Tag Archives: data

Tips For Improving SQL Server Performance

Database servers are a cornerstone of modern businesses ranging from Google to 7-Eleven. When you run your credit card at a convenience or grocery store, your purchase is registered into a point of sale system backed by a database. Your credit card company registers the funds transfer into a database server containing your financial records. If you use a discount card, yet another database server comes into play. Databases enable businesses to track inventory, perform margin analysis, automate purchases, and identify customer trends—and to do all of this much more quickly and efficiently than ever before!

It has been a long time since I visited any business that did not rely on some type of database server, if only to track purchases and expenses. But I constantly communicate with businesses that lack a plan to ensure these databases function properly on an ongoing basis.

Hosting Database servers at the ASPHostPortal.com data center helps your database remain a vital component of your business infrastructure, rather than a time-wasting black hole for IT resources. We recently sat down with our engineering team to provide you a few tips on how we help accomplish just that:

Tip 1: Host in a Data Center Simple power quality issues such as brownouts, blackouts or even a mere voltage fluctuation can result in your server powering down. SQL-based database systems are sensitive to these unanticipated shutdowns, resulting in errors in transaction logs and database instability. Hosting that same database server in a secure data center —where power quality is monitored every second of every day by trained engineers—helps ensure 100% uptime.

So when you are ready to start your business day, your SQL database will be ready to start as well!

Tip 2: Maximize IOPS One vital performance metric for database systems is Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS). IOPS is important here as a measurement of how fast storage devices can read and write, which is the primary operation metric of database systems such as SQL.

Remember that in reading from and writing to a database, most hard disks must physically move, which takes time—especially if you need to read and write from separate physical areas of your disk. By making read and write tasks concurrent, you can speed up this process with almost no administrative effort.

Instead of a single disk array handling both your operating system and application, opt for two arrays to handle each task on separate disks. Choosing serial-attached SCSI drives with high RPMs for your database, and enterprise-level SATA drives for your operating system will drastically improve read and write performance

Tip 3: RAID: It does more than kill bugs

How to remove Cryp1 virus and to restore the encrypted files

This is an article about a malicious program, which is called Cryp1. It is a virus that enters the user’s computer, encrypts all the files that it can, and requires a ransom for their decryption. Such viruses are called ransomware, and are considered the most dangerous types of viruses. Their danger lies in the fact that they pursue a specific goal and when the goal is achieved – the user is at a disadvantage: he can either agree to pay the money, or lose his data, which can be very valuable. Cryp1 virus encrypts files using the RSA algorithm. This algorithm is one of the most complex in the world, and it is used not only by hackers, but also by the governments and the military forces of many countries, including the United States. The code is so complex, that it is practically impossible to crack it without the key. More precisely, it is possible, but requires enormously powerful computer and an immense amount of time. Of course, a normal user can’t decrypt the data, and, very often decides to pay a ransom.

Here we come to the problem number 2. The payment must be made via Bitcoin, transactions with which are almost impossible to trace. You will transfer the money into Bitcoin, go to a pirate site, and pay money to people who conduct illegal activities, and who recently infiltrated into your computer, and extort money from you. Is it reasonable to give money to such people, and hope that they will fulfill their part of the bargain? It’s up to you. If your files are very important to you, and you do not have backups – paying the ransom may solve the problem. In any case, we advise you to think twice before you pay hackers for your own data.

