SQL Azure

Prashanth Jayaram

Getting Started with Azure Cosmos DB and MongoDB API

November 7, 2018 by

In the previous article on Azure Cosmos DB, we reviewed NoSQL concepts and how to integrate with the Microsoft Azure platform-as-a-service model using the API. After working as a database engineer for over a decade, I feel that this technology is the future for many organizations for various reasons. I had that in mind as I wrote this article which will provide basic information and help you to get started with MongoDB API integration. The MongoDB API works with BSON documents. BSON is MongoDB’s binary-encoded-version of JSON, and it extends the JSON model with additional language feature support. It’s a great effort from Microsoft to build the enterprise solutions which provide flexibility in manage distributed data along with scalable option.

Read more »
Prashanth Jayaram

Graph database implementation with Azure Cosmos DB using the API

November 5, 2018 by

In my previous article, I’ve discussed a lot about the Graph database implementation with SQL Server 2017. In this case, we’ll see a walk-through of Graph API integration with Azure Cosmos DB.

Before we jump into the concepts though, let’s take a high-level overview of NoSQL databases. A NoSQL database is designed in such a way that no extra efforts are needed for the database to be distributed because NoSQL Database designed that way.

Read more »
Esat Erkec

How to integrate Power BI data alerts into Slack

August 31, 2018 by

There is a growing trend among professionals and entire companies to move away from email as a primary means of communication and are even adopting alternative technologies. One of the most popular of these is Slack. Slack is a new kind of messaging and communication platform between colleagues, team or community members that allows them to integrate a lot of services including Visual Studio Team Service, Jira and GitHub.

Read more »
Istvan Martinka

Dynamic Partitioning in Azure Analysis Services (tabular)

August 6, 2018 by

Objective

The real-life requirement

Disclaimer: I assume dear Reader, that you are more than familiar with the general concept of partitioning and star schema modeling. The intended audience is people who used to be called BI developers in the past (with a good amount of experience), but they have all sorts of different titles nowadays that I can’t keep up with… I won’t provide a full Visual Studio solution that you can download and just run without any changes or configuration, but I will give you code can be used after parameterizing according to your own environment.

Read more »
Marko Zivkovic

What is SQL Data Sync

June 1, 2018 by

SQL Data Sync is a service that allows synchronizing data across multiple Azure SQL databases and on-premises SQL Server databases.

In this article, a base concept of how the SQL Data Sync service works will be explained as well as what the requirements and limitations are when want to create data synchronization by using SQL Data Sync

Read more »
Esat Erkec

Integrating Azure SQL database alerts into Slack

April 27, 2018 by

Database administrators have a lot of tasks and responsibilities but perhaps the most challenging task is performance tuning. Because performance tuning issues can cause huge problems in the business area, database administrators have to monitor performance metrics and have to get immediate, if not sooner, notifications when the performance values cross an optimal state. Generally, this notification comes by e-mail.

Read more »
Istvan Martinka

How to connect and perform a SQL Server database restore from Azure BLOB storage

April 18, 2018 by

Having things in the cloud should make life simpler but I have experienced it’s not that straightforward. Once all access / configuration is sorted out then yes, of course! But in the meantime it can be tedious (even frustrating) and the end result is something that could have been achieved with a different method.

I think a significant chunk of what Azure offers is easier to do with the more conventional methods but that separates us from the advanced Azure features that a company would like to utilize in the shorter / longer term future. So there are reasons to spend some time / effort in getting things right up there.

In my case the task I needed to accomplish sounded simple enough:

  • get a SQL Server database backup (.bak file) from Azure blob storage
  • copy it to our own environment and restore it to a SQL Server instance on an Azure Windows VM
  • or skip the copy step and restore straight from blob storage
Read more »
Esat Erkec

How to develop a K-Means model on Azure Machine Learning Studio

January 30, 2018 by

In this article, we will discuss the k-means algorithm and how can we develop a k-means model on Azure Machine Learning Studio.

