1. Database Tricks And Treats on Managing SQL Server
Jonathan Fite
Oakwood Systems Group

2. Jonathan Fite Oakwood Systems Group
Database Administrator for 10 years
MCSE
Enjoys scripting out just about everything
Jack of all trades – System Administration, Developer, Copier Repair, Help Desk, Database Administrator, Air Conditioner Cooler

3. Overview Favorite Tools Other People’s Work SQL Server Tips
Rules of Thumb
Scripting
Troubleshooting
Thoughts

4. NotePad++ Free, open source (GPL)
Text and script editor
Multiple language syntax highlighting support (PowerShell, SQL)
Thriving plug-in community
Compare
Combine
Poor Man’s TSQL Formatter (more on this later)

5. Poor Man’s TSQL Formatter Free, Open source
Basic TSQL Formatter
Available as web formatting, Notepad++ plug-in, SSMS (2014?) plug- in, command line version

6. Other People’s Work Standing on the shoulders of giants
Adam Machanic – sp_WhoIsActive
Brent Ozar – Blitz Scripts (sp_Blitz, sp_BlitzIndex, sp_AskBrent, etc.)
Ola Hallengren – Maintenance Solution
Kendal Van Dyke – SQL PowerDoc

7. Indexes
Clustered indexes don’t need to be the primary key, but they should be narrow and ever increasing/Decreasing.
Use the column most commonly used for lookups (joins, ranges, etc.)
May have to decide where you want to pay the piper
Heaps are lazy (for the most part)
Deletes on Heaps are odd…
Foreign Key columns should have a non-clustered index on them
Defragment as often as the SLA can stand it.

8. Backups What are you backing up?
Databases – FULL, DIFF, LOG, FILEGROUP
LOGINS – with SID?
Agent Jobs
Database Mail Configuration
Encryption Keys
Service Master Key
SSISDB Key
SSRS Keys
Server Configuration – HINT: dump sys.configurations
Linked Servers, Proxy Accounts, Replication, Cluster, Always On Availability Groups
Watch out for SAN or VM based backup solutions…

9. Other Tips
Cross Domain Authentication – “Runas /netonly /user:<domain>\<username> <program>”
SSMS, PowerShell,
Notepad++, SSMS – ALT+SHIFT+ARROW(up/down)
Running a UHD screen and Remote Desktop sucks? – Say hello to External Manifest

10. Rules of Thumb
Change the model database to what you want the default Recovery model to be.
Get in the habit of terminating SQL with a semi-colon.
Use two part naming. (<schema>.<object>)
Backup your Server Master Key, SSISDB key and SSRS keys.
Always Use at least 4 disks for data in Azure (stripe).
Linked Servers Suck.
Assume that documentation starts out being only 80% correct… and doesn’t improve with age.

11. Scripting Anything you do more than once
Powershell.exe –ExecutionPolicy Bypass –File “<PathtoFile>” -Argument1 “value1”
PowerShell Step in SQL Agent works… but kind of sucks, missing many new features of
Powershell
Interact with SQL Server through SSMS
Call the Scripter engine

12. Troubleshooting Define problem, avoiding subjective measurements
How much slower (and measure)? Did it ever work correctly? How was the problem originally noticed?
Identify components involved
Check Versions and patch level
What Changed?
Isolate components and test individually
Try the obvious first, or at least make sure it was done correctly.

13. Thoughts Read – Blogs, Stack Exchange Questions, Forums, etc.
SQL Skills, Brent Ozar, SQL Blog
Automate – Automate/Script one task a month
Learn your infrastructure stack
Test your restores regularly

14. References – In No particular Order
Notepad++ -
Poor Man’s TSQL Formatter -
Adam Machanic aspx
Brent Ozar -
Ola Hallengren -
Kendal Van Dyke -
Dale Hayter (Remote Desktop) - surface-book
Learn PowerShell In A Month Of Lunches by Don Jones and Jeffrey Hicks
DBA Reactions -