Making NetApp SnapManager “Play Nice”

Implementing NetApp SnapManager for SQL Server

I’m a firm believer in using any software at your disposal to it’s fullest.  There are times though that I curse my own name for adopting this mantra, because let’s face it, some software just refuses to “Play Nice”.  I don’t want to sound too critical here, but NetApp’s SnapManager for SQL Server product is one of those, how shall I say, onerous applications.  If you find yourself running into issues with the tool or are exploring the possibilities of adopting it in your environment, read on as I go over some of its idiosyncrasies.

Truncating Tables Without Elevated Rights

A common request from users is to receive “Truncate Table Rights” within a database.  Because a truncate statement is a DDL command, this isn’t nearly as easy to fulfill as most people would expect.  Faced with this challenge, a DBA might even find themselves choosing between elevating the user’s rights (e.g. including them into the db_ddladmin or db_owner role) or being a bad guy and flat-out denying the request.  Neither option is a win for both parties, so thankfully (in SQL 2005 and later) there is another solution.

Eliminating Static Output Logs

Using Tokens to Create Dynamically Named Job Step Output Logs

There are situations that make me think I need to find and enroll in a “Making Better Google Searches” class.  After some brief digging into Ola Halengren’s Maintenance Solution I inadvertently came across the way of creating log file names dynamically for job step output.  While this may not sound all that wonderful, I’ve asked a lot of people how to do this over the years (including MS support during various incident resolutions) and no one has been able to tell me what it took 2 minutes of digging into Ola’s solution to find.  I think the problem isn’t the folks I asked, but how I asked the question.  Anyway, read on and I will show you the way to create dynamic output log names within a Job Step’s Advanced Tab.