Thursday 26 June 2014

SQL Server Database Mail Setup

Database mail feature was introduced in SQL server 2005 by Microsoft. This feature is also available in SQL Server 2008 and 2012. Before Database mail we have SQL Mail feature in Sql Server 2000.
Database Mail is more reliable, secure, faster than SQL Mail in SQL Server 2000. SQL Mail is based on MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) where as Database Mail is based on SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Moreover database mail uses service broker service and this service need to be enabled for Database Mail.
By default, SQL Database mail is not enabled. We can enable this feature by using system defined stored procedure, configuration manager or by Database Mail Wizard. I am sharing both the tricks to enable this feature.

Setup SQL Database Mail

We can configure SQL Database mail in following steps by using Database mail wizard as show below.

  1. Create Profile and Account

    In first step we will create a profile and account by using the Configure Database Mail Wizard as shown below.
               
    A profile can have multiple email accounts. It can be of two types.

    1. Public Profile

      A public profile can be accessed by any users and these users will have the ability to send emails.

    2. Private Profile

      A private profile only accessed by granted users and only these users have the ability to send emails.

  2. Configure Database Mail

    After successfully creation of Profile and Account, we will configure the Database Mail using system defined stored procedure “sp_configure ” as shown below.
      

    1.  GO 
      2. 

    2. sp_CONFIGURE Database Mail XPs', 1 
      3. 

    3. GO 
      4. 

    4. RECONFIGURE 
      5.

  3. Send Test Mail

    We can send test mail by using wizard and T-SQL statement as shown below.
    Using Wizard
      
    Using T-SQL Statement
      

    1.  USE msdb 
      2. 

    2. GO 
      3. 

    3. EXEC sp_send_dbmail @profile_name='Shailendra Chauhan Profile', @recipients='shailendra@ymail.com', @subject='Database Mail Test', @body= ‘This is a test e-mail sent from Database Mail' 
      4.

  4. Check Your Inbox

    After sending test mail, you need to check the mail received in your inbox. I received the mail "Database Mail Test" in my inbox as shown below:

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Thursday 19 June 2014

SQL Server DBA Responsibilities

This is one of the most frequently asked questions by people who are new to SQL Server. Since they are new to SQL Server, their concern is understandable. I was personally asked this question or this list multiple times and most recently, as comments to one of my blogs.
So I decided to list down a list of tasks and responsibilities carried out by a SQL Server DBA. Before further reading, let me tell you that roles and responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA varies from one organization to another as no two organizations IT setup are exactly similar.  For better understanding, the text in the parenthesis (Italicized blue font) is the subject area or chapter that has the topics to carryout the responsibilities…
  • Installation, Administration and Maintenance of SQL Server Instances. (Installing SQL Server)
  • Setup Test, Dev, Staging and Production Environments. (Installing SQL Server)
  • Create Users and assign permissions based on the level of database access the user would need. (Security)
  • Create Linked Servers to SQL Servers and other databases such as Oracle, Access, Informix etc. (Security and General Administration)
  • Design database Backup and Restoration Strategy. (Database Backups and SQL Server Agent)
  • Once created the database Backups, monitor those backups are being performed regularly. (SQL Server Agent)
  • From time to time recover the databases to a specific point of time, as per the requests. (Database Backups and Recovery)
  • Setup High-Availability as part Disaster Recovery Strategy for the Databases. (Failover Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping and Replication)
  • Troubleshoot various problems that arise in a day-to-day work and fix the issues. (Monitoring SQL Server Error Logs and checking your email alert (if there is one configured))
  • Monitoring and Performance Tuning; Physical Server Level, Database level (Database settings and options) and query tuning. (Creating and maintaining those Indexes, not performing database shrinking, memory settings, monitoring CPU usage and Disk I/O activity etc) 
  • Documenting major changes to the SQL Servers. (General)
  • Apply Service Packs. (General)
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How to find the Table which has Maximum Columns in a database


