Convert SQL Server results into JSON

July 12, 2016 by Sifiso Ndlovu

In my article, Warehousing JSON Formatted Data in SQL Server 2016, we had a look at available T-SQL options for converting JSON data into rows and columns for the purposes of populating a SQL Server based data warehouse. The increased popularity of JSON in modern web applications may create a requirement for data teams to expose some of their data to client applications (i.e. reporting tools, web services etc.) in a JSON format. In this article we take a look at how such a requirement can be implemented by data teams using SQL Server 2016 FOR JSON clause

SQL Server and BI – How to document your Tabular model with Excel

July 12, 2016 by Steve Simon

Introduction

A few weeks back I had been working on an interesting proof of concept for a client within the food / grocery industry. The objectives were to be able to provide the client with information on sales patterns, seasonal trends and location profitability. The client was an accountant and was therefore comfortable utilizing spreadsheets. This said, I felt that this was a super opportunity to build our proof of concept utilizing a SQL Server Tabular Solution and by exploiting the capabilities of Excel and Power Reporting for the front end.

Handling excessive SQL Server PAGEIOLATCH_SH wait types

July 5, 2016 by Nikola Dimitrijevic

One of the most common wait type seen on SQL Server and definitely one that causes a lot of troubles to less experienced database administrators is the PAGEIOLATCH_SH wait type. This is one of those wait types that clearly indicates one thing, but which background and potential causes are much subtler and may lead to erroneous conclusions and worse, incorrect solutions

Efficient creation and parsing of delimited strings

July 5, 2016 by Ed Pollack

Description

Converting a delimited string into a dataset or transforming it into useful data can be an extremely useful tool when working with complex inputs or user-provided data. There are many methods available to accomplish this task; here we will discuss many of them, comparing performance, accuracy, and availability!

SSIS Service performance counter guide

July 4, 2016 by Daniel Tikvicki

SSIS performance counters

Although there is no real standardized classification of SQL Server Integration Services performance counters, the two main types are:

Temporal tables – SQL Server

July 4, 2016 by Marko Zivkovic

What is a temporal table?

Temporal tables give us the possibility to retrieve data from any point in the past and for every data change (Update, Delete, Merge). With temporal table users can recover data from accidental changes (update/delete) as well as audit all changes to data, etc. Temporary table is a new feature in SQL Server available from SQL Server 2016 CTP2 version. Read more »

Revision history of an object change in a SQL database using Mercurial

June 30, 2016 by Marko Radakovic

Since we have presented a way to review the history of committed changes using Git, Team Foundation Server and Subversion, let’s check how the same can be achieved when working with the Mercurial source control system.

Storing Twitter feeds with Microsoft Flow in Azure SQL Database

June 29, 2016 by Jean-Pierre Voogt

A couple of weeks ago I got this idea to capture twitter feeds and store it in a relational database structure. I wanted to be able to do some trend analysis, to see what days certain hashtags get used more than other as well as to be able to go back to certain tweets and see what I can learn from them. I tried to get the Twitter API to work for me, but had no luck. So I came across Microsoft Flow which seems to make this process very easy.

New options in SQL Server Management Studio 2016

June 28, 2016 by Marko Zivkovic

This article will introduce some minor, but very handy improvements in SSMS 2016, such as options for preventing the appearance of a dialog box for saving queries, setting up color of the interface theme, highlighting the current line and checking for a new SSMS updates.

SQL Server policy-based management

June 27, 2016 by Ahmad Yaseen

SQL Server Policy-Based Management was introduced in SQL Server 2008, to make it easy for database administrators to define and enforce SQL Server best practices and company standards in the form of policies. This feature is available in both Enterprise and Standard SQL Server Editions.

Setting SSIS package encryption manually in SSMS

June 24, 2016 by Daniel Tikvicki

The whole process of encryption of SSIS packages in SSMS relies on the Import Package and Export Package options; specifically, the combination of performing both of mentioned options in particular order, while choosing and setting the appropriate ProtectionLevel in the process.

Format DBMail with HTML and CSS

June 23, 2016 by Jean-Pierre Voogt

Background

In my organization, the developers send a lot of database generated emails for informational purposes to ensure that everything in the system is still working 100%.We can call them production messages. Normally the way the email is presented is not important as it is only meant for the developer to help with system health check, but every now and again a business user would ask for the report (which was never meant to be an actual report) and then we would include the business user in the distribution list for this email.

