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SQL Server: Advanced Corruption Recovery Techniques

by Paul Randal

Database corruption happens all the time, all over the world, and sometimes it's not so simple to deal with. In this follow-on course from SQL Server: Detecting and Correcting Database Corruption, you'll learn the more advanced techniques that can lead to success in the most challenging corruption scenarios, applicable for more experienced SQL Server professionals, from SQL Server 2005 onward.

What you'll learn

Database corruption happens all the time, all over the world, and sometimes it's not so simple to deal with. The SQL Server: Detecting and Correcting Database Corruption course showed you what you need to know to detect and recover from most cases of database corruption and this course will take you to the next level of knowledge and capabilities. The course starts by explaining in depth how DBCC CHECKDB processes databases and how you can tune the performance of DBCC CHECKDB to make it run as fast as possible. You'll then learn about some undocumented DBCC commands, such as DBCC PAGE and DBCC WRITEPAGE, which can be invaluable when investigating and repairing corruption. The course then moves on to dealing with transaction log corruption, such as using EMERGENCY mode and how to re-attach damaged databases, and more advanced restore techniques, including how to analyze the transaction log to find the point to restore to and how to perform a tail-of-the-log backup using a different SQL Server instance. Finally, the course ends with advanced repair techniques, including how to deal with corrupt metadata by manually editing system tables, how to salvage data from backups and nonclustered indexes, and the ultimate in advanced recovery techniques: manually editing a database using DBCC WRITEPAGE. Packed with a wealth of information and practical, easy-to-follow demonstrations, this course will prepare you for dealing with out-of-the-ordinary corruption problems. The course is applicable to all SQL Server versions from SQL Server 2005 onward, and for more experienced SQL Server professionals.

Table of contents

About the author

Paul is the CEO of SQLskills.com, a Microsoft Regional Director and a SQL Server MVP. He worked on the SQL Server Storage Engine team at Microsoft from 1999 to 2007. Among other things, he wrote DBCC CHECKDB/repair for SQL Server 2005 and was responsible for the Core Storage Engine during SQL Server 2008 development. Since leaving Microsoft, Paul has been a full-time consultant and trainer on SQL Server around the world, including authoring and teaching the prestigious Microsoft Certified Mast... more

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