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. These headlines are gathered throughout the week and are posted in real time at the website. Check there for information throughout the week or enjoy this weekly summary of the SQL Server world. Virtualization and ContainersRunning a SQL Server Azure Container Instance in a virtual network - Up until now Azure Container Instances only had one option to allow us to connect. That was assigning a public IP address that was directly exposed to the internet. Not really great as exposing SQL Server on port 1433 to the internet is generally a bad ......(more) Vendors/3rd Party ProductsSpotting Unauthorized Configuration Settings in SQL Server - An attacker of SQL Server likes to be able to change the SQL Server configuration settings. In an ideal world, you will have left everything open for the intruder, but generally, every DBA reduces the surface of attack as much as possible. In this article, Phil Factor explain how to detect any changes in server or database configuration settings, using Extended Events, and a custom metric, in SQL Monitor....(more) T-SQLWhich is faster? IN (list) or IN (SELECT FROM Temp) - If you’ve done much with IN (list) then you’ve realized that it basically translates out to col=val1 OR col=val2 OR .... You’ve probably also realized that you can throw all the values into a temp table and do this SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE col ......(more) Reader solutions to Special Islands challenge - Last month I covered a Special Islands challenge. The task was to identify periods of activity for each service ID, tolerating a gap of up to an input number of seconds (@allowedgap). The caveat was that the solution had to be pre-2012 compatible, so ......(more) Database Fundamentals #19: JOINS - The last Database Fundamentals post introduced the SELECT and FROM commands. We’re going to start using JOIN operations shortly, but first, let’s explore the idea behind joins. The very concept of relational storage that is the foundation of SQL Server ......(more) ToolsCreating Wait stats widget on Azure Data Studio for macOS - A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft released a new multi-platform tool called Azure Data Studio, this tool is the final version of SQL Operations Studio. If you are familiar to SQLOps, you probably recall that this tool 100% open source, and because of ......(more) The Lighter SideTurbulence, the oldest unsolved problem in physics - Enlarge / "Please prepare the cabin for technical discussions of physics..." Werner Heisenberg won the 1932 Nobel Prize for helping to found the field of quantum mechanics and developing foundational ideas like the Copenhagen interpretation and the ......(more) Wind power makes the ground warmer even as it cools the planet - Enlarge (credit: Germanborrillo) The solution to climate change is, at least conceptually, simple. Activities that add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere—chiefly the use of fossil fuels—need to be changed or eliminated. Of course, not every alternative ......(more) Melinda Gates Urges Tech Firms to Do More to Help the World's Poor - Gates’ remarks come at a time when online giants are under increased social and political pressure to do more to counter income disparity between top executives and rank-and-file workers. ...(more) Tech NewsWhen Linux Founder Linus Torvalds Leaves, Pandemonium Breaks Loose - When Linux founder Linus Torvalds temporarily stepped down from the helm, there was suddenly trouble. ...(more) DOJ Taking On State of California Over Net Neutrality - DAILY VIDEO: The DOJ's suit against California deepens the net neutrality quagmire, and Xilinx puts FPGAs into accelerator cards for data centers. ...(more) Ceph-Based Storage Holds Efficiency Promise - Fujitsu's Ceph-based storage technology aims to reduce bottlenecks that can occur when storage systems become overwhelmed and servers can’t keep up. ...(more) Data Intelligence, Data Governance, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution - Klaus Schwab, founder of World Economic Forum, and author of the book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, said that there is no historical precedent for the speed of current technological breakthroughs, and that the Fourth Revolution is evolving at an ......(more) SQL Server SecuritySQL SERVER – How to Change Authentication Mode Using T-SQL Query - One of my clients asked an interesting question. It took a while for me to figure out the answer so sharing with my blog readers. In this blog, we would learn how to change authentication mode of SQL Server using T-SQL query instead of SQL Server Management ......