Solution: You can check the list of port number used by the SQL Server instances using one of the below way.

Soln 1# Using SQL Server Configuration Manager

• Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager
• Select Protocols for SQL2005/2008 under SQL server Network Configuration
• Right click on TCP/IP and select Properties
• Select the IP Addresses-tab
• In the section IP ALL, you can see the ports

Soln 2#From Registry Values
SQL Server 2005
Type the regedit command in Run window and check the below registry values.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.#

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\ MSSQL.#\ MSSQLServer\ SuperSocketNetLib\TCP\IPAll

SQL Server 2008
Default instance
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\TCP\IPAll

Named instance
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.(InstanceName)\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\TCP\IPAll

Soln 3# Error Log
Query the error log as below to get the port number.

EXEC xp_readerrorlog 0,1,”Server is listening on”,Null

Soln 4# Command Prompts
Execute the below command from the command prompt.

Netstat -abn

Lock Pages in Memory

You can prevent the Windows operating system from paging out the buffer pool memory of the SQL Server process by locking the memory that is allocated for the buffer pool in physical memory. You lock the memory by assigning the Lock pages in memory user right to the user account that is used as the startup account of the SQL Server service.

Model Database Whenever we create a new database, it will use model as template. Configure model DB for the Auto Shrink OFF, Auto Update/Create Statistics on

Maximum Worker Threads: Based on the load increase the maximum work thread.

Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) is an API that allows a 32-bit application to manipulate physical memory beyond 4 GB memory limit. The AWE mechanism technically is not necessary on 64-bit platform. It is, however, present there. Memory pages that are allocated through the AWE mechanism are referred as locked pages on the 64-bit platform.

On both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, memory that is allocated through the AWE mechanism cannot be paged out. This can be beneficial to the application. (This is one of the reasons for using AWE mechanism on 64-bit platform.) This also affects the amount of RAM that is available to the system and to other applications, which might have detrimental effects. For this reason, in order to use AWE, the Lock Pages in Memory privilege must be granted for the account that runs SQL Server.

Please note:

• Turn auto-shrink off.
• Make sure auto-update of statistics is turned on.
• If a database is read only, set it to read only.
• Use triggers very judiciously. They mostly operate in the background making them difficult to monitor and troubleshoot.
• Be very careful of auto growth settings on the database. 10% auto growth will be fine when the database is 500mb. It makes a huge difference when the system is 50gb. For larger databases, change the setting to grow by a fixed amount rather than a percentage of total database size.
• Files and FileGroups
• Other factors that can affect the performance of your system include the way the files and file groups are laid out. You should be creating multiple files for your databases to optimize performance. A baseline for this would be to create one file for the logs, another for the data (defined by the clustered index), and another for non-clustered indexes. Additional files may be necessary to separate out BLOB data or XML data or unusually active tables, each onto its own file, and where possible, onto its own disk. This has been found to be true even on SAN systems because distributing the load takes further advantage of the architecture of the SAN.
• Data Types
• Define the data types that you need, not what you think you might need someday. A phone number is a string, not a number. Define the length of field that you need and enforce that length.

.

Wish you all very happy and prosperous New Year 2012.

Thanks,
Jugal Shah

First check the replication monitor and click on the failed publisher. Next step is double click on the failed subscriber from All Subscriptions list.

Now next step is click on the error and check its description.
Error :
Command attempted:
if @@trancount > 0 rollback tran
(Transaction sequence number: 0x0000044100002D93000100000000, Command ID: 1)

From the above error message we have to identify which command is failed to execute on the subscriber.

To get the exact command, find out the distributer server and distribution database for the failed publisher.

Once you get the distribution database server, execute the below query against the distribution DB.

use distribution
go
SELECT * FROM msrepl_commands
WHERE xact_seqno = 0x0000044100002D93000100000000
AND command_id = 1

We have to use the above details, to get the exact command using either SP_BROWSEREPLCMDS (If CLR is enabled) or you can cast the command column in msrepl_commands table.

We will check both the alternatives.

Using SP_BROWSEREPLCMDS
Please note CLR must be enabled for to use this procedure.

