Category: Azure

SQL Server Upgrades

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I’ve had this conversation at least a 1000 times over the course of my career working with SQL Server and teaching classes. Is it better to upgrade in place or do a side by side upgrade. There are pros and cons to each method, however I’ll say upfront that my preference is a side-by-side upgrade […]

The “Kill” Command: What to Consider Before Stopping a SQL Server Process

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Whether you’re troubleshooting on-premises SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, Managed Instance, or Amazon RDS, you will eventually encounter a “lead blocker”—that one high-cost, long-running session holding every other process hostage. While your first instinct might be to issue a KILL command, the consequences vary wildly depending on what that session is actually doing. Here is […]

How to Protect Against Ransomware as a DBA

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Over the years I’ve been called in to work with numerous clients that were hit with ransomware. Even the times that the customer paid the ransom to unlock their encrypted files, there were still issues. Often times there were still issues with the files where they will not restore or data/log files can’t attach to […]

Getting Error 64 When Trying To Connect to SQL Server or Azure 

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Often times when working with a client, I’ll run into issues or get emails from a client with a message like the following: A connection was successfully established with the server, but then an error occurred during the pre-login handshake. (provider: TCP Provider, error: 0 – The specified network name is no longer available.) (Microsoft […]