April 23, 2008 at 3:59 am
Hi All,
Well first of let me say how much i love SQLcentral and yes i am learning but need basic advice from you pro's
I come from a MySql background and we have no SQL Server admins so i was given this role.
I have identified we have 30 servers and it has always been a case of if a department wants a SQL database then we stick it on a new server.
My task will eventually be to migrate these down to just 4 servers (one day LOL )
At the moment we have mixed 2000 and 2005 on the servers.
Backup's are all over the place and many have never been backed up, forget about recovery plans etc.
Guess this is what you get with no admin.
At the moment I RDC to the servers to manage them.
My very newbee question is, should i get 2005 installed on my PC to connect to the servers or would this be a waist of time.
How do you guys connect to your servers, through SQL server manager on your desktops or ?
What monitoring tools would you suggest, to monitor performance and failure?
i have heard of Idera and MUM but what do you guys recomend.
As you can see these are very basic questions but hope you guys / gals can answer.
P.S money no object.
Hell i will be saving them a fortune by stop buying new servers for such small databases.
Thanks
April 23, 2008 at 4:09 am
Yes, install the SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 client tools on your desktop and you'll save time connecting to your servers - assuming there are no firewalls stopping you from doing this. Make sure you apply the latest service pack to your PC for the client tools as well.
I can't recommend any third-party monitoring tools, but you might it helps your learning to set up a few performance alerts yourself - it'll also help when you come to evaluate any tools for doing the same job.
John
April 23, 2008 at 4:38 am
First of all, if you have this option then plan it. We usually don't have this relaxation to migrate databases often. You will learn a lot, and people here at SQL Server Central will always be there to pull you out from sticky situations.
Prepare the following action list -
1> Designate the Hardware for the four servers. If you have the liberty to start from new systems, formatted and OS loaded, nothing is better than that. Decide proper names for the servers and IPs from the best subnet available.
2> Have discussions with your manager and stake holders whether you can upgrade the SQL 2000 servers to 2005, or all the SQL servers to SQL Server 2008. Its better always to be up to date.
3> If you finally have the liberty of new systems, load the SQL Server Software.
4> In case you need to converge the specific versions, group up heavily loaded databases with lightly loaded ones to optimize system resources and enhance performance.
5> If you are keeping the previous versions and have a small window of downtime, setup log shipping or replication to the new servers from the old databases. Then designate a specific duration for downtime, and co-operate with the IT staff to roll out a pre-planned transition plan, which may include pushing application configuration files from the Domain Server, etc. Remove the log shipping config or the replication jobs.
6> In any case prepare a proper maintenance plan for the following -
a> Backups
b> Disk size monitoring
c> Database fine tuning
...........and if you are saving money for your company, ask them to gift you the SQL Toolbelt from Redgate.....you will be amazed with the features and the power unleashed in you.
Chandrachurh Ghosh
DBA – MS SQL Server
Ericsson India Global Services Limited
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
April 23, 2008 at 4:45 am
..........as of accessing the Servers, use Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.......you will be able to maintain frequently used scripts on your local system, which can be used all across the servers.....there are many other benefits.....only few resource intensive activities can be performed using remote desktop or mstsc......you can optimize utilization of both, and will be efficient as you go ahead......Best of Luck!
Chandrachurh Ghosh
DBA – MS SQL Server
Ericsson India Global Services Limited
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
April 23, 2008 at 5:33 am
Many thanks for the advice, and duly noted.
The company has a policy of always going for the most stable release prior to new so it will be 2005.
Is there any point in installing 2000 on my local machine, will not 2005 be sufficient?
Many thanks for the quick response
April 23, 2008 at 6:20 am
Sure...you can use SQL 2005 MS SSMS, but creating DTS packages and few other activities will get you into trouble......:hehe:
Chandrachurh Ghosh
DBA – MS SQL Server
Ericsson India Global Services Limited
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
April 23, 2008 at 6:49 am
... and it's helpful to have SQL Server 2000 Books Online, although I think you can download and install that separately. Speaking of which, make sure you regularly download the latest Books Online for each.
John
April 24, 2008 at 7:48 am
I support SQL 2000 and SQL 2005, from SQL 2005 MSS Mgmt Studio I can access all the systems and do 95% of the tasks needed on the 2000 boxes. So to create dts or Maint plans I remote into those boxes and create what is needed. Then from the Mgmt studio, the jobs and such can be triggered or schedules modified. Just be sure when you install the Management studio to do the Service pack 2 install and KB933508 at the very minimum to work with the systems.
April 24, 2008 at 8:14 am
SQL Server 2000 Client Tools are still somewhat useful even for SQL 2005 data access and management. Some of us find the SQL Server Query Analyzer editor to be a friendlier environment than the query windows provided with SSMS.
April 24, 2008 at 11:59 am
You might already be planning for this but it’s probably not a bad idea to designate a couple of the extra servers you’ll end up with as test servers if you don’t have any now.
Good luck.
April 25, 2008 at 10:03 am
Just a couple of words of advice:
- You can probably get away with only using SQL 2005 for the database servers. It may be the case that some of the individual 2000 databases use stored procedures that are not totally compatible with 2005, but there is a compatibility setting you can use so that the database functions as it should. So you move an SQL 2000 database to the 2005 server then 'exec sp_dbcmptlevel databasename, 80'. This will set the database to the SQL 2000 compatibility level (80 = SQL 2000 ; 90 = SQL 2005). So you can run a database on 2005 but its behavior will be compatible with the earlier version. Details in the help files.
- The 2000 tools are still useful. In particular, the SQL 2000 Query Analyzer is a nice utility that is great for scripting and will connect to 2000 or 2005 databases. The 2000 Enterprise Manager will not connect to 2005 databases, but Query Analyzer works just fine and is a very flexible tool.
- If you are new to MS SQL Server then it will be to your benefit to look into the stored procedures that exist in the master database. They are essential to getting the information you will want and accomplishing tasks that you need to do. They all start 'sp_' . Consequently you should never name one of your procedures sp_(anything). But things such as the 'sp_helpdb' procedure can prove invaluable in monitoring things like database size, etc.
Hope it helps,
D.
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