I have created a Backup Script to backup all the databases in our SQL Server 2005. I want to keep old backups for sometime for some reason; so I want to create subdirectory with the run date as the name of the folder to separate the set of backups by date. I need to use DOS Command from within my TSQL Code to create the subdirectory. This feature is turned off by default. I am making sure that I am turning this off after I run the script:

Then here's how I execute DOS Command from within my TSQL:

For security reason, I want to make sure that I turn my xp_cmdshell off. So at the very end of my script:

--Marlon Ribunal Please Help Me: Here's How <Link>

[As posted in my blog at http://dbalink.wordpress.com]

For some reasons, DBA's need to rename their Databases. One of the reasons might be to comply to Best Practices Policy changes. Here we are going to rename our Database named "Bad_Ass_DB" into "Best_Practice_DB".

This is how Database renaming with TSQL is done in SQL Server 2005:

First we need to put our Bad_Ass_DB offline or alter it to single-user mode. You cannot rename a database if it is online or in multi-user mode. And prior to that, there should be no active connection to the database (user, application, etc):

Now we can rename the Database:

Then we can set the database back to multi-user mode. Then, real hard work begins: mapping all your codes, processess, applications, web.config, etc to the new name.

-Marlon Ribunal Please Help Me: Here's How <Link>

[As Posted in my other blog http://dbalink.wordpress.com/]

Donation Through PayPal is now accepted at: http://www.digitalcharity.com/m.php?id=31896

 See my related posts:

http://dbalink.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/help-me-raise-fund-for-my-mother/

http://dbalink.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/i-need-help-to-save-my-dying-mother/

DONORS

***Special Thanks to Brent Ozar (http://www.brentozar.com/) for the Help. Thank you Brent for responding to my call for help. May God continue to shower forth His Blessings unto you and your family now and always!

***Thank you to my CDG Family. Thank you for the outpouring of support that is beyond my personal expectations. Thank you for the gift and Prayers. God Bless us all!

***Estebat Family of Long Beach, CA. Thank you for the Love and Prayers

***Thank you Curtis Pilon for responding to my call for help.

 -Marlon Ribunal

mribunal@verizon.net

 This is my first screencast ever. I don't know where to post this so I just archived and upload it to Sky Drive. You can find the dowload link below:

http://cid-7db5650814ac4824.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/DevPinoySQLServerTriggerDemo.rar

Password of the .rar file: devpinoy.org

-Marlon Ribunal

Here's a quick TSQL solution that you can use to find all the User Tables and their Columns, inluding Data Types, and Column size. This is useful when you need a quick way of finding info on creating your Database's documentation. Whenever I am asked to document a new system/application or review an existing one, I always want to start from the very core of the system - mostly, this is a Database backend.

-Marlon Ribunal

[Cross-Posted From My Other Blog http://dbalink.wordpress.com]

One of the most popular trick questions in most DBA interviews is about Isolation Level/Locks. The same is true with any jobs related to BI and Data Warehouse.

It is a common thing that sometimes we come across errors that came out of anomalous data caused by conflicting transactions and concurrency issues. Dirty Reads only give you Dirty Data. Data inaccuracy is real dirty!

The only way to protect transactions that are prone to conflicts with other transactions is to "Isolate" them from the others. How to protect these critical transactions? Obtain "Locks".

I found this cool introductory to Isolation Level in SQl Server 2005. This article has a downloadable article that came with it. Just in case you miss it, here's the pdf that runs down the Isolation Levels in SQL Server 2005.

You will find the explanation of the this table in the downloadable pdf.

Thanks to Philippe Almog ("SQL Practices: RDBMS Programming") for this helpful resources. You can find related topics in his site, http://sqlpractices.wordpress.com/. 

Out of topic (Bonus!), you can download a copy of the "SQL Server 2005 Failover Clustering" White Paper here. This White Paper is a "comprehensive document about implementing failover clustering for SQL Server 2005 and Analysis Services."

-Marlon Ribunal

[Cross-Posted from my other blog http://dbalink.wordpress.com]

 Here's what Steven Harman has found out in a recent trip: TDD is Gaining Some Ground somewhere...

[Taken by Steven Harman at Crowne Plaza front desk in West Michigan]

[This 3-part series was written by Douglas Reilly who died early 2007. The articles were written in February to June of 2006.]

