Hitchcock Schools Protects SQL Servers and Data with Replay AppImage
The Hitchcock Independent School District in Hitchcock, Texas serves 1,200 students in grades K – 12 through 4 schools with a new elementary school on the way. The IT group at Hitchcock, led by Chris Armacost, Director of Technology, is responsible for all the end-user devices, network equipment, and servers that support students, teachers, administrators, and the district’s Head Start and other special education programs. Central to their mission is protecting student (e.g. grades, reports, plans), business, and course application data that resides on SQL servers. That would be a much bigger worry if it weren’t for Replay AppImage. “I don’t spend hours on tape backups and then worry about dirty tapes anymore,” says Armacost. “Replay AppImage takes snapshots every 15 minutes and if a server does go down, we’ll just restore it.”
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6/5/2009
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How to Manage and Configure SSIS Packages - A SQL Server Technical Article
Administering SSIS can be a challenging task for a DBA who’s not familiar with the SSIS environment and some of the new hurdles it presents. In this whitepaper, discusses how to configure packages so you have zero-touch deployments. A dive deep look into a notification and logging framework that alerts you when a problem occurs or when you run out of capacity. Also discussed how to deploy and schedule your SSIS packages.
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6/3/2009
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Practice Safe SQL Server Version Control
This paper describes the problem of version control and change management for the database itself.While it's obvious for any developer that some sort of version control\change management solution is needed on every database related development project, very few shops properly version their databases. This paper addresses the situation, and offers a solution for version control on Microsoft SQL Server, Using a product called 'Randolph' from Nob Hill Software.
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6/1/2009
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SQL Server Fragmentation Explained
This technical white paper will help you understand SQL Server fragmentation and the performance
benefits you can gain on your SQL Servers by continuously monitoring and managing index
fragmentation.
The following is a summary of the key topics covered in this paper:
• The difference between disk and SQL Server internal and external fragmentation
• How fragmentation affects performance.
• The mechanics behind performance robbing data voids
• The pros and cons of various approaches to managing fragmentation
• How SQL defrag manager provides a better, more efficient and easier approach to solving
fragmentation problems in SQL Server.
• How to judge the improvements gained by defragmenting your server.
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5/22/2009
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Real-Time Data Integration for the SQL Server Data Warehouse
The Microsoft SQL Server database is becoming an increasingly popular platform for hosting data warehouse and operational reporting applications. To integrate data into the SQL Server warehouse, project teams should evaluate real-time data integration technologies using change data capture, which provide low-impact, low-latency solutions to meet today’s – and tomorrow’s – operational BI demands. This white paper explains why “batch is dead!” and discusses the advantages of “building for real-time” now, to enable strong competitive advantages for the data warehouse, including customer success stories.
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5/21/2009
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Migrating DTS Packages to Integration Services
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) brings a revolutionary concept of enterprise-class ETL to the masses. The engine is robust enough to handle hundreds of millions of rows with ease, but is simple enough to let both developers and DBAs engineer an ETL process.
Learn about the benefits of migrating your SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS) packages to Integration Services by using two proven methods.
See how you can run and manage your current DTS packages inside of the SQL Server 2005 and 2008 management tools.
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5/21/2009
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Backup Redesign: Do More with Less...Really!
Any company that relies on data intensive applications like e-mail, financial, human resource, customer management, and product development systems – and that’s every company – is experiencing data explosion. Mandated by legal compliance and required by management best practices, data protection measures including backup, storage, and retrieval, are more mission-critical than ever. On top of that, demands for high availability and fast disaster recovery are increasing. Unfortunately, enterprise-wide solutions that rely on tape backup are less efficient and more costly than ever. New disk-based backup solutions that focus on application - not just data - protection are redefining the state-of-the-art by realizing significant time and money savings through data expansion moderation, fast backup, easy data retrieval, high availability assurance, and reliable disaster recovery.
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5/21/2009
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Leveraging Virtualization for Application Assurance
Business continuity. Application assurance. Virtualization. Consider that a mission-critical progression. Business continuity is essential for business productivity. Bluntly put, if people can’t get their work done, it’s impossible to realize revenue. The applications that are most central to the productivity of every staff person in your organization are e-mail and SQL databases. They need reliable and consistent access to those applications in order to communicate with work peers, customers, and partners.
The problem is that application assurance, particularly the assurance of e-mail in Windows-based environments, is challenging. And it can be easy to become complacent when outages are sporadic at best. However, every outage presents such negative business impact that complacency is irresponsible. Virtualization answers the need for business continuity and challenge of application assurance enabling companies to quickly and seamlessly recover from e-mail outages and keep business on track.