How to remove Cryp1 ransomware

If you’ve tried to find online solution to your problem, you might have seen a lot of articles with instructions on how to remove the Cryp1 virus. It is OK to remove the viruses, but in the case of crypto-virus, removal is not always helpful. A virus encrypts your files and gives them special public keys. Thus, if you decide to pay, the program will give your key, after payment you will receive a private key and decrypt the data. However, if you remove the virus from your computer, and then try to restore the files on a malicious site – you expect failure. Your public key will be deleted together with the virus. So, if you want to pay hackers wait with the removal of the virus, until the last file will be decrypted. If you have backup copies of files, or you are going to restore them on your own – you need to remove the virus immediately. By doing this, you will be able to work safely on your computer, and upload any file, without fear that they will be encrypted. Removing the virus can be carried out in manual mode or with help of the special anti-virus software. Both methods are equally effective, but the anti-virus, will remain on your PC for a long time, and will protect it in future. We advise you to purchase Spyhunter AV-tool, which was designed precisely to remove and detect such viruses. Spyhunter will remove Cryp1 from your PC and ensure your files are protected. Most importantly, you do not have to do anything, Spyhunter will take care of everything, including updates and scanning of your computer.

How to recover the encrypted data

If you do not want to pay, then you have two choices: you can try to restore the files by yourself, or look for a special program, which will perform the decoding. You should be cautious, because the growing popularity of ransomware, had caused the huge wave of fake deciphering programs. It is necessary for you to fully understand how the decryption of files works. The point here is not in the program. The main element of decryption is a list of secret keys. This list can be obtained only by cracking malicious website, or in any other way to access hacker’s database. And only when the key is available, a special program will be able to decrypt your files. So, if you are looking for a tool to decrypt, you need to look on the websites of well-known companies that produce anti-virus software. If you see a similar instrument on an unknown website, you should check its authenticity before downloading. This method has disadvantages, and the important thing is this: hackers databases don’t get hacked every day. Some viruses are getting hacked in a few weeks after their appearance on the Web, and some lucky ones stay for months and even years. So, you have all the chances to wait a month or more, before the decrypting program will be published.

If at the moment you can’t find the good program to decrypt the files – you have another option, which is based on the Windows operating system capabilities. This is the Shadow Volume Copies. This service copies the selected files and saves them separately. The virus, during encryption, does not alter your files. It copies the file, and creates an encrypted copy of it, thus removing the original. So, if you have experience working with shadow copies, you can easily find the data you need, and restore them.

Tips For Improving SQL Server Performance

Database servers are a cornerstone of modern businesses ranging from Google to 7-Eleven. When you run your credit card at a convenience or grocery store, your purchase is registered into a point of sale system backed by a database. Your credit card company registers the funds transfer into a database server containing your financial records. If you use a discount card, yet another database server comes into play. Databases enable businesses to track inventory, perform margin analysis, automate purchases, and identify customer trends—and to do all of this much more quickly and efficiently than ever before!

It has been a long time since I visited any business that did not rely on some type of database server, if only to track purchases and expenses. But I constantly communicate with businesses that lack a plan to ensure these databases function properly on an ongoing basis.

Hosting Database servers at the ASPHostPortal.com data center helps your database remain a vital component of your business infrastructure, rather than a time-wasting black hole for IT resources. We recently sat down with our engineering team to provide you a few tips on how we help accomplish just that:

Tip 1: Host in a Data Center Simple power quality issues such as brownouts, blackouts or even a mere voltage fluctuation can result in your server powering down. SQL-based database systems are sensitive to these unanticipated shutdowns, resulting in errors in transaction logs and database instability. Hosting that same database server in a secure data center —where power quality is monitored every second of every day by trained engineers—helps ensure 100% uptime.

So when you are ready to start your business day, your SQL database will be ready to start as well!

Tip 2: Maximize IOPS One vital performance metric for database systems is Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS). IOPS is important here as a measurement of how fast storage devices can read and write, which is the primary operation metric of database systems such as SQL.

Remember that in reading from and writing to a database, most hard disks must physically move, which takes time—especially if you need to read and write from separate physical areas of your disk. By making read and write tasks concurrent, you can speed up this process with almost no administrative effort.

Instead of a single disk array handling both your operating system and application, opt for two arrays to handle each task on separate disks. Choosing serial-attached SCSI drives with high RPMs for your database, and enterprise-level SATA drives for your operating system will drastically improve read and write performance

Tip 3: RAID: It does more than kill bugs