(more) Calculating a Security Principal’s Complete Effective Rights - In my blog Calculating a Security Principal’s Effective Rights. I built a view, named Utilty.EffectiveSecurity that you could query to fetch a security principal’s rights to objects in a database. In that blog I tested the code and showed how it works. ...(more) SQL Server on LinuxHow to Linux for SQL Server DBAs — Part 2 - SQL Server DBAs are typically quite familiar with security and best practices in Windows but may not understand how security works in Linux. In this article, Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman demonstrates how to manage user accounts in Linux and why working while logged in as root is a bad idea....(more) SQL Server NewsAnnouncing Updates to the Modern Servicing Model for SQL Server - On September 28, 2017 we announced the Modern Servicing Model for SQL Server. In that announcement, we made reference to two changes in SQL Server 2017 servicing: SQL Server 2017 Cumulative Updates (CU) will be released monthly for the 1st year, and ......(more) SQL Server InternalsNative UTF-8 Support in SQL Server 2019: Savior or False Prophet? - (last updated: 2018-10-02 @ 14:20 EDT / 2018-10-02 @ 18:20 UTC ) For some time now, many of us have struggled with data that is mostly standard US-English / ASCII characters but also needs to allow for the occasional non-ASCII character. VARCHAR is typically ......(more) Software DevelopmentSystem flexibility - One of the absolutely most challenging things in designing software systems is that there is really no such thing is a perfect world. A business requirement that is set in stone turns out to be quite malleable. That can cause quite a big hassle for the ......(more) The Project Graveyard - This post is a response to this month’s T-SQL Tuesday #107 prompt by Jeff Mlakar. T-SQL Tuesday is a way for the SQL Server community to share ideas about different database and professional topics every month. This month’s Halloween themed topic ......(more) T-SQL Tuesday #107: Death March - This month’s T-SQL Tuesday invitation is to write about a project that went horribly wrong. And hoo-boy, do I have a project that comes to mind. My biggest project was my biggest failure The biggest project I ever worked on, that I ever led, was also ......(more) Security news and thoughtsSecurity Vulnerabilities in US Weapons Systems - The US Government Accounting Office just published a new report: "Weapons Systems Cyber Security: DOD Just Beginning to Grapple with Scale of Vulnerabilities" (summary here). The upshot won't be a surprise to any of my regular readers: they're vulnerable. ...(more) How Ashley Madison Recovered From Its Massive Data Breach - At SecTor, the CISO of Ruby Life, the parent company of breached infidelity website Ashley Madison, details the steps the company has taken to improve security. ...(more) How to Enable Developers to Build Secure Software - Vulnerabilities are often rooted in coding errors, but there are multiple things that both security professionals and developers can and should do to improve software development practices. ...(more) Google+ shutting down after data leak affecting 500,000 users - Google exposed the private details of almost 500,000 Google+ users and then opted not to report the lapse, in part out of concern disclosure would trigger regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage, The Wall ......(more) Intel’s New Core and Xeon W-3175X Processors: Spectre and Meltdown Security Update - Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities made quite a splash earlier this year forcing makers of hardware and software to release updates in order to tackle them. There are several ways to fix the issues, including software, firmware, and hardware updates. ...(more) U.S. Agency Backs Tech Firms Denying China Hacked Their Systems - The Department of Homeland Security said it has no reason to question denials by U.S. technology companies of a report that Chinese spies had used a microchip to hack into American computer networks. ...(more) R LanguageThe Economist's Big Mac Index is calculated with R - The Economist's Big Mac Index (also described on Wikipedia if you're not a subscriber) was created (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) as a measure to compare the purchasing power of money in different countries. Since Big Macs are available just about everywhere ......(more) neuralnet: Train and Test Neural Networks Using R - CategoriesAdvanced ModelingTagsData VisualisationNeural NetworksPredictionA neural network is a computational system that creates predictions based on existing data. Let us train and test a neural network using the neuralnet library in R. How To Construct ......(more) Working with panel data in R: Fixed vs. Random Effects (plm) - Working with panel data in R: Fixed vs. Random EffectsCategoriesAdvanced ModelingTagsLinear RegressionLogistic RegressionVideo TutorialsPanel data, along with cross-sectional and time series data, are the main data types that we encounter when working ......(more) First steps of data exploration and visualization with Tidyverse - CategoriesIntroductionTagsData VisualisationtidyverseTips & TricksIn this post, I will show you, how to use visualization and transformation for exploring your data in R. I will use several functions that come with Tidyverse package. In general, there ......(more) First release and update dates of R Packages statistics - R has been around long time and the packages have evolved through the years as well. From the initial releases, updates, to new packages. Like many open-source and community driven languages, R is not an exception. And getting the first release dates ......(more) Product Upgrades and ReleasesPython in Visual Studio Code – September 2018 Release - We are pleased to announce that the September 2018 release of the Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is now available. You can download the Python extension from the marketplace, or install it directly from the extension gallery in Visual Studio ......(more) SSMS 18.0 public preview released - We are very excited to announce the public preview of SQL Server Management Studio 18.0. SSMS has been ported to the VS 2017 Isolated Shell, which brings with it many improvements to look and feel and accessibility. This release expands platform support ......(more) Gravitational Launches Teleport 3.0 to Deliver Privileged Access Management - A new press release reports, “Gravitational, the company that delivers compliance solutions for cloud-native applications and infrastructure, today announced Kubernetes support with version 3.0 of its its popular open source privileged access management ......(more) Product Reviews and ArticlesHave your say on the future of data masking - Back in 2017 Redgate acquired Net2000, a leading provider of data masking solutions for SQL Server databases. Since then, we’ve invested heavily in the data masking tools to ensure our customers can balance the need to deliver software faster with the ......(more) SQL Prompt as a Layout Tool: A Survival Guide - Here is some SQL code to reveal the highest-performing salespeople at AdventureWorks and listing their managers. SELECT SalesValue, COALESCE(SalesPerson.Title+' ', '')+SalesPerson.FirstName +COALESCE(' '+SalesPerson.MiddleName, '')+' '+SalesPerson.LastName ......(more) Checking for Database Drift using Extended Events and SQL Monitor - You need to make sure that nobody makes unauthorized changes to the metadata of your production databases. Governance and testing processes during the deployment pipeline are there to ensure that any proposed database changes aren’t going to open any ......(more) SQL Change Automation, Visual Studio, and the “Unknown SQL Server Platform” error - I recently set up Redgate’s SQL Change Automation in Visual Studio 2017, and I ran into a confusing error when I started trying to use it. For any other folks out there searching on “Unknown SQL Server Platform,” here’s how I got past it. Spoiler: Visual ......(more) PowerShellgetting started with powershell - Now that you’ve convinced your security team that PowerShell improves your security posture, it’s time to learn PowerShell if you haven’t already. Month of Lunches Hands down, the one book most people recommend for learning PowerShell is Learn Windows ......(more) Checking Trace Flags with dbachecks, online docs and PSPowerHour - It’s been a few weeks since i have blogged as I have been busy with a lot of other things. One of which is preparing for my SQL Pass Summit pre-con which has lead to me improving the CI/CD for dbachecks by adding auto-creation of online documentation, ......(more) PowerPivot/PowerQuery/PowerBIMashup Engine Query Monitor for Power BI Refresh - In this video, Patrick introduces the Mashup Engine Query Monitor for Power BI Refresh. This is the MEQM! A report that can be useful to see SQL Server queries that Power BI issues during refresh. MEQM Files - https://github.com/guyinacube/demo-files/tree/master/video%20demos/MEQM The ......(more) Simple Steps to Embed Images in Power BI - Recently, a member of our team ran into a client request that posed a bit of a challenge. The client wanted to display employee pictures in Power BI reports using images saved in a database. But the image data was stored using a varbinary (max) data ......(more) how to embed a PowerBI report into HTML code - PowerBI is a powerful reporting solution for Business Intelligence for analytical reports, it is not meant to replace SSRS, the focus of this tool is to be able to visualize data interactively from different data sources in a collaborative way.On this ......