Give me some Advices

[Falcon88]

hiii to all

last week im get alternative job as an admin for the system in the corp. that i work in it .

we have a server connected to 12 client computers.
the OS of the Server computer is windows server 10 .
the db is sql server .
this is first time i work as an adminstrator to a system.
i make a backup to the db. daily 2 to 4 times.

what your advices to me on that job to keeping the systen on the best condition ?

 

[NauticalGent]

Search online for Maintenance Plans with SSMS.

 

[Falcon88]

What the free tool do you recommend to use to do automatic backup every ten minutes ?

 

[arnelgp]

you can use the Free windows Task Scheduler?
Schedule and automate backups of databases - SQL Server | Microsoft Docs

 

[Falcon88]

thanks for you ........

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Unless you have a separate security manager for that system, the best thing for you to do is to be SURE that you keep your system patched and up to date. Yes, Microsoft will publish some clinkers and you might need to back out a patch now and then. However, when I was a system admin for the U.S. Navy, our security classes included a statistic that the #1 cause of system security issues was the failure of the admin to keep the system patches up to date. This will mean determining a schedule on which to do the patches, worked out with management to pick the optimum time. For me, it was twice a month I would come in late and work late (after the rest of the staff had left for the day.) The good news is that Windows patching is pretty much automatic. You will, however, have to learn how to prevent the automatic Windows patching that WinServers like to follow. Because if you don't control that, you will have down time whether you wanted it or not.

If you get pushback from management about scheduled down time, tell them unconditionally NO, that if you cannot protect the data with regular security actions such as patching, you cannot protect the data at all. If they tell you you can't have a regular period of patching, make sure you get that in writing with witnesses and let them know that an "I told you so" is ready and waiting because it WILL be needed.

If they ask where you got this idea, show them this post. My credentials are expired now, but when I was active, I had CompTIA Security+ and HP Operating System credentials. I taught computer security for the Navy Enterprise Data Center, New Orleans for a couple of years before they decided to go with professional off-site courses and national certification. I was the system admin and security admin for the U.S. Navy Reserve server that mobilized reservists in times of war - such as during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I had 28 1/2 years of experience in keeping that system up and available. Outside of the scheduled maintenance times, I had a 99.79% availability average. As to the other .21%, even the best hardware fails now and then.

 

[Galaxiom]

Really basic backups can be done using the Windows Scheduler to run a cmd script with something like XCOPY or a powershell script to copy files to another network location. You also need to use a script to manage the archiving of the backups at the other location. You need to be aware of the potential for destroying your backups by propagating the disaster on your primary system.

You could backup to the cloud so you don't have to worry about hardware failures of the backup disks.

Alternatively, or as well as, you could get a NAS for the backups. This would allow you provide access to the backup files as a separate user from your main system. If you get an intrusion on the network they won't be able to jump straight into your backups. You run the backups scripts in the scheduler as the NAS user. If you go down this path, get one with RAID so that you have some fallback when a drive fails.

Only having Windows 10 as your server operating system does limit your capabilities compared to using Windows Server but I can see you are being given this task on a shoestring budget.

I am not sure what you know about the details of SQL backups. I'm guessing you are currently doing your backups manually using the Management Studio.

You can run a T-SQL backup command with a script on the Scheduler. Normally a full backup is run periodically with incremental backups between them. You then copy these backup files to another location with your other backups after the SQL backup has been completed.

Read about the Recovery Model Property of the databases to understand how the backup and recovery models work.

I assume you are using SQL Server Express (free version). It doesn't have the Agent provided in the Standard and Enterprise versions that permits advanced backup features. Be aware of this difference when you are reading about what you can do with SQL Server backups.

I work on a domain with SQL Server Standard so my knowledge of what you can do in Windows 10 with SQL Server Express is somewhat limited. We have very sophisticated (expensive) backup systems.

BTW You have been dropped into a very deep and wide pond in your new role. I suspect your employer has very little idea of the complexity of what they have asked you to do without previous experience. Try to subtly let them know it is a big task without hinting that you in over your head. Would have been easer as an assistant to someone with experience but you have what you have. Google will have to be your teacher.

This new role won't be easy at all but you have been handed a great opportunity to develop your career.

 

[NauticalGent]

This new role won't be easy at all but you have been handed a great opportunity to develop your career.