Transcript Relationships - SQL Server 2008 Tutorials

SQL Server 2008 – Administration,
Maintenance and Job Automation
Learningcomputer.com
Agenda today – lots to cover
 Overview the concepts first
 SQL Server Agent
 Management Tab
 Demo on Events, Alerts and Jobs
 Database Mail configuration
 Maintenance Plan Demo
Why Automate Admin tasks?
 Automation frees your time to perform other administrative
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functions
As the tasks are routinely scheduled, they have no human
element which reduces errors and improves consistency
Microsoft SQL Server allows you to automate administrative
tasks using SQL Server Agent which runs as a service
To automate administration, you define predictable
administrative tasks and then specify the conditions under
which each task occurs
The results of these tasks can be delivered to the operators
Events and Alerts
 Events are when something typically an error occurs on the
SQL Server e.g. Database log fills up
 Alerts would be a message sent to an Operator that an event
has occurred e.g. Hey operator, database log is full
 By recording specified events, SQL Server can help you
troubleshoot performance, audit database activity and gather
data for job related issues
More on Alerts
 Alerts are defined to provide event notification
 Alerts have to be user defined as there are none listed out of
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the box
Alert can be raised on Error number or Severity Level
Performance counters can also be used to define an alert
With an alert, you execute a job and notify an operator
Can be created using SQL Server Management Studio
(SSMS) or T-SQL
Demo on Alert “AW Log is full” later
Operators
 The Operator is the person or group notified about the status
of a job
 The methods of notification include
 Email
 Pager
 Net Send
 Fail-Safe Operator is notified as a last resort
 Operator can be created using SQL Server Management
Studio (SSMS) or T-SQL stored procedures
Jobs
 Jobs contain one or more job steps. Each step contains its
own task, for example, backing up a database
 Jobs can be created using
 SSMS
 Maintenance Plans
 T-SQL
 Jobs are owned by the creator
 Jobs Types can be TSQL, Active X, CmdExec, Replication,
SSIS and PowerShell
 Jobs can be run manually but are often scheduled to run on
their own
Bringing it all together
SQL Server Agent
 SQL Server Agent is a Windows service that executes
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scheduled administrative tasks, which are called jobs
Agent uses either local system account or domain user
account (preferred). Use configuration manager to set it up
SQL Server Agent uses SQL Server to store job information
in the system msdb database
SQL Server Agent can run a job on a schedule, in response to
a specific event/alert, or on demand, e.g. backup at midnight
More info can be found by RMB (Right Mouse Button)
 Discuss General and Alert System tabs
SQL Server Agent Tab
 Jobs
 Alerts
 Operators
 Proxies
 An alternative security context that can run SQL Server Agent
jobs instead of SQL Server Agent service account
 Error Logs (Agent Specific)
 Demo
Management Tab
 It has the following important items related to Management
 Maintenance Plans –Will cover it later
 SQL Server Logs
 Database Mail –Will cover is later
 Legacy
 Demo
Demo on Log file is Full
 The scenario is: AdventureWorks2008 is our production
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database
We have created a job called “Increase AW Log” which creates
a copy of Customer table and updates data every 5 minutes.
This causes the transaction file to be full
In order to fix the issue, we have created an Alert called “AW
Log is full” based on Error Number 9002
When SQL Server agent notices this alert, it takes necessary
action which is to run Job “Backup AW Log”
This can be monitored using Job Activity Monitor
Database Mail
 Database Mail is an enterprise solution for sending e-mail
messages from the SQL Server Database Engine
 Using Database Mail, your database applications can send email messages to users. The messages can contain query
results, and can also include files from any resource on your
network
 Database Mail is designed for reliability, scalability, security,
and supportability
 Lets go ahead and configure Database Mail now
Maintenance Plans
 Maintenance plans create a workflow of the tasks required to
make sure that your database is optimized, is regularly
backed up, and is free of inconsistencies.
 The Maintenance Plan Wizard also creates core maintenance
plans, but creating plans manually gives you much more
flexibility
 In SQL Server 2008 Database Engine, maintenance plans
create an Integration Services package, which is run by a SQL
Server Agent job.
 These maintenance tasks can be run manually or
automatically at scheduled intervals.
Maintenance Plans – Continued
 Wizard is easy to use and intuitive
 You can do all of the following tasks;
 Data optimization
 Database integrity check
 Backup databases and transaction logs
 Cleanup files and history information
 At the end it creates an SQL Server Integration Services
(SSIS) package that can be edited using BIDS
 You can execute it on demand or schedule it for later
 I use it as a starting point to get the TSQL I need