EXEC SP_BROWSEREPLCMDS
@xact_seqno_start = '0x0000044100002D930001',
@xact_seqno_end = '0x0000044100002D930001',
@publisher_database_id = 1033,
@article_id = 12,
@command_id= 1

By casting command column in msrepl_commands table

Please note if you want to see the better output use the Result to Text as output in SSMS (CTRL + T)

SELECT CAST(SUBSTRING(command, 7, 8000) AS NVARCHAR(MAX))
FROM msrepl_commands
WHERE xact_seqno = 0x0000044100002D930001
AND command_id = 1

Now you got the exact SQL Command. As a next step check the objects from both the publisher and the subscriber to see the violation of the keys or do the data comparisons etc.

And another way is you can use the below system stored procedures by running it against the MSDB database.

exec msdb..sp_get_composite_job_info
@execution_status=1

exec msdb.dbo.sp_help_job
@execution_status = 1

You can check the job execution status parameter values as below.

0 = Not idle or suspended

1 = Executing

2 = Waiting For Thread

3 = Between Retries

4 = Idle

5 = Suspended

6 = Waiting For Step To Finish

7 = Performing Completion Actions

Solution

http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2553/different-ways-to-monitor-log-shipping-for-sql-server-databases/

Solution: In the below script I have created the database,dropped its log file and created the database with the .mdf file.

--created database with .mdf and .ldf file
CREATE DATABASE [singleFileDemo] ON  PRIMARY 
( NAME = N'singleFileDemo', FILENAME = N'L:\singleFileDemo.mdf' , SIZE = 2048KB , FILEGROWTH = 10240KB )
 LOG ON 
( NAME = N'singleFileDemo_log', FILENAME = N'F:\singleFileDemo_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , FILEGROWTH = 5120KB )
GO

--inserting data into database
use singleFileDemo
create table tb1 (name varchar(10))

--inserting records
insert into tb1 values('Jugal')
go 10;

--deleting the log file
--detaching the database file
USE [master]
GO
EXEC master.dbo.sp_detach_db @dbname = N'singleFileDemo'
GO

-- now next step is delete the file manually or you can do it from command prompt
EXEC xp_cmdshell 'del F:\singleFileDemo_log.ldf'

-- script to attach the database 
USE [master]
GO
CREATE DATABASE [singleFileDemo] ON 
( FILENAME = N'L:\singleFileDemo.mdf' )
FOR ATTACH
GO 

When you will execute the CREATE DATABASE FOR Attach script you will get the below warning message.

File activation failure. The physical file name "F:\singleFileDemo_log.ldf" may be incorrect.
New log file 'F:\singleFileDemo_log.LDF' was created.

Once the database is ready execute the DBCC CHECKDB for any error.

Example

You can also pass the parameter to get the specific information.

use master
exec sp_replicationdboption @dbname = 'sqldbpool',
@optname = 'publish',
@value = 'true'
go

If you have restore the database on test environment and you are getting the error that “Database is part of Replication”, you can clear/disable it by executing below query.

use master
exec sp_replicationdboption @dbname = 'sqldbpool',
@optname = 'publish',
@value = 'false'
go

Solution
http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2525/steps-to-change-the-server-name-for-a-sql-server-machine/

Main benefit of TDE is that it does not require any changes into existing application. TDE encrypt data using AES and 3DES encryption algorithms without having to change the applications that will be connecting to the database.

With TDE backup files and database files are encrypted and no one can access it without key.

Follow below 4 steps to implement the TDE on the particular database.
• Create a master key
• Create or obtain a certificate protected by the master key
• Create a database encryption key and protect it by the certificate
• Set the database to use encryption

Create a Master Key A master key is a symmetric key that is used to create certificates and asymmetric keys. You can create the Master Key using below script

--create a master key
USE master 
GO 
CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'P@ssw0rd' 

Now next step is you have to create the server-based certificate which will be used to encrypt the database. You can create the certificate using below query.

--create a ceritificate
USE master;
CREATE CERTIFICATE sql_tdeDBcert 
WITH SUBJECT = 'TDE Certificate for SQL_tde database'
GO 

Here, I am creating sample database using below script, if you have already any test database you can use it.

--script to create a database
create database sql_tde

use sql_tde
go

--script to create sample table
create table fnInfo
(
	Id int primary key identity(1,1),
	CCNo varchar(16) constraint UK1 Unique,
	Name varchar(20)
)

--enter the sample data
insert into fnInfo values ('456333125','Jugal')
insert into fnInfo values ('1234568484','Sunil')
insert into fnInfo values ('1234789254','Chintan')

select * from fnInfo

Create a Database Encryption Key A database encryption key is required for TDE. Here we will set the encryption for the database by creating a database encryption key and password using the certificate we created in the above step.

use sql_tde
GO 
create database encryption key
with algorithm = AES_128
encryption by server certificate sql_tdeDBcert

Now we will check for the backup scenario, whether we are able to restore it without key or not. I have executed below backup script to take the database backup.

