Recently, one of my clients contacted me to assist in fixing and issue which was causing their production database to be in SUSPECT state. The learnings I am getting from various consulting engagements is awesome and the after effect of this is a number of blogs I have published in the recent past. They were using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (SP2) in a clustered environment. They had a disaster and had a hard failure of SQL cluster. Initially there were issues with DTC and they were able to fix them by installing the DTC component in the cluster. Now, once they reinstalled DTC, the production database was in SUSPECT state. Let us learn about how to detect DTC/KTM in-doubt Transaction with UOW.
SQL SERVER – Fix Error Msg 13602 working with JSON documents
My saga of working with JSON documents and finding out the various errors continues. With JSON being one of the new data structures introduced inside SQL Server 2016, I have been exploring to how these are fundamentally different from using the FORXML constructs. The more I have been working and testing with this capability, the more similarities I am seeing in them. Coming from a generation of working with SQL Server for more than a decade, I try to explore and learn the new concepts keeping some reference. This helps in faster learning and can accelerate the way you work with the new concepts.
SQL SERVER – Create Database and BI (SSAS, SSRS, SSIS) Documentation
ApexSQL Doc is a simple but powerful tool which is used for documenting SQL Server databases, SSIS packages, SSAS cubes and SSRS items. It enables users to customize the documentation by including/excluding needed database objects and settings and to generate the documentation in various output formats like, CHM, HTML, PDF and Word formats. Let us learn about how to create BI (SSAS, SSRS, SSIS) documentation.
SQL Server Agent – Unable to start the service – The request failed or the service did not respond in a timely fashion
Rarely, it also happens when someone becomes accidental DBA and may get stumped with simple things. This blog is result of troubleshooting which I have done for a company where I found one such DBA. I don’t say you cannot become a DBA in this manner, it is the hard work that goes behind this that needs to be understood. Let us learn about error related to SQL Server Agent.
SQL SERVER – Unable to cast object of type ‘System.DBNull’ to type ‘System.String’. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)
When you are driving on a highway, you look forward to the sign boards give you guidance while you are busy driving. These sign boards tell you when your exit is approaching and how you should be dealing with the same. I consider such sign boards inside SQL Server as “Error Messages”. I rely on them so heavily to give me insider information to a possible solution. Not always are these messages super easy to understand. Take for instance the following message. While trying to create a database on my lab server, I got below error related to System.DBNull:
SQL SERVER – Script level upgrade for database master failed because upgrade step sqlagent100_msdb_upgrade.sql encountered error
Sometimes I feel that one error can be caused due to multiple reasons and there are different ways to solve it. I already have two blogs for the error message. As they say, there are is no silver bullet when it comes to solving some of the issues. SQL Server might through a generic message, but it all lead to the same problem related to master database:
How to Use Zip With SSIS? – Notes from the Field #130
[Note from Pinal]: This is a 130th episode of Notes from the Field series. In this episode we are going to learn something very simple but effective about SIS and Zip. This subject is not very much discussed about and hardly there are many information about this subject available. In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Kevin Hazzard explains the how to use ZIP with SSIS. Read the experience of Kevin in his own words.