Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server Maintenance Plans- P14 pps

Figure 3.11: Once at least one database is selected, additional options are the screen can be configured.. The middle section of the screen in Figure 3.11 contains the configuration opti

Figure 3.11: Once at least one database is selected, additional options are the screen can

be configured.

The middle section of the screen in Figure 3.11 contains the configuration options for a given task In this example, there is only one option, Include indexes Each task will have different options For example, Figure 3.12 shows the same portion of the screen for the Rebuild Index task

Figure 3.12: Task-specific configuration options for the Rebuild Index task.

If I were to go through all the options on this screen in full detail, and the equivalent

screens for the remaining tasks, it would quickly become overwhelming Instead, starting with Chapter 5, I have devoted individual chapters to each of the eleven possible database maintenance tasks Please refer to a task's specific chapter for full details on all of these configuration options

Task Scheduling

The final section of the screen shown in Figure 3.11 is devoted to task scheduling, as shown in Figure 3.13

Figure 3.13: Scheduling maintenance tasks.

By default, each task is set to Not Scheduled (On Demand) To implement a schedule on which the task should run, click on Change and you'll arrive at the Job Schedule Properties screen, shown in Figure 3.14

Figure 3.14: The Job Schedule Properties screen.

As you can see, this is a complex screen with many options, and some of these options

do not mean quite what you might initially think As a result, we will defer a full discussion

of all of these options to a dedicated chapter (Chapter 4), where we'll also look at

general considerations when scheduling multiple tasks, so as to avoid overlap and

server resource contention

For now, you can either click Cancel to exit the Job Schedule Properties screen, and then exit the Wizard; or you can work through the screens, leaving all tasks unscheduled, selecting databases where necessary, and accepting all the default task configuration options, until you arrive at the Select Report Options screen

Report Options

Once you've configured and scheduled each of the individual tasks that make up a

Maintenance Plan, you will arrive at the Select Report Options screen After a Maintenance Plan runs, it can produce a report of the tasks that were performed For example, you can see the results of a Database Check Integrity task, or see what databases were backed up These reports are very useful because they tell you whether or not everything ran correctly, and they are helpful when troubleshooting Maintenance Plans that don't seem to be doing what you expect them to do

Chapter 2 described how to configure Database Mail so that these Maintenance Plan reports can be sent to you via e-mail, and it is when we reach the Select Report Options screen, shown in Figure 3.15, that our groundwork pays off

By default, the Write a report to a text file option is selected, and I recommend you keep

it selected This way, every time a Maintenance Plan runs, a new report will be produced that you can view to see what is going on By default, in SQL Server 2008, Maintenance Plan reports are written to the \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10 MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log folder Unless you have a good reason to place the reports in another location, I suggest you keep them here, as this is the standard practice If you place them elsewhere, it will make them harder for other DBAs to find

Removing/Archiving Maintenance Plan reports…

Unless you create a Maintenance Task to remove them, all plans will remain in the

designated folder indefinitely If you forget to delete them, you can end up with a folder with thousands of old reports You can use the Maintenance Cleanup task (see Chapter 15 for details) to periodically remove older files.

The E-mail report option on the screen is not selected by default As we discussed in Chapter

2, in addition to the text report saved on disk, I think it is a good idea to have these reports sent to you via e-mail, so that you can more easily review them Not only does this save you the effort of locating the correct report among all of your servers, the e-mails also serve as a constant reminder that you need to read them to see if everything is running as it should be

Note

Even if you have reports e-mailed to you, I suggest you have the reports written to disk as well That way, should you need to troubleshoot a problem, all of the reports will be in a single location.

Notice that my name is listed in the drop-down box next to the To option, reflecting the fact that I set myself up as an operator If you have not set up Database Mail or created any operators, then no names will be available from the drop-down box

To receive e-mail reports every time this Maintenance Plan runs, select the E-mail report options and select your name from the drop-down box, as shown in Figure 3.16