In this article, I’m going to explain in detail about the SQLPackage utility that is provided by Microsoft in order to automate database deployments. In my previous article regarding Data-Tier Applications in SQL Server, I have mentioned how to create a DACPAC and a BACPAC file from an existing SQL Server Database. The underlying technology behind creating the DACPAC and the BACPAC files is the SQLPackage utility, which helps to create those files.
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In this article, I am going to explain how to configure the RDS MySQL Environment in AWS. RDS is the Relational Database Service Available from the Amazon which enables us to spin up any relational database instance without having to worry about the infrastructure behind it. Users can connect to this instance very easily and start building database applications with ease. This article will focus more on how to configure the RDS MySQL Environment and not much on the MySQL details.
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In this article, I am going to demonstrate how to access the Power BI PowerShell commandlets. In the previous article in this series, we discussed how to programmatically access the Power BI Service using the REST APIs available. PowerShell is one of the most frequently used and preferred ways of automating monotonous manual jobs and scripting those. PowerShell comes integrated with Windows, so it can be easily used from any Windows machine.
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In my previous article, Getting started with Azure CLI 2.0, I have explained how to get started with the Azure CLI 2.0. I have also explained how to install it on a local machine and demonstrated a few commands. In this article, I’m going to explain how to create a SQL Database using Azure CLI 2.0. Further, in the later part of the article, I’ll also show how to create a backup of the SQL Database using Azure CLI. Creating a SQL Database using the Azure CLI helps us to get things automated and removes the error-prone manual creation of the databases and backups.
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In this article, I am going to explain how to use the Power BI REST API to programmatically access the Power BI Service features. I’ll also discuss the basis of REST API and how to use the APIs using Postman. Using the Power BI REST API, you can programmatically manage the administrative services like getting a list of dashboards and workspaces, refreshing a dataset, copying a dashboard from one workspace to another, and so on.
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In this article, we are going to understand what Azure CLI is and how to work with it. For the purpose of this article, we will take the version 2.0 to demonstrate the features and functionalities. The Azure CLI, as the name suggests is a cross- platform and open-source command-line tool that we can use to create or manage resources in the Azure Portal. This tool gives us the ability to issue commands right from the windows command prompt and deal with the Azure resources. Since this tool is a cross-platform, that means the users can easily install the utility on Windows, Linux or Mac OS and still work with the same set of commands without making any changes.
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In this article, I’m going to introduce the data-tier applications in SQL Server. As the official documentation from Microsoft says – “Data-tier applications in SQL Server are a logical entity that can be used to develop and manage most of the SQL Server objects like tables, views, stored procedures, functions etc. as a self-contained package“. Essentially, what that means is it is a component of SQL Server, using which we can develop, build, test and deploy databases for SQL Server just like we can do for any other web or desktop applications.
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This article explains what the basic features and differences between ETL and ELT are. I’m also going to explain in detail what an ELT pipeline is and a relevant architecture for the same in Azure. So far, we have come a long way dealing with ETL tools which basically are Extract, Transformation and Load technique used in populating a data warehouse. ELT, on the other hand, is another way to load data into a warehouse that implements the process of Extract, Load and Transform.
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In this article, I’m going to talk in detail about the moving average in SQL and how to find out the same in Power BI and Excel. This might be a new topic for many newbies who have started out in this field, but I’m sure this will help anyone who is trying to work on smoothing averages in SQL or in Power BI.
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In this article, I’m going to explain how to configure an RDS Environment in Amazon Web Services (AWS) for SQL Server. Amazon RDS, also known as the Amazon Relational Database Service, is a Database-as-a-Service offered by Amazon. This enables us to create an instance of a relational database in RDS including many databases like SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL etc. The entire hosting is managed by AWS, so there is no worry to maintain any on-premises data center or infrastructure from the customer’s end.
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Analyzing data with Power BI has always been fascinating to me. With ever-growing data comes more risk, and hence more security is needed. In this article, I am going to introduce what row-level security in Power BI is and how does it work. I’ll also demonstrate in detail how to implement the same in Power BI Desktop. Later, we will also discuss how to implement this row-level security in Power BI service as well. To learn about row-level security in SQL Server, please have a look at my previous article, where I have explained how to implement the same.
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In this article, I am going to give an overview of the most widely used chart types in Power BI. Power BI, as everyone might be aware, is one of the SaaS offerings from Microsoft in the field of BI and Analytics. It provides a very intuitive way for non-technical users to do analyses and create reports on their own without having to rely on a technical team. One of the main purposes of Microsoft behind Power BI is to promote self-service BI and it is one of the BI tools in the market with a comparatively lower learning curve as there are many similarities compared to Microsoft Excel.
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In this article, I’m going to discuss the different ways in which we can deploy SSAS cubes. SSAS or SQL Server Analysis Services is an enterprise-grade analytical data engine which helps business to create semantic models that can be used for reporting and making better decisions. The semantic layer created by SSAS can be accessed by client tools like Power BI, or Excel and reports can be prepared from thereon. SSAS comes with a few different versions, which are as follows.
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In this article, I’m going to list out some of the most common warnings we encounter while developing SSAS Cubes and the reason for those warnings. As you are aware, SSAS cubes are developed using the SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for Analysis Services (Visual Studio), all the examples will be taken from Visual Studio 2017 only.
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In this article, I am going to explain how we can create a dynamic pivot table in SQL Server. Pivot tables are a piece of summarized information that is generated from a large underlying dataset. It is generally used to report on specific dimensions from the vast datasets. Essentially, the user can convert rows into columns. This gives the users the ability to transpose columns from a SQL Server table easily and create reports as per the requirements.
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In this article, I’m going to explain the Dynamic Data Masking feature in SQL Server. As it goes by the name, Dynamic Data Masking is one of the security features that was introduced in SQL Server 2016. In an ever-growing digital era, the security of ones’ data has become one of the most important and expensive deals. Everyone expects their data to be protected as their own asset and like to treat it with the highest efficiency possible.
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In this article, I’m going to discuss Row-Level Security in SQL Server. RLS or Row-Level Security as the name suggests is a security mechanism that restricts the records from a SQL Server table based on the authorization context of the current user that is logged in. This means the records from the tables are displayed based on who the user is and to which records do the user has access to. This is usually done to allow specific users to have access to their data only without permission to view other users’ data.
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In this article, I’m going to explain what many-to-many relationships in SSAS are and how to implement the same in a SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) project. For the sake of this article, we will only consider the Multidimensional Cube and not the Tabular. Also, this article assumes that you have some fair knowledge of building SSAS cubes from scratch.
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In this article, I’m going to explain what a Power BI Data Gateway is and how to set it up. I’ll also cover the underlying architecture that the gateway uses and how to manage on-premise data using the Data Gateway.
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In this article, I’m going to explain what conditional formatting in Power BI is. Conditional formatting, as the name suggests, is a way of visualizing data that applies special format rules based on some pre-defined conditions on the values of a selected metric. It is mostly used when the data is presented in a tabular format; however, it can also be used in any charts such as bar charts, line charts, etc.
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In this article, I’m going to demonstrate how to sort months chronologically in Power BI. Visualizing sales data in a time period is one of the most influential ways of reporting. Often, at times it is essential that you design charts that show the trend or growth of a metric over time. The time period can be anything for example days, weeks, months, or years. It basically gives you the idea of how the metric has increased or decreased over the specific period.
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In this article, I’m going to explain what the Execution Plans in SQL Server are and how to understand the details of an execution plan by reading the various metrics available once we hover over the components in the plan.
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