(more) Power BI Custom Visuals Class (Module 118 – Stacked Bar Chart by Akvelon) - In this module you will learn how to use the Stacked Bar Chart by Akvelon. This version of the Stacked Bar Chart sets itself apart because of the selection rectangle that allows you to highlight specific regions of the chart to filter other parts of ......(more) #SQLChefs: Power BI Datasets, Reports and Dashboards - This week we’ve got another episode of SQLChefs with Bert Wagner, where we talk about the different between datasets, reports and dashboards in Power BI. What are datasets? A Power BI Dataset is a series of Power Query queries that have been shaped ......(more) Monitor and Manage Power BI Premium Capacity - In this video, Adam Saxton sits down with Josh Caplan to discuss how to monitor and manage Power BI Premium capacity. This includes looking at the Power BI Capacity Metrics App that has a dashboard and report for your capacity metrics. They also discuss ......(more) Polybase/HDInsightAnalytics in HDInsight - Azure HDInsight is an open-source analytics and cloud base service. Azure HDInsight is easy, fast, and cost-effective for processing the massive amounts of data. There are many different use case scenarios for HDInsight such as extract, transform, and ......(more) Performance Tuning SQL ServerIndex Tuning Week: Missed Missing Index Opportunities - A Reminder With a new baby in the house, I often find myself comparing her to various things. Barnacles. Ham. Pugs. No, I swear, I love her. SQL Server Has A Baby, Too That baby is the optimizer, and when it starts crying, it uses missing index requests ......(more) Resource Governor MAXDOP Setting Can Lead to Poor Plan Choices - Resource Governor can be used to enforce a hard cap on query MAXDOP, unlike the sp_configure setting. However, query plan compilation does not take such a MAXDOP limit into account. As a result, limiting MAXDOP through Resource Governor can lead to unexpected ......(more) Index Tuning Week: Fixing Nonaligned Indexes On Partitioned Tables - Unquam Oblite This post will not change your life, but it will help me remember something. When you decide to partition a table to take advantage of data management features, because IT IS NOT A PERFORMANCE FEATURE, or you have an existing partitioned ......(more) What to do (or not do) about top wait stats - One of the most common terms to come up in discussions about SQL Server performance tuning is wait stats. This goes back a long way, even before this 2006 Microsoft document, "SQL Server 2005 Waits and Queues." Waits are absolutely not everything, and ......(more) Batch Mode – part 2 (“Batch Mode on Rowstore in Basics”) - This blog post is a part of the whole Batch Mode series, which can be found at the Nikoport Batch Mode page. With the initial public CTP release of the SQL Server 2019 – the CTP 2.0 we have finally received the feature that I was asking for the last ......(more) SQL Server Management Studio 18’s Execution Plans Will Change The Way You Look At Plan Tuning - The preview of the next version of SQL Server Management Studio is out, and it has a radical improvement to query plans that will shock and amaze you. It’s best to just show you: Estimated vs actual rows You can see the estimated and actual number of ......(more) Index Tuning Week: How Many Indexes Are Too Many? - This week I’m running a series of posts introducing the fundamentals of index tuning. First up, let’s talk about understanding how many indexes make sense on a table. The more nonclustered indexes you have on a table, the slower your inserts and deletes ......(more) Index Tuning Week: My D.E.A.T.H. Method for Tuning Indexes - This week I’m running a series of posts introducing the fundamentals of index tuning. Yesterday, I used Brent’s 5 and 5 Rule to explain why you want to aim for around 5 indexes per table, and 5 columns (or less) per index. Now, how do we get from our ......(more) Adaptive Joins and Join Hints - At a recent all-day seminar on query performance tuning I was asked a question that I didn’t know the answer to: “How do join hints affect adaptive joins?” I don’t know. Let’s find out together. Adaptive Joins Here’s a query that we can run against AdventureWorks: ......(more) Microsoft NewsData-deletion bug forces Microsoft to suspend rollout of Windows 10 update - Enlarge / This message, shown during Windows upgrades, is going to be salt in the wound. (credit: MS Windows) Earlier this week, Microsoft started distributing the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, version 1809, to Windows users who manually checked for ......