March 20, 2014 at 7:43 am
Yeah! I got to finish my lunch! Thanks for the question, this feature opens the door for me to do a deeper dive!
March 20, 2014 at 7:45 am
I got to see others eat their lunch ( I don't like the food there :-D).
On the corrupt side of the answer, I have seen a snapshot become suspect at least once a week. Not because of a SQL problem but because of the NTFS sparse files technology that support snapshots.
We had a very large database, with large update activity, and any snapshot we kept would only last a few days before becoming suspect. Just something to keep in mind and remember that nothing replaces a good backup with a tested restore ;-).
March 20, 2014 at 7:51 am
This question is totally unrealistic - I would never eat at Chipotle. 😉 I would have been at my favorite Chinese place, or, if being bad, at my favorite Greek place having a Gyro basket.
However, I did get to eat my lunch, and I did enjoy the question. Thanks for a thoughtful and challenging QotD.
[font="Verdana"]Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.[/font]
Connect to me on LinkedIn
March 20, 2014 at 8:16 am
"The revert operation failed!"
The first question I'd ask: What is the error message? It's pretty clear.
Msg 3137, Level 16, State 4, Line 1
Database cannot be reverted. Either the primary or the snapshot names are improperly specified, all other snapshots have not been dropped, or there are missing files.
"..heeding the advice of more experienced peers decides to hedge by taking a snapshot before the change.."
If the "peers" in question were other DBA team members, then I'd tell them to drop their own lunch and figure it out themselves while I finish my burrito.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
March 20, 2014 at 9:20 am
Should Junior have been capable of figuring this out from the error message? Or, is this too much to ask of a Junior? And, if it's too much to ask of Junior to figure it out from the message, maybe you should not have gone to lunch until the entire process was completed. And, who assigned Junior something beyond their capabilities? 😉
A humorous and fun question.
Thanks,
Tom
March 20, 2014 at 9:30 am
OCTom (3/20/2014)
Should Junior have been capable of figuring this out from the error message? Or, is this too much to ask of a Junior? And, if it's too much to ask of Junior to figure it out from the message, maybe you should not have gone to lunch until the entire process was completed. And, who assigned Junior something beyond their capabilities? 😉A humorous and fun question.
Thanks,
Tom
"..heeding the advice of more experienced peers decides to hedge by taking a snapshot before the change.."
Where were the more experienced peers when the revert operation hit a snag? Expert peers are never around when they're really needed. Next time, Junior should be going to Senior for advice before trying something new. Senior probably had no idea Junior was planning to alter tables or whatever after he walked out the door for lunch.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
March 20, 2014 at 10:22 am
Excellent question. I particularly liked the format.
I had it narrowed down to 2 choices but couldn't remember the specific errors for each! Darn it. Good thing I don't like Chipotle that much.
I will say when I get back to the office I'm teaching Junior how to use BOL and Google!
Kenneth FisherI was once offered a wizards hat but it got in the way of my dunce cap.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/[/url]For better answers on performance questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/[/url]Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLStudies.com[/url]
March 20, 2014 at 10:38 am
Nice question, and able to finish lunch,
however . . .
I would have asked Junior why he didn't BACKUP the database for this purpose. BOL - "Reverting is not intended for media recovery. . A database snapshot is an incomplete copy of the database files, so if either the database or the database snapshot is corrupted, reverting from a snapshot is likely to be impossible. Furthermore, even when it is possible, reverting in the event of corruption is unlikely to correct the problem. Therefore, taking regular backups and testing your restore plan are essential to protect a database." Snapshots primary purpose are for reporting needs.
March 20, 2014 at 12:10 pm
Fun question. Thanks Andy.
I did get to finish my lunch but since I am a workaholic I was already driving back to the office with my burrito bowl to go. I just got to finish eating it while watching Junior work. 😀
March 20, 2014 at 1:55 pm
Easy question, I've been in this situation a couple of times. 🙂
/Håkan Winther
MCITP:Database Developer 2008
MCTS: SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance
MCSE: Data Platform
March 20, 2014 at 4:23 pm
I got to finish my lunch! Thanks for the question.
March 20, 2014 at 5:18 pm
I would finish my burrito, sitting in Chipolte, regardless. I'd put Junior on the cell phone speaker, ask him to describe the error, and then help guide him through it; stuffing my mouth with beans and rice while he googles from his own desk. I'd also question whether reverting or rolling back is even necessary in the first place.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
March 21, 2014 at 1:11 am
We should have more questions like this.
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP
March 21, 2014 at 5:24 am
That was a good question. You really have to think it through and consider the possibilities. Thanks.
March 21, 2014 at 7:35 am
I'm a developer - not qualified as even Junior DBA, though I have to pretend once in a while. 🙂
As a developer though, I used to make temporary backups of code files by copying them into folders named CYA. Until a coworker announced that we were running low on disk space so he'd deleted those "See-Ya" folders!
Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 42 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply