Database will not start
A service that fails after a reboot, patch or host migration — including corrupt system databases and broken startup parameters.
Outage response · answered 24/7
Emergency database support
Production down, data at risk, or a restore that will not complete? Call 1800 431 416 and speak to an Australian-based senior DBA — any hour, any day, with or without an existing agreement.
When to call
The situations we get called for at 2am
If production is down, degraded or at risk of data loss, call rather than email. These are the failures our on-call DBAs handle most often.
Corruption or a failed restore
Consistency errors, a backup chain that will not restore, or a recovery that has stalled part way through.
Deleted or encrypted data
Accidental deletion, a destructive script run against production, or a ransomware event where you need to establish what is recoverable.
Upgrade or patch gone wrong
A version upgrade or cumulative update that has left the instance unusable, and a rollback that needs to be executed under time pressure.
Failover that did not fail over
AlwaysOn availability groups, failover clusters, Data Guard or replication that has broken, split-brained or refused to come up on the secondary.
Performance collapse
Severe blocking, runaway queries, a full transaction log or exhausted storage that has taken the application down without taking the server down.
What happens next
From your call to service restored
The first priority is getting you back online. Root cause analysis follows once the bleeding has stopped.
You call, we answer
The support line is answered 24 hours a day, including weekends and public holidays. Have your instance name, the error and the time it started ready.
Senior DBA triage
A certified consultant assesses the failure, confirms the blast radius and tells you honestly what is recoverable and what is not before work begins.
Stabilise and restore
We work over secure remote access, alongside your team rather than around them, to get the service back and protect against further data loss.
Root cause and report
Once you are stable you get a written incident report with the cause, what we changed, and what to fix so it does not happen again.
How it works
No contract required to make the call
You do not need an existing agreement to get help in an outage. Work is billed against the published remote consultancy rate, and we tell you the likely cost before we start.
- Answered 24/7 by Australian-based senior consultants
- Certified DBAs only — no first-line triage layer to get through
- Secure remote access established at the start of the call
- We work with your team, so knowledge stays in your business
- Written incident report with root cause after resolution
- Honest assessment up front — including when the answer is that data is not recoverable
What we can help with
Platforms our on-call consultants cover
Emergency support spans the same estate as our managed plans — current and legacy versions, on-premises and in the cloud.
Database platforms
- SQL Server (2008–2022)
- Oracle (10g–23ai)
- PostgreSQL & EDB
- MySQL & MariaDB
- MongoDB
- Azure SQL & Managed Instance
High availability & recovery
- AlwaysOn availability groups
- Failover clustering
- Oracle RAC & Data Guard
- Replication & log shipping
- RMAN & native backups
- Veeam & Commvault
Where it runs
- On-premises
- VMware & Hyper-V
- Microsoft Azure
- AWS
- Oracle Cloud (OCI)
Response times
What you can expect when you call
A guaranteed response time is something you hold in advance, not something you can buy mid-outage. Here is exactly what applies to you.
Guaranteed SLA
On a monthly DBA plan
Your contracted SLA applies — one hour on Plans B and C, two hours on Plan A. Incident work draws on your included service hours first.
See the plans ›2-hour SLA
On an on-call subscription
A guaranteed two-hour response, 24/7, on your dedicated support line. Call time is billed at $150 per hour against actual work done.
How on-call works ›Best effort
No existing agreement
We will connect you with the next available senior consultant and start as soon as access is in place — but without a plan there is no contracted response time. Billed at $150 per hour, four-hour minimum.
Avoid this next time ›Production down right now?
Call the support line — it is answered 24 hours a day, every day. If it is urgent but not critical, send the details and a consultant will come back to you.
Call 1800 431 416Not critical enough to call?
Describe what is happening and a senior consultant will get back to you. For anything affecting production right now, please use the phone.
Melbourne office
Level 1, 530 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
Phone
Business hours
Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm AEST (24/7 for managed service clients)
Published
FAQ
Common questions
Anything where production is down, degraded or at risk of data loss: an instance that will not start, corruption or a failed restore, deleted or encrypted data, a failed upgrade, a failover that did not work, or severe blocking that has taken the application offline.
Emergency work is billed at the published remote consultancy rate of $150 per hour with a four-hour minimum, GST exclusive. Clients on a monthly DBA plan draw on their included service hours first, then $140 per hour. We tell you the likely cost before work starts.
A guaranteed response time applies if you already hold an agreement: one hour on DBA Plans B and C, two hours on Plan A, and two hours on an on-call subscription. Without a plan there is no contracted SLA — we connect you to the next available senior consultant and start as soon as access is in place.
Yes. You do not need a contract to call. We take the details, establish secure remote access and begin work at $150 per hour with a four-hour minimum. Most clients set up an on-call subscription afterwards so the next incident carries a guaranteed response time.
SQL Server 2008 to 2022, Oracle 10g to 23ai, PostgreSQL, EDB, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance — running on-premises, on VMware or Hyper-V, or in Azure, AWS and Oracle Cloud.
Often, but it depends entirely on the failure mode and what backups exist. A senior DBA assesses recoverability early in the call and tells you honestly what can and cannot be retrieved, rather than billing hours against an outcome that is not achievable.
The instance or server name, the exact error message, when the problem started, and what changed beforehand — a patch, a deployment, a restart or a storage event. Someone who can approve remote access should be available, as that is usually the first blocker.
You receive a written incident report covering the root cause, every change we made during recovery, and the specific remediation needed to stop it recurring. If you want that remediation delivered, it can run as a fixed-price project or against blocked hours.