After struggling a lot and working with vendor, identified list of exclusions for SQL Server related to Anti Virus Software (McAfee, Symantec, etc.), the details can be found in this link, last one is important as it impacts performance.   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/309422/how-to-choose-antivirus-software-to-run-on-computers-that-are-running-sql-server   Directories and file-name extensions to exclude from virus scanning When you configure your antivirus software settings, make sure that you exclude the following files or directories (as applicable) from virus scanning. Doing this […]

Issue: While trying to restart SQL Service, it failed and following error found in error logs,   yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.xx Server Error: 17182, Severity: 16, State: 1. yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.xx Server TDSSNIClient initialization failed with error 0xd, status code 0x10. Reason: Unable to retrieve registry settings from TCP/IP protocol’s ‘IPAll’ configuration key. The data is invalid.   yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.xx Server Error: 17182, Severity: 16, State: 1. yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.xx Server TDSSNIClient initialization failed with error 0xd, status code […]

Came across weird situation where received alert for SQL Server transaction log file full and found log_reuse_wait_desc=replication from sys.databases   Now before mentioning troubleshooting step, setup of the database is question is little bit complex because Database is part of SQL Server replication where database publisher is at vendor side and we don’t have access to publisher DB Oracle Golden Gate replication is configured from this database to Oracle DB Database in question is in […]

A good news for those who manage SQL releases, now CU updates are backed by Microsoft and one should not wait for SP releases, CU should be applied as early as possible,   https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/announcing-updates-to-the-sql-server-incremental-servicing-model-ism/   Updates to Cumulative Update Messaging and Guidance: Over the years, as we released CUs (Cumulative Updates), you have become familiar with a certain type of deterrent messaging around those updates. Examples like the below messages often lead DBA’s to plan […]

This Article covers the list of Free database and PowerShell tools I come across time to time, this list will keep growing as I discover them, leave comments if you like any one tool better than other.   SQL Server   Database Health – dashboard overview for quick database health checks (http://databasehealth.com) Idera Free tools for SQL server: https://www.idera.com/productssolutions/freetools, below are some of best which I like, they are not totally free but works for […]

While trying to drop a linked server received following error,   Drop failed for LinkedServer ‘XYZ.ABC.COM’. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&ProdVer=10.50.6000.34+((KJ_SP3).140819-1214+)&EvtSrc=Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.ExceptionTemplates.FailedOperationExceptionText&EvtID=Drop+LinkedServer&LinkId=20476—————————–ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo)——————————Cannot drop server ‘XYZ.ABC.COM’ because it is used as a Distributor in replication. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 20581)For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&ProdVer=10.50.6525&EvtSrc=MSSQLServer&EvtID=20581&LinkId=20476 After going through online posts, found following script to drop distributor settings on Pinal Dave site (link),   EXEC sp_dropdistributor @no_checks = 1, @ignore_distributor = 1 […]

While configuring Linked server to oracle database from SQL server, faced following error,   Error: “ORA-12504: TNS: listener was not given the SERVICE_NAME in CONNECT_DATA” (Microsoft SQL Server Error: 7303)     I did following validation checks to ensure things are in place: Tnsnames.ora – validated that SID is present in tnsnames.ora file which is generally located in C:\Oracle\product\11.2.0\client_1\network\admin\ folder Validate syntax of connection string, it should be in below format, ORA123 = (DESCRIPTION = […]

TDE (Transparent Data Encryption) is an inbuilt encryption feature of SQL Server Enterprise Edition introduced by Microsoft from SQL server 2008 onwards, this comes in handy when someone has to secure the PII (Personal Identifiable Information) from prying eyes, as it is Enterprise Edition feature only hence comes with a premium price. So while I got a request to analyze implementation of it on more than 200+ SQL standard edition then first thing which has […]

While shrinking a large (950GB) database file to move data to a secondary NDF, got below 3140 error, it is a normal error occurs while shrinking files of that capacity, please find resolution below,   Error:   Environment: SQL Server 2005 ENT. ed.   Issue: Data file shrink fails for large data file size with Error: 3140   Fix: The following example query truncates the primary data file in the AdventureWorks2008R2 database. The sys.database_files catalog […]

While re-installing SQL server, got below error,       To fix this execute below commands with elevated access in command prompt so that permissions get applied to respective path,   Eg: takeown /F c:\Windows\system32\drivers /D y /R    In our scenario commands are provided below:   Here path is “F:” which is a parent folder.   takeown /F F: /D y /R   cacls F: /E /T /C /G “<<<user_AD_account_name>>>“:F