SHARE
Facebook X Pinterest WhatsApp

SQL Sam and the Phantom Connection – Part 1 (with clues)

Written By
thumbnail
Steve Hontz
Steve Hontz
Aug 24, 1999

Environment: SQL Server 6.5, SP5a


Turn OFF clues

SQL Sam stood in front of the screaming crowd, with the game-show host
urging him on. "Now Sam", he said, "You have to make a choice. Will it be Door
Number 1, Door Number 2, or Door Number 3? Remember, behind one door is an
incredible prize. Behind another door is a tiger. What’s your choice?"

"What’s behind the door marked ‘Null’ ?" asked Sam.

"Who knows???" shrugged the host with the brillant-white teeth. "What’s your decision?"

The crowd screamed louder. "Pick number 1! … Pick 2! … NOT Null! …"
SQL Sam started to sweat. "I pick…uhhh…Number…uhhh…"

"…Sam…Sam! Excuse me, Sam! Please wake up!" Jimmy Jerry, the junior DBA with two
first names, was gently shaking SQL Sam.

"Oh. Sorry, J.J. Must of dozed off," yawned Sam. "I was up all night helping to
repair the production server. What’s up?"

"Well, Sam, I’m trying to be a good DBA and make sure that our databases aren’t
corrupt by running consistency checks against them. Trouble is, we can’t run
the checks on the production servers- they cause too much blocking for too long.
So, I thought I could restore the databases from the last database dump from the
production server to my test machine, and do the checks there. But I’m having a
problem loading the database dump on the test machine."

"Did you create the database with the exact same data and log device layout, size
and order as the production server?"

"Oh, sure," grinned Jimmy. "I remember you telling us in DBA training how
important that was. So I went to www.swynk.com
and found a great script for reverse-engineering the database devices that
make up a database. That’s how I created the database on the test server. But
the problem I’m having happens when I try to create a
A CLUE!scheduled task to
load the database."

Continue with SQL Sam and the Phantom Connection

Go to the solution now!

Back to SQL Sam Cases


Steve Hontz is President of The Bit
Corner, Inc.
, a Phoenix-based consulting firm
specializing in Windows NT, C++, and SQL Server
development. You can reach him at
steve@bitcorner.com.


Recommended for you...

Best Online Courses to Learn SQL
Ronnie Payne
Sep 23, 2022
Best Courses for Database Administrators
Ronnie Payne
Jul 22, 2022
Tip 74 – Changing Cost Threshold for Parallelism
Gregory Larsen
Feb 24, 2021
How Many Databases Can You Name?
Brad Jones
May 11, 2020
Database Journal Logo

DatabaseJournal.com publishes relevant, up-to-date and pragmatic articles on the use of database hardware and management tools and serves as a forum for professional knowledge about proprietary, open source and cloud-based databases--foundational technology for all IT systems. We publish insightful articles about new products, best practices and trends; readers help each other out on various database questions and problems. Database management systems (DBMS) and database security processes are also key areas of focus at DatabaseJournal.com.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.