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5/21/2009
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WINDOWS SERVER DISASTER RECOVERY
Windows Server applications are often mission critical. The impact of natural, random and man-made disasters on these applications, especially email, and their subsequent disruption can cripple an organization. This white paper from AppAssure Software offers advice for protecting your existing Windows Server infrastructure from disruptive application outages.
True disasters are unseen and insufficiently forecast. To minimize the impact of disasters on Microsoft Windows Server applications, proper planning, testing, and investments are required. This eGuide from AppAssure Software provides information critical to any organization that seeks to avoid total disaster in the event of the unforeseen.
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5/21/2009
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SQL Server Database Backup and Restore Planning
Whether a business is small, medium or large business, it must have a well-written plan for backing up the servers. Planning a backup strategy up-front and documenting not only the backup process but also the restore process, will save you a ton of time in the end. Because of its value to the company and the sensitive nature of it, the classification of data must be carefully considered in the planning stage.
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5/21/2009
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Getting Back to Business: Speed of Recovery for Microsoft Exchange Begins with Adequate Levels of Protection
This whitepaper takes a close look at the impact of e-mail downtime on today's businesses and highlights ways to meet strict data recovery needs by describing the most common approaches to Exchange data protection and effective ways to meet and manage Exchange RTO and RPO requirements.
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5/7/2009
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Next Generation Solutions for Optimizing Disk-to-Disk Backup and Recovery
Learn how BakBone’s powerful Virtual Tape Library (VTL) and Shared Virtual Tape Libraries (SVTL) use cost-effective, easy-to-manage disk technology for handling daily back-ups and near-line storage requirements while maximizing more expensive tape solutions for longer-term data retention and archiving. SVTL extends the VTL in SAN environments by eliminating the requirement that a single node have the control of a virtual tape library.
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5/7/2009
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Delivering the Corporate Ideal of Integrated Application and Database Protection
A growing number of challenges arise as databases grow, back up windows shrink and recovery time objectives get more aggressive. Companies require back up software that is affordable, easy to use, and can back up and recover databases to different locations, points-in-time, and media types. Learn how BakBone’s NetVault: Backup APMs deliver an integrated and flexible backup solution to meet your business requirements.
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5/7/2009
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Keeping it Simple: How to Protect Growing VMware Environments
This whitepaper explains why you don’t need to understand VCB internals or labor over complex scripts to create comprehensive, flexible backup policies. Simply point and click to backup or restore virtual machines.
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5/7/2009
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Using Business Continuity to Ensure Uninterrupted Operations
Describing some of the technologies and approaches for achieving business continuity, this whitepaper show how to develop and execute a comprehensive business continuity strategy. Follow these critical steps to better prepare for any type of disruption to business operations.
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5/7/2009
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Aggregating and Pivoting Data
In this excerpt from Chapter 8 of Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Querying, Solid Quality Mentors’ Itzik Ben-Gan explores SQL Server 2008’s grouping sets functionality, which lets you define a large number of grouping sets using minimal coding. The new book—which also features co-authors Steve Kass, Lubor Kollar, and Solid Quality Mentors’ Dejan Sarka—focuses on set-based database querying and query tuning, discussing practical solutions to common problems and giving you polished techniques that will enhance your toolbox, expand your coding vocabulary, and boost your productivity.
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4/16/2009
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10 Things you can’t do with LiteSpeed
HyperBac’s uniqueness, innovativeness and differentiators vs all other third party compression utilities is described in this document, including several examples which go well beyond backup compression into areas of virtualization and online storage compression.
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4/13/2009
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Meeting Compliance Objectives in SharePoint
In recent years, the business and political landscape has seen incredible change with regard to the rules and regulations governing the stewardship of electronically stored and processed information. A flurry of new regulatory and statutory initiatives – prompted by several high profile corporate and government scandals – has made it imperative for organizations to develop and implement robust compliance strategies for their information management systems and overall IT infrastructure.
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4/8/2009
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Top Ten Things You Should Know About Optimizing SQL Server
Optimizing SQL Server performance is difficult. There is a lot of information out there, but very little of it is specific or tailored to your environment. Luckily, there is some practical help available.
In the new Quest Software white paper, learn 10 tips that you can use in the trenches to optimize SQL Server performance. Topics include operational and bottleneck monitoring, storage area networks, indexes, buffer cache and more.
Improve your SQL Server performance with these helpful tips. Read this paper, and then start putting your plan into action.
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4/6/2009
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SQL Server and SharePoint - The More You Know, the Better Off You Are
The SharePoint platform is growing and so is your role as a SQL Server DBA. This dependency creep may mean that you’ll be asked to take on new tasks in SharePoint administration. How can you handle these new responsibilities? And how can you leverage this opportunity to your advantage?