This is the Part I of the series: The Value of Conferences

And here is the Part II: The Benefit of Forum

Finally, Part III: Importance of Books and the Constant Change

Author profile: Douglas Reilly

The late Douglas Reilly was the owner of Access Microsystems Inc., a small software development company specializing in ASP.NET and mobile development, often using Microsoft SQL Server as a database. He died early in 2007 and is greatly missed by the SQL Server community as one of the industry’s personalities.

[Courtesy of http://www.simple-talk.com]

Please do read these articles with much solemnity. And I broke into tears when I read this. Here's a picture of Doug and his wife, Jean

-Marlon Ribunal

All the possible things you need to know about System.Net.Mail

http://www.systemnetmail.com/default.aspx 

Follow the master's steps... @ http://twitter.com/keithrull

Cool stuff!

 Here's a good one from http://logicalcomplexinfinitive.wordpress.com/

POSITIVE PROOF OF GLOBAL WARMING:

This is such a solid proof of Global Warming. Undeniably True!  

IE close to being Firefox? Is IE8 ready to go head on with firefox? My initial use of the IE8 Beta version shows a lot of improvement. The first thing I've noticed about it is the smooth text on the sites. But there are some problems with some textbox controls. For example, the title textbox of this post's editor is enlarged from one-line to 20-30 line textbox (wordpress editor only). Despite these minor issues, it looks like this time I am switching back from Firefox to IE.

One of the best features of IE8 is the integrated Debugger tool. This is an easy way to debug test applications if you are a web developer. This will eliminate lots of the guessing games in the development process of web projects.

And do you love the Restore Session feature in firefox? Yes, you guessed it right! IE8 has it!

Installation of IE8 to Windows XP SP3 went smoothly. No problem this time. Learn more...

[Cross-posted from my other blog http://dbalink.wordpress.com]

[updated] 

A log switch is a common event in Oracle databaseS. Well, simply put, a Log Switch is an event in which the log writer (LGWR process) stops logging in one log group and jumps to another log group. It is normal that a log group fills up with records. When records fills up the log group, Log Switch event is triggered. You can actually trigger the switch manually by issuing the command:

ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE;

Log Switch also holds a critical role in case of redo log file corruption. If a redo log file is corrupted within the log group, LGWR will still continue writing to the other member files in that group without disrupting the database operations.

When the database is created, it comes with three redo log groups with one file in each group. It is a good practice to add at least one file to these groups. This is what we call "Duplexing" the Redo Log Group. 

Like our previous Oracle HowTo's, lets name our database "MARLONDB":

We connect to the database:

SQL> conn SYS/Password@MARLONDB AS SYSDBA;

Let's see what we currently have:

SQL> SELECT GROUP#, STATUS, ARCHIVED, MEMBERS FROM V$LOG;

    GROUP# STATUS           ARC    MEMBERS
---------- ---------------- --- ----------
         1 INACTIVE         YES          1
         2 INACTIVE         YES          2
         3 CURRENT          NO           1

For Best Practice purposes, let us store the log files in a separate disk.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE ADD LOGFILE MEMBER 'D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\oradata\MARLONDB\redo01a.log' to GROUP 1;

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE ADD LOGFILE MEMBER 'D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\oradata\MARLONDB\redo02a.log' to GROUP 2;

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE ADD LOGFILE MEMBER 'D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\oradata\MARLONDB\redo03a.log' to GROUP 3;

Database altered.

Now, we check again:

SQL> SELECT GROUP#, STATUS, ARCHIVED, MEMBERS FROM V$LOG;

    GROUP# STATUS           ARC    MEMBERS
---------- ---------------- --- ----------
         1 INACTIVE         YES          2
         2 INACTIVE         YES          3
         3 CURRENT          NO           2

-Marlon Ribunal [Also posted in my other blogs: http://dbalink.wordpress.com & http://mytechnotes.spaces.live.com

Looking for cool startup LINQ projects? Zain teaches you the fundamentals. Follow the link below. What makes this post cooler is that he attached a zip files of all his demos for you to download.  

http://blogs.msdn.com/zainnab/archive/2008/03/29/collection-of-linq-resources.aspx

[Also posted on my other blog]

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to be used as a hack/crack or as a way to bypass the legal activation process required by the EULA.

Ok. I have nothing to do with this...I just stumbled upon it on Zain's blog. This is the link:

http://www.petri.co.il/bypass-windows-server-2008-activation.htm