SELECT NAME AS Table_Name, max_column_id_used AS Total_Columns
From SYS.tables
WHERE max_column_id_used =
(SELECT MAX(max_column_id_used) FROM SYS.tables)
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SQL SERVER DEV Q & A

. Can you write a SELECT statement without FROM Clause?
  • Yes you can write a SELECT statement without having a FROM Clause.
         Examples.
         SELECT @@VERSION
         OR
         SELECT ‘HELLO WORLD’
2. What are the different constraints in SQL Server?
  • Primary Key Constraint.
  • Foreign Key Constraint.
  • Unique Key Constraint.
  • Default Constraint.
  • Check Constraint.
3. How do you display only few # of rows from any table?
  • You can use TOP Clause to return only the # of rows from an underlying table.
4. What are the enhancements in SQL Server 2005 over SQL Server 2000 from a developer’s stand point?
  • The below is a list of enhancements in SQL Server 2005 from a developer’s point of view.
    • Common Table Expressions (CTE)
    • Covering Indexes.
    • Schemas
    • EXCEPT and INTERSECT
    • PIVOT and UNPIVOT
    • Synonym
5. How will you rename a database or a database Object using T-SQL?
  • Using SP_Rename system stored procedure you can rename a database object such as a table, view, stored procedure etc. Using SP_RenameDB you can rename a database. For more information read one of my blogs on this topic — Renaming database and database objects using T-SQL
6. What is the benefit of WHERE Clause?
7. How can you display the top n no. of records in a table based on a column?
  • It is possible to return such a result-set by using Top n clause along with Order By the column name.
8. How many Clustered and Non-Clustered Indexes can be created on a sinlge table?
  • A table can contain a single Clustered Index at any time, where as the limit for Non-Clustered Indexes is 249. SQL Server 2008 supports upto 999 Non-Clustered Indexes.
9. How many columns can be created in a single table?
  • A normal table, can contain 1024 columns and wide table can contain 30,000 columns per table.
Added on Nov 16th 2011
10. What are constraints? What are the different constraints in SQL Server?
  • Constraints are the way using which we can enforce and maintain database Integrity.
  • Primary Key, Foreign Key, Unique, Check, Not Null are the various Constraints available in SQL Server.
11. What is the difference between Inner Join and Outer Join?
  • Inner Joins return the matching records in both the tables so the result set displays only the data that is matching in both the tables on the joining condition. Where as the result set in an Outer Join displays the matching data in both tables along with data from one of the tables where there is no matching records. The table from which additional data is to be displayed is based on the Right or Left Outer Join.
12. What is difference between Primary Key and Unique Key?
  • Primary Key and Unique Key ensures that all the records are unique with the exception that a Unique Key constraint allows a single null value where as a Primary Key constraint does not allow null value.
  • Multiple Unique Key constraints can be defined on a single table where as a only 1 Primary Key constraint can be defined.
13. What is the functionality of UNION in a T-SQL statement?
  • UNION Operator combines data from two or more result sets and displays one final result set. The columns in the result sets should match in all of the result sets. UNION does not display duplicate rows (if there are any). 
Added on Dec 7th 2011
14. What is the functionality of UNION ALL in a T-SQL statement?
  • UNION ALL operator combines data from two or more result sets and displays one final result set including duplicate records. The columns in the result sets should match in all of the result sets. (Thanks to Ash posting a comment and bringing my notice about the mistake, it is corrected now)…
15. What is the difference between a Delete and Truncate?
  • Delete is a logged operation, by that every record that is deleted is written / logged in the Transaction Log of the database, there by enabling the user to recover what was deleted. A Delete statement can be controlled by using a filtering condition, using “WHERE” clause.
  • Truncate deletes the entire data of the table by deleting all the data pages of the table. It does not write in the log files, so it is quite fast, also it is not possible to recover the data  using the Log backups, the only possibility is to recover back before the Truncate was run, using any and all kinds of available backups.
16. What is the difference between a Truncate Table and Drop Table?
  • Truncate deletes the entire data in a table, but the table structure is still intact, the Indexes, constraints etc are all still available.
  • Drop table deletes the table itself, resulting that the table and the underlying indexes, constraints etc are also deleted.
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SQL SERVER DBA Q AND A

