Corruption Problem- need some advice

Hi all,
we have been using SQL7 for a number of years on a Win2K box without so much
as one hiccup. Recently went out bought a new HP Server and SQL2000.
Installed it all, moved all the databases - and everything seemed to be
working fine.
A couple of weeks ago we had a problem with our biggest database (about 1gb
in size). Users were getting some errors from the app that uses it. I did a
DBCC CHECKDB on that database and it was coming up with almost 1000
inconsistencies etc etc. Tried Repair, to no avail and in the end just had
to Restore form backup - lost about a half a days work - not critical for
us.
Spoke to a few DBA's who said that it sounded Hardware related. Spoke to our
local IT support who we got the HP's from and they did a quick look and
everything came up OK.
A couple of days ago the same problem occurred. At a loss to explain what is
happening, so I'm hoping a few of you may be able to help.
One thing I did notice was that Write Cache was set on the server to 50%
Read 50% Write. I have only now changed it to 100% and No Write caching.
Could the above have caused it (50% Read 50% Write), or is it more than
likely I could have further corruption ? We haven't , I believe, had any
power outages or system crashes leading up to these corruptions.
Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
cheers,
Adam
Adam,
While it's quite possible that you are hitting some SQL bug which corrupts
your database, it is far more likely that you may have some hardware or
driver related problem on that server. I would advise you to install the
latest SQL hotfix and update all your firmware and drivers. If you have
enabled /PAE in BOOT.INI then apply the PAE fix Q838765. Also review your
event logs in detail for ANY hardware-related errors and warnings. Use
SQLIOSTRESS to try to flush out I/O problems.
Going to the latest SQL build (i.e. 1007 or higher) will fix all known SQL
corruption bugs, but also enable new SQL Server I/O auditing features, such
as detection for stale read and lost writes, and perform consistency checks
on all pages read from the disk. Check all your database for corruption
before applying the hotfix. Then enable trace flags -T818 and -T806.
Lastly, the following articles contain more information about SQL I/O
requirements and how hardware problems may lead to corruption.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841776
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826433
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/231619
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...lIObasics.mspx
Adrian
"acs68" <adamst@.NOSPAMlaidley.qld.gov.au> wrote in message
news:eGuhUzPUFHA.2056@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
> we have been using SQL7 for a number of years on a Win2K box without so
> much as one hiccup. Recently went out bought a new HP Server and SQL2000.
> Installed it all, moved all the databases - and everything seemed to be
> working fine.
> A couple of weeks ago we had a problem with our biggest database (about
> 1gb in size). Users were getting some errors from the app that uses it. I
> did a DBCC CHECKDB on that database and it was coming up with almost 1000
> inconsistencies etc etc. Tried Repair, to no avail and in the end just had
> to Restore form backup - lost about a half a days work - not critical for
> us.
> Spoke to a few DBA's who said that it sounded Hardware related. Spoke to
> our local IT support who we got the HP's from and they did a quick look
> and everything came up OK.
> A couple of days ago the same problem occurred. At a loss to explain what
> is happening, so I'm hoping a few of you may be able to help.
> One thing I did notice was that Write Cache was set on the server to 50%
> Read 50% Write. I have only now changed it to 100% and No Write caching.
> Could the above have caused it (50% Read 50% Write), or is it more than
> likely I could have further corruption ? We haven't , I believe, had any
> power outages or system crashes leading up to these corruptions.
> Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
> cheers,
> Adam
>
|||Thanks for that advice Adrian, will look into it now.
cheers,
Adam
"Adrian Zajkeskovic" <azajkeskovic@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Wp-dnacXw-zo4-TfRVn-3A@.rogers.com...
> Adam,
> While it's quite possible that you are hitting some SQL bug which corrupts
> your database, it is far more likely that you may have some hardware or
> driver related problem on that server. I would advise you to install the
> latest SQL hotfix and update all your firmware and drivers. If you have
> enabled /PAE in BOOT.INI then apply the PAE fix Q838765. Also review your
> event logs in detail for ANY hardware-related errors and warnings. Use
> SQLIOSTRESS to try to flush out I/O problems.
> Going to the latest SQL build (i.e. 1007 or higher) will fix all known SQL
> corruption bugs, but also enable new SQL Server I/O auditing features,
> such as detection for stale read and lost writes, and perform consistency
> checks on all pages read from the disk. Check all your database for
> corruption before applying the hotfix. Then enable trace flags -T818
> and -T806.
> Lastly, the following articles contain more information about SQL I/O
> requirements and how hardware problems may lead to corruption.
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841776
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826433
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/231619
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...lIObasics.mspx
> Adrian
>
>
> "acs68" <adamst@.NOSPAMlaidley.qld.gov.au> wrote in message
> news:eGuhUzPUFHA.2056@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>