Microsoft SQL Server has many important features when it comes to file structures. Generally speaking, DBAs often ignore file structures and growth configurations. More specifically, the SQL Server Log files are often left at default values and never touched, even when they begin to cause problems caused. These Log files are important and critical part of the database, especially when it comes to large systems.
Read more »
As a database administrator, sometimes you need to identify details about a problem as quickly as possible and being able to build and analyze data for analysis will help you solve the problem. From getting information about the latest backups, to saving information about waits or indexes and comparing that to other captured metrics, we will run into issues where being able to get, store and analyze data are important for decisions to solve urgent problems.
Read more »
In a software development life cycle, Code Review plays an integral role in improving the product quality. Having a Code Review Checklist is indispensable since it ensures that the best practices are followed and reviews are performed consistently. It is essential for developers to be aware of the coding guidelines while working on their code changes. Catching a bug early in the process is inexpensive and easier to resolve, than compared with a bug caught later in the game. Having all the common mistakes added to the checklist document is a great way to create awareness and ensure good code quality over a period of time.
Read more »
In the previous article of this series “An introduction to set-based vs procedural programming approaches in T-SQL”, we’ve seen from a simple example that we could find actual benefit from learning set-based approach when writing T-SQL code.
In this article, we will carry on in this way by having a look at what a set is and what we can do with it in a mathematical point of view and how it’s implemented and provided to us in SQL Server. We will also have a look at more “realistic” examples using Microsoft’s AdventureWorks database.
Read more »
In this article, we will demonstrate how to migrate MySQL tables to SQL Server using the SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) and SSIS. We will give a brief introduction to MySQL and create a table. If you do not have any experience in MySQL, this tutorial will teach you your first steps. After that, we will migrate the created table and existing tables. We will also mention common problems when we migrate tables.
Read more »
So much has changed with Reporting Services 2016 but in terms of security it’s the same under the hood and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. SSRS has long had a robust folder & item level security model with the ability to inherit permissions from parent folders, much like SharePoint and windows in general.
Read more »
The SSIS Script Task is a very powerful component to use in a SSIS package, and most of the time you can achieve with it what you want. Still, I have faced a few situations where a Script Task was not the best solution. In those cases I made a .NET Console application and executed it from within a SSIS package.
Read more »
Most IT professionals started their studies or careers by learning programming languages like Basic, Cobol, C, Pascal, Java and so on. Those languages produce results using a sequence of operations or procedures. For this reason, this approach is called procedural programming.
Read more »
There’s a lot of buzz around containers at the moment but not so much in the SQL Server world which I find odd as, to me as a SQL Server DBA, the technology has a lot of benefits that are worth exploring especially when it comes to development environments.
Read more »
In the 90s and at the beginning of the 21 century, Linux and Windows were decidedly working at cross purposes
However, starting on 2009, Microsoft started to contribute with code in the Linux Kernel. On 2013, Azure supported Virtual Machines in Ubuntu and later came the support to .NET in Linux, Visual Studio for Linux, PowerShell in Linux, support to monitor Linux server to monitor in SCOM (System Center Operation Manager) and now, the support for SQL Server that is on the previous version when this article was published and it is planned to be released this year (2017). Microsoft is a Platinum member of the Linux Foundation now.
Read more »
The last time I wrote an article relating to Team Explorer, I used it to express my unhappiness with Microsoft’s decision to “break from the norm” and not provide us with a standalone installer for Team Explorer 2015. Such a decision affected development teams that uses Team Explorer to store, collaborate and manage SQL Server-related solutions (i.e. T-SQL scripts, SSRS, SSAS, SSIS) into TFS source control. Well, the good news is that it looks like Microsoft has finally heeded the call of bringing back the standalone installer for Team Explorer as Visual Studio 2017 (available from release 26403.00) now contains a standalone Team Explorer 2017 installer.
Read more »
I had the opportunity to work and perform various tests with Database Experimentation Assistant (DEA) Technical Preview 1 (DEA v1) and also worked closely to DEA’s development team by reporting some issues and have their feedback on how to solve most of them. Some issues were really bugs and they had them fixed in this new release, the DEA Technical Preview 2 (DEA v2.0).
Read more »
For someone new to SQL Server Analysis Services, a decision must be made on whether to use a Multidimensional Cube or Tabular Model. Both types can be installed on the same server, but they must be different instances. That could mean additional license costs. But, with the developer’s edition, both can be installed and reviewed before a production decision is made. Data Source connections are the first step to review with both versions.
Read more »
The idea behind this article is to discuss the importance and the implication of SQL Partition and understand the truncate command partitioning enhancements in SQL 2016
One of the biggest challenges for a DBA is to identify the right candidate for table partitioning, as it requires expertise in design and implementation.
Read more »
The TOP keyword in SQL Server is a non-ANSI standard expression to limit query results to some set of pre-specified rows. As an argument, it takes 0 to positive Bigint (9223372036854775807) and anything beyond or less gives an error message. TOP without an order by clause, in production, seems buggy because it can produce results in any order depending on the current schema and execution plan. You can also specify a percent with TOP expression which returns only the expression percent of rows from the result set. Float expressions used in TOP percent are rounded up to the next integer value.
Read more »
Use of explicit transaction is common in SQL Server development. Sometimes a developer might inadvertently specify a Data Definition Language (including SELECT INTO) clause within a long running explicit transaction, similar to the structure below, within a SQL Server object such as a stored procedure.
Read more »
In a previous article “SQL Server Audit feature – discovery and architecture“, we’ve seen the basics to build an auditing system based on SQL Server Audit feature. In the introduction, we talked a little bit about the « General Data Protection Regulation » a.k.a. GDPR that allows personal data circulation (in Europe) that is a subject in the mouth of a lot of IT professionals.
Read more »
Intended audience
This document is intended for database administrators who plan to develop, deploy, assess or implement auditing solutions in Microsoft SQL Server on Microsoft Windows platform.
Read more »
This is the second article in a continuing series on the many system tables, views, procedures and functions available in SQL Server. In the first part of this series, Discovering SQL server instance information using system views, you learned how to discover many attributes of a SQL Server instance you have been given access to. In this part, we will continue the journey and see what else we can find.
Read more »
This is the first article of a series dedicated to discovering geographic maps in Power BI.
My goal is to illustrate to you the different visuals available in Power BI for making maps. Remember that Power BI is a product undergoing constant evolution; new features are added every month at a fast pace. And over the time Power BI has gained more mapping capabilities compared to the starting point.
Read more »