This page contains SQL Server Database Admin Interview Questions for experienced, I am sure you must have read fundamental questions  like What is RDBMS, What is a view, What is a database etc etc… This list of SQL Server DBA Questions and Answers has less of those questions and more stuff that is expected to be asked in DBA interviews…
I’m sure you will find plenty of new Interview Questions and Answers for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 that are useful for your Interview preparation.
1. Explain about your SQL Server DBA Experience.
  • This is a generic question often asked by many interviewers. Explain what are the different SQL Server Versions you have worked on, what kind of administration of those instances has been done by you. Your role and responsibilities carried out in your earlier projects that would be of significance to the potential employer. This is the answer that lets the interviewer know how suitable are you for the position to which you are being interviewed.
2. What are the different SQL Server Versions you have worked on?
  • The answer would be depending on the versions you have worked on, I would say I have experience working in SQL Server 7, SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008. If you have worked only the some version be honest in saying that, remember, no one would be working on all versions, it varies from individual to individual.
3. What are the different types of Indexes available in SQL Server?
  • The simplest answer to this is “Clustered and Non-Clustered Indexes”. There are other types of Indexes what can be mentioned such as Unique, XML, Spatial and Filtered Indexes. More on these Indexes later.
4. What is the difference between Clustered and Non-Clustered Index?
  • In a clustered index, the leaf level pages are the actual data pages of the table. When a clustered index is created on a table, the data pages are arranged accordingly based on the clustered index key. There can only be one Clustered index on a table.
  • In a Non-Clustered index, the leaf level pages does not contain data pages instead it contains pointers to the data pages. There can multiple non-clustered indexes on a single table.
5. What are the new features in SQL Server 2005 when compared to SQL Server 2000?
There are quite a lot of changes and enhancements in SQL Server 2005. Few of them are listed here :
  • Database Partitioning
  • Dynamic Management Views
  • System Catalog Views
  • Resource Database
  • Database Snapshots
  • SQL Server Integration Services
  • Support for Analysis Services on a a Failover Cluster.
  • Profiler being able to trace the MDX queries of the Analysis Server.
  • Peer-toPeer Replication
  • Database Mirroring
6. What are the High-Availability solutions in SQL Server and differentiate them briefly.
7. How do you troubleshoot errors in a SQL Server Agent Job?
  • Inside SSMS, in Object explorer under SQL Server Agent look for Job Activity Monitor. The job activity monitor displays the current status of all the jobs on the instance. Choose the particular job which failed, right click and choose view history from the drop down menu. The execution history of the job is displayed and you may choose the execution time (if the job failed multiple times during the same day). There would information such as the time it took to execute that Job and details about the error occurred.
8. What is the default Port No on which SQL Server listens?
  • 1433
9. How many files can a Database contain in SQL Server?How many types of data files exists in SQL Server? How many of those files can exist for a single database?
  • A Database can contain a maximum of 32,767 files.
  • There are Primarily 2 types of data files Primary data file and Secondary data file(s)
  • There can be only one Primary data file and multiple secondary data files as long as the total # of files is less than 32,767 files
Added on Dec 30th 2010
10. What is DCL?
  • DCL stands for Data Control Language.
11. What are the commands used in DCL?
  • GRANT, DENY and REVOKE.
12. What is Fill Factor?
  • Fill Factor is a setting that is applicable to Indexes in SQL Server. The fill factor value determines how much data is written to an index page when it is created / rebuilt.
13. What is the default fill factor value?
  • By default the fill factor value is set to 0.
14. Where do you find the default Index fill factor and how to change it?
  • The easiest way to find and change the default fill factor value is from Management Studio, right-click the SQL Server and choose properties. In the Server Properties, choose Database Settings, you should see the default fill factor value in the top section. You can change to a desired value there and click OK to save the changes.
  • The other option of viewing and changing this value is using sp_configure.
Added on Oct 29th 2011
15. What is a system database and what is a user database?
