Download Most Common DBA Tasks

DAT340
Most Common DBA Tasks
Patrick Conlan
Program Manager
SQL Server
Microsoft Corporation
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SQL Server 2000 Replication:Lessons
Learned
TOP 90 PERCENT LIST
You know you are a DBA when:
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3.
4.
5.
6.
You normalize your shopping list to save space
You apply relational logic…to your relations
You never need to re-index your CD collection, it’s already
clustered by artist with secondary indexes on title, label &
genre
You wish you could ROLLBACK TRANSACTION on your
partners credit card bills
You wake up screaming from a dream in which your boss
says “Lets build a 1TB data warehouse…using SQL Server
6.5”
You spend your lunch break inventing new DBCC
commands:
DBCC LOSE_DATA(‘dbname’) WITH NORECOVERY
7.
8.
9.
You understand the need to answer any question with
another question
You know where your data goes at night…
…and you know that your developers mean well!
Agenda
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The Basics
Automation: Alerts
Automation: Routine Tasks
Securing Your Server
Monitoring for Performance
Data Loading
demo
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BACKUP
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Demo with the UI
Demo with Script
Maintenance Plans
Where are Errors
Logged?
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Demo cycling the
error log & Increasing
the number of logs
SQL Agent Log
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RESTORE
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Demo with the UI
Demo with Script
Log Shipping
Agenda
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The Basics
Automation: Alerts
Automation: Routine Tasks
Securing Your Server
Monitoring for Performance
Data Loading
Automation is Your Friend
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You should automate all ordinary tasks
This frees up time for you to perform
“fun” tasks
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Serious performance analysis
Capacity Planning
Programming
Going home early 
Configure SQL Server Agent
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Configure to run as a user
Grant admin privs or lose functionality
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I.e. Automatic server restart, proxy jobs
Configure an Operator
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SQL Server Agent mail is different from
SQLMail (xp_sendmail)
Uses a MAPI profile (Outlook)
Log in to the server as the service
account and configure the Outlook
mail profile
Automate Alerts
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Automatically be notified when
particular conditions occur
SQL Server Agent can issue alerts
based on either error number or
severity of error(s)
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Read from the Windows event log
A number of alerts are pre-configured
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But not going anywhere without you
configuring them further…
Customize as appropriate for your site
Create Your Own Alerts
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You can create application-specific
alerts
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Run sp_addmessage to add a custom
error message
Run RAISERROR WITH LOG to raise the
event and write a copy to the Windows
application event log
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Otherwise SQL Agent doesn’t see your error
Set up an alert to respond to your error
number
Run jobs as appropriate…
Alerting Based on
Perfmon Counters
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UI added in SQL Server 7.0/2000 to do this
Configure through same UI as Transact-SQL
generated alerts
Monitor critical information not otherwise
easy to get at
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Memory Usage
Database size
Tempdb usage
Note that this is an expensive operation
demo
Setting Up Alerts
Agenda
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The Basics
Automating Alerts
Automate routine tasks
Secure Your Server
Monitor for performance
Data loading
Automate Routine Tasks
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Get this “busy work” done
automagically…
If it needs to be done daily, or weekly,
then automate it
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We’ve seen too many DBAs run
everything ad-hoc
This WON’T make you useless, we
promise!
Automate Your Backups
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All backups should be run
automatically
Backup type depends on database
size and access patterns
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See Chapter 4 of the operations guide
for details
Back up system databases as well
as your own application
database(s)
Don’t Forget to Back
Up Scripts
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Generate full scripts of all objects you
can periodically
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Use the generate scripts wizard
May want to automate with SQL-DMO
Watch for encrypted text
Script out logins and custom error messages
if you just script out a database
Keep historical scripts and change
scripts in a source control system such
as Visual SourceSafe
demo
Set up a Backup Job
A Word About Restore
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You can’t really automate restore…
But practice, practice, practice!!!
Don’t find out your backups don’t work
when you really need them
You can’t lose your job over
many things, but this is
one of them
Other Maintenance…
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DBCC CheckDB
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Index Reorgs
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Again, details in the operations guide
Check tables rather than databases
on a large server
Do only for peace of mind
Only as needed
Establish a pattern using DBCC
SHOWCONTIG
Depends on server usage…
Statistics Updates
Log File Maintenance
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SQL Server Error Logs
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SQL Server Agent Error Log
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Recycles after every service restart
Job History Logs
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Configure how many you want to keep
Back them up with your other scripts, etc.
