SQL Server management, tutorials, scripts, coding, programming and tips for database administrators

MS SQL

Installing SQL Server 2019 CTP 2.0 10/08/2018

Greg Larsen offers detailed instructions on how to install SQL Server 2019 CTP 2.0.

Overview of In-Memory Technologies of Azure SQL Database 10/04/2018

Azure SQL Database offers a straightforward approach to controlling its performance through vertical scaling. Despite its simplicity, scaling up has obvious pricing implications and, while it is an online operation, it might result in rollback of in-flight transactions. If you are looking for a supplemental approach to enhancing performance, then you might want to consider implementing in-memory technologies which are part of the Azure SQL Database feature set.

How Big is Your Transaction Log? 10/01/2018

If you are not managing the transaction log space used by a database, the transaction log might grow uncontrollably. With SQL Server 2017 there is a new dynamic management function (DMF) that exposes statistical information about a database transaction log. One of the things you can do with the information returned from this DMF is to determine how full a database transaction log file is.

SQL Server 2019 is Here 10/01/2018

On Monday, Sep 24, 2018, at the Ignite 2018 conference, Microsoft announced the first public preview of SQL Server 2019 (community technical preview (CTP) release of SQL Server 2.0).This new release of SQL Server is packed with many new features to improve performance, integrate your increasing volumes of corporate data, beef up security, and more. 

Modern Data Warehouse Design Pattern – Part II 09/20/2018

Join Anoop Kumar as he discusses two modern design patterns to handle Advanced Analytics on big data, and Real time analytics.

Azure SQL Database High Availability 09/06/2018

Site-wide or region-wide disasters, while undoubtedly more impactful, happen considerably less frequently than downtime resulting from scheduled maintenance events or isolated hardware and software faults. This article provides an overview of the high availability features of Azure SQL Database that mitigate risks affecting services within an individual Azure datacenter, rather than an entire Azure region.

Displaying and Removing Unprintable Hexadecimal Characters from SQL Server Data 09/04/2018

There are times when you might need to look at your SQL Server data in hexadecimal format. Occasionally some string data will contain unprintable characters, which can cause downstream problems, if not detected and removed. Read on to learn how to display and remove unprintable hexadecimal characters from SQL Server data.

Modern Data Warehouse Design Pattern – Part I 08/20/2018

The modern data warehouse design helps in building a hub for all types of data to initiate integrated and transformative solutions. To achieve these goals and to support modern designs, Microsoft has introduced a set of fully managed, cloud-based services that not only support modern data warehouse design patterns but also provide the advantages of inbuilt scalability, high availability, good performance, and flexibility.

Azure SQL Database Business Continuity Enhancements 08/06/2018

Marcin Policht provides an overview of a number of new features that facilitate Azure SQL Database business continuity.

How to Resize tempdb 08/02/2018

When you are setting up a new SQL Server machine you need to determine how big you should make tempdb. To make sure you size tempdb appropriately you should monitor the tempdb space usage. If there are autogrowth events occurring after you have recycled SQL Server than you might want to increase the size of your tempdb data files. If tempdb never uses most of the tempdb space, then you might want to consider decreasing the size of tempdb.

How to Remove Transparent Data Encryption From a Database 08/02/2018

There may be a time when you want to turn off transparent data encryption on one of your TDE enabled databases. In this tip, Greg Larsen shows you how simple it is to remove Transparent Data Encryption.

Steps to Migrate Oracle Database to Azure SQL Database 07/23/2018

Many organizations are looking at the prospect of a technology migration, where capabilities are moved to a new set of technologies, supporting and enabling the business of the future. Anoop Kumar lays out the steps that can be followed to migrate an on-premise Oracle database to the SQL Server cloud database, Azure SQL Database.

Introduction to Azure Cosmos DB Global Distribution 07/05/2018

Global distribution of updatable data stores is one of the more challenging goals that software designers and architects have been struggling with over the years. Addressing this challenge has become increasingly pressing as the rapid growth of cloud technologies increased the need for deployments capable of spanning multiple geographical areas. In this article, we will provide an introduction to global distribution-related functionality in Cosmos DB.

Placing a Mark in SQL Server's Transaction Log for Fall Back 07/02/2018

How many times have you had a programmer come to you and say they want you (the DBA) to restore their database to sometime prior to when they accidentally corrupted it? If you are doing FULL transaction logging you can do a point in time recovery to restore the database to just prior to when the corruption occurred. But in order to do that you need to know exactly when the programmer corrupted the data, which in a lot of cases is not known down to the second.

Using SQL Server's Default Trace to Identify Autogrow Events in tempdb 07/02/2018

We all know that you should try to size tempdb appropriately, so it doesn’t need to autogrow shortly after starting up SQL Server. It isn’t always easy to do this. Therefore, when you first implement a new server and/or add new databases you should monitor the autogrowth events on tempdb. By monitoring the autogrowth events you can easily determine if you have sized tempdb appropriately.