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.
Planning SQL Server or Windows Server patching but unsure which applications depend on the database server? This guide shows how to capture SQL Server connections every 30 minutes using DMVs and SQL Server Agent, analyse hosts, users and application names, and build an application dependency register before patching.
A backup tells you where your data was at one moment. Point-in-time recovery lets you choose the moment. Here is how PITR actually works in PostgreSQL, built by hand and then with pgBackRest, including the two errors that stop a restore dead.
Learn how to troubleshoot SQL Server Error 845 buffer latch timeouts and Error 5901 checkpoint failures. Includes root causes, diagnostic queries, storage checks, DBCC CHECKDB steps, and remediation guidance.
Learn how to troubleshoot intermittent Azure Site-to-Site VPN connectivity when the tunnel remains connected but application traffic stops. Diagnose IPsec, IKE, traffic selector, Phase 2, DPD and routing issues using Azure VPN Troubleshoot, Log Analytics, PowerShell and VPN Gateway diagnostics.
Importing an Oracle Data Pump dump is more than running impdp. This guide covers dump discovery, character-set validation, tablespace planning, schema remapping, monitoring, troubleshooting and comprehensive post-import verification.
A comprehensive production-focused guide to installing Oracle Database 19c Standard Edition 2 on Oracle Linux 9. Covers OS and kernel compatibility, Oracle prerequisites, storage design, MobaXterm/X11, Oracle Universal Installer errors, Release Updates, DBCA, NLS settings, FRA, RMAN and post-install verification.
Is your PostgreSQL pg_wal directory consuming unexpectedly large amounts of disk space while your standby server contains only recent WAL files? This guide explains how to verify streaming replication, identify what is retaining WAL, troubleshoot replication slots and WAL archiving, and safely allow PostgreSQL to reclaim disk space without manually deleting critical WAL files.
When the filesystem hosting Oracle TEMP tempfiles reaches 100%, simply checking the TEMP tablespace's reported used space is not enough. This guide explains how to determine the physical tempfile size, reusable TEMP space, active TEMP consumers, SQL responsible for TEMP growth, historical usage, and safe remediation options for Oracle 10g and Oracle 19c.
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.
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