Detect Databases with High VLF Count

Introduction Broadly speaking, the recovery process for SQL Server consists of reading the transaction log, rolling forward committed transactions, and rolling back uncommitted transactions, since the last checkpoint. The SQL Server Transaction Log is segmented…

How to Fix Databases with High VLF Count

In our earlier posts on recovery, we’ve covered the importance of properly managing SQL Server Transaction Log file growth. This includes how to detect databases with a high VLF count. It can be time-consuming to…

Generate Restore Database Commands

Restoring a database backup from one server to another, or from one database to another on the same machine, often requires MOVE … TO … commands. For databases with a lot of files, this can…

Filesystem security for TDE Keys and Certificates

What is TDE, and why is filesystem security important? Transparent Database Encryption, or TDE, is used to encrypt an entire database. The encryption is “transparent” since once the database is loaded by SQL Server, anyone…