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Cannot generate SSPI context

Now here's a slightly interesting point about this error. Although the kb does actually mention this reason for the error it is about the last thing on the article, a footnote, and it doesn't specifically word it to cover this scenario, and we...

Covering Clustered Indexes

I’ve noticed that of late I’ve become a bit more critical of a well known publication that I suspect many DBA’s read. I have subscriptions to a number of publications and for the ones that I pay for I’m generally quite content. I like paper / hard copy...

Disappointing Review.

It's not very often I'm provoked into making a criticism of a respected publication, however there's nothing like being grumpy! I've published a number of posts about baselines, trending and performance analysis and I've been quick...

Only once every four years thank goodness!

I never cease to be amazed by what I discover within IT, mostly these days I'm more disappointed than anything else, I'm not a lover of the let's bash Microsoft about security patches or we should all use Linux / Open source as in the latter I'm sure...

dbcc dropcleanbuffers - or maybe not

As a consequence of another action I was prompted to want to clear the buffer cache – or to be more precise I tried to clear the buffer cache. So stepping back, what happens if you install more memory than the combined size of your databases? Most would...

Would you buy Microsoft Support?

I've reached an interesting situation with microsoft support whereby I can't get past the first line telephone contacts. Under an incident/support I was recommended to use release 3179 for sql 2005 sp2 - this was for a 32 bit environment and I'm just...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | 1 comment(s)
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Analysing Indexes at SQLBits

Seems I've been selected to present at SQLBits on my work on Index Analysis. So a thankyou for those who voted for my presentation. I just noticed this post http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlcat/archive/2007/09/12/sqlcat-tracks-at-2007-sql-pass.aspx?CommentPosted...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | with no comments

dbmail puzzler

This had me scratching my head for a short while:- The first query sends a mail with a return status of 0 exec @return = msdb . dbo . sp_send_dbmail @profile_name = 'Any profile Will Do' , @subject = @subject , @body = @body , @query = @query , @query_result_separator...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | 2 comment(s)
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SQL Community is good to be part of.

It’s interesting to sometimes compare the flow of information about SQL Server to that available for other products. I’m currently working on an application which runs on SQL Server but by default / was developed with an ISAM back end. This particular...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | with no comments

Not Thinking it through - the saga continues

The saga continues ……….. Here below are the previous posts which relate to the management of a production SQL Server ( by a third party ). We asked that the job which re-indexes the database be disabled until such time as the issue of the database mode...

OK I give up!

Can't seem to display images which is something I wanted to do so I will discontinue the blog. I'll perhaps look to placing the articles and info on my web site where I can display pictures. As so much of tuning involves screen shots from query plans...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | with no comments
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How to invalidate your recovery in one easy step.

As I've found this "problem" on more than one occasion I thought I'd share the details, hopefully you won't find this - but who knows. Scenario - daily backups of databases, regular transaction log backups. Issue - what appears to be too much free space...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | with no comments
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Not thinking it through

I was investigating the failure of a backup job , written and produced by another party, and just thought I'd share this. The job backs up more than one database in a cursor loop, if the job fails it retries three times. So far this sounds a good solution...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | with no comments
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One

I was browsing through a publication today, it's aimed largely at big corporates and "decision makers" - so read " not technical people". Anyway it was talking about storage performance, a subject close to my heart! Anyway the basis was the throughput...
Posted by GrumpyOldDBA | with no comments
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