 | | The Complete Weekly Roundup of SQL Server News | | Hand-picked content to sharpen your professional edge |
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The End of XP This week we have the end of Windows XP. At least, we have the end of support, which means the lifespan of the OS was over 17 years. That’s a long time. It’s longer than I’ve run any system without an upgrade. I have some Windows 7 systems I use at times, but that’s a mere 10 years old. I know there are still a few SQL 2000 systems out there, which is older than XP, and likely a few of them are running on Windows 2000 in a VM somewhere. I have to admit that I liked Windows XP and thought it was a nice upgrade from previous versions. I ran it for a long time, skipping Vista, before moving to Windows 7 when it was released. Most of the early days of SQLServerCentral were run from an XP workstation, with SQL Server personal and lots of text editors helping me manage the site. I’m somewhat sad that it’s gone, though I think Win7, and now Win10 were very nice improvements. XP isn’t likely gone, as some companies will continue to run it and I expect some ATMs, some kiosk displays, and other embedded applications will show that XP start screen on occasion. That’s not unlike the way that some of us might connect to an SQL instance and be surprised to see a single digit number in the major version space. In fact, a lot of you might still see a “9”, for SQL Server 2008. I was seeing that until last year when we moved SQLServerCentral to SQL Sever 2017. I expect the more and more organizations will be slowly moving on, perhaps reluctant to upgrade those old versions that work and don’t cost much to maintain. Or do they? Is there a big cost on older systems that run and don’t see regular development work? My thought has been that for many internal systems, I need a database platform, and likely an OS, to run for 10 years or more. I know some of the larger enterprises have this view as well. Picking a platform is a major decision and it can be very hard to change directions. Porting takes a lot of resources, as do upgrades, so ensuring a system can handle a load for 10 years makes sense. I know many of us would like to regularly switch versions, and one of the great things about my job is that I get to do so. I’ve held onto SQL 2014 and 2016, but I’m slowly moving all my work to SQL Server 2017 and 2019, with the idea that apart from some repro situations, I won’t try to run older versions anymore. It seems many people are town about upgrades. Some people prefer the system they know and are comfortable with, since they know what workarounds are needed. They may bemoan the need to learn new skills and change old habits. Others prefer the latest and greatest, quickly adopting new platforms and agonizing over the spend on old systems. No matter which way you feel, it’s likely that you’ll be forced to do a bit of both as the pace of change for SQL Server means many of us will adopt new versions for new work and end up supporting 4 or 5 versions at any one time. Steve Jones - SSC Editor Join the debate, and respond to the editorial on the forums |
| The Weekly News | | All the headlines and interesting SQL Server information that we've collected over the past week, and sometimes even a few repeats if we think they fit. |
This month, I have just made some minor improvements to most of the query sets, mainly in the comments and documentation. I have been trying to fix the broken... |
Database recovery (crash recovery) is a nerve wrenching situation under the wrong conditions. It can be as bad as a root canal and just as necessary to endure that... The... |
In our earlier posts on recovery, we’ve covered the importance of properly managing SQL Server Transaction Log file growth. This includes how to detect databases with a high VLF... |
In this blog post we are going to show how to optimize your Spark job by partitioning the data correctly. To demonstrate this we are going to use the College Score Card public dataset, which has several key data points from colleges all around the United States. We will compute the average student fees by state with this dataset. |
In this post, a data expert teaches us how to take in large data sets using Apache Spark. |
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) |
Anti-money laundering is an important issue for governments and banks alike. The fight to prevent terrorist financing and profiting from crime means that banks and other financial institutions are... |
Jim Harris shares examples of how and why AI applications are dependent on high-quality data. The post How data quality improves artificial intelligence appeared first on SAS Blogs. |
Today's AI is technically "weak"—but it's complex and can have a great societal impact. |
Azure has a rich set of offerings in terms of database platform services. We have the full family of SQL Server-based databases (single, pool, managed instance, data warehouse), open... |
In any Introduction level CosmosDB talk, Presenter will suggest you pay more attention to the Partitioning part of the talk. Microsoft wants you to create great solution by using Azure CosmosDB and there are a lot of resources out there for developers. The challenge in Azure CosmosDB is, you don't need a DBA in CosmosDB and developers may not pay attention to details like Partitioning when they create databases in Azure CosmosDB. |
Data analytics has become one of the powerful domains in the world of data science. An enormous amount of data is being generated by each organization in every sector.... |
I’m starting the process of learning how to use Jupyter Notebooks. Notebooks are documents that contain live code, commentary, results, pictures and more. Jupyter Notebooks are used for presentations,... |
Azure Database is the PaaS solution for SQL Server databases, on a previous post we have discussed how to create one.On this post, I want to show you how... The... |
The below image is a beautiful picture, now it could be worse. The red line and the green line could peak at the same time and for a very... The... |
