Practical, hands-on guides from our database, cloud and software teams — the same kind of write-ups we lean on internally, shared for anyone running these platforms themselves.
Need to find out which Azure resources were deleted, when they were deleted and who deleted them? This guide explains how to query Azure Activity Logs using Azure CLI and PowerShell, export deletion history to CSV, investigate specific resources, and retrieve records older than 90 days using Log Analytics.
What a SQL Server upgrade, an Always On availability group build or an Azure SQL Managed Instance migration involves in practice — the sequence, the decisions that drive cost, and the failure modes worth planning around.
Published rates, what each model actually includes, and the per-instance arithmetic that decides whether a quote is good value — including why the cheaper headline number is often the more expensive one.
Extended support for SQL Server 2016 ended on 15 July 2026. Here are the four options actually open to an Australian organisation still running it, what each one costs, and how to decide between them.
SQL Server log shipping is a proven disaster recovery solution that maintains one or more secondary copies of a production database by continuously backing up, copying and restoring transaction-log backups. It is available in SQL Server 2019 and other supported SQL Server versions. It is commonly used when organisations need a cost-effective warm standby database without the clustering requirements and licensing complexity associated with some high-availability technologies.
PostgreSQL logging is essential for troubleshooting, performance monitoring, auditing, and operational support. However, incorrectly configured logging can quickly consume large amounts of disk space and create unnecessary operational risk. In a recent production scenario, a PostgreSQL 15 environment was generating more than 20 GB of logs per day, with approximately 150 GB of disk space consumed in less than a week. This article explains how to identify the root cause of excessive PostgreSQL logging, safely reduce log volume, improve rotation and retention, and understand the impact of these changes in a streaming replication environment.
How to Update SQL Server After Cloning and Renaming a Windows Server Cloning a Windows virtual machine is a common way to create a test, development, disaster recovery or migration environment. However, when a SQL Server machine is cloned and the Windows hostname is changed, SQL Server may continue to retain the original server name
How to Find and List Oracle Archive Logs for Specific Dates and RMAN Backups As an Oracle Database Administrator, managing archive logs is a daily reality. Whether you are dealing with a disk space crisis in your Fast Recovery Area (FRA), preparing for a Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR), or auditing database changes, you frequently need to
Building a Debezium CDC Proof of Concept Replicating AWS RDS MySQL to SQL Server on Windows Introduction Many organisations need a reliable way to move operational data from one database platform to another without relying on heavy batch jobs, manual exports, or nightly ETL windows. One practical approach is Change Data Capture, usually called CDC.
Secure Your Reports: How to Enable SSL/TLS Certificate on SQL Server Reporting Services 2019 SQL Server Reporting Services, commonly known as SSRS, is widely used by organisations to publish business reports, dashboards, operational summaries, financial reports, and customer-facing analytics. Because these reports often contain sensitive business information, securing access to the SSRS web portal
Secure Your SQL Server 2019: A Practical Guide to Enabling SSL/TLS Encryption In today’s security-first IT environment, protecting database traffic is no longer optional. SQL Server often holds business-critical information such as customer records, financial data, application transactions, reports, and internal operational data. If connections between applications and SQL Server are not encrypted
Building an Azure SQL Managed Instance Link to an on-premises SQL Server for a true DR design Here's a high-level breakdown of the activities and steps involved in building an Azure SQL Managed Instance Link to an on-premises SQL Server for a true DR design. Phase 1: Planning & Prerequisites 1. Validate version and licensing
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