In many of our past “get togethers” we have discussed pivoting raw data in order to best represent corporate data within our business reporting. As we may remember, in many instances we pivoted the data within the report query.
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In our first part of this series, we showed how to import a bacpac file using the Azure Portal with Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer (MASE) and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to create a Database in Azure.
In the second part, we will show how to import a bacpac file to create a Database using the sqlpackage.exe tool and PowerShell.
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Dynamic Data Masking is a new security feature introduced in SQL Server 2016 that limits the access of unauthorized users to sensitive data at the database layer.
As an example of the need for such a feature is allowing the applications developers to access production data for troubleshooting purposes and preventing them from accessing the sensitive data at the same time, without affecting their troubleshooting process. Another example is the call center employee who will access the customer’s information to help him in his request, but the critical financial data, such as the bank account number or the credit card full number, will be masked to that person.
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Microsoft SQL Server 2016 introduces several significant new features, and enhances some existing ones in reporting services. We have summarised these new features in the previous article. We’ve also explored how to configure the SQL Server Mobile reports in my earlier article.
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Developers who work in both SQL and .NET world must have experienced the differences between Visual Studio IDE and SQL Server Management Studio IDE.
Being a full-stack developer myself, I always felt that SSMS lacked a lot of basic features when compared to the functionalities which Visual Studio IDE provided out of the box. With SSMS being tightly coupled with SQL Server Core engine, the IDE had quite a technical debt associated with it over a period of time.
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My name is Ahmad Yaseen and I am a senior SQL Server database administrator at Aramex International Company for more than six years, where I started building my experience in the SQL Server administration field. Being a SQL Server Database administrator in such big company is not that easy, as the difficulties that you may face is not only at the beginning. What makes the DBA job special is that it is a very deep job, in which you will learn new things, have to solve new problems, fall in strange situations and be under pressure every day, but it is an interesting job for me.
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As we are nearing the end of the North American summer, I thought that we would take a lighter look at nifty ways of reporting information. In today’s “fireside chat” we have a look at a unique way of displaying our information using charts and line graphs all in one single chart (see below). We shall take things one step further and work with the color fill of the vertical bars to reflect the values that they represent.
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SQL Server 2016 came with many new features and enhancements for existing ones, that concentrate on the aspect of SQL Server security. One of the new security features introduced in SQL Server 2016 is Row-Level Security. This feature allows us to control access deeply into the rows level in the database table, based on the user executing the query. This is done within the database layer, in complete transparency to the application process, without the need to manage it with complex coding at the application layer.
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Ever since the early days of my career, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) has been one of my preferred data visualization tools simply because end users and developers alike use it for free. Although a majority of my SSRS solutions have been based off a relational dataset that uses Transact SQL (T-SQL), I have also produced several reports that used Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) to connect and retrieve data from SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) multidimensional OLAP cube. Recently, I found myself having to refactor some of these SSAS based SSRS reports, particularly converting a single value SSAS-populated parameter into a multi-value parameter. In this article, I explore how you can go about making these changes using SSRS query designer’s design and query modes.
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Lately, database administrators often hear the question “have you tried Azure?“ or “can we use Azure for some of our databases?“. For me it was hard to answer these questions at first, but after a while I got to know what is really important behind these situations. In fact, what really matters is assessing the current environment, calculating the most suitable pricing tier and preparing a smooth migration.
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Even if you are a SQL veteran, actually especially if you are, you sometimes get really stuck doing something in the old way not realizing that in newer versions of SQL Server some handy functions have been added that can make your life easier.
In this article, I will mention a couple of these which appeared in SQL Server 2008 or later versions or might have even been there before but most people just didn’t know about.
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SQL Server 2016 introduces a new type of table that is designed to keep the full history of data changes, where row validity is managed by the system. This new table type is called a System-Versioned Temporal Table. In earlier SQL Server versions, user tables would enable you to hold only the most recent copy of the row, without being able to query the value before the UPDATE or DELETE operations. Using a Temporal Table, you will be able to query the recent state of the row as usual, in addition to the ability to query the full history of that row, which is fully managed by the SQL Server Engine, as you can’t define the rows validity period explicitly.
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In SQL Server 2000, the sample databases were pubs and northwind. They contained sample information to learn SQL Server.
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In this article, we will show how to create a simple SQL Server Reporting Services report from a SSAS Tabular model database as a data source, using DAX query, and then deploy it.
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In SQL Server Reporting Services Native mode, a report server has a role of a standalone application server, that provides all viewing, processing, delivery, and management of reports and report models. This is the default mode for SSRS instances.
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When a new row is inserted or an existing one is updated in your database, the SQL Server Database Engine will keep that change in the buffer pool in the memory first, without applying each change directly to the database files for IO performance reasons. These data pages located in the buffer pool and not reflected yet to the database files are called Dirty Pages. The SQL Server Database Engine uses a special kind of processes to write these dirty pages to the data and log database files periodically. These processes are called Checkpoints. The Checkpoint creates a mark that is used by the SQL Server Database Engine to redo any transaction that is committed, written to the database transaction log file without reflecting the data changes to the data files due to an unexpected shutdown or crash. Also, this recovery point that is created by the Checkpoint will be used to roll back any data changes associated with uncommitted transaction, by reversing the operation written in the transaction log file. In this way the SQL Server Engine will guarantee the database consistency. The time that is taken by the SQL Server Database Engine to redo and undo the transactions is called the Recovery Time. All information about the Checkpoints will be written to the database boot page to identify till which point the database files are synchronized with the buffer pool when the system wakes up after crash or shutdown.
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After receiving new additions to backup and restore capabilities of SQL Servers like file and page restores, I thought that nothing will surprise me anymore, but well, here it is; SQL Server file-snapshot backups in Azure.
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For the purpose of this article, Bitbucket is chosen as a Git hosting service. In order to prepare the “communication” between Git hosting service and your application, the following steps need to be performed:
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Many of us have been given the opportunity to run or help plan a SQL Saturday or another SQL Server event. This conclusion will dig much deeper into the nitty-gritty, such as planning food and budgeting. No two events are the same, and as such, not everything here will be the same for you. Consider these experiences a tool and list of ideas to pull from when deciding how to structure, divide, and conquer your conference!
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Retrieving information from a Tabular database is easy – just query it with some basic DAX functions! In this article, we will learn how to query a Tabular model with some of the MDX expressions, examine the results from DAX querying and analyze data from the tables.
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SQL Server 2016 provides great enhancement capability features for troubleshooting purposes. Some of the important features are:
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Many of us have been given the opportunity to run or help plan a SQL Saturday or another SQL Server event. This is an intro to everything I’ve experienced and learned over the past 7 years planning, attending, and volunteering at a variety of SQL Server conferences.
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There are many reasons for terminating a long running SSIS Package. Picture a scenario whereby an inexperienced DBA/developer accidentally kicks-off a monthly job instead of a daily job, inadvertently impacting SQL Server performance. Whatever the reasons, you are more than likely to encounter a situation in which you have to temporary stop a long running process.
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The xp_cmdshell is a very powerful extended procedure used to run the command line (cmd). This is very useful to run tasks in the operative system like copying files, create folders, share folders, etc. using T-SQL.
In this new article, we will show some useful examples about how to use it.
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SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is part of Microsoft SQL Server services since version 2000. If you are an ordinary user with a basic knowledge of SQL, this article will help you in creating your first SSRS report.
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