13 Feb 2018
By Bob Pusateri

Mirroring? Make Sure Editions Match!

High Availability, SQL Server
SQL Server Mirroring has had a rough time the past few years. It was deprecated in SQL Server 2016, and now it's more or less being replaced by Basic Availability Groups, (which I love to refer to as "BAGS"). Database Mirroring hasn't gone the way of the Dodo yet though. Perhaps it won't be quite so popular in new deployments anymore, but there's plenty of existing ones out there. For this reason I don't expect Microsoft to remove the feature for at least a few more years. A few weeks ago I had a reminder of one of the finer…
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22 Jun 2016
By Bob Pusateri

SQL Server 2016: What’s Going Away

SQL Server
  SQL Server 2016 is upon us, with all the much-anticipated hoopla and sexy new features people have been lusting over in the CTPs for months. It's always great to see the hype around a new release. But in the circle of (an application's) life, the arrival of new things often means others are going away for good. Let's pause for a moment and reflect upon the two features that, as of SQL Server 2016, are no longer with us: 32-bit SQL Server. SQL Server 2016 is 64-bit only. If for whatever reason you're running on a 32-bit architecture, sadly you're now…
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03 Dec 2015
By Bob Pusateri

Dropping Multiple Databases At Once

SQL Server, T-SQL Syntax
I'm already at peace with the fact that I'll never know all of SQL Server's secrets, but that doesn't stop me from being surprised every time I figure out something new. In this case, it's another "secret" hiding in plain sight (Books Online). It turns out that the [crayon-5e2ba6b711538418111087-i/] statement doesn't just have to drop one database. BOL shows that multiple databases can be specified when separated with commas. Let's see it in action. First, create 4 databases: [crayon-5e2ba6b711546062097521/] Now drop them: [crayon-5e2ba6b71154b422808584/] Yep, all gone. But what if there's an error? Re-run the CREATE statements above, but now let's…
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19 Nov 2015
By Bob Pusateri

SQL Server Backup Terminology Part 1: Media Sets & Backup Sets

Backup, SQL Server
When backing up a database or transaction log, SQL Server needs to know two basic things: What information the backup should contain Where it's going to be written Many options exist to control the contents and behavior of a backup: whether it's full, differential, or a log, if it should be compressed, copy_only, encrypted, the list goes on and on. Most people will learn these options, understand their effects, and consider themselves to have mastered SQL Server backups. While they're not totally wrong, there's still a lot more to the story: where the backups are going. While it's incredibly simple to use…
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