Database

Using CNAMEs with clustered file share resources

One of the questions that I see on the forums every once in a while is how to get a CNAME working with a network share.  For example if you have a cluster where the server names are "SERVER1 and SERVER2" and the virtual name is "VIRT1" how can I allow users to connect to the network shares by...

Slide Decks for #sqlsat95

This last weekend was SQL Saturday 95, and it was a great event.  I was speaking during 5 sessions.  Three were my own sessions, and two were panels (one panel I did solo as my co-presenter got sick and couldn't make it).  For my three sessions you'll find my slide decks below.

When working with SQL in a cluster, the account rights on both nodes of the cluster need to be the same

Recently I was working with a clients SQL Server cluster.  The managed service provide had installed some Windows patches causing the SQL Cluster to fail over to the other node.  No big deal, everything appeared to be working as normal.

After a couple of days we noticed...

When setting up a new Windows Cluster test failover before releasing to production

When you build a new Microsoft Cluster Server cluster always be sure to fail over all the drives between all the nodes before installing SQL Server on it and deploying the cluster to production.  The first time that you fail over a cluster from one node to another the disks can take a very long...

How to convert a standalone instance to a clustered instance

This question has come up a couple of times on various forums on the Inter-webs so I figured I'd write up something a little more in-depth than I'd be able to do on a forum. There's no way to easily flip a standalone SQL Server instance to a clustered instance.  However moving a standalone...

Moving a standalone instance to a cluster while keeping the name and IP

A little while back I posted about how to move a standalone instance to a clustered instance using a different name and IP, but what do you do when you...

Join me on Oct 21st for a Clustering with iSCSI Presentation

All, On October 21st, 2009 at 11am (Pacific) / 2pm (Eastern) I'm going to be presenting a free Webcast on how to setup a Windows 2008 Cluster when using iSCSI.  Additionally I'll be going over some tuning tricks you can use to improve the performance of your iSCSI network.

HA and DR require the same techniques right?

While many of the technologies used for HA and DR are similar (or even the same) HA and DR are two different types of events which should be handled differently.

Dates can easily be the hardest datatype to work with.

The datetime data type can be one of the hardest to work with when it comes to index optimization.  Most queries that use a datetime data type for filtering (part of the where clause) only want to match the date portion of the value.  Most people handle this via a convert function around the date...

Whitepaper on why database maintenance is important

Today I'm publishing a white paper which I wrote for our Customer Service department to give to our customers. It explains why database maintenance is so important in keeping your database happy and healthy.