You can attach just the MDF file in SQL Server to move a database

Moving a database in SQL Server can be done by:

1. Offlining the database
2. Copying the MDF file
3. Attaching the datafile at the new server

You do this by  calling the sp_attach_single_file_db procedure

i.e.
exec sp_attach_single_file_db @dbname='MY_DB', @physname='H:\SQL2\MY_DB.mdf'

SQL Server will automatically create a new logfile

What's going on at Serverside this week [ May 26 ]

• Planning for a EMC to NetApp SAN migration for a large Oracle environment
• Oracle Apex installation along with SSTS System Monitoring application install
• Implementing an ETL process to pull Equity Beta calculations
• Implementing an ETL process to pull used equipment listings and posting results in HTML format
• Troubleshooting performance issues, assisting in disabling high cost jobs that are no longer needed
• Assisting in support of Amazon Store interface

SSRS Browser role assignment

This is one of those tasks that you tend to forget. After you create reports in Microsoft SSRS you need to assign assess to users in your domain. A common way of accomplishing this is to assign these via a Windows domain user or group. Most users will need the Browser role that allows them to view your reports. You can assign this at a folder level or to individual reports. The folder allows permissions to be inherited to all reports under that directory.


To assign the Browser role perform the following procedure below which assumes that your report management url is <your-server>/Reports

I did this via the following procedure

• Got to http://<your-server>/Reports
• Click on the Properties Tag
• In Security click on the New Role assignment button
• Type in the User or Group name preceeded by the domain (i.e. DOMAIN\username)
• Check the Browser role
• Hit OK

That's it.

Oracle on Windows - Logon as Batch needed in the Local Security Policy

ok, this one has burned some of my time a couple times now.

When you are configuring Enterprise Manager in a Windows environment you need to modify the Windows Local Security Policy to "Allow Logon as Batch" for whatever user is running the Oracle DB Console service. Otherwise, you will be unable to assign preferred credentials and thus will be unable to create RMAN backups on the server.

Oracle on Windows and Password Expiry

If you are running Oracle on Windows and are using a Windows domain account subject to password expiry you need to remember a few follow up tasks after your password has been changed.

• Make sure any Windows scheduled tasks have the new password. You should only need to change one scheduled task and all get the change
• Go into EM/DBConsole preferences and enter the new password for each preferred credential. This includes the Listener, Host, Database Instance, and Agent.

ClearTrace

Saw an interesting article on this tool that runs  top of SQL Profiler. It aggregates trace data for easier analysis.

http://www.scalesql.com/cleartrace/download.aspx

Open Source Data Profilers

I've been looking into Open Source Data Profilers of late.
These allow you to get some basic info on your data quickly.
The 2 I like the most so far are the Talend Open Profiler
and another called Data Cleaner. Talend is more graphical and
Data Cleaner is a bit more intuitive so they both have their merits.

http://www.talend.com
http://datacleaner.eobjects.org

Talend also sells an "Enterprise" version of the product

I also came across an Open Source Data Modeling tool that has some
basic profiling capabilities named Power Architect.

http://www.sqlpower.ca