Category: Microsoft SQL Server

Feed: James Serra's Blog. Author: James Serra. Azure Data Lake Store (ADLS) Gen2 was made generally available on February 7th.  In short, ADLS Gen2 is the best of the previous version of ADLS (now called ADLS Gen1) and Azure Blob Storage.  ADLS Gen2 is built on Blob storage and because of that it is a “ring 0” service and is available in all regions.  To create an ADLS Gen2 account, see Quickstart: Create an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 storage account.  Note that creating Blob storage or ADLS Gen2 both follow the same process, which is to create a storage account.  The ... Read More

Feed: SQL Server Release Services. Author: SQL Server Engineering Team. We are getting ready to update the SQL Server Management Packs. This includes the existing versioned MPs for 2008-2016, as well as the new version agnostic SQL Server MP for 2012 and up (for more info on the version agnostic MP, see here). Please install and use this public preview and send us your feedback (sqlmpsfeedback@microsoft.com)! We appreciate the time and effort you spend on these previews which make the final product so much better. Please download at: Microsoft System Center Management Packs (Community Technical Preview) for SQL Server 2008-2016 Microsoft System ... Read More

Feed: SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Official Blog. Author: Sandy Winarko. Expanding our efforts to integrate SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) deeper into Azure Data Factory (ADF), we have recently improved the configurability of Execute SSIS Package activities in ADF pipelines. With the enhanced “Settings” tab and additional three new tabs (“SSIS Parameters”/”Connection Managers”/”Property Overrides”), you can now configure Execute SSIS Package activities via ADF User Interface (UI) as easily/intuitively as you can configure SSIS package executions via SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) UI. For comparisons, here is the existing SSMS UI for configuring SSIS package executions: And here is ... Read More

Feed: Puppet Blog Feed. Author: Lindsey Smith; I’m happy to announce that Puppet Enterprise-only modules are now more widely available for use and now have public code repositories! There have been Puppet modules for use with Puppet Enterprise only for a long time, such as the Microsoft SQL Server and VMware vSphere modules. For these modules we consistently got two pieces of feedback:First is that it’s too hard to get the module code anywhere but a licensed Puppet Enterprise master. If you are trialling Puppet Enterprise or want to run them locally, in CI or with Bolt apply it’s a ... Read More

Feed: Databasejournal.com - Feature Database Articles. Author: . If you have been coding TSQL for a while you probable are familiar and frustrated with this error message: Msg 8152, Level 16, State 30, Line 3 String or binary data would be truncated. The statement has been terminated. Not knowing what column and data value was truncated can be frustration! You will be happy to hear that SQL Server 2019 has improved this message to include the table and column name and the truncated value, provided you are running SQL Server 2109 CTP 2.1 and above. Suppose you have a column ... Read More

Feed: Databasejournal.com - Feature Database Articles. Author: . With the introduction of SQL Server 2019, there is now a new, faster way to get a list of distinct values in a column. This new way is using the APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT function. This new function does not return the exact number of distinct values, but instead, as the function name suggests, it only returns an approximate count. It does this by using the HyperLogLog algorithm. This new function is faster than the COUNT(*) distinct function because it uses less memory. This new function can estimate the number of distinct values greater than ... Read More

Feed: James Serra's Blog. Author: James Serra. If you are using SQL Server in an Azure VM (IaaS) you have a number of options of where to store the database files (.mdf, .ldf, and .ndf).  Most customers use managed disks, available in a number of offerings: Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, and Ultra SSD.  Managed disks are highly recommended to use over unmanaged disks (see Azure Managed vs Unmanaged disks : The choice).  You create and then attach one or more managed disks to the VM.  Each VM comes with built-in storage, but this is a temporary storage drive, labeled as the D: drive, and is ... Read More

Feed: Databasejournal.com - Feature Database Articles. Author: . In the Optimize MySQL Inserts Using Batch Processing article, a couple of ways to achieve faster INSERT speeds in MySQL were explored. The last example that was shown employed multiple-row inserts. At around 65% the throughput of LOAD DATA INFILE statement, the multiple-row insert is substantially faster than individual inserts, while not requiring a temporary text file. In today's tutorial, you'll get a closer look at how you can generate a multiple-row insert statement dynamically using the programming language of your choice. First, you'll see pseudo-code that outlines the steps; then, you'll ... Read More

Feed: James Serra's Blog. Author: James Serra. If you are building a big data solution in the cloud, you will likely be landing most of the source data into a data lake.  And much of this data will need to be transformed (i.e. cleaned and joined together – the “T” in ETL).  Since the data lake is just storage (i.e. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 or Azure Blob Storage), you need to pick a product that will be the compute and will do the transformation of the data.  There is good news and bad news when it comes to which ... Read More

Feed: Databasejournal.com - Feature Database Articles. Author: . News Via RSS Feed Featured Database Articles Posted January 8, 2019 By Marcin Policht Transitioning to the Platform-as-a-Service model typically implies relinquishing certain degree of control over your computing environment. One of the primary concerns related to this transition is diminished level of transparency providing insights into performance of cloud-resident workloads. Fortunately, with Azure SQL Database, you have a wide range of options that address this concern, allowing you to identify and remediate overwhelming majority of performance-related issues. Traditional mechanisms that used to be employed by database administrators to monitor their on-premises ... Read More