10 Most Common Worst Practices or Mistakes with SQL Servers

1. Ignoring Regular Backups: Failing to schedule regular backups is a critical mistake. Without proper backups, data loss is inevitable in the event of hardware failure, corruption, or a ransomware attack.
2. Not Monitoring the SQL Server: Many administrators neglect to implement monitoring and alerting systems. Without proper monitoring, performance issues and potential problems go unnoticed until they become severe.
3. Poor Index Management: Neglecting to create, maintain, and optimize indexes can severely degrade performance. Over time, this leads to slow query responses and increased resource usage.
4. Improper Configuration Settings: Using default or improper SQL Server configuration settings can lead to suboptimal performance. It’s crucial to tailor settings such as memory allocation, max degree of parallelism, and tempdb configuration to the specific workload.
5. Insufficient Security Measures: Lax security practices, such as using weak passwords, failing to apply updates, and not configuring proper access controls, can leave the SQL Server vulnerable to attacks.
6. Ignoring Performance Tuning: Overlooking performance tuning can result in inefficient queries, excessive locking, and blocking issues. Regular query optimization and index tuning are essential for maintaining a healthy database.
7. Lack of Disaster Recovery Planning: Not having a comprehensive disaster recovery plan can lead to prolonged downtime and data loss during catastrophic events. Regularly test and update the disaster recovery plan to ensure readiness.
8. Poor Database Design: Bad database design, such as improper normalization, overuse of triggers, or excessive joins, can lead to inefficient queries and scalability issues. Proper schema design is fundamental for performance.
9. Inadequate Maintenance Plans: Failing to implement regular maintenance tasks such as index rebuilding, statistics updates, and database consistency checks (DBCC) can lead to performance degradation and undetected corruption.
10. Neglecting to Apply Updates and Patches: Running outdated versions of SQL Server or not applying critical patches can expose the server to vulnerabilities and bugs. Keeping the SQL Server up to date is vital for security and stability.

By addressing these common mistakes, you can significantly improve the reliability, performance, and security of your SQL Server environment. If you need assistance in any of these areas, Stedman Solutions’ managed services can help. We provide expert staffing, continuous monitoring with Database Health Monitor, and comprehensive support to ensure your SQL Server runs smoothly. Learn more about our services at Stedman Solutions and Database Health Monitor.