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Defining Half a Dozen

Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities

“D
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica-
tions of Integration

atabase management ” may sound like one

responsibility to the uninitiated, but those
who are more familiar know it’s just an
umbrella term. Read on to explore six du-
ties that are the building blocks of effective SQL Server
administration.

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DEFINING HALF A DOZEN DAILY SQL SERVER DBA

RESPONSIBILITIES
Basit Farooq
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Defining Half a Dozen SQL Server database administration can be a complex and stressful job.
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities Database administrators’ responsibilities cover the performance, integrity
and security of business data and SQL Server databases. To fulfill their duties
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- and to make business data available to its users, database administrators have
tions of Integration
to perform routine DBA checks on their SQL Servers to monitor their status.
So, what critical aspects of SQL Server should all DBAs include in their
daily checklist? Here are six daily DBA responsibilities that every SQL Server
manager should perform.

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VERIFY ALL SQL SERVER INSTANCES ARE UP

Check the connectivity of each SQL Server on the network, and make sure all
SQL Server instances are up. Ensure that all databases hosted on SQL Server
instances are online. In addition to this, validate the storage of database data
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on the hard disk, which can be done by running the Database Consistency
Defining Half a Dozen Checker (DBCC) CHECKDBcommand against each database on every SQL
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities Server instance. Using DBCC CHECKDB with PHYSICAL_ONLY runs faster,
which is useful when it’s running against very large databases (VLDBs) and
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- when the server is not powerful.
tions of Integration

INSPECT SQL SERVER ERROR LOGS FOR UNUSUAL EVENTS

No matter how well you have designed and tested a database, errors will occur.
Because SQL Server stores all information, warnings and error messages in
the operating system and application log files, reviewing error logs daily helps
quickly and easily identify unexpected errors and security problems that have
occurred in the SQL Server environment. By default, SQL Server keeps one
current log and six archive logs. You can use either SQL Server Management
Studio Log Viewer or the sp_readerrorlog undocumented stored procedure to
view SQL Server error logs.

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VERIFY THAT ALL SCHEDULED JOBS HAVE RUN SUCCESSFULLY

Managing SQL Server Agent jobs is a key DBA responsibility, as they are crucial
to any SQL Server environment. They are created and scheduled to perform
critical business and operational tasks. Therefore, it is important to keep track
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of all scheduled jobs that have not run successfully.
Defining Half a Dozen SQL Server Agent stores history information for jobs, alerts and operators.
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities History information is stored in the sysjobhistory table of the msdbdatabase.
You view the history of jobs and job steps using the Job Activity Monitor. Or,
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- alternatively, you can query sysjobhistory for failed jobs. For example, see the
tions of Integration
following query that keeps track of failed jobs over the previous 24 hours:

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Defining Half a Dozen

Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities

In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica-
tions of Integration

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VERIFY SUCCESS OF DATABASE BACKUPS

One of a DBA’s key management tasks is backing up databases on a regular
basis. This is because reliable backups are the most important tool in ensuring
data recovery. Therefore, it is important for the DBA to check for database
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backups and validate that they have been successfully created and saved in a
Defining Half a Dozen secure location.
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities SQL Server keeps information about each successful backup in the
msdbdatabase. Information about each successful backup operation is stored
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- in the backupset table, and information about each backup physical file in
tions of Integration
thebackupmediafamily table. For example, I wrote the following query, which can
be used to check all databases’ backup status for any given SQL Server instance:

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Defining Half a Dozen

Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities

In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica-
tions of Integration

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MONITOR DISK SPACE

Check the amount of free space available on each SQL Server and make sure
you are not low on disk space. For best performance, it is recommended that
all disks should have at least 15% or more free space available. You should
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also investigate the cause of disk free space fluctuation, if there is significant
Defining Half a Dozen variation in the disk space from the previous day. Often the abnormal growth
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities of the transaction log can cause of significant variation in the disk space.
To monitor disk space, you can use the undocumented stored procedurexp_
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- fixeddrives. However, the limitation of xp_fixeddrives is that it can only be used
tions of Integration
to return information about fixed drives, not mount points. To monitor free
space on operating system volumes, including the mount points, you can use
the sys.dm_os_volume_stats dynamic management function. This dynamic
management function returns information about the operation system volume
on which databases files are located. For example, you can query this dynamic
management function as follows, to get drive free-space information on any
given SQL Server instance:

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Alternatively, you can write a PowerShell script or common language

runtime, or CLR, procedure to monitor disk and mount-point free space.