Google’s approach to ice cold storage eliminates the need for a separate retrieval process and provides immediate, low-latency access to content. |
| Business Intelligence (BI) |
Brad Llewellyn has a tutorial for Azure Databricks: Databricks is a managed Spark framework, similar to what we saw with HDInsight in the previous post. The major difference between... |
It’s time for my annual update on the wild ride. If you want to catch up, check out past posts in the Brent Ozar Unlimited tag. This post covers... |
I'm presenting a session on Azure DevOps for SQL Server DBAs that's designed as an intro for data people who haven't really worked with it before, at Red-Gate's SQL... |
Redgate are inviting senior data professionals to attend one of the upcoming SQL in the City Summit events taking place in April, May and June. If you’re interested in... |
Our little “Data Geeks” Meetup group in Vancouver, Washington is growing with a line-up of heavy-hitters and bigger crowds. This month, on April 16th, we are honored to welcome... |
I’m excited to announce the next delivery of Developing SSIS Data Flows with Labs will be 17-18 Jun 2019! This two-day course takes a hands-on approach to introduce SSIS Data... |
I’m excited to announce the next delivery of Mastering the SSIS Catalog will be the morning of 11 Jun 2019! This half-day course brings you up to speed on... |
I am honored to present Moving Data with Azure Data Factory at SQL Saturday 845 – Atlanta 18 May 2019! Abstract Azure Data Factory – ADF – is a... |
There are many great resources out there for data visualization. Some of my favorite data viz people are Storytelling With Data (b|t), Alberto Cairo (b|t), and Andy Kirk (b|t).... The... |
While architecting cloud native applications, you need to ensure that your system is highly available, performant, scalable, fault tolerant, and has the capability to recover from a disaster scenario.... |
Working in a dedicated database model is the ideal. So, what does it take to move from shared development to a dedicated model? Infrastructure costs, merging multiple changes and maintaining an increased estate might be on your list of things to consider before committing to the switch. In this article we show how Redgate tools can ease the transition and new working approach. |
This week, I’ve been writing about how SQL Server 2019’s bringing a few new features to mitigate parameter sniffing, but they’re more complex than they appear at first glance:... |
So far, I’ve talked about how adaptive memory grants both help and worsen parameter sniffing, and how the new air_quote_actual plans don’t accurately show what happened. But so far,... |
My last post talked about how parameter sniffing caused 3 problems for a query, and how SQL Server 2019 fixes one of them – kinda – with adaptive memory... |
Answer Time While answering a question on dba.se, I got to thinking about if there would be a good way… |
This week, I’m demoing SQL Server 2019 features that I’m really excited about, and they all center around a theme we all know and love: parameter sniffing. If you... |
Economy Of Waits There’s a joke about two economists walking down the street. One of them asks the other how… |
This insanely cool new performance-related update is one of nicest features in SQL Server 2019, and certainly one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. If you’ve... |
| ETL/SSIS/Azure Data Factory |
This is the third in a series of product identifications between Oracle and Microsoft to assist those attempting to understand the similarities and differences between these essential parts of... |
Read on to get the most out of what Kubernetes can do--and ensure you don't assume it is going to handle a task that it can't support. |
Patrick takes a quick look at Power BI Report Builder including how to get it. This report builder is optimized for the Power BI service. Patrick calls out a... |
Hardik Jaroli shows how we can solve logistic regression problems using Python, using the Titanic data set as an example: We will be working with the Titanic Data Set... |
When Intel announced the new Cascade Lake family as officially launched last week, it added a new product segment to its portfolio – the ‘Application Processor’ or AP. These... |
Starting with SQL Server 2017 CU6 and SQL Server 2016 SP2-CU3, you can now configure your distribution database as part of an Availability Group (AG). I found one spot... |
Microsoft this week ended support for the very last Windows XP-based operating system, essentially marking the end of the platform and an era. Being one of the longest living... |
In a few days, the fast ring will switch to a preview of the 2020 release. |
The news about XMLA endpoint connectivity to Power BI datasets is now all around the internet after the public preview announcement of that last week. However, I realized that... |
| PowerPivot/PowerView/PowerQuery/PowerBI |
The new Power BI App Workspace experience GA'd in April of 2019. Adam takes you through what the new Power BI App Workspace is all about and what is... |
Do you want a customized KPI Card in Power BI? Patrick looks at how you could get a custom KPI Card in a Power BI report without using custom... |
In RADACAD we do our best to improve user experience using Power BI every single day, and throughout that experience, we add more and more functions to Power BI... |
This article explains the setup instructions to work with the Service tab of Power BI Helper. Download Power BI Helper from here. Power BI Helper is a third party... |
Here’s yet another entry in the list of useful things I learned from Ehren von Lehe on the Power Query MSDN forum: Table.Buffer() does not buffer nested table, record... |
Aljoscha Krettek announces the general availablity of Apache Flink version 1.8.0: SQL pattern detection with user-defined functions and aggregations: The support of the MATCH_RECOGNIZE clause has been extended by... |
