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Daily Coping Tip

Start with the most important thing on your to-do list

I also have a thread at SQLServerCentral dealing with coping mechanisms and resources. Feel free to participate.

For many of you out there working in a new way, I'm including a thought of the day on how to cope in this challenging time from The Action for Happiness Coping Calendar. My items will be on my blog, feel free to share yours.

The Digital Twin

This editorial was originally published on 19 Jul 2017. It is being re-run as Steve is traveling.

The world is changing quickly, and it's becoming incredibly personalized thanks to digital technologies. I saw a fascinating video from GE on digital twins. These are digital representations of their products, using specific data (sensor, visual, weather, settings, etc.) to build a model of a specific piece of equipment. This model runs on a platform and constantly analyzes new data to evaluate and predict the performance of the system. With equipment like jet engines, power plants, and more, a tiny increase in efficiency can translate into incredible cost savings or revenue increases.

The idea of using digital twins is taking hold in other fields, and I expect that we'll continue to see all sorts of digital representations and models of real world items. We are even starting to see this in medicine, with personalized treatments for various diseases, including cancer. By using more data, and powerful computing capabilities, we can tailor our treatment to the individual and their particular ailment.

This personalization has an annoying side as well, after all many of us have experienced more targeted advertisements and annoying uses of our personal information, however much of that is crude, and lacking in sophistication. Perhaps if the models using data about me would be less annoying if companies didn't try to sell me a laptop a week after I've purchased one, or show me sales on products when I'm looking at SQL Server articles.

I'm amazed and hopeful that our computing systems will evolve, with more talented data scientists blending their knowledge in some problem domain with powerful computing capabilities and lots of data. I expect that some of the challenges we face with our aging infrastructures and physical systems will be helped by extensive data and powerful machine learning models specific to an instance.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

 
  Featured Contents
Stairway to SQL Server on Linux

Installing Ubuntu in Level 1 of the Stairway to SQL Server on Linux

Danilo Dominici from SQLServerCentral.com

In this first article of the Stairway to SQL Server on Linux, learn how to set up your host server.

Database technology trends

Additional Articles from Redgate

Big data can be risky, which is why you need great estate management. Join Matt Schmelzer, Data Systems and Automation - IT, and Jonathan Holck, IT Associate, from Artisan Partners in discussion with Microsoft MVP Grant Fritchey to learn how they implemented a successful infrastructure and what tools they need to support their growing estate.

SSRS IIF, Switch and Choose Functions for Dynamic and Appealing Reports

Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com

Learn how to use IIF, Switch and Choose logical functions in SSRS reports to make your reports more dynamic and more appealing to report users.

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Power BI: Adding Columns to a Published Data Model using the XMLA Endpoint & TMSL

DataOnWheels from DataOnWheels

Goal of this demo: Update a Power BI model schema by adding a column to the data model without opening a PBIX file and ensure the scheduled refresh still...

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Connect Excel to a Power BI Dataset in a Premium Workspace with a B2B User

Meagan Longoria from Data Savvy

Power BI offers the ability for users who have access to a dataset in the Power BI service (PowerBI.com) to connect to the dataset using Excel. Normally, this feature...

 

  Question of the Day

Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):

 

Minimum Point in Time Recovery for Azure SQL Databases

There is a default period of time for point in time recovery (PITR) on Azure SQL databases for 7 days. However, this can be reduced to lower your storage costs. What is the minimum number of days you can configure for PITR for active and deleted databases? (as of Aug 2021)

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

 

 

  Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor)

Backup Operator Writing Backup Set Data

I have a default US English installation of SQL Server 2019 and connect as a sysadmin. I create a new user with this script:

USE [master] GO CREATE LOGIN [JoeBackup] WITH PASSWORD=N'XXXxxx', DEFAULT_DATABASE=[sandbox], CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF, CHECK_POLICY=OFF GO USE [sandbox] GO CREATE USER [JoeBackup] FOR LOGIN [JoeBackup] GO USE [sandbox] GO ALTER ROLE [db_backupoperator] ADD MEMBER [JoeBackup] GO

This user logs in and is placed in the sandbox database. The user, JoeBackup, then executes this script:

BACKUP DATABASE sandbox TO DISK = 'Sandbox_full.bak'

Is the backup data written to msdb.dbo.backupmediaset, without granting JoeBackup permissions in msdb?

Answer: The backup is run and the information is written in msdb.

Explanation: The user requesting the backup doesn't actually write to the tables in msdb. The backup command is executed and a backup is run. The instance itself writes the information in msdb, even without JoeBackup being a user in this database. Ref: Backup - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/statements/backup-transact-sql?view=sql-server-ver15

Discuss this question and answer on the forums

 

 

 

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.


