Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Exam 70-432: Week 3 - QotD

You may have noticed that I like to finish the Question of the Day part of each assignment early, so it's not hanging over my head all week. This week's submission is the QotD from June 1, 2012, and can be found at SQLServerCentral.com:

SQL Server troubleshooting information can be found in Windows Event Logs. Information about SQL Server information can be viewed in all the logs below except which one?
    • Setup Event Logs
    • System Event log
    • Application Event logs
    • Security Event log
I fired up Books24x7 and looked in Microsoft SQL Server 2008: Administrator's Pocket Consultant, Second Edition. Chapter 14 has a section Working With the Event Logs that had this bullet point:
Windows has additional logs that can be helpful when tracking issues. If you are tracking security issues, start with the SQL Server event logs and also examine the Windows security log. If you are having trouble finding the source of a problem that is preventing proper operation of SQL Server, start with the SQL Server logs and also examine the Windows application and system logs. [emphasis mine]
So, by process of elimination, the correct answer is: the Setup Event Logs.

Reference:  Stanek, William R. (© 2009). Microsoft SQL Server 2008: administrator's pocket consultant, second edition. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com.libproxy.mit.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=34174.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Exam 70-432: Week 2 - Some Lab Exercises

Whenever I took a class in grad school, I always had one week where nothing went right, and I wound up not doing a good job.

This was my one and only bad week for this class. I was a bit under the weather, so I didn't finish the assignments. In hindsight, I should have focused on Chapter 9 in the Lab Manual (Backing Up and Restoring a Database) instead of starting with Chapter 8 (Designing Policy Based Management). Oh, well, here's what I do have:

Chapter 8: Designing Policy Based Management

Lesson 1: Designing Policies

Practice 1: Create a Condition

Steps 1-2:





Step 3:
  

Step 4:

 

Step 5:

 
 
 Step 6:

 

 Step 7:



Practice 2: Create a Condition For a Target Set

Step 1:



Step 2:



Practice 3: Create a Policy

Step 1:






 


Step 2:




Step 3:



Step 4:



Practice 4: Create a Policy Category

Step 1:










Chapter 9: Backing Up and Restoring a Database

Lesson 1: Backing Up Databases

Practice 1: Create a Compressed, Mirrored, Full Backup

Step 1:

 



Practice 2: Create a Transaction Log Backup

Step 1:






Step 2:



Practice 3: Create a Differential Backup

Steps 1-2:




I'm definitely going to come back and re-visit backups and restores.