January 2008 Blog Posts
Backup and Restore is arguably the most important task a DBA can do, but sometimes it is very frustrating to manage these elements. Some common problems include very slow UI interaction, both for SQL Enterprise Manager and for SQL Server Management Studio, mysterious timeouts, failure to delete old backup files, and other intermittent failures. Most of these failures can be traced back to the same underlying problem and thus have the same solution.
The MSDB database contains a series of system tables that track everything having to do with backups on that server. One of the limitations of vendor testing...
I spoke to someone at Ganz today about the Webkinz World site issues. The problem was twofold. First, the sales side didn't communicate expectations correctly to the folks who run the site. As such, they were totally overwhelmed by the numbers of kids "adopting" their new pets. The regular site could almost hold the load, but the "adoption center", essentially the code fulfillment center, couldn't handle the load. I still don't totally buy that since the valid codes had to be loaded into the system somehow. There was also some type of hardware failure...