(more) Microsoft Boasts of a Security Win Ahead of Pentagon Cloud Bids - Microsoft’s announcement comes just four days before tech companies submit bids for the Defense Department’s cloud contract, which is widely seen to favor Amazon. ...(more) MDX/DAXQuick DAX – Word count - Here is a technique you might consider if you need to split text down to individual words. This could be used to help count, rank or otherwise aggregate the words in some longer text. The approach detailed here uses spaces as a delimiter and will not ......(more) Displaying Nth Element in DAX - This article describes how to create a measure displaying the name or value of an element that has a specific ranking, with different option for managing ties. The visual filters of Power BI visuals allow the definition of filters to display the top ......(more) A Function To Generate The M Code For A Table Type - This is going to sound obscure, and it is, but recently I’ve been using the #table() intrinsic function in M a lot – specifically the version that takes a table type as its first parameter (as I describe here) – and because it’s a bit of a pain to have ......(more) Hardware NewsIntel goes up to 8 cores for mainstream chips, with a 28 core overclockable Xeon - Enlarge / Intel 9th generation Coffee Lake-S series 8-core die. (credit: Intel) NEW YORK—Intel unveiled a range of new processors aimed at the performance-desktop segment today. For the mainstream market, there are three new K-series overclockable chips ......(more) HP Announces The Spectre Folio: Leather Laptop - This morning at an event in NYC, HP revealed the HP Spectre Folio, which is a very unique take on the laptop, thanks to its all leather exterior. Featuring 100-percent chromed tan, full-grain leather, the Spectre Folio is going to be an even more luxurious ......(more) Microsoft Refreshes Surface Lineup - In addition to the Windows 10 October 2018 update being launched, Microsoft also refreshed the majority of its Surface lineup today. This was very much an evolutionary update, and one that was sorely needed for some of their products, but with today’s ......(more) MyDigitalSSD Pocket Vault Express (PVX) Thunderbolt 3 1TB SSD Capsule Review - The emergence of NVMe SSDs in the compact M.2 form-factor, along with the increasing popularity of Thunderbolt 3, has enabled a new class of portable high-performance flash storage devices. Within this product category, we have the premium range using ......(more) Graph DatabasesPublic Preview of Graph Edge Constraints on SQL Server 2019 - SQL Server 2017 and Azure SQL Database introduced native graph database capabilities used to model many-to-many relationships. The first implementation of SQL Graph introduced support for nodes to represent entities, edges to represent relationships ......(more) ETL/SSIS/ELTTaking the Time and Pain Out of Data Preparation: 10 Reasons to Automate Data Preparation/Data Mapping - Data governance and a strong IT infrastructure are critical in the valuation, creation, storage, use, archival and deletion of data. Beyond the simple ability to know where the data came from and whether or not it can be trusted, there is an element of statutory reporting and compliance that often requires a knowledge of how that same data (known or unknown, governed or not) has changed over time....(more) CCI – Data Loading considerations with Partitioned Tables and CCI - Introduction In this blog post, I would like to describe two case scenarios of bulk loading data, using SSIS, into a partitioned table that has a clustered columnstore index (CCI). Let’s test the following two case scenarios: Bulk loading data from ......(more) DevOps and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)How do DevOps and SRE relate? Hint: They're best friends - Dave Rensin explains why DevOps and SRE make each other better.Continue reading How do DevOps and SRE relate? Hint: They're best friends. ...(more) CALMS and how it relates to Database DevOps - CALMS is the acronym for a framework which allows businesses to assess how prepared they are on their journey to DevOps, and where they can improve. CAMS (without the L) was first introduced by Damon Edwards and John Willis after the very first US-based ......(more) Four tools to help implement Database Continuous Delivery - “We don’t want to know that it’s broken, just that it’s working.” “We want our database to always be available.” These are the types of comments we hear from business leaders all the time. And, we agree. You have a business to run, customers to serve ......(more) Data ScienceLife is dirty. So is your data. Get used to it. - The internet provides everyone the ability to access data at any time, for any need. Unfortunately, it does not help guarantee that the data is valid, or clean. In the past year I have earned certifications in three areas: Data Science, Big Data, and ......