SQL Server Fragmentation Explained
This technical whitepaper 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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11/18/2009
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Attention SSIS users: turbocharge your ETL applications with expressor
More and more users of Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) for ETL are “bumping up against” its limits. They have to write too much complex code for data transformations. Their applications are becoming too slow as data volumes increase. And integrating with non-Microsoft data sources can be difficult or impossible. But most high-performance ETL / data integration solutions on the market are too disruptive to Microsoft-centric IT infrastructures and very expensive. This paper provides an overview of the expressor semantic data integration system, an affordable, Microsoft-friendly ETL development and deployment environment that enables SSIS users to deliver enterprise-class ETL capabilities. Also included is a case study of American Tower, an operator of thousands of communications sites across the US for the wireless and broadcast industries, who recently decided to migrate its data warehousing application from SSIS to expressor – to improve its performance loading data and executing complex data transformations.
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11/11/2009
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15 Minute Guide to Building Efficient Infrastructures for Microsoft SharePoint Server
Read the guide to learn how to build efficient infrastructures for
Microsoft SharePoint Server environments-whether physical or
virtual-using our deep application experience, strong portfolio of
expert services, industry-leading technologies, and proven solutions
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11/10/2009
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The High-Performance DBA
The database administrator’s job continues to grow more challenging as they are called upon to confront new platforms, increasing complexity, more data, and less help. To meet these challenges, the DBA must put a strategy in place across all databases, regardless of platform, that focuses on areas that contribute the most to high availability and performance, including:
• Storage Management
• Performance Management
• Capacity Management
This paper outlines techniques you can use to streamline and automate the management of these critical areas so you can deliver high databases performance and availability.
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11/4/2009
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Performance Optimization: Extending the IT Infrastructure
Due to time, money, and resource limitations it is often no longer feasible to rewrite, re-architect, or even replace under-performing applications and databases that are core to running the business. Performance optimization is the key ingredient in the struggle to stretch an invested IT dollar to its absolute limit. This whitepaper show you how to take a three step approach to prevent, find, and fix performance issues that can occur at any stage of the development lifecycle.
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11/4/2009
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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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10/25/2009
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Virtual Architecture for Microsoft SharePoint Server
People use information to drive business outcomes. These outcomes include developing customer relationships, driving innovation, and improving operations to facilitate collaboration. These objectives need to be archived by developing the most flexible, cost-effective infrastructure possible.
Your organization uses Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to facilitate collaboration, provide content management features, implement business processes, and supply access to information that is essential to organizational goals and processes. But deploying Microsoft SharePoint is only part of the answer. It can lead to distributed farms with direct-attached storage resulting in increased cost and management complexity as well as underutilized assets. So what is the solution?
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10/23/2009
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The 6 Key Points of SharePoint Infrastructure Planning
SharePoint products and technologies have readily found a place within the business environments of many organizations. SharePoint provides an ideal platform for business collaboration and other functions, therefore, it is becoming a critical tool that must be properly architected, maintained, and designed to be easily expanded. A large number of businesses and organizations are considering either deployment of new SharePoint environments or expansion of existing environments and they first need to consider design criteria for the platform.
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10/23/2009
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A Comparison of Disk-Based Data Protection Techniques
Balancing the need for availability and performance of the application with the need to capture and store backup copies of the data, many organizations are having to re-evaluate their data protection strategies and invest in new technologies that help reduce the time taken to both backup and recover key applications. At the heart of most data protection systems is the backup, which for years focused on tape as the primary destination for an organization’s data, but now more companies are using disk as the initial (and sometimes final) location on which to store copies of their business-critical information. This short paper takes a look at the factors that companies need to consider when selecting disk based-data protection solutions.
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10/5/2009
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Protect your SharePoint Content: An Overview of SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery
SharePoint Disaster Recovery is more than just backing up your data and building extra hardware. Our new whitepaper "Protect your SharePoint Content: An Overview of SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery" covers the key principles for developing a comprehensive SharePoint disaster recovery plan that works for your unique environment.
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9/21/2009
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Empowered SQL Server Development with Toad for SQL Server
Database developers face a variety of challenges every day, from creating and maintaining tables and stored procedures to optimizing indexes and tuning queries. All these tasks require a combination of, patience, attention to detail, and specialized knowledge, such as an understanding of how the query engine compiles a query before execution.
Quest Software’s Toad® for SQL Server can help. Its broad functionality lowers the barrier of entry, eases developer workload, and provides developers with accurate information so they can make intelligent decisions about database performance.
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9/14/2009
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How to Achieve 40:1 Backup Compression with LiteSpeed® for SQL Server’s SmartDiff
SQL Server can do differential backups, which capture only the parts of the database that have changed since the last full backup. Differential backups can be significantly smaller than full backups, which means less network traffic and shorter maintenance windows. However, differential backups are not always appropriate. If your database has a high rate of change, or its indexes are rebuilt each day, then a differential backup can be nearly as large as a full backup, and take nearly as long. In that case, using differential backups actually adds to your space requirements as well as the time and complexity of restores. But deciding when to perform full backups and when to use differentials—and ensuring that the right combination of backups is ready in case a restore is needed—often becomes so complicated that database administrators (DBAs) simply abandon the feature of differential backups altogether, losing all the potential benefits. Quest’s LiteSpeed® for SQL Server can help address this issue. Its SmartDiff technology lets you easily configure rules that enable it to decide when to do a full backup and when to do a differential—automatically. It’s as if you examined every database, every night, and made the best backup decision based on change rates, day of the week, retention needs, and more. LiteSpeed SmartDiff enables you to enjoy the benefits of differential backups, without the hassles. DBAs can achieve the same level of bulletproof recoverability they’ve come to expect from LiteSpeed, yet save company resources in the process. It’s a win-win for everyone.
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9/14/2009
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Streamline Backup and Recovery with LiteSpeed® for SQL Server and LiteSpeed® Engine for Oracle
Database backup and recovery is becoming more difficult and more complicated. Two factors are putting a “double whammy” on today’s IT shops like never before: (1) the unabated explosion in data growth and (2) the ever-increasing need for data security. Further complicating these challenges is the fact that most IT shops use more than one database management system.
As a database administrator (DBA) in a multi-platform shop, I have responsibility
for developing and managing a database backup and recovery strategy that covers both Oracle and SQL Server while addressing our continued data growth and need for security. This technical brief explains how I use Quest’s LiteSpeed® for SQL Server and LiteSpeed® Engine for Oracle to effectively manage my fast-growing databases and comply with security requirements.
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9/14/2009
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Developing Something for Nothing with SQL Server: A Closer Look at SQL Server Express and How it Can Work for You
Software development is an expensive and time-consuming process, not just in terms of time and salaries but also in terms of software and hardware costs. It can be tempting to pick a widely available free solution with the intent of migrating to an enterprise solution in the future. However, it is important to consider potential issues before they arise. Will the free solution scale? Does the free solution have a support agreement? Will it be as easy as possible to continue to grow your systems beyond the original development server?
This paper explains how SQL Server resolves these questions: it is available in a free edition that can easily scale to enterprise levels.
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9/14/2009
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Increasing Reliability and Availability in a Virtualized SQL Server Environment
A major component of your virtualized SQL Server environment will likely be availability and recoverability. Consolidation allows you to configure your systems to support these, and also helps to standardize the environment, making recovery more straightforward. By choosing the right physical servers and the right configurations in support of those applications, there are significant benefits to be realized by virtualizing your SQL environment. There are, however, some pitfalls to putting this type of solution in place. This paper will provide you some best practices and key success stories that you can use in designing and implementing your own virtualized SQL environment.
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9/11/2009
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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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