John McCormack DBA

SQL Server Databases and Cloud

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Monitor your sql rds instance using CloudWatch

11th August 2020 By John McCormack Leave a Comment

Monitor your SQL RDS instance using CloudWatch

This is a short video on how to monitor your sql rds instance using CloudWatch. Cloudwatch is the built in tool from AWS which can be used to monitor many different resources. Here, we specifically talk about RDS for SQL Server. I also talk you through how to set up alarms to notify you when things go bad, such as high CPU alarms.

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Filed Under: AWS, AWS RDS, AWS SQL Server, Training

How Multi-AZ Works For SQL Server on RDS

4th August 2020 By John McCormack Leave a Comment

How Multi-AZ Works For SQL Server on RDS

This is a short video about How Multi-AZ Works For SQL Server on RDS. I didn’t feel a demo was needed this time jsut for the sake of it. Enabling Multi-AZ is a click of a button or one line of PowerShell or CLI.

Important: Please read this post for further information. I’ve highlighted some key points in my presentation but there is no point in me simply listing out everything or reading the post verbatim. There is some really great info in this post however so it is well worth reading.

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Filed Under: AWS, AWS RDS, AWS SQL Server, SQL Server, Training

Backup and restore for AWS RDS SQL Server

30th July 2020 By John McCormack Leave a Comment

Backup and restore for AWS RDS SQL Server

In this video, we talk about backup and restore for AWS RDS SQL Server. One of the great benefits of Platform as a Service (PaaS) is that your cloud hosting company will handle the backups for you. And they’re really good at it. In this case, AWS will allow you to restore to any point in time within the last 35 days, and all with no administration effort on your part.

This video dives a bit deeper into the non default options such as backing up and restoring using native backups and how you can keep those backups way beyond the 35 days.

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Filed Under: AWS RDS, AWS SQL Server, SQL Server, Training

Automating SQL RDS With PowerShell

29th July 2020 By John McCormack Leave a Comment

Automating SQL RDS With PowerShell

Introduction to AWSPowerShell, for managing SQL Server RDS instances. Learn how to create, restore, take snapshots and start/stop instances for cost optimisation reasons.

Apologies that this video is 16 minutes, I really wanted to keep all of the training videos under 10 minutes but there was so much to say about PowerShell. (And I only scratched the surface).

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Filed Under: AWS RDS, AWS SQL Server, SQL Server, Training

Securing your SQL Server RDS instance

28th July 2020 By John McCormack Leave a Comment

Securing your SQL Server RDS instance

Learn how to use security groups to restrict access and create logins, users and roles above and beyond the standard admin user.

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Filed Under: AWS, AWS RDS, AWS SQL Server, Training

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