27Feb 2020 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

Are You Still Worried About Data in the Cloud?

Azure
There really are technology stacks and business use cases that should never be moved off of big iron. Then there's the rest of us. Chances are very high if you're not already starting to move your data storage to the cloud, it's being discussed right now in your business. I helped put together a new report on the current state of databases that are not under your direct control. It's free to download and available over at Dzone. If you haven't made the move yet, or are just getting started on becoming one of the millions of companies that will be hybrid, part cloud-based, part local, then I strongly recommend you check it out. The trends are clear. Smart people are taking advantage of what services like Azure, AWS and…
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29Jul 2019 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Sample Azure DevOps Pipelines

DevOps
I've said it before and I will repeat myself on this because it's an important concept: DevOps is about culture and communication, not tools Now, that said, to implement the automation required in DevOps, you're going to have to get into some degree of tooling. There are a whole slew of possible tools to support you: Jenkins, Team City, Octopus and more. All these tools offer excellent solutions with variations on limits, methodologies, etc. You'll need to explore them to understand which ones are best for you and your processes. I've been doing a lot of work lately in another tool, Azure DevOps. Let me show you a little of what I've done. Azure DevOps Pipelines I don't mean for this to be a complete tutorial on setting up Azure…
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15Jul 2019 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

Implement DevOps One Step At a Time

DevOps
In preparation for my upcoming DevOps training days (see the bottom of this post for details) and for some articles I'm working on, I've been building all new automation processes for database deployments. In the past, I've been using a fairly simple (and far too simplistic) example to do most of my demos. I haven't built a full process in a little while. OH MY GOD!!! IT'S PAINFUL!!!!! Automation Ain't Easy The easy part of getting your DevOps done is the tooling. I say that all the time because it's true. The hard part is changing your organizations culture to support the level of communication necessary for a successful DevOps implementation. However, easy by comparison doesn't mean just simply easy. There's a lot of work involved and making mistakes early…
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04Mar 2019 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

system_health Extended Events in Azure SQL Database

Azure, SQL Server
The system_health Extended Events session is incredibly useful. Further, it's running, by default, in every server you have under management that is 2008 or greater. Things are not the same in Azure though. system_health in Azure SQL Database If you look at the documentation for system_health, it shows that it's applicable to Azure SQL Database. However, if you try to run the example query, it won't work. This is because the implementation of Extended Events inside Azure SQL Database is a little different. Instead, you need to use the Azure SQL Database equivalent system views to create the same query like this: SELECT CAST(dxdst.target_data AS XML) FROM sys.dm_xe_database_session_targets AS dxdst JOIN sys.dm_xe_database_sessions AS dxds ON dxds.address = dxdst.event_session_address WHERE dxds.name = 'system_health'; Now, running this in Azure, prepare to be…
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18Feb 2019 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

Installing Extensions to Azure Data Studio

Azure, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, T-SQL
If you're even thinking about experimenting with, let alone actively using, Azure Data Studio, you need to plan on installing a few extensions. Buck Woody has a great list that you should look through in this blog post. If you're just getting started with Azure Data Studio, I have an introduction here. Depending on the extension, this could be a simple as a mouse click. However, not all the extensions are that easy. Let's explore this just a little so when you do start using Azure Data Studio, things are easy. Extension From a Mouse Click For this bit of the blog post, we'll stick to nothing but mouse clicks, but, if you really want to bring the power within Azure Data Studio, you really need to learn keyboard shortcuts…
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24Sep 2018 by Grant Fritchey 12 Comments

Introducing Azure Data Studio

Azure
If you're watching Microsoft Ignite or tracking the information coming out of it on social media, then you know that Azure SQL Studio has been changed to Azure Data Studio. I've got an early release on some of the bits. Let's explore what's going on. Azure Data Studio The core concept here is to have a development tool that gives you a common framework for working with data, not just SQL data, but CosmosDB and others. Further, a tool that you can run where you work. Do you have a Mac? Cool. Use Azure Data Studio. Running Linux? Cool. Use Azure Data Studio. Still on Windows with me? We also get Azure Data Studio. The first thing I'm excited about is the load time. It's fast. Really fast. Out of…
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30Apr 2018 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Automating Automatic Indexing in Azure SQL Database

Azure
I've been in love with the concept of a database as a service ever since I first laid eyes on Azure SQL Database. It just makes sense to me. Take away the mechanics of server management and database management. Focus on the guts of your database. Backups, consistency checks, these easily automated aspects can just be taken care of. Same thing goes with some, not all, but some, index management. Azure SQL Database can manage your indexes for you. I call it weaponizing Query Store. Anyway, I needed a way to automate this for the book I'm writing. I couldn't find any good examples online, so I built my own. Queries in Need of Automatic Indexing Because I want this to be as simple and repeatable as possible, I'm using…
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15Jan 2018 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Getting Started in a SQL Server 2017 VM in Azure

SQL Server 2017
You say you're ready to dip your toes in the Azure ocean? Come on in, the water's fine! Oh, you want to really dip your toes. You're starting with Virtual Machines? OK. I guess. It's not where the real excitement is. You should be checking out Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse and CosmosDb and... VMs. OK. Let's get you started. Set up Azure First Microsoft maintains seriously good documentation on how to work with Azure. I'm honestly blown away by how much information there is and how well written it is. In fact, everything I'm about to tell you is documented better, here. However, I'm going to give you the TLDR version. First, you have to have an Azure account. If you have an MSDN license, that…
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15Nov 2017 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Presenting Azure Vs. Working With Azure

Azure
I have a real infatuation with Azure. I'm especially interested in the Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings in and around the Data Platform. I truly believe that these are the subversive elements that are going to change how a lot of us get our jobs done with data. I've worked with Azure SQL Database within my organization and I do lots of experimentation and testing. Any chance I get, I like to present sessions on Azure. Funny thing though, my presentations are never as easy as work, and I think I ought to discuss why. Connectivity, Connectivity, Connectivity In case you can't tell, I'm starting off talking about connectivity. However, this is an important topic. When I'm working on Azure, I'm usually hooked up to my home office or…
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19Sep 2017 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Azure, PowerShell, Databases and the PASS Summit

Azure, PowerShell
I am quite honored to say that I am speaking at the single largest and most important Microsoft Data Platform conference in the world, PASS Summit 2017. Now, I'm excited to say that I get to speak on three topics that are near and dear to my heart, Azure, PowerShell and databases. The session is called Using PowerShell to Manage Your Azure Databases. You can read the abstract there at the link. I'm going to go through a whole bunch of the database types on Azure and show how you can manage each. I'm not sticking to SQL Server. We'll cover MySQL, Cosmos and others. Let's get together and talk about these topics. Azure adoption is growing like mad. You're going to need to automate it, so PowerShell is your…
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