Sp_cycle_errorlog
Agent properties, Job System tab
Probably too low by default
DBMaint history logs
demo
Database
Maintenance Plans
-Runs backups, integrity checks,
update index/column stats…
-Defrag script
Agenda
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The Basics
Automating Alerts
Automate routine tasks
Secure Your Server
Monitor for performance
Data Loading
Secure Your Server
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Set up your server securely
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Use a service account with a strong
password
Don’t run SQL Server service as an
administrator
Run in integrated security mode - but still
apply a strong password to “sa”
Run on NTFS file system
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Encrypt the data files
What to change/setup
Use Security Auditing
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Set up login security auditing
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Not on by default
Configure on the security tab of Server
Properties in Enterprise Manager
Enable for Failure or All
View using the Windows Event Viewer
SQL Server 2000 Auditing
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SQL Trace – the server side of profiling
SQL Profiler – the UI components
Auditing is performed by SQL Trace –
internal to SQLServr.exe
Very robust and secure
SQL Trace Features
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File rollover
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So you can back up the old trace files
while a new one is being populated
Specify a max file size limit or an
end time for a trace
All audit types and data columns
are selectable
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Get as much or as little auditing as
you want/need
SQL Server 2000 Audit Events
We audit 19 different kinds of events:
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Login/logout
GRD - statement perms
GRD – object perms
Add/drop SQL login
GRD NT login rights
Modify login property
Password change event
Add/remove from fixed
server role
Add/remove database user
Derived Permissions
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Add/remove database
role member
Add/drop a database role
Change Approle password
Statement permission used
Object permission used
Backup/restore event
DBCC command issued
Audit modification event
Server shutdown/pause/start
SQL Server 2000 Auditing
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For each event, many subtypes
Example - GDR object permission:
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Grant
Deny
Revoke
Each event includes (at a minimum):
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Success or failure
Server name
Date/time of event
Application name
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NT username
Spid
Host name
Statement text
How To Turn On An Audit
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An audit (except for C2 audit) is
just a profiler trace
So, turn on a profiler trace with the
new profiler procedures, adding
auditing events
Set the trace to start with the server
if you want a comprehensive audit
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Wrap the trace setup into a stored
procedure
Enable that stored procedure
for autostart
demo
Using Profiler to Audit
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Use Profiler to configure an audit trace
Use the scripting feature to script out
the trace definition
Agenda

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The Basics
Automate : Alerts
Automate : Routine Tasks
Secure Your Server
Monitor for Performance
Data Loading
Performance Monitoring
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Use System Monitor Counters
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Use SQL Server Profiler
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Learn what they mean by
monitoring your system
Monitor the overhead carefully
on your system
Use built-in tools
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Replication Monitor
Current Activity Monitor
Sp_who2
Ongoing Monitoring
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Index fragmentation
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May want to run well-defined queries
periodically
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DBCC SHOWCONTIG
As a “ping” to verify uptime
To monitor for performance history
If MSDE you may run DBCC
CONCURRENCYVIOLATION to look for
performance throttling issues
Run Index Tuning Wizard periodically
to see if indexes are still used/relevant
Capacity Planning
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Monitor Database sizes, index sizes,
filegroup usage, logfile usage,
memory usage
Watch for new objects if there’s more
than one dbadmin (especially likely in
development)
Keep track of growth over time to
forecast new hardware needs
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Very few tools to help you here Microsoft Excel is your friend!
Agenda
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The Basics
Automate : Alerts
Automate : Routine Tasks
Secure Your Server
Monitor for Performance
Data Loading
Data Loading – Quick Tips
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Fastest way to load data is:
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Empty table, no indexes
Use multiple Bulk Insert commands, one per processor,
each with a roughly equal partition of the data. If seeking
high-end performance then balance your i/o subsystem.
Use the TABLOCK hint
Set the ROWS_PER_BATCH to > rows in each file
Switch the database to Bulk Logged Recovery Model
BULK INSERT command is the fastest way to load
data – runs in process with SQL Server
BCP more flexible but a little slower
DTS can be very fast as well but you should try to
take a table lock for best load performance
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Watch out for concurrency issues with this technique
References
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SQL Server Operations Guide
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SQL Server Resource Kit
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http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie
w/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sq
l/maintain/operate/opsguide/default.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie
w/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sq
l/reskit/sql2000/sql2kres.asp
SQL Server Security Whitepaper
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http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/ad
ministration/2000/securityWP.asp
Call to Action
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Keep an eye on the SQL web site:
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http://www.microsoft.com/sql
Some components of SQL Server ship more
frequently than the main engine:
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SQL Server CE
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Notification Services
SQL XML
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[email protected]
SOAP Interface, XML Bulk Load, XML OLEDB provider
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/xml
MDAC
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http://www.microsoft.com/data
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© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.