February 2013 – Monthly SQL Server Checklist

by Jason S, posted in SQL Server, SQLServerSyndication

February is a short month… and if you are following the Monday’s you know that today’s the second Monday of the not the first.  The first Monday is when this update is usually due out.  Unfortunately, I was fairly sick last week and didn’t get to working on this blog post.  I should have had a backup.

Had I had a backup, this post would have come out on time and you’d been nudged at the right time to go check out your servers to make sure things are running as believed.  In your own environment, having backups isn’t just about having a copy of the database.  It also includes the human factor of having someone able to do the work when needed.  Are you backing up your servers and the processes required to manage them?  Who covers for you when you are sick and a critical process is due?  Something to think about for this next month.

As usual, you should be checking your SQL Server environment monthly to be certain that things are as expected.  If you are unsure what needs to be checked in your environment on a monthly basis, check out the SQL Server Monthly Checklist that I provide on this blog. It covers pretty much everything that should be checked. If you see anything missing from that list, please leave a comment on this post.

Checklist Updates

There are just a couple changes to the checklist since last month, these updates include:

If you have time to take a look at it, the SQL Server 2012 Product Guide to see how you can use SQL Server in your environment.

CROWD SOURCE BACKUP VALIDATION

One of the sections of the monthly checklist is the backup validation section.  The section currently includes the following bullet points:

  • Check everything involved in the backup process.
  • Are your backups executing as desired?
  • Are the monitoring jobs properly alerting to failures?
  • Have their been any unexpected failures?
  • Have backup duration times changed?

What links would you reference or recommend to others for these this checklist item?  Let’s pull together some resource to give people a better idea on how to accomplish this task.

SOMETHING MISSING?

Is there something missing in this checklist or with the pages that has been overlooked?  Any cool links that would aid in the review of your SQL Server environments?  If so, leave a comment below and I’ll take a look.