Building a Consultancy: More Principles
February 26, 2024
A couple of weeks ago, I started blogging about part of the journey of creating our SQL Server Consulting firm. I may someday work on more posts on the journey from full-time DBA to doing some side work to leaving with an “anchor client” to going off on my own (and my adventures with Linchpin … Read more
Building a SQL Server Consultancy
February 12, 2024
Principles and Values First In 2011, I set out to be an independent SQL Server consultant. At the time, if you told me I’d be looking back 13 years later as a “CEO” of a SQL Server Consulting practice with a team of 17+ FTEs serving 120+ Managed SQL Server DBA as a Service clients, … Read more
How to Optimize SQL Server Performance by Separating Workloads
January 25, 2024
I wrote this to share a series of scripts that help identify if workloads are appropriately separated on the SQL Server host. The main reason we look for this is to avoid I/O contention and waits, which is a challenge that can significantly impact performance. If you are unsure if your server is experiencing I/O … Read more
Audit Your Database Backup Chain!
October 30, 2023
All database administrators know that safeguarding data is paramount and having a strong restore strategy is crucial. In this post, I would like to add another tool to your arsenal that I have found helpful in auditing server health and configurations as it pertains to backups and the backup chain. A backup chain is important … Read more
Is Your SQL Server Ready for a Compliance Audit?
September 4, 2023
Compliance audits ensure that organizations adhere to regulatory guidelines, industry standards, and internal policies. As SQL Server DBAs, you can be prepared for most audits if you already check all of the boxes outlined in this blog post. Each of these points could be its own blog posts, so take your time as you go … Read more
Adding SQL Server Access When You’re Locked Out
August 29, 2023
As consultants we are sometimes asked the following question: “We have an old version of SQL that we can’t turn off and no one has access to it. Is there a way to create an account on a server you don’t have access to?” The answer is YES, and it isn’t as difficult as you … Read more
Maximizing SQL Server ROI in M&A
August 25, 2023
The Hidden Goldmine: SQL Server Due Diligence in Acquisitions Whenever I’m chatting with folks in the investment world, especially those eyeing product or “… as a service” companies that use Microsoft SQL Server, I’ve realized there’s a real need for clear, actionable insights on what to look for in a SQL Server environment. It’s not … Read more
Essential Database Maintenance Tasks Every DBA Should Know
August 23, 2023
(Note from our founder, Mike Walsh in March of 2025: Since this post has gone live, I want to say we’ve probably made at least $70,000 in buckets of hours specifically related to clients reaching out about issues that could have been avoided and addressed simply be following the advice from David here… While we … Read more
Make SQL Server Database Restores Easy With sp_DatabaseRestore
August 16, 2023
If you’ve read the Straight Path blog for any period of time, you’ve probably noticed more than a few posts about database backups. You may have also noticed we’re big fans of the Ola Hallengren Maintenance Solution for backups, which creates stored procedures and jobs to handle your regular backups. These scripts and jobs are … Read more
How to Setup a Standalone SSRS Server As Part of an Availability Group
August 9, 2023
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is a useful tool that can be installed on a standalone server (a license is required), or it can be installed on an existing SQL Server host (this shares the existing license of SQL Server). This blog post covers how SSRS is installed on a standalone server and how to … Read more