Something for the Weekend – SQL Server Links 08/07/11

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This week I had the opportunity to work on an interesting SQL Server reporting solution. The environment in question was using a combination of Database Mirroring and Database Snapshots in order to offload reporting from the Principle database/server. The Snapshot was being refreshed every 10 minutes however the refresh cycle was experiencing delay (for a variety of reasons) during which time user connectivity was unavailable to the Snapshot because it essentially did not exist. Rather than go into more details here (I’ll save those for a separate post) I’ll skip straight to the solution, which was to create a pointer database using Synonyms to reference the most recent Snapshot. This permitted the switch between Snapshots to be transparent to the connections of the reporting application. I developed the solution by building upon something similar from a post written by the SQLCAT team. I extended/modified the code in order to support Database Mirroring. I’ll be sure to share the details of how I did this with you in a future post but for now I thought I would bring the post by SQLCAT your attention. I had not seen or considered this type of solution previously and so thought it may be of interest to you too.

Here’s your weekly roundup of SQL Server Blog Posts, News and Techie Stuff. Enjoy!

SQL Server Links

• SaveToSQLServer method error | Communication Link Failure – Another interesting tip this week from Pradeep Adiga (Blog|Twitter). I really love these tips that Pradeep shares because it helps us DBAs to broaden our troubleshooting experience to cover issues that we may have yet to see for ourselves.
• Undocumented Query Plans: The ANY Aggregate – Paul White (Blog|Twitter) walks us through.
• Survey results on rebooting – is it good or bad? – This weeks survey results are in from Paul Randal (Blog|Twitter). What’ interesting this week are the reasons other’s give for “needing” to perform a reboot.
• What Do You Think are the Most Common DBA Pain Points? – An invitation this week from Brad McGehee (Blog|Twitter) to share your woes. Ah where shall I begin Brad, where shall I begin. Be sure to add your thoughts and read the comments to see what other DBAs had to say.
• New whitepapers on latches and spinlocks published – Two excellent whitepapers from the SQLCAT team looking at latches and spinlocks with regard to performance tuning, shared via Paul Randal (Blog|Twitter).
• Make Your Life Easier With Fun Denali Tricks – I’m all about making life easier and so this weeks post from Michael J. Swart (Blog|Twitter) is a welcome treat of some things we have to look forward to in Denali.
• Converting OR to Union – Gail Shaw (Blog|Twitter) highlights the importance of knowing your data to avoid some pitfalls when performing this tuning technique.
• Bitmap Magic – This weeks post title from Paul White (Blog|Twitter) sounds like a bad Take That song but it’s actually a brilliant look at some SQL Server internals.
• Pliant Technology, Enterprise Flash Drives For Your SQL Server: Part 2 – I’m consistently blown away by the amount of effort that goes into some of content produced by the community. Another impressive technical post from Wes Brown (Blog|Twitter).