Post By: Alberto Ortoll Orellana (Bellevue College, WA)

Clustering is an Operating System (OS) Server based technology used to provide failover capabilities, and it is inherently redundant. Microsoft SQL Server is, more specifically, an application server that runs on top of the OS. There are some additional steps involved with setting up SQL Server in a Windows Server configured as a cluster. Server Clusters are composed of 2 or more servers, each server is called a Nodes. On a 2-Node cluster configuration, the first node is active and the second node is passive, it is common to refer to this configuration as a Cluster in Active/Passive mode.

Post by: Adrian Claxton (Bellevue College, WA)

Let’s talk a little bit about migration when it comes to DBMS of the relational model. Migration is a process of moving data and applications from one operating environment to another operating environment. Such environments are relational database management systems for small businesses to enterprise server database management systems for large organizations. Examples of these environments are Oracle, MySQL, SYBASE, Visual FoxPRO, and Microsoft Access. All of these applications can be migrated to Microsoft SQL Server.

What if you have 100's of SQL Server 2005 in your company and you would like to configure all the servers based on some standards (Example: Surface Area Configuration Properties). Take an example you have just installed a SQL Server and also have configured the surface area configuration (SAC) for that SQL Server based on your standards and now you would like to replicate this configuration to 100's and 1000's of other SQL Servers in your company. How would you do that?

Post by: Silin Kuang (Bellevue College, WA)

In nowadays, our lives have heavily relied on information that is available for us.  To make sure database high availability, in another word, to make sure the information is available when you need it, has made a DBA’s role crucial in an organization.  As a consumer, you use the most updated product information available on the website to make a purchase decision.  As a doctor, you use the patient’s information available for you to judge the operation procedures for a surgery.  As a marketing analyst, you use the sales transaction history available to make marketing forecast and financial reports.  With the huge amount of data being added to the database every second, how does DBA’s ensure database high availability?  This article demonstrates the major high availability technologies in Microsoft SQL server 2005 and 2008.

Did you know that prior to SQL Server 2005, Microsoft used to ship an executable called "REBUILDM.EXE" that would help you rebuild the Master database? The world has changed and so has SQL Server and REBUILDM.EXE tool.