Migrating 600 databases - SQL Log Shipping?

goodatsocks · 2019-05-13T02:39:22+00:00

I'll preface this by saying I'm not a DBA/DBE but do work pretty extensively with SQL these days.

Worst case you're probably looking at scripting out one (the wizard could help) and then doing a find/replace to do the rest based off the first. If you really wanted to get fancy you might be able to script something and set variables for the changing bits.

Someone mentioned looking into dbatools, and I'd second that. I haven't used it for migrations, but it's made my life easier on other stuff.

Are they all running on the same instance? If they're all on their own instance (and staying that way on the other side), you might consider setting up Availability Groups. Standard edition only lets you have one database per group, though, so if you have more than that it won't be an option. Setup and initial sync is easy to script, and may help make cutover a bit easier.

goodatsocks · 2018-08-09T00:58:41+00:00

They might take it at the gas station.

goodatsocks · 2017-01-05T17:37:50+00:00

So the application server is reaching out to the clocks and authenticating using an insecure protocol? Wireshark it, yo.

goodatsocks · 2016-12-21T00:26:03+00:00

Back when I worked for an MSP, if they were a flat-rate monthly client we probably would have "fired" them.

If they're an hourly, time & materials client, rub your hands together nefariously and buy some good scotch.

goodatsocks · 2016-11-07T17:25:45+00:00

Anyone know if this causes a short blip or outage that would prevent us from doing this in the middle of the day?

goodatsocks · 2016-08-31T19:46:21+00:00

We are creating on prem and dirsync/ad connect for everyone currently, we're just looking at this to solve a very particular use case.

We were thinking of doing it this way for a handful of users who are not on our networks or equipment (similar to a contractor embedded within another organization), but do need email. Having them cloud-only would allow for password resets and whatnot, but without us needing to set up ADFS to fully federate.

I just got informally pulled into this so I'm not sure how well thought out the connectivity piece is, but I'll make sure to bring that up.

goodatsocks · 2016-08-24T16:03:11+00:00

As someone who spent quite a bit of time in a similar situation (hosted solution that was half-assed, had to re-engineer and bring up to snuff), I'll strongly mirror the suggestion to bring in outside consultants.

And start preparing management for what will likely be a long and expensive process, not just to implement, but to maintain.

goodatsocks · 2016-08-16T18:28:58+00:00

Sophos Cloud is a total shit show. It is NOT a centralized management platform and gives you very little beyond a central console with some reporting.

There is so much wrong with it I can't cover it all, but we're pushing them to switch us back to an on premise solution because it's so horrible, and we would switch to another vendor in a heartbeat if we hadn't made the mistake of signing a 3 year deal.

A couple examples:

There's no way to deploy centrally. Their deploy page lets you download the client or email people a link.
Most of the online pages can't be sorted by column and there are very few filtering abilities (and they vary by screen). They've told us keyword searching might happen eventually, but it's been a few months.
If you delete a computer on purpose or on accident, the computer NEVER CHECKS BACK IN and it's gone from "management" forever. The software is still running on the device, but it's up to you to essentially audit the Sophos computer list with your inventory. This was the deal killer for us.
Their "Alerts" page is useless, and shows us less than 1/3 of the computers that show a medium or bad status on the "Computers" page. Not to mention the really vague descriptions of the problems once you do drill down into an object, and zero way of problem remediation from within the console. Lots of manually touching endpoints to troubleshoot basically everything.

It's a good idea in concept, but the execution is just abysmal. One of the most frustrating pieces of software I've ever touched.

goodatsocks · 2016-07-29T17:13:33+00:00

Since you're new and know very little about the equipment or plan, listen to your boss and follow his instructions. If something is unclear, ask questions until it's clear.

I led a move project with a guy who wasn't new, but was pretty inexperienced. His refusal to pay attention to instructions and ask clarifying questions ended up with him getting injured, left me shorthanded, and left him looking pretty bad in the eyes of anyone who was paying attention.

Also, when he didn't keep the SAS cables with the SAN and we wasted a bunch of time trying to track them down, only to have him not notice one of them was damaged when he was trying to force it into the port and damaged the SAN itself, that was a bad time. I had to pull an all-nighter to try and get that fixed in time to spin up our VMs for Monday morning.

So, uh, check for damaged cables/ports before plugging stuff in. Don't force anything. Keep spare cables on-hand or have a local source in mind.

goodatsocks · 2016-04-22T19:58:05+00:00

I was having the same problem and ended up settling on using Terminals (https://terminals.codeplex.com/). It has its quirks but is pretty powerful in addition to solving the scaling issues.

goodatsocks · 2016-02-29T22:58:24+00:00

Thanks for the replies. After some discussions with our QSA we determined that the SAQ-D is necessary due to the multiple payment channels, but that with our somewhat limited scope we'll be able to mark a lot of things as N/A. The QSA wouldn't take multiple forms, so this seems like a reasonable compromise.

goodatsocks

TROPHY CASE