  • System databases are the default databases that are installed when the SQL Server is installed. Basically there are 4 system databases: Master, MSDB, TempDB and Model. It is highly recommended that these databases are not modified or altered for smooth functioning of the SQL System.
  • A user database is a database that we create to store data and start working with  the data.
16. What are the recovery models for a database?
  • There are 3 recovery models available for a database. Full, Bulk-Logged and Simple are the three recovery models available.
17. What is the importance of a recovery model?
  • Primarily, recovery model is chosen keeping in view the amount of data loss one can afford to. If one expects to have minimal or no data loss, choosing the Full recovery model is a good choice. Depending on the recovery model of a database, the behavior of database log file changes. I would recommend you read more material on log backups and log file behavior and so on to understand in depth.
Added on Nov 9th 2011
18. What is Replication?
  • Replication is a feature in SQL Server that helps us publish database objects and data and copy (replicate) it to one or more destinations. It is often considered as one of the High-Availability options. One of the advantages with Replication is that it can be configured on databases which are in simple recovery model.
19. What the different types of Replication and why are they used?
  • There are basically 3 types of replication: Snapshot, Transactional and Merge Replication. The type of Replication you choose, depends on the requirements and/or the goals one is trying to achieve. For example Snapshot Replication is useful only when the data inside the tables does not change frequently and the amount of data is not too large, such as a monthly summary table or a product list table etc. Transactional Replication would useful when maintaining a copy of a transactional table such as sales order tables etc. Merge Replication is more useful in case of  remote / distributed systems where the data flow can be from multiple sites, for example sales done at a promotional events which might not be connected to the central servers always..
20. What the different components in Replication and what is their use?
  • The 3 main components in Replication are Publisher, Distributor and Subscriber. Publisher is the data source of a publication. Distributor is responsible for distributing the database objects to one or more destinations. Subscriber is the destination where the publishers data is copied / replicated.
21. What the different Topologies in which Replication can be configured?
  • Replication can be configured in any topology depending keeping in view of the complexity and the workload of the entire Replication. It can be any of the following:
  • Publisher, Distributor and Subscriber on the same SQL Instance.
  • Publisher and Distributor on the same SQL Instance and Subscriber on a separate Instance.
  • Publisher, Distributor and Subscriber on individual SQL Instances.
Added on Nov 12th 2011
22. If you are given access to a SQL Server, how do you find if the SQL Instance is a named instance or a default instance?
  • I would go to the SQL Server Configuration Manager. In the left pane of the tool, I would select SQL Server Services, the right side pane displays all of the SQL Server Services / components that are installed on that machine. If the Service is displayed as (MSSQLSERVER), then it indicates it is a default instance, else there will be the Instance name displayed.
23. What are the different Authentication modes in SQL Server and how can you change authentication mode?
  • SQL Server has 2 Authentication modes; Windows Authentication and SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode also referred as Mixed Mode. To change the Authentication mode, read one of my blogs Changing SQL Server Authentication Mode.
The following Question and Answers on SQL Server High Availability were Added on Nov 28th 2011
24. What are the differences in Clustering in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 or 2008 R2?
  • On SQL Server 2005, installing SQL Server failover cluster is a single step process whereas on SQL Server 2008 or above it is a multi-step process. That is, in SQL Server 2005, the Installation process itself installs on all of the nodes (be it 2 nodes or 3 nodes). In 2008 or above this has changed, we would need to install separately on all the nodes. 2 times if it is a 2 node cluster or 3 times in a 3 node cluster and so on…
25. What is meant by Active – Passive and Active – Active clustering setup?
  • An Active – Passive cluster is a failover cluster configured in a way that only one cluster node is active at any given time. The other node, called as Passive node is always online but in an idle condition, waiting for a failure of the Active Node, upon which the Passive Node takes over the SQL Server Services and this becomes the Active Node, the previous Active Node now being a Passive Node.
