This month’s host for T-SQL Tuesday is Nick Haslam (b | t) and the question he poses is based on a movie called Soylent Green. I have not seen the movie; however his question  he asks is what the most horrifying thing you’ve seen in SQL Server.

WHAT THE MOST HORRIFYING THING YOU’VE SEEN IN SQL SERVER

Thinking back through the past I’ve had some serious, funny, and down right what the type of things happen. I’m sure all of us have.

One that sticks out to me is early on in my career I was fortunate enough to work for a company (mid-size) earning millions of dollars in revenue. Back then I had my own homegrown check list to go through, so after getting acclimated to everything I start going down my checks.

I come to my backup check……I start searching……looking………looking……..still looking. Come to find a previous employee had removed all the back up jobs; which now leads me into the next question, “Were there checks daily for certain things oh I don’t know verification of backups were occurring?”  Unfortunately, the person who was handed over the DBA daily tasks was not the person who should have been in the position of such importance.

I will not say how long the company went without any backups but needless to say that along with several other issues were resolved!

For information on hosting or getting involved with T-SQL Tuesday you can contact Adam Machanic.