David Walker, Microsoft MVP and SQL Server and SharePoint specialist provides practical advice in this new Quest Software white paper. You’ll learn why SharePoint administration is a logical step for SQL Server DBAs. David provides an overview of the technology and what you need to know in order to successfully add SharePoint administration to your skill set.
Embrace the challenge and further your career path. Read the new white paper.
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4/6/2009
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Protecting SharePoint for Windows 5.0
As the distributed workforce grows, the need for online collaboration and document management grows with it. MSFT SharePoint® streamlines online collaboration, making it possible to create remote project teams with only an Internet connection. However, when these teams aren’t functioning because they can’t access data or critical applications like SharePoint, your business risks losing money at an alarming rate. Download this whitepaper today to learn how to use Double-Take Software as a cost efficient way to protect your SharePoint data and access. When recoverability matters, depend on Double-Take Software to dynamically move, protect, and recover your critical applications.
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1/15/2009
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Thinking Beyond Tape: The Case Against Tape Backup
Many companies are already backing up their main and branch office systems to tape, but what they don't understand is just how vulnerable their data and their business remains. This whitepaper explores the high cost, complexity and potentially dangerous shortcomings of a strategy based only on tape backup. When recoverability matters, depend on Double-Take Software to dynamically move, protect, and recover your critical applications.
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1/15/2009
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Java Database Connectivity
Database connections are the lifeblood of enterprise applications, administrating the secure and steady flow of information between corporate applications and their persistent relational databases. Optimizing these connections can usher in widespread improvements in information management and improvements in server and network resource utilization
This article looks at JDBC drivers from the aspect of their ability to reach the full potential of their promise. It exposes the key factors that help a JDBC driver provide a full range of functionality and optimal performance while still managing on lean requirements of a constrained server environment. It discusses how to measure performance in terms of real world performance found in real production environments.
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12/12/2008
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Managed .NET Connectivity
Database connections are the lifeblood of enterprise applications, administrating the secure and steady flow of information between corporate applications and their persistent relational databases. Optimizing these connections can usher in widespread improvements in information management and improvements in server and network resource utilization.
This article discusses the architectural distinctives of a well-designed .Net connectivity product. It looks at the features required to minimize resource utilization on the host system and provide optimal scalability within an enterprise ecosphere.
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12/12/2008
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Open Database Connectivity
Database connections are the lifeblood of enterprise applications, administrating the secure and steady flow of information between corporate applications and their persistent relational databases. Optimizing these connections can usher in widespread improvements in information management and improvements in server and network resource utilization.
This paper looks at the characteristics of efficient, well designed ODBC driver suites, such as communication strategies and compiled architectures. It helps the reader consider the challenges of enterprise scalability by addressing key areas of resource optimization in memory, CPU utilization and network bandwidth.
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12/12/2008
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Enhance SQL Reporting Services with Double-Take
Microsoft SQL Reporting Services is an exciting way for organizations to gain access and insight into their important business data stored in Microsoft SQL Server. This white paper provides an overview of how Double-Take can greatly increase your production server's performance by offloading Microsoft SQL Reporting Services to a secondary server. When recoverability matters, depend on Double-Take Software to dynamically move, protect, and recover your critical applications.
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12/10/2008
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Improving Data Protection and Storage Reliability for Critical Databases
Discover how a healthcare management company met the challenge of improving data protection and storage reliability for critical databases. This case study examines how GHS Data Management implemented an iSCSI SAN solution into its data center to provide scalable growth and comprehensive data protection with replication, application-aware snapshots.
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9/15/2008
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Continuous Data Protection : Increasing Backup Frequency without Pain
Daily data backups are an important, yet painful, operation slowing (even halting) production, requiring hands-on management, and consuming media. Recovery is even more painful finding the right backup media and restoring data back into a usable format can take hours, and even days. Learn more about how Continuous Data Protection increases backup frequency and fidelity without interrupting production operations.
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9/15/2008
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Building High-Performance Database Systems with EMC Storage Technology and Microsoft SQL Server 2005
In this white paper, you'll read about Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, which incorporates powerful data management and data analysis capabilities in an integrated package. This paper describes some of the important things to consider when designing and implementing database solutions and offers three best practice guidelines that organizations can use to meet the challenges. Learn why optimizing the performance of SQL Server 2005 requires the same steps as with other database technologies - careful planning, a design approach that is based on established best-practice guidelines, and an investment in the right information infrastructure technology. And see why investing time and money upfront will result in a database infrastructure that provides the performance, storage capacity, and scalability to meet the business needs of your organization, with less cost and fewer problems.
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8/13/2008
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