  • An Active – Active cluster is a failover cluster configured in a way that both the cluster nodes are active at any given point of time. That is, one Instance of SQL Server is running on each of the nodes always; when one of the nodes has a failure, both the Instances run on the only one node until the failed node is brought up (after fixing the issue that caused the node failure). The instance is then failed over back to its designated node.
26. List out some of the requirements to setup a SQL Server failover cluster.
  • Virtual network name for the SQL Server, Virtual IP address for SQL Server, IP addresses for the Public Network and Private Network(also referred as Hearbeat) for each node in the failover cluster, shared drives for SQL Server Data and Log files, Quorum Disk and MSDTC Disk.
27. On a Windows Server 2003 Active – Passive failover cluster, how do you find the node which is active?
  • Using Cluster Administrator, connect to the cluster and select the SQL Server cluster.  Once you have selected the SQL Server group, in the right hand side of the console, the column “Owner” gives us the information of the node on which the SQL Server group is currently active.
28. How do you open a Cluster Administrator?
  • From Start -> Run and type CluAdmin (case insensitive) and the Cluster Administrator console is displayed OR you can also go to Start -> All programs -> Administrative Tools -> Cluster Administrator.
29. Due to some maintenance being done, the SQL Server on a failover cluster needs to be brought down. How do you bring the SQL Server down?
  • In the Cluster Administrator, rick click on the SQL Server Group and from the popup menu item choose Take Offline.
The following Question and Answers were added recently. (on Dec 14th 2011)
30. What are the different ways you can create Databases in SQL Server?
  • T-SQL; Create Database command.
  • Using Management Studio
  • Restoring a database backup
  • Copy Database wizard
31. When setting Replication, can you have Distributor on SQL Server 2005, Publisher on SQL Server 2008?
  • No you cannot have a Distributor on a previous version than the Publisher.
32. When setting Replication, is it possible to have a Publisher as 64 Bit SQL Server and Distributor or Subscribers as a 32 Bit SQL Server.
  • Yes it is possible to have various configurations in a Replication environment.
33. What is the difference between dropping a database and taking a database offline?
  • Drop database deletes the database along with the physical files, it is not possible to bring back the database unless you have a backup of the database. When you take a database offline, you the database is not available for users, it is not deleted physically, it can be brought back online.
34. Which autogrowth database setting is good?
  • Setting an autogrowth in multiples of MB is a better option than setting autogrowth in percentage (%).
35. What are the different types of database compression introduced in SQL Server 2008?
  • Row compression and Page compression.
36. What are the different types of Upgrades that can be performed in SQL Server?
  • In-place upgrade and Side-by-Side Upgrade.
37. What is Transparent Data Encryption?
  • Introduced in SQL Server 2008 Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is a mechanism through which you can protect the SQL Server Database files from unauthorized access through encryption. Also, TDE can protect the database backups of the instance on which TDE was setup.
38. Does Transparent Data Encryption provide encryption when transmitting data across network?
  • No, Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) does not encrypt the data during transfer over a communication channel.
39. What are the operating modes in which Database Mirroring runs?
  • Database Mirroring runs in 2 operating modes High-Safety Mode and High-Performance Mode.
40. What is the difference between the 2 operating modes of Database Mirroring (mentioned in above answer)?
  • High-Safety Mode is to ensure that the Principal and Mirrored database are synchronized state, that is the transactions are committed at the same time on both servers to ensure consistency, but there is/might be a time lag.
  • High-Performance Mode is to ensure that the Principal database run faster, by not waiting for the Mirrored database to commit the transactions. There is a slight chance of data loss and also the Mirrored database can be lagging behind (in terms being up to date with Principal database) if there is a heavy load on the Mirrored Server
41. How many Mirrored Servers can be setup in a Database Mirroring setup?
  • Only 1 Mirrored Server can be configured in a Database Mirroring setup.
42. Can there be a 3rd Server take part in Database Mirroring? 
  • Yes.
43. What is that Server called and what is the role of that Server?
