SQL Server Case of the Week: A Broken Backup Chain Blocks Migration to Azure SQL Managed Instance
April 10, 2026
A client was preparing to move databases from on-prem to Azure SQL Managed Instance. The backup and restore process was going smoothly, full backup restored, differential restored, first log backup restored, everything lining up. Then the next transaction log restore failed due to a mismatched LSN error. The backup chain was broken. The migration was
SQL Server Case of the Week: Repetitive Login Failures from Local Computer Account
February 20, 2026
Summary – Repeated Login Failures in SQL Server At Straight Path, we regularly inherit SQL Server environments after someone else completes the initial install. Most of the time the server configuration just needs a tweak or two and everything is good to go. Other times, we encounter odd behavior that sends us down a research
SQL Server Case of the Week: When Availability Group Replica Communication Issues Cause Log Drives to Fill
February 13, 2026
Summary – Log File Filling up on the Availability Group Networking firewall changes made over the weekend resulted in the client’s three disaster recovery (DR) replicas to not be able to communicate with the three High Availability (HA) replicas in their SQL Server Always on Availability Group (AG). This resulted in log files growing out
SQL Server Case of the Week: The Transaction Log of Your Snapshot Replication Publisher Database Won’t Truncate… But Why?
December 12, 2025
Quick Summary When snapshot replication is configured with schema replication enabled, DDL changes are sometimes marked for replication but never marked for truncation, creating a false “undistributed command” that prevents log truncation and causes uncontrolled growth. The solution was to add a log reader agent using sp_addlogreader_agent on the publisher to mark all replicated commands for truncation. Context The SQL
Accelerated Database Recovery in SQL Server 2025
June 19, 2025
Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR) was introduced in SQL Server 2019. Its main purpose is to allow for faster database recovery in the event of a crash or unexpected shutdown. Traditionally, the database engine handles crash recovery through a series of phases—analysis, redo, and undo—which can be inefficient and slow, especially when dealing with long-running transactions.
7 Common SQL Server Transaction Log Myths
March 28, 2023
SQL Server is a complicated piece of software, so it’s understandable that some of us have some misconceptions about what the transaction log is and what it does. This post is designed to not just tell you about these myths, but also to show you a few ways how to prove (or rather disprove) some
5 common Problems to Troubleshoot with sp_WhoIsActive in SQL Server
January 31, 2023
Fix blocking, full logs, tempdb bloat, memory waits, and “what’s running now” in minutes with these five sp_WhoIsActive commands. Use this tool today to solve your own SQL Server issues. Need more help? We can help with our SQL Server Consulting services or our DBA services. 5 Common SQL Server Problems to Fix with sp_WhoIsActive