This post is the first one of a series of four describing all the different commands. We’ll discuss the commands to set up log shipping with dbatools, how to check the status, to check for errors, and to recover in case of an emergency.

What is log shipping

Before we go into the why I want you to know what log shipping is. Log shipping dates back to the early versions of SQL Server. The first article that I could find dates back to the year 2000 and explains how to setup log shipping with SQL Server version 7.

T-SQL Tuesday is back around again and this time it’s the first one of 2018! This wonderful idea by Adam Machanic ( Blog | Twitter ), is this time hosted by Arun Sirpal ( Blog | Twitter ).

The topic Arun has chosen is:

Write about and share with the world a time when you faced a technical challenge that you overcame and you can go technical with both the issue and solution if you like.

For the coming T-SQL Tuesday I want to share some of my experiences with a database with data modeling gone wrong where I was the DBA.

To know where all the bad data modeling came from you have to know the history of the piece of software. About 10 years ago there was hype around saving data in XML files. XML was supposed to be a good solution to save data in a formatted way without the hassle of using databases or formatted text files.

As a DBA one of the jobs is making sure all the databases and database servers are working properly and you have a controlled environment.

Once in a while, you have a skeleton in the closet where suddenly a database server comes around and you’re scratching your head where it came from. Your manager (and maybe your colleagues) expect you to support it because you’re the DBA.

You don’t know the server, your colleague doesn’t (really) know the server. So now what. Are you going to take responsibility for everything on the database server of the database itself when you don’t know anything about it?

I know I should have posted this a long time ago but I have the same excuses as everybody, work, too busy, kids, wife, etc, etc, etc ;) .

Last year I entered the contest for the worst day of DBA’s life from Simple-Talk.

The prize was a ticket to the SQL Cruise in the Mediterranean. That sounded good and I started thinking if I had a really bad day in the past. It took me a while to choose which one because there were a lot of winners in my mind. I sat down one evening and started to write my story and it got quite long at the end.