Best Practice: Do not use wireless connections

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Best Practice: Do not use wireless connections

j.a.c

SSCrazy

Points: 2283
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December 22, 2008 at 4:20 pm

#126675

Hi,
I learned from experience to never use a wireless connection to perform emergency admin work on a production SQL Server 2005 instance.
Using a single connection using SSMS over a wireless connection I was executing these commands one at a time.
ALTER DATABASE some_db SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
GO
ALTER DATABASE some_db SET MULTI_USER
GO
During this I lost my connection once the database was in single user mode and before I executed the second command. Then of course some other application came along within milliseconds and grabbed the only connection available to that database...lesson learned.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004363 More actions · Answer 1

That's good advice if you're going to do something like that... but, most maintanence doesn't require a single connection like that. Not sure that's enough justification to give up on wireless connections for DBA work.

Now, keystroke sniffers might be another story! 😉

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

j.a.c SSCrazy Points: 2283 More actions · Answer 2

I agree that 99.9% of administrative duties can be safely used via a wireless connection, but I think if I have to run that script again (the other 0.1 %) via wireless then I will RDP into my machine at work. If I lose the connection again I just have to reconnect the RDP session. The SQL Server connection on my work machine should be maintained just fine.

Anam Verma SSCertifiable Points: 5365 More actions · Answer 3

i would say that it could be with any network connection, not only with wireless ones. i usually login to production servers via a citrix session and it happened couple of times where i lost the citrix connection even working on intranet.

I think the queries you were running are very much specific that you can't afford to loose the connection.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004363 More actions · Answer 4

jac (12/22/2008)
I agree that 99.9% of administrative duties can be safely used via a wireless connection, but I think if I have to run that script again (the other 0.1 %) via wireless then I will RDP into my machine at work. If I lose the connection again I just have to reconnect the RDP session. The SQL Server connection on my work machine should be maintained just fine.

Might be why it's never happened to me... I do the very same thing... it's all part of the fire wall setup. You can only RDP into certain machines and you HAVE to RDP in. We were doing the Cisco thing, as well.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jonathan Kehayias One Orange Chip Points: 26778 More actions · Answer 5

I only work on my production servers via RDP to my work desktop. It's just not worth any kind of risk being on VPN as well as having my fibre service hiccup or anything else while on my production machines. Let any problem happen between my laptop and my Remote Desktop.

j.a.c SSCrazy Points: 2283 More actions · Answer 6

Jonathan,

That is an even better idea...do you RDP into production boxes for any and all work that needs to be done or just for the more risky tasks?

Jonathan Kehayias One Orange Chip Points: 26778 More actions · Answer 7

I rarely ever RDP to one of my servers. I RDP to my work Desktop for almost everything. The only things I need to actually be on a RDP to the server for is applying patches, which I double hop through my desktop to do. We keep a disconnected session timeout on the servers, so if the RDP from my laptop at home were to get kicked for some reason and I not realize it fast enough, my session would be closed automatically by terminal services.

Some of my servers require a double hop to get to because of DMZ restrictions that only allow specific IP addresses inbound, so it is really easier for me to just RDP to my work machine and work from it.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736270 More actions · Answer 8

I've RDP'd to servers if needed, but also to desktops when I wanted to be sure of a stable connection for an extended period of time. Wireless has worked well for me, but like any remote connection, it could flake.