I am not a big fan of using command line utilities in general. But from time to time I do explore and play around with command line tools that make my life easier. Having said that, when working with SQL Server, I do often give out the recommendation of not trying to use the native xp_cmdshell commands with SQL Server. Even the SQL_Server_2012_Security_Best_Practice_Whitepaper talks about xp_cmdshell and recommends to avoid the same if it is possible. These are basic building blocks of security that I highly recommend my customers from time to time.
Off late I have been writing a lot around SQL Server backups and administration topics. I have seen a lot of my readers have been enjoying some of the deep conversations I have with people in the industry. As I always say, most of the blog posts are inspired by someone asking me a question, me doing the research and then reaching out to them to give a solution. This blog post is no different in that aspect.
Whenever someone reports some weird error on my blog comments or sends email to know about it, I always ask to share SQL Server ERRORLOG file. There have been many occasions where I need to guide them to find location of ERRORLOG file generated by SQL Server. Most DBA’s are intelligent and know some of these, but this is my try to share my learning about ERRORLOG location.
We are so used to taking backups and it can sometimes give us new experiences. One of the common messages I see are around taking backups on a share. If you have found this blog while searching for error message then you may want to look at below blogs as well if you are NOT dealing with mapped drive.