What’s new in SQL Server 2016 summary

June 22, 2016 by Minette Steynberg

SQL Server 2016 became publically available on the 1^st of June 2016. Some might feel that a new SQL Server release every 2 years might be too frequent with many organization still lagging behind by running SQL Server 2012 or earlier.

Warehousing JSON formatted data in SQL Server 2016

June 22, 2016 by Sifiso Ndlovu

In this article, I continue to review the exciting features available in SQL Server 2016. One such feature is the long awaited T-SQL support for JSON formatted data. In this article we take a look at how JSON support will impact data warehouse solutions.

Stretching temporal history tables in SQL Server 2016

June 20, 2016 by Jean-Pierre Voogt

Background

With the release of Microsoft SQL Server 2016 a lot of new features were introduced, one of which was Temporal Tables, a feature that gives you the ability to view the state of your data at a given point in time. This means you can go back in time with your data. Another very popular feature is Stretch Databases which allows for remote archiving of data to Azure Stretch region.

New feature in SQL Server Management Studio 2016 – Scroll bar

June 20, 2016 by Marko Zivkovic

One of the new enhancements in SQL Server Management Studio 2016 (SSMS) is the Scroll Bars tab, in which can be set various of settings for vertical scroll bar.

Query optimizer changes in SQL Server 2016 explained

June 17, 2016 by Ed Pollack

Description

SQL Server 2016 includes a variety of query optimizer enhancements. Some of these have existed since the first previews while others were added later. This is an opportunity to discuss, test out, and validate the behavior and benefits of these changes!

Best practices to configure the index create memory setting in SQL Server

June 15, 2016 by Ashish Kumar Mehta

Introduction

The Index Create Memory setting is an advanced SQL Server configuration setting which the SQL Server database engine uses to control the amount of maximum memory which can be allocated towards the creation of an index. In this article, we will take a look at the steps to resolve the below mentioned error message.

The system msdb database, introduction and tips

June 14, 2016 by Daniel Calbimonte

Introduction

In a previous article, we talked about the tempdb system database. In this article, we will talk about the msdb database.

SQL Server network configuration

June 14, 2016 by Ahmad Yaseen

SQL Server Network Configuration involves enabling the protocols that manage the connection to the SQL Server and configuring the available options for these network protocols. It also provides the means to encrypt the communication between the SQL Server instance and the client applications and hide the SQL Server instance from being browsed. SQL Server Network Configuration can be managed using the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool.

New feature in SQL Server Management Studio 2016 – Quick Launch

June 14, 2016 by Marko Zivkovic

What is Quick Launch?

Quick Launch is a new feature that is added in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2016. Quick Launch is search tool, but it doesn’t search code/contents of the script/files. Instead it searches SSMS itself including menu items, options and file names. Quick Launch is enabled by default when SSMS is installed and it is located at the top right corner of the menu bar (see below):

How to migrate users to a partially contained database in SQL Server

June 13, 2016 by Ashish Kumar Mehta

Introduction

Microsoft introduced the Contained Database feature in SQL Server 2012. In this article we will take a look at how to migrate SQL Server Logins to a partially contained database in SQL Server to remove dependencies from the Instance of SQL Server where Contained Database resides.

Is this the end of SQL Profiler?

June 13, 2016 by Daniel Calbimonte

Introduction

SQL Server Profiler is still a tool used to monitor our relational databases and our multidimensional ones. We used for performance and security purposes. However, in the SQL Server 2016, they announced that the SQL Profiler will be deprecated in future versions.

Querying remote data sources in SQL Server

June 10, 2016 by Ahmad Yaseen

A common activity when writing T-SQL queries is connecting to local databases and processing data directly. But there will be situations in which you need to connect to a remote database that is located in a different instance in the same server or in a different physical server, and process its data in parallel with the local data processing.

SQL Server provides us with four useful methods to connect to the remote database servers, even other database server types, and query its data within your T-SQL statement. In this article, we will discuss these four methods and how to use it to query remote SQL Server databases.

Troubleshooting the CXPACKET wait type in SQL Server

June 8, 2016 by Nikola Dimitrijevic

The SQL Server CXPACKET wait type is one of the most misinterpreted wait stats. The CXPACKET term came from Class Exchange Packet, and in its essence, this can be described as data rows exchanged among two parallel threads that are the part of a single process. One thread is the “producer thread” and another thread is the “consumer thread”. This wait type is directly related to parallelism and it occurs in SQL Server whenever SQL Server executes a query using the parallel plan.