REVIEW DATABASE SIZES AND GROWTH SETTINGS

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The size of the databases on an SQL Server instance is a measurable quantity
Defining Half a Dozen that should be tracked on each individual SQL Server instance. This should
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities be done because if the database and transaction file runs out of space, then all
transactions running against it will fail. Therefore, it is critical to monitor and
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- manage the growth of the database.
tions of Integration
You can use sys.master_files system view to monitor database growth
settings and file sizes. This system view returns the status of all files for all
databases, including those that are offline. For example, the following query
returns the filename, size, location and growth settings of each database file
for each database.

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IN-MEMORY SQL SERVER: THE IMPLICATIONS OF

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Serdar Yegulalp
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Defining Half a Dozen It’s easy to be misled by terminology. When I first heard the term “in-memory
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities database” applied to SQL Server, I made the same mistake many other people
have. I thought, “How’s that different from an instance of SQL Server with
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- tons of RAM and the buffer pooling for the program turned up to 11?” But in-
tions of Integration
memory SQL Server -- a major change, codenamed Hekaton and planned for
the next iteration of the product -- isn’t like that. And why it isn’t like that has
implications for how such an instance of SQL Server would fit in with the rest
of your setup.
First, the basics. The label conveys the fundamental idea behind an in-
memory database pretty accurately: It’s a database system where both the
engine and as much of the data as possible are stored directly in RAM. Of
course, this dramatically increases the speed of transactions, but this is only
possible in a couple circumstances:

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1. The database and engine are small enough to fit into RAM by default
2. The system contains enough RAM to hold both database and engine

With memory getting cheaper all the time and the average server sporting
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more of it, scenario #2 has been happening a lot more often than scenario #1
Defining Half a Dozen ever did. The sheer size of almost any professional SQL Server deployment all
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities but guarantees the former rarely happens.
But it isn’t just memory that’s grown cheaper, faster and more plentiful.
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- CPUs have also become dramatically faster and more parallel, and in order
tions of Integration
to keep that silicon from just sitting around doing nothing, more of what the
database does is being moved into memory whenever possible.
Because of these issues, the forthcoming in-memory enhancements to SQL
Server are being engineered to take advantage of all these trends. In a TechNet
blog post entitled “The coming in-memory database tipping point,” David
Campbell lays out some of these changes, including how the database itself is
stored differently in memory (via a columnar, rather than a row-based, model).
Microsoft has in fact already adopted some of these methods for the
PowerPivot add-on for Microsoft Excel. “In SQL Server 2012,” Campbell
explains, “this ships as the xVelocity in-memory analytics engine as part of SQL

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Server Analysis Services.” In the long run, these components are going to be
used in other parts of SQL Server, so that the power unleashed by in-memory
databases can be used outside of the highly vertical solutions that currently
exploit it most, such as data warehousing or analysis.
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This brings up the first question I’ve been building towards: Would all of
Defining Half a Dozen your SQL Server installations need to be upgraded to take full advantage of
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities in-memory processing? The short answer is probably, but with three caveats:

In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- 1. IN-MEMORY DATABASE SOLUTIONS DO REQUIRE SOME RE-ARCHITECTING OF
tions of Integration
YOUR EXISTING DATABASE
The columnar, rather than row-based, layout in-memory databases use will
require some work on your part to set up. In one of the case studiesMicrosoft
released to talk about SQL Server 2012’s existing in-memory features, they
noted that while some changes to the database were needed, they required little
more than “chang[ing] some metadata values.” Depending on the way your
data is already set up, the amount of work may be minimal, but don’t assume
it’s going to be zero.

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2. THE LARGER THE DATABASE, AND THE MORE IT FITS THE SCENARIO, THE
BIGGER THE PAYOFF
You’re likely to see the biggest improvements -- the ones most worth the
effort of retooling everything to use in-memory processing -- from the largest
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workloads that are analysis- and data-warehouse-centric. Campbell notes
Defining Half a Dozen that the columnar structure of in-memory databases “are not optimal for
Daily SQL Server DBA
Responsibilities transaction processing workloads,” the conventional CRUD (create, read,
update, delete) workloads that most of us learned about in DBMS 102. He does
In-Memory SQL
Server: The Implica- note that in time, in-memory technology will be expanded to include these more
tions of Integration
conventional scenarios, but it won’t happen right away.

3. CONSEQUENTLY, NOT EVERYTHING CAN OR MAY NEED TO BE MOVED TO AN

IN-MEMORY SOLUTION AT ONCE
The biggest and most processor-intensive workloads like data analytics are
the first place to start. Moving them to an in-memory arrangement should get
priority. Even if you haven’t started formally planning a migration to another
version of SQL Server, it helps to get up to speed now on how the technology
works and start planning for how to re-architect your future SQL Server system
migrations.

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