Backup & Recovery from First Principles, Part 4: Copy-Only Backups, the Chain-Safe Snapshot
ended with a rule: one tool owns log backups, and everything else takes COPY_ONLY. This part explains what copy-only backups actually change, proves it from msdb, and then builds the pattern that makes them genuinely…
Backup & Recovery from First Principles, Part 3: The Log Chain and How People Break It
showed that log backups form a linked list: each backup’s first_lsn equals the previous backup’s last_lsn. Point-in-time restore works by walking that list. Break one link and every log backup after the break is useless…
Backup & Recovery from First Principles, Part 2: Anatomy of a Backup
A backup file is not a copy of your MDF. It is a container with a precise contract: enough pages and enough log to reconstruct a transactionally consistent database as of the moment the backup…
Backup & Recovery from First Principles, Part 1: Recovery Models Actually Explained
Every SQL Server database has a recovery model, and most databases got theirs by inheritance rather than by decision: whatever model had at CREATE DATABASE time is what you are running today. That default determines…
Copilot Code Review and the 4,000 Character Limit
Here is a fun way to lose an afternoon: carefully write coding standards into your repository’s .github/copilot-instructions.md, request a Copilot code review on a pull request that violates several of them, and watch the review…
Getting Your AI Agent to Actually Follow Your Instructions
There is a special kind of frustration in watching an AI agent cheerfully do the exact thing your instructions file tells it not to do. You wrote the rule. The rule is right there. The…