Phil Factor demonstrates how to use SQL Clone to create 'disposable' SQL Server databases, for development and testing work. You can spin up a clone, use it to unit... |
SCOM is is good at monitoring the status of your servers. SQL Monitor give you a detailed view of your SQL Server instances, and databases, right across your network,... |
It's out now for Windows 10, with other operating systems coming later. |
This is part two in a series on applying forensic accounting techniques to SQL and R. Start with a Data Model My plan here is to create a model... |
There are occasions when Updates, Inserts, and Deletes on a replicated table do not replicate out to the Subscriber. You've verified that the table is listed in the Articles included in the Publication, and that there is at least one Subscription on the Publication. |
| Reporting Services (SSRS) |
SQL Server Reporting Services has changed quite a bit since it was introduced in 2004. Despite new analytic services like Power BI, SSRS is still a popular tool for... |
In this post I want to discuss something I talked about with my colleagues previously relating to offline installations of SQL Server on Linux. Which is something that has been on my mind for a while now. |
(Be sure to checkout the FREE SQLpassion Performance Tuning Training Plan - you get a weekly email packed with all the essential knowledge you need to know about performance... The... |
Does your web application make use of local storage? If so, then like many developers you may well be making the assumption that when you read from local storage,... |
Next-gen standard was supposed to make password cracking a thing of the past. It won't. |
Kaspersky has released details about a sophisticated nation-state spyware it calls TajMahal: The TajMahal framework's 80 modules, Shulmin says, comprise not only the typical keylogging and screengrabbing features of... |
Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers. This is one of those things I do... The... |
Interesting scheme: It all starts off with a fairly bog standard gallery style certificate. Details of the work, the authenticating agency, a bit of embossing and a large impressive... |
I just noticed this bit from the incredibly weird story of the Chinese woman arrested at Mar-a-Lago: Secret Service agent Samuel Ivanovich, who interviewed Zhang on the day of... |
It wasn’t until the other day that I realised what the behaviour was when rolling back a transaction with an insert on a table with an identity column, to... |
A question that is frequently occurring among my SQL training‘s participants is: What’s the difference between putting a predicate in the JOIN .. ON clause and the WHERE clause?... |
Todd Kleinhans (b/t) is host for T-SQL Tuesday this month and wants us to talk about how we use databases ... Continue reading The post Writing Crossword puzzles with a... |
SQL Server needs to make sure data types match when performing operations that involve multiple pieces of data. When the data types do not match, SQL Server has to... The... |
From SQL Server 2017, it becomes more practical to use JSON arrays for representing and processing a matrix. SQL Server can read them, and update values in them but... |
The Panamera Turbo comes in two flavors, and the more powerful one is a hybrid. |
This week’s T-SQL Tuesday is about where you use databases in your personal life. And I have a database I don’t use any more that’s a little happy and... |
If you can use a database to create automation routines to help sustain your work life, you can certainly do the same to sustain your personal life. Databases are... The... |
What lessons can the space agency learn as it considers a lunar return? |
Periodically there is a crash, power surge, or sudden reboot of your computer. Of course, you had SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) open and you were working on something important. That seems to be the only time there is a crash/reboot. You can lose work that that was open in SSMS but has not saved. |
There are a couple of Azure Data Studio GitHub issues near and dear to my heart that I’d like to point out in the hopes that it’ll raise their... |
| Virtualization, containers, and k8s |
I was originally going to cover storage in its entirety in a single blog post. However, as storage and Kubernetes is the cause of a tremendous amount of confusion... |
Docker software engineer Anusha Ragunathan talks about what the year ahead holds in store for the Docker platform and container technology. |
Wednesday April 17, 4PM-5PM BST / 10AM-11AM CDT - The many benefits of having globally, or even locally distributed teams do not come without a trade-off. So how can you ensure that everyone works efficiently and effectively in distributed teams? |
Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are the last competitors standing in the Pentagon’s winner-take-all competition for a $10 billion cloud services contract, the Defense Department said. The announcement eliminates... |
Anthos is an open platform that lets you run an app anywhere, without needing to modify the code, on existing on-premises hardware or in the public cloud. |
Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo... |
Verizon-owned Yahoo boosted offer after judge rejected first settlement. |
Redgate is joining forces with DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA), now part of Google Cloud, as a sponsor of the 2019 Accelerate State of DevOps Report, and we're excited... |
Date bug on unpatched Honeywell gear likely cause of 777, 787 flight cancellations. |
Wednesday May 8, 4PM-5PM BST / 10AM-11AM CDT - Discover how transitioning from shared database development to individual development environments is easier than ever thanks to database virtualisation and source control technology. |
Wednesday May 1, 4PM-5PM BST / 10AM-11AM CDT - In this webinar, you’ll learn how to implement a test data provisioning solution that accelerates your development cycles and meets the needs of data privacy regulations such as HIPAA, SOX and the GDPR. |
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