  • The 3rd Server (which is optional) is called a Witness Server, its main role is for Automatic failover of the Prinicpal and Mirrored Servers.
The following Question and Answers were added on Dec 24th 2011
44. What are Dynamic Management Objects and how are they useful?
  • DMOs provide Server wide and Database level information on the SQL Server. DMOs include Dynamic Management Views and Dynamic Management Functions. Together, these DMOs provides internal information about the SQL Server with respect to Performance, I/O, Security, Indexes, Database Mirroring, Replication and many more. This information can be used to monitor the SQL Server and troubleshooting.
45. In what editions is Backup Compression available in SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2?
  • in SQL Server 2008, Backup Compression is supported in Enterprise Edition only (apart from Developer and Eval Editions). In SQL Server 2008 R2, the feature is available in Datacenter Edition, Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition.
The following Question and Answers were added on Jan 2nd 2012. The questions (46-48) have been submitted by Venkat M.
46. How will you know that data is copied to mirror Server in Database Mirroring?
  • We can monitor the status of the Principal Server and the Mirror Server using Database Mirroring Monitor from SSMS.
47. What is the difference between Table Scan and Index Scan?
  • A Table Scan is performed when the table has no Indexes OR the existing Index(es) are not beneficial to fulfill the request in the query. Generally, for a large table, Table Scans are slower. 
  • Index Scans are usually faster than Table Scans as the Index access reduces the I/O operations. 
48. List some of the Important DMV’s used in day to day work.
  • sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats
  • sys.dm_db_missing_index_details
  • sys.dm_exec_query_stats
  • sys.dm_os_wait_stats
  • sys.dm_tran_locks
49. What is  a Trace flag?
  • A Trace flags are used to change certain characteristics of the SQL Server. Trace flags can be used to switch off or enable certain feature, for troubleshooting purpose, or to diagnose performance issues such as deadlock monitoring. 
50. How do you enable Trace flag globally?
  • Trace flags can be set permanently using -T trace flag # as a start-up parameter or temporarily by running a command DBCC TRACEON (xxxx,-1).
The following Question and Answers were added recently (on Jun 19th 2012).
51. How is Installation of SQL Server 2008 / 2008 R2 different on a failover cluster, compared to SQL Server 2000/ 2005 on a failover cluster?
  • Prior to SQL Server 2008, installing SQL Server on a failover cluster was a one time task, that is, when you install SQL Server on one of the nodes, the binaries are installed on all of the nodes. Whereas starting from SQL Server 2008, you have to manually install SQL Server on all of the nodes participating in the failover cluster.
52. What are the ways you can find blocking and dead locks on a SQL Server?
  • You can use SQL Profiler (filtering only those events to find deadlocks), use System catolog view sysprocesses (there is a blocked column) and finally from Server based reports (Right click on the Server, from the pop-up menu choose Reports and then Standard Reports, choose Activity – All Blocking Transactions).
53. What is Surface Area Configuration in SQL Server, and how is it different in SQL Server 2005 and beyond?
  • SQL Server by default enables only those necessary features / services or Server Options in order to reduce the risks of malicious attacks. In SQL Server 2005, Surface Area Configuration was a tool available under Configuration Tools program menu of SQL Server. Starting from SQL Server 2008, this tool is no longer available, but the same features/ services can be enabled / disabled by right clicking the SQL Server (in Object Explorer, in SSMS) and choosing Facets and selecting Surface Area Configuration Facet.
The following Question and Answers were added recently (on Sep 12th 2012).
54. Can a SQL login be created with a blank password in a SQL Server?
  • Yes, you can create a SQL login with a blank password. This might be surprising, but it is true..
The following Question and Answers were added recently (on Sep 26th 2012).
55. Which Editions of SQL Server 2012 support Master Data Services?
  • Enterprise and Business Intelligence Editions support Master Data Services (as always anything supported in Enterprise Edition is available in Developer Edition).
56. What does it mean by minimum and recommended hardware for making sure the machine is good to install SQL Server?
  • The minimum hardware is the bare minimum you can have on a machine to install that version of SQL Server, the drawback of having a minimum hardware is poor performance, on the other hand, recommended hardware is required to give a decent performance for the SQL Server standpoint.
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