Machine learning is an area of ​​artificial intelligence that helps us develop relationships between data and predict the future. There are many secrets that are hidden in the data. To discover these secrets, we need Machine Learning algorithms. Machine learning plays the key role in leveraging existing data to exploit business opportunities.

Read more »
Esat Erkec

How to integrate SQL Server and Azure Machine Learning

January 11, 2018 by

Good, clean and reliable data is important for every company, because well-analyzed data will open new possibilities to success. When we look at successful companies, we see that they’ve analyzed customers, sales, and finance data very well. At this point, a game changer enters: machine learning.

Machine learning

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence which analyzes data in order to predict future and discover hidden patterns. The output helps us make decisions. Machine learning is widely used in finance, healthcare and marketing.

Read more »
Daniel Calbimonte

How to use BULK INSERT to import data locally and in Azure

November 16, 2017 by

Introduction

BULK INSERT is a popular method to import data from a local file to SQL Server. This feature is supported by the moment in SQL Server on-premises.

However, there is a new feature that is supported only in SQL Server 2017 on-premises. This feature allows importing data from a file stored in an Azure storage account to SQL Server on-premises using BULK INSERT. This feature will be supported in Azure SQL versions in the future.

In this article, we will show two examples. The first example will show how to use the traditional BULK INSERT statement from a local CSV file to Azure and the second example will show how to import data from a CSV file stored in Azure to SQL Server on-premises.

Read more »
Marko Zivkovic

How to create a linked server to an Azure SQL database

September 27, 2017 by

Linked servers allow to access data from another SQL Server or another data source (e.g. Excel) by using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Transact-SQL.

This article will explain how to create and configure a linked server to retrieve data from an Azure SQL database. Also, we will explain how to solve some common problems/issues during the process of creating a linked server to an Azure SQL database.

Read more »
Daniel Calbimonte

How to connect to the Azure Storage Account with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

September 25, 2017 by

Introduction

In SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), it is possible to connect to the Azure Storage. The Azure Storage Account is useful because it creates replicas automatically in the cloud. You only need to upload your file to the Azure Storage Account and the replication is automatic. You can have multiple replications in different regions and Datacenters with few clicks.

Read more »
Craig Porteous

How to connect to (and query) Power BI and Azure using PowerShell

September 13, 2017 by
Power BI “as a whole” is a bit of a black box. If you’re like me and used to using SQL Server & its components; SSRS, SSAS etc. you have access to installation directories, Event logs, trace logs, error logs, chocolate logs? You can see full instances & their contents in one go, whether that be databases, reports or cubes. It gives you the control over & responsibility for performance & maintenance. Read more »
Minette Steynberg

8 things to know about Azure Cosmos DB (formerly DocumentDB)

September 4, 2017 by

Introduction

Azure Cosmos DB is a low-latency, high throughput, globally distributed, a multi-model database which can scale within minutes and offers 5 consistency options to let you decide how to deal with the CAP theorem.

Azure Cosmos DB used to be known as Document DB, but since additional features were added it has now morphed into Azure Cosmos DB. The name was chosen to spark the innovation and imagination of developers around the globe.

Read more »
Daniel Calbimonte

Configure Multi-Factor Authentication in Azure SQL Database

August 30, 2017 by

Introduction

The new SSMS 17.2 allows users to authenticate using Active Directory with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). This is a secure method for authentication where you have more than one method to validate your authentication. That way, you have a more secure authentication and prevent your Azure Portal or applications to be easily attacked by hackers or other malicious users.

Read more »
Minette Steynberg

Introduction to Azure SQL Data Warehouse

August 29, 2017 by

Introduction

Azure SQL Data Warehouse is a new addition to the Azure Data Platform. When I first heard about it I wasn’t quite sure about what exactly it would be. As it turns out it is relational database for large amounts of database and really big queries as a service. This is essentially the equivalent of the APS (Analytics Platform System) in the cloud.

Read more »