SQL Server Services We have always advised our clients to ensure that they actively manage their SQL Database and to have a Disaster Recovery Plan (tested) to protect their data in the event that something should happen to their server – all be it fire, flood , theft, or indeed a hardware or software malfunction.

Some companies have been able to follow this advice whilst others have not because they didn’t really know what to do or who to turn to for help in organising this – not to mention those who, through no fault of their own, turned to hardware and network support companies who, quite frankly, were not up to the job.  We have assisted clients on an ad hoc  basis where we could but have recognised that in order to ensure that clients have access to a reliable and effective provider, we need to offer this service ourselves.

With the use of a comprehensive recruitment database like RDB ProNet your company will generate and use data through every action in the application. Your data is your business and this series of services will help you to protect it and ensure its uninterrupted availability to your users.
 
Support of the SQL Server is not covered by the RDB ProNet Support Subscription but recognising that access to help in these areas can be beneficial we provide the specific services below. 

The SQL Database services break down into 2 key areas:

• Maintenance
• Customisation – we will send you a newsletter about customising the database (a separate exercise to modifying RDB)

1. Database Maintenance

• RDB ProNet Database ‘Health Check’ – We can perform a number of checks on the database to make sure that all is in ‘good health’ and then compile a report with our findings and recommendations. During this check we will: 
  • Check the size of the database and the individual data files. 
  • Check any Maintenance Plans that are in place to make sure that they are working as intended. 
  • Look at the work load of the server
  • Check that there are no problems with the SQL server showing up in the Server Error logs.
  • If an annual plan is chosen  we will, twice yearly, restore a backup to your servers to make sure data is as expected.

RDB ProNet Database ‘Health Check’ - £250+vat per check

RDB ProNet Database ‘Health Check’ - £800+vat per year (quarterly check)

• Maintenance Plans:

• A Maintenance Plan is an automated process which runs on the SQL Server. This automated process does a number of things:
  • Takes a Back up of your data and saves it to a specified location. Once this has run your back up software can then add this file to your nightly back up process.
  • Every action in the ProNet application is logged in an SQL Transaction log. This transaction log can grow to take up a significant amount of space on your server if not managed which will eventually result in users not be able to add information to the database. The maintenance plan will manage the size of this log to prevent this from arising. 
  • Email alerts to nominated support contacts. Alerts will detail any problems the maintenance plan encounters whilst executing the job. In addition to this, the SQL server will also notify nominated support contacts if the database approaches its size limits.

SQL Server Maintenance Plan - £500+vat

2. Customising the Maintenance Plan:

Depending on how you use the RDB ProNet database we can design a maintenance plan to fit your business. This may be the case if you have a large number of consultants that perform very data intensive tasks such as mail shots.  We can create the maintenance around the specific needs of the company.

Additional customisation chargeable – £150+vat per hour

• Data files: All SQL databases are made up of one or more data files.  These are files that reside on your server’s hard drive. When the database is set up these files are allocated an amount of space in which to store the SQL data.  From time to time these files will become full and need more space. We will log onto the server(s) and allocate more storage to the data files when needed, on request, to the users of the database.

Manual Data file size increase - £100+vat

• Database Space Alerts:  Set up database alerts that will send the user an email if the data files start to run out of space.  This means that you will be able to create more space on the affected data file before users are stopped from working.

Alert set-up independent of maintenance plan - £150+vat

• Moving the RDB ProNet Data Files: If the size of the data files exceeds the maximum capacity of the hard drive then one of two things can happen:
  
  
  1. The data file in question can be moved to a larger hard drive.
     Data to larger hard drive - £250+vat
     
     
  2. A second data file can be created. 
     Secondary data file created - £250+vat

It is possible for us to take care of both of these options and we will discuss with you the pros and cons of each option.

• RDB ProNet Backup Check: Hopefully you know your back ups are being made every night but have you ever actually checked them? To help you we take a recent back up and restore it to a new database on your server and then give you access to that database to allow you to check it. This gives you piece of mind that you can recover your data from your back up for disaster recovery. (Twice yearly in ‘Health Check’)

Backup Check independent of maintenance plan - £200+vat

Full SQL Support Service

This comprises:

• Health Check 4x yearly
• Set up maintenance plan (additional customisation £150+vat per hour)
• Data file size alerts sent to First Choice + authorised users
• Data files maintained by First Choice
• Backup check twice a year

This takes the stress of maintaining a SQL server out of your hands, and you can be confident that your SQL database is being managed by experienced database administrators.

All this for £2000+vat per year

For further information on this, please contact us direct on 01256 314600 and ask to speak to Stuart Thomas.

tel: +44 (0)1256 314 600

email: sthomas@firstchoice.org.uk