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Garbage

You're going do to what!?…hmm that might just work…

We are replacing our test SQL Server box with a nice shiny new one with lots of goodies..

The discussion commences with the script to restore or attach the databases back..

DBA 1: We don't need to do any of that!
DBA Others: What?
DBA 1: We'll do a default install, stop the service, copy the data (including master) and log folders over the top of the default directories and just start the service back up.
DBA Others:….(wild screaming, dancing and all round mayhem)…..
DBA 1: Have you all finished?
DBA Others:….(wild screaming, dancing and all round mayhem)…..
DBA 1: Have you all finished yet?
DBA Others: For the moment yes
DBA 1: AFAIK master contains all meta data about all the database right?
DBA Others: Yes
DBA 1: So what's the problem.
DBA Others: … "Best practice"… "No Documentation on the process"…"You're f@#$ing mad"…
DBA 1: Look we have about 60GB of data, a Full Text catalog that will take about 40 hours to repopulate. I've done it before and I'm not wasting my weekend waiting for the "best practice solution" to finish.
DBA Others: How many time before?
DBA 1: About 6 times.
DBA Others: …."We used to do it this way in Oracle sometimes"…."This ain't Oracle"…."I say go for it"

I'll give you an update after the fact….

Legacy Comments


Clayton Firth
2004-02-20
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
Just out of curiosity are you DBA 1 or DBA Others

DavidM
2004-02-20
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
Clayton,

I'm in the Others camp!...

Enigma's Weblog
2004-02-20
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
I would say that might work .. but then again .. you will need the same config regarding hard disks and all that.

Never tried it :)

James Curran
2004-02-21
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
Been there, done that (And it worked!)

Granted it was just my home system so if there'd be no bad deal if it crashed & burned, but, as it turned out, that wasn't a problem.

Michael Teper
2004-02-24
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
Dont forget that Windows Services info is not in the DB. In other words, make sure to migrate the account settings that SQL Server and SQL Agent run on (and dont forget to auto-start SQL Agent if you need to).

DavidM
2004-02-24
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
Michael,

Thanks for the tip Michael. Still waiting for this to occur, so I'll throw that info into the fire...

Derick Bailey
2004-02-25
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
We recently did a Backup and Restore onto a new server (which was identical in terms of hardware) and ran into some pretty significant issues: none of the SQLServer usernames had any passwords.

I'll be interested to find out if this works or not.

Neil B
2004-02-25
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
A Professional at work again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So many options and the wrong one is top of the list.

DavidM
2004-02-25
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
Neil B,

A cryptic response, could you expand please?

Are you referring to the "drag and drop" approach?
Have you done this?
Which one is at the top of the list? And why is it wrong?

crazyjoe
2004-03-19
re: You're going do to what!?...hmm that might just work...
I guess the best answer to this would be (and I know this is crazy!!!)

Try it on a test system first? Document it well, be sure it performs as expected, and then get ready to put all the blame on DBA 1 :)