end users requirements and the licensing cost for these Editions go higher as we move towards Enterprise Edition.

Express Edition is a free Edition, has various limitations (in terms of available features). It is most often installed on personal workstations, for example in situations where developers need the databases available when they are remote (at home) to write and test code for the applications.

Workgroup Edition has few more features that are suitable for smaller organizations (something like an individual store or a branch).

The next one is Standard Edition, which is good for mid-sized organization and has most of the features but not all. They are also used in large organizations for an individual group of applications which can be built and managed with those features available in Standard Edition.

Enterprise Edition is the most feature rich Edition and has all features and functionalities available in that SQL Server Version. Enterprise Edition is used Very Large Databases (VLDBs) and Mission-Critical Databases.

There are 2 more Editions, Enterprise Evaluation Edition which is has the same features as Enterprise Edition but expires after 180 days of installation. Developer Edition is a low cost (approx 50 bucks) Edition which does not expire, has no limitations and has the same features as Enterprise Edition. Important point to note, Microsoft does not recommend and support the usage of Developer Editions in a production Environment..

Note: This post is written focusing beginners so there is  no mention of the SQL Server features like Clustering, Database Mirroring, Database and backup Compression, Database Partitioning, Resource Governor, Policy Based Management etc. Lets keep that discussion for another time….

You might want to read a related blog, this is on Editions in SQL Server 2012.

Do you like this site? Like our FB page @ Facebook.com\LearnSQLWithBru so that, you know when there is a new blog post.

— Bru Medishetty

Startup Parameters Tabs in Configuration Manager – New feature in SQL Server 2012

Posted on by
Reply

With each new SQL Server Version, plenty of new features and enhancements are released. In SQL Server 2012, one of those new additions is the Startup Parameters Tab in SQL Server Configuration Manager. Using this you can make changes to SQL Server startup parameters. 

Let us learn where to find the newly added tab.

On the machine where SQL Server 2012 is installed, go to Programs and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (in this case this RC0, but in the final version Release to Market Version, you would see only Microsoft SQL Server 2012). Then click on Configuration Tools to expand that node, you should see SQL Server Configuration Manager, click to open. (Pic below)

You should see a console which has 2 sections, on the left hand side click services upon which the SQL Server components that are installed on that machine are displayed as shown below. Right click on the Service SQL Server and select Properties.

The Properties window is displayed and there are 6 tabs in total. Click on Startup Parameters Tab to bring it to front. (pic below)

You can see the current startup parameters in this Tab and add new one if required.

Do you like this site? Like our FB page @ Facebook.com\LearnSQLWithBru so that, you know when there is a new blog post.

— Bru Medishetty