[thelist] A bunch of tips

Joshua Olson joshua at waetech.com
Sun Aug 11 14:56:01 CDT 2002


<tip type="SQL Agent Jobs" author="Joshua Olson">
If you are using a T-SQL step of an SQL Agent Job to update fields from one
table to another, check your field names carefully.  The problem I ran into
was that I was using a field called "DATE" from table 1 to update table 2.
Even though both fields were of type "datetime", the query still threw an
Arithmetic Overflow error.  What made this so crazy was that the same query,
when executed through the data view, executed perfectly.  Renaming to source
field to DATE1 cleared up the error.

P.S.  The field name "DATE" came off an import... that's not a name I'd
normally use in a table.
</tip>

<tip type="SQL Agent Jobs" author="Joshua Olson">
To force a failure of a step in a Job, use the following code:

Err.Throw
</tip>

<tip type="Backing Up" author="Joshua Olson">
Backing up for non-reinstallable data is a really good idea.
</tip>

<tip type="RAID" author="Joshua Olson">
Setting up an inexpensive RAID configuration on your server (using an extra
identical IDE HD plus an Adaptec or Promise FasTrak controller) is well
worth the investment.  The extra $200-$300 (USD) will save you lots of
time/money when your HD goes bad.
</tip>

<tip type="Purchasing HD's" author="Joshua Olson">
When purchasing a new HD in an emergency situation, stop and think about
other items you may need--drive mounting rails, new ribbon cables, etc.  You
never know when the old ones aren't going to work with the new drive or
might have too much wear and tear.
</tip>

<tip type="IDE Cables" author="Joshua Olson">
Take care when troubleshooting HD's.  It is possible to make a bad situation
worse by accidentally ripping the Female adapter clean off the IDE ribbon
cable at 11pm when the only store open is WalMart... and no, WalMart does
not carry IDE Cables.
</tip>

<tip type="IDE Cables" author="Joshua Olson">
When shopping for IDE cables, make sure you look around before simply buying
a cable.  An ATA/133 IDE cable by itself can run as high as $30 (USD) a
piece.  However, most RAID controllers come with them as well.  And, as I've
found out, a $10 (USD) 5 1/4 -> 3 1/2 inch adapter kit sometimes comes with
one as well.
</tip>

P.S. Anybody else been getting a lot of corrupted files when downloading
Software/SDK's from Microsoft lately?  During my process of rebuilding I had
to re-download a couple of files more than a few times to get an uncorrupted
file.  I thought it might've been my NIC driver, but files from other sites
did not have the same problems as those from Microsoft.

-joshua




More information about the thelist mailing list