(more) The Data Scientist of the Future: What Will They be Doing? - As data continues to rise in volume and variety, and businesses grow more data-centric, the decision-making power of advanced algorithms is now openly welcome in enterprises of all sizes. Now, the average business user is not affected even if a knowledgeable ......(more) Data Privacy, Complianace, and GDPRMicrosoft Chief Backs Federal Privacy Law Over State Efforts - Microsoft Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella says his company supports national privacy legislation, adding the voice of the world’s largest software maker to the chorus of tech giants seeking federal action over state-by-state efforts. ...(more) The Road to Becoming GDPR Compliant Leads to Long-term Success - Click to learn more about author Daniel Mintz. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data has to be controlled, secured and deleteable or anonymized. This means that all businesses housing large volumes of data are faced with a dilemma: ......(more) The Effects of GDPR's 72-Hour Notification Rule - The EU's GDPR regulation requires companies to report a breach within 72 hours. Alex Stamos, former Facebook CISO now at Stanford University, points out how this can be a problem: Interesting impact of the GDPR 72-hour deadline: companies announcing ......(more) Conferences, Classes, and EventsVeterans At PASS Summit ’18 - Hello all! This year at PASS Summit, I will be distributing the below ribbons once again to ANY and ALL Service Members(past or present). I started this last year at PASS Summit and handed out quite a few ribbons. I hope to hand out more this year! I ......(more) Spring 2019 classes in Chicago open for registration - I’ve just released our first set of 2019 classes for registration! We’ll be adding new classes in Chicago over the coming weeks, including a new class on PowerBI and an expanded IEAzure. All classes have discounts for registering before the end of 2018! (details ......(more) A few upcoming R conferences - Here are some conferences focused on R taking place in the next few months: Oct 26: Nor'eastR Conference (Providence, RI). A one-day R conference, organized by grassroots R community members in the Northeastern US. Oct 27: SatRdays Belgrade (Serbia). ...(more) LGBTQ Meetup at PASS Summit 2018 - In 2016, I organized an (unofficial) PASS Summit LGBT Meetup. It was a bit of a last-minute party, and more than once I found myself saying, “Worst case scenario, I’ll end up having a chill cocktail party with some friends.” Turns out, I under estimated ......(more) Enter The Tidyverse: Full-Day R Training In Charlotte - I am giving a full-day R training on Friday, October 19th in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tickets are still available for this training event. Here’s the abstract: DESCRIPTION SQL Saturday Charlotte and the Charlotte BI Group are pleased to offer this ......(more) Computing in the Cloud (Azure, Google , AWS)Azure Virtual Machine – You Must Change Your Password Before Logging On The First Time - One fine day when I tried connecting to my Azure Virtual Machine in a cloud, I was welcomed with this error message. Tip: If you press Ctrl + C on the message window, it will copy text on the clipboard and if you paste, it comes like below. Neat and ......(more) What is Azure Automation? - So, what do you know about Azure Automation? In this post, I’ll fill you in on this cool, cloud-based automation service that provides you the ability to configure process automation, update management and system configuration, which is managed across ......(more) Azure Data Relational Services - Today I’d like to talk about the Azure Relational Data Services Platform. This is an important foundational component for many things that are being built on Azure Platform as a Service related to databases. One of the key PaaS offerings when Microsoft ......(more) Career GrowthMicrosoft Ignite 2018 Links to Training - I recently attended, presented, worked and did interviews at the Microsoft Ignite 2018 Conference in Orlando. If you have never been, you should go sometime. 30,000 people, 2.1 million square feet of space, and ten+ miles of walking per day. And the ......(more) Interviewing for your first tech job – slides - I was lucky to get an opportunity to present a session to some college students at Seminole State College in Florida last week. I was in town for SQL Saturday Orlando– a fantastic event on its own. The organizers run a simultaneous seminar for students ......(more) Azure SQL Managed InstanceAnalysing inventory of Managed Instances using T-SQL - Sometime you would need to know how many Managed Instance you have created in Azure cloud. Although