MSSQLTips: Tip #51 – Alerts and Notifications for SQL Server Login, Database User and Role Membership Changes

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_SQL Server security monitoring is a critical part of the Database Administrator’s job. Some security related alerts could be setup very easy, but others require third-party tools or extra steps to setup. For example, SQL Server Audit can be used to monitor logins or users modification, but it requires audit log review. We would like to get real-time alerts every time a login or a user is created or added to a server or a database role, how can this be done?

In this tip we will provide steps and scripts for setting up WMI alerts and jobs responding to these alerts to monitor the creation and removal of users and logins as well as server and database roles membership changes.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “Alerts and Notifications for SQL Server Login, Database User and Role Membership Changes“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #50 – Different ways to sort multi-server SQL Server query results using Central Management Server

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Central Management Server (CMS) is a SQL Server feature that allows you to manage multiple SQL Servers at the same time. You can run T-SQL scripts or execute Policy-Based Management policies on multiple servers. You can also group SQL Servers and run the scripts on a specific group of SQL Servers.

How else can CMS be used? How can we overcome some of the limitations when we run queries against CMS Server Groups?

In this tip we will show you a couple of CMS tricks. In our examples below we will show how you can sort the CMS query results for different scenarios. We will also provide a couple of examples of alternative uses of CMS.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “Different ways to sort multi-server SQL Server query results using Central Management Server“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #48 – SQL Server Database Mail Health Check with Policy Based Management

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Email alerting is an important feature that helps to automate a lot of Database Administration tasks. How can we be sure that Database Mail works properly? If there is email problem there is no another email that will notify us of an issue and it could be days before we realize that there is a problem.

In this tip we will provide a solution to check all of your servers for the different types of Database Mail issues. We are going to use Policy-Based Management (PBM) to perform these checks.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “SQL Server Database Mail Health Check with Policy Based Management“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #47 – SQL Server Database Mail Health Check for all SQL Servers

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Most of the SQL Server DBAs will agree that we rely on email alerts too much. Tasks are automated, we have emails notifying us of failed jobs, of errors, etc. But how can we be sure that emails are always sent? If there is an email problem there is not another email that will notify us of an issue and it could be days before we realize that there is a problem.

In this tip we will provide a solution to monitor all of your servers for the different types of Database Mail issues. We will provide a T-SQL script that is executed with a PowerShell script. The PowerShell script can be scheduled to run on a Central Management Server (CMS) or another SQL Server. In our example we will run it once a day to check the Database Mail health, but you can modify it and run it every hour or as often as you need.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “SQL Server Database Mail Health Check for all SQL Servers“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #46 – Safely Dropping Unused SQL Server Indexes

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There are many resources online about finding and dropping unused SQL Server indexes, but there a number of issues related to unused indexes removal. How can we make sure that we are dropping unused SQL Server indexes safely? What are the potential issues?

Some DBAs probably have an unused indexes review as part of their routine. Experienced DBAs understand the consequences of index removal and the potential issues. In this tip, we will review some of these potential issues and we will provide you with a couple of examples when you should just leave the indexes as is (even if they are unused).

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “Safely Dropping Unused SQL Server Indexes“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #45 – Drop Login issues for logins tied to SQL Server Availability Groups

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During our regular security reviews we have discovered that one of the SQL Servers with Availability Groups has an individual DBA’s login in addition to the DBA group as a member of the sysadmin server role. The DBA is already a member of the DBA Domain group, so we are not sure why we had this login on SQL Server.

We have tried to remove the login, but couldn’t remove it.

In this tip we will be providing troubleshooting steps required for the Drop Login issues.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “Drop Login issues for logins tied to SQL Server Availability Groups“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #44 – SQL Server Master Data Services Business Rules Notifications

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You can validate Business Rules manually using MDS Explorer, Version Validation or the MDS Excel add-in. You can also automate validation of the Business Rules by using the mdm.udpValidateModel stored procedure. In this case we don’t have information about the validation results right away (as the validation process might run at night), but we can setup email notifications to review the Business Rules validation status later or without using the MDS Administrator site.

In this tip we will be providing steps required for the notifications setup.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “SQL Server Master Data Services Business Rules Notifications“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #42 – SQL Server Edition Post-Downgrade Steps

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After downgrading SQL Server Enterprise Edition to the Standard one some of the configuration settings are reset to the default values. In this tip we provide examples of some of the issues you may have after the SQL Server Edition downgrade.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “SQL Server Edition Post-Downgrade Steps“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQLTips: Tip #41 – Non-traditional ways to learn more about SQL Server

In this tip we have provided two non-traditional ways of learning SQL Server. These methods are not for exam preparation or for learning SQL Server from scratch, but more for learning small things that you may be not aware of or forgot about.

Please read the latest MSSQLTips post: “Non-traditional ways to learn more about SQL Server“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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MSSQL Tips: Tip #39 – Finding SQL Server Object Dependencies with DMVs

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This is the last tip about objects dependencies.

What should you know about the sys.sql_expression_dependencies DMV (Dynamic Management View)?

Please read the latest MSSQL Tip: “Finding SQL Server Object Dependencies with DMVs“.

Check out all of my tips here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/94/svetlana-golovko/.

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