SQL Server 2017 - Development
Inline Table - Please assist creating an inline Table Valued Function. Output  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NlImnhE35Zattw4KKH7gVrQcGcMsSlRJ/view?usp=drivesdk Data https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mkBA8Uc8tZjhWdzqGaxLAPnNoqpBSfMZ/view?usp=drivesdk
Inline Table - Please assist creating an inline Table Valued Function. Output should look like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NlImnhE35Zattw4KKH7gVrQcGcMsSlRJ/view?usp=drivesdk Data https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mkBA8Uc8tZjhWdzqGaxLAPnNoqpBSfMZ/view?usp=drivesdk
SQL Server 2016 - Administration
Shrink never ends - Hello, Sorry for my English. I am aware of the problems and why we should never perform a shrink, however, in this case it is necessary. I have a database where the mdf file is about 1.6Tb, but the database only uses 800Gb and I need to reduce it. I tried to reduce only 10Gb […]
SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL
Need help with calculating data between 6pm-6pm instead of 12am-12am - Hi, I am looking to calculate some data. We have orders dropping every day, and I need to calculate the number of orders that dropped between 6pm yesterday till 6pm today. I tried doing DATEADD(HOUR,-6,cast(CONVERT(VARCHAR,CREATE_DATE)+ ' '+ CONVERT(VARCHAR,CREATE_TIME) as datetime)) but that just changes every hour to go back 6 hours. I need to create […]
Dynamic SQL? Inserting Sproc data into table variable - Hello, I have a bunch of stored procs that I'd like to execute all at once,  insert their results into a table variable, and then insert those results into a physical table.  I can get the code to run fine to actually execute all the sprocs one after the other using a cursor (there aren't […]
SQL Server 2019 - Administration
SQL 2016 to 2019 upgrade benefits - Can someone help me with good reasons / selling points to upgrade from 2016 to 2019?
SQL Server recovery - Hi  There! Question related to recovery of SQL Server....When an SQL server crashes, from where does SQL server know the recovery path, as the buffer (RAM)contents are lost during crash ? Thanks in advance. Best Regards Arshad
How to start an Index Review Project - Dear Colleagues, I’m not sure this is the proper channel If you were in charge of review a group of databases and give index recommendations, and this is the particular point of interest. How could you start your session, I’m thinking in Current index inventory Current index usage New indexes recommendations What do you think […]
Unable to uninstall sql 2005 on windows 2008R2 - Dear, unable to uninstall sql server 2005 on windows 2008R2 server, when i click on uninstall from control pannel, after a while the uninstall window will disappear and it is not uninstalling. Thanks
SQL Server 2019 - Development
Non-clustered Index - I have a blog. To log in, I request a User Name. Should I have a non-clustered index on that column? Also, in another table, I query on the email address, should I have a non-clustered index on that column? In both tables, I have an integer field as the primary key.
View or Stored Procedure? - To create an output like this: Do i create a stored procedure or view that would allow this end result above?   SQL:  
Extraction of mean, max, min and sd extraction inside 5-95 quantiles - I'd like to extraction the mean, max, min and sd extraction inside 5-95 quantiles for the variables B2, B3, B4, B8, NDVI, SAVI, SIPI, SR, RGI, TVI, MSR, PRI, GNDVI, PSRI, GCI aggregate by AGE and ESPAC variables inside CMPC table: CREATE TABLE CMPC( x NUMERIC(8,4) NOT NULL ,y NUMERIC(8,4) NOT NULL ,stand VARCHAR(11) NOT […]
Azure Data Factory
data flow "delete if" setting- sink Delta lake - Hello, I have the upsert if working for the .parquet files by selecting the upsert if setting to true() For example when the source is update ,then the parquet sink is updated accordingly. But if a row is deleted in source it is still shown in sink parquet even when check the Allow Delete. Any […]
Connecting
AZ Sql Database Cross Database Query Identity syntax - Attempting to follow directions from @SteveJones & MS documentation for setting up key for Azure Sql Server cross database queries. CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ''; CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL ElasticDBQueryCred WITH IDENTITY = '', SECRET = ''; We're receiving an error with the IDENTITY parameter. The examples look very straightforward but aren't […]
General
Is it possible to improve one's environment, by going rogue? - Today Steve Jones posted an excellent article on whether or not your company has a talent gap. I recommend you read it. While responding to Steve's article I had a thought. I felt my ideas were too far off Steve's article, so I didn't want to detract from his thread. So, I'm going to ask […]
 

 

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