Support Roundtable: What Every DBA Ought to Know Q&A (Part 3)
Here is part 3 of our Question and Answers from last week's Support Roundtable, What Every Blackbaud Database Administrator Ought to Know.
Database Maintenance and the BMC
Q: Should a workstation have access to both production and test environment or should it be totally separate?
A: Workstations can only have access to one environment because the versions between production and test may differ. Each workstation may only have one version of the software installed at a time. If you have a database license for a second database then you can attach your non-production copy of the database to the same server; therefore, the workstations would have access to both databases.
Q: We have a fairly large and complex database in both RE and FE, how often would you suggest that we perform maintenance?
A: I would suggest running Rebuild Indexes, Update Statistics, and Check Integrity at least once a week. For larger organizations that are frequently updating their database through batch and import, twice a week may be necessary.
Q: Are there suggested parameters to be used when running the Maintenance functions (Indexes/Statistics)?
A: The default option is generally preferred for the Maintenance tasks in the Blackbaud Management Console. Only change the parameters if advised by Blackbaud or by a qualified SQL Server administrator.
Backups
Q: Is it possible to backup the G-L distribution grid in RE? If not are there any steps that the DBA can take to maintain the grid in order to minimize problems?
A: The G-L distribution is backed up with a full database backup but there is not a way to backup just the G-L distribution grid. The G-L distribution is not something that should be changing often. To prevent users from changing the distribution you may want to review and adjust the users security settings in The Raiser’s Edge.
Q: Am I correct the SQL Server 2005 express does not include a backup manager to assist with manually backing up SQL? We had to download SQL Server Management Studio Express.
A: The Blackbaud Management Console provides the interface to create backups with SQL Server 2005 Express (or any other edition of SQL Server). SQL Server 2005, when downloaded and installed from Microsoft’s web site, does not come with a graphical user interface to create backups, however, they do provide the SQL Server Management Studio Express as a separate download for this. Blackbaud, however, recommends and supports the use of the Blackbaud Management Console for backing up the database.
Q: What types of testing should we do with the backups? Meaning do we spot check records, are there queries we should run, reports, etc?
A: The biggest test you should run is to restore the database and then log into it. Once logged in check one or two records, one or two reports and queries. This will let us know that the data is valid. Generally a backup failure is all or none, meaning that no data will restore or all data will restore.