----backup database
backup database sql_tde to disk = 'c:\sql_tde.bak'

Now I am restoring the database backup on the different machine without key and certificate.

----backup database
restore database sql_tde from disk = 'c:\sql_tde.bak'

Restore command is failed with the below error on the differnet machine.

Starting up database 'sql_tde'.
Error: 3283, Severity: 16, State: 1.
The file "sql_tde_log" failed to initialize correctly. Examine the error logs for more details.  

To restore the encrypted database backup on different SQL Server instance we have to export the certificate created on the SQL instance on which the encrypted database backup was created.
You can export or transfer the certificate to a file. Use the below query for it.

USE master 
GO 
BACKUP CERTIFICATE sql_tdeDBcert  
TO FILE = 'C:\sql_tdeDBcert_cert.cer' 
WITH PRIVATE KEY (FILE = 'C:\sql_tdeDBcert_key.pvk' , 
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'P@ssw0rd' ) 
GO 

Now move the files to destination server and import the certificate using below command. Please note that the password specified here in the DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD parameter is the same as that which used to export the certificate to a file.

CREATE CERTIFICATE sql_tdeDBcert 
FROM FILE = 'C:\sql_tdeDBcert_cert.cer' 
WITH PRIVATE KEY (FILE = 'C:\sql_tdeDBcert_key.pvk',  
DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'P@ssw0rd'); 
GO  

You can restore the database now using below query.

----backup database
restore database sql_tde from disk = 'c:\sql_tde.bak'

Solution:
Execute the SP_SPACEUSED procedure to get the database size statistics.
USE [sqldbpool]
GO
EXEC sp_spaceused @updateusage = ‘true’

Now you have to subtract the ununsed pages from reserved pages and divided by 1024 to get the output in MB.

In our scenario we have 2592 (KB) – 96 (KB) = 2496/1024 = 2.4374(MB) will be the backup size.

You can execute below kind of command for the initial troubleshooting.

-- Locking Info
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_tran_locks
GO
-- Running Sessions
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions
GO
-- Requests Status
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_requests
GO
--Open Sessions
SP_WHO2
--To get the SQL Text
DBCC OPENTRAN (SPID)
--To terminate the curlprit process
KILL SPID

DAC is disabled by default, it is a good practice to enable the DAC. You can enable the DAC using by executing below query.

Use master
GO
--0 = Allow Local Connection,
--1 = Allow Remote Connections*/
sp_configure 'remote admin connections', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO

You can connect using DAC on of the following method.
Command Prompt
SQL Server Management Studio

Using Command Prompt: Use SQLCMD utility to connect to SQL Server as below.
-A argument is to specify the DAC connection.
-S argument is to specify the server name.
-d argument is to specify the database name.
-E argument is for windows connection with integrated security true

Using Management Studio: Write ADMIN: before the server name in management studio connection window. It will give you the DAC connection.

To enable the DAC connection in SQL Server express edition add ;-T7806 trace flag as startup parameter.

Go into configuration manager — right click on SQL Server Service and select properties — go into advanced tab and add the trace flag ;-T7806. Once done restart the SQL Server Services.

• SQL Server Configuration Issues


• Database/table/schema Design and Configuration Issues


• CPU/IO/Memory Bottleneck


• Blocking


• Network Bottleneck


• Poor Indexing Strategy (Missing Index, Fragmented Index, Un-Used Index)


• Out-of-date/missing statistics


• T-SQL Code


• Application Code

select OBJECT_NAME(object_id),* 
from sys.indexes where index_id = 0

Select OBJECT_NAME(object_id),*  
from sys.partitions where index_id = 0

Solution:
Database snapshots feature is available from the SQL Server 2005. Snapshot will be used to create a read-only copy of a database at a given point in time. Any transactions which are uncommitted at the time you create a snapshot will not be included in the database snapshot. You can create multiple snapshots of a source database, but those snapshots must reside on the same instance as the source database.

You must have SQL Server enterprise edition to create the snapshot. A database snapshot only contains the data pages that have changed in the source database since the snapshot was created. It contains the original copies of those pages in order to give the effect of a read-only view. The file that is created to hold the changed data pages when the snapshot is created is known as a sparse file.

A source database that contains a snapshot cannot be dropped, detached, or restored until all of the snapshots have been dropped.

Check below queries to restore the database using snapshot
Before you start restoring using database snapshot
– Make sure the source database does not contain read-only or compressed filegroups.
–Make sure all the files are online that were online when the snapshot was created.
–Delete all snapshots of the source database, except the one you are reverting to.

create database db_pool
use db_pool

create table tb1
(
	id int,
	name varchar(10)
)

insert into tb1 values(10,'Jugal')
go 50;

--select the database and execute the below query to get logical name
SELECT name FROM sys.database_files WHERE type <> 1

--execute below command to create the database snapshot
CREATE DATABASE db_pool_Snapshot
 ON
(Name = db_pool,
 FileName = 'C:\db_pool_Data.ss')
 AS SNAPSHOT OF db_pool
 
--select the original database and drop the rows
use db_pool
delete from tb1

--use the snapshot and query tb1, we can see the data evenif it is deleted 
 use db_pool_Snapshot
 select * from tb1
 
 --now restore database using below script from snapshot
USE master
GO
RESTORE DATABASE db_pool FROM DATABASE_SNAPSHOT = 'db_pool_Snapshot'
 
 --query the database to check changes
 use db_pool
 select * from tb1

As you all know resource database is hidden database and we can’t see it SQL Server. We follow below steps to restore the resource database and it worked. We can see the resource database.

Resource database file location
By default, these files are located in :\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\. Each instance of SQL Server has one and only one associated mssqlsystemresource.mdf file, and instances do not share this file. In a cluster, the Resource database exists in the \Data folder on a shared disk.

Follow below steps if you want to see the resource database.
Step 1: Copy the resource database MDF/LDF file to different location and rename it. We have name both data and log file to resourcetest.

Step 2: Execute the below command to attach the resource database file and you can see the resource database.

USE [master]
GO
CREATE DATABASE [resourcetest] ON 
( FILENAME = N'J:\resourcetest.mdf' ),
( FILENAME = N'J:\resourcetest.ldf' )
 FOR ATTACH
GO

Resource Database Image

DMFs in SQL Server 2008 to keep track of object dependencies
sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities
sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities
System View in SQL Server 2008 to keep track of object dependencies
sys.sql_expression_dependencies

sys.sql_expression_dependencies: You can use the sys.sql_expression_dependencies catalog view to report dependency information for a given database. Cross-database entities are returned only when a valid four-part or three-part name is specified.

sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities: Return one row for each user-defined entity referenced by name in the definition of the specified referencing entity. The result set is limited to the entities that are referenced by the specified referencing entity.

sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities: You can use the sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities dynamic management function to return one row for each user-defined entity in the current database that references another user-defined entity by name.

Execute the below queries and check the output.

--create a sample database
create database db_pool
use db_pool
--create a sample table
create table tb1
(
	id int,
	name varchar(10)
)

insert into tb1 values(10,'Jugal')
go 50;

--create a procedure referencing tb1 table
CREATE procedure sp1
as 
	begin
		select * from DB_POOL.DBO.tb1
	end
	
exec sp1

SELECT @@SERVERNAME LocalServer,
               referenced_server_name,
               referenced_database_name,
               referenced_schema_name,
               referenced_entity_name
FROM sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities ('dbo.sp1','OBJECT')


SELECT *
FROM sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities ('dbo.TB1','OBJECT')


SELECT @@SERVERNAME LocalServer,
               referenced_server_name,
               referenced_database_name,
               referenced_schema_name,
               referenced_entity_name
FROM sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities ('dbo.sp1','OBJECT')

SELECT OBJECT_NAME(referencing_id) AS referencing_entity_name,
                referenced_database_name AS database_name,
                referenced_schema_name,
                referenced_entity_name
FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies
WHERE referenced_entity_name = 'tb1'

select * 
FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies

SELECT @@SERVERNAME LocalServer,
               OBJECT_NAME (referencing_id) referencing_object_name,
               referenced_server_name,
               referenced_database_name,
               referenced_schema_name,
               referenced_entity_name
FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies 
where referenced_entity_name = 'tb1'


create procedure sp2
as
begin
   exec sp1
end

SELECT @@SERVERNAME LocalServer,
               OBJECT_NAME (referencing_id) referencing_object_name,
               referenced_server_name,
               referenced_database_name,
               referenced_schema_name,
               referenced_entity_name
FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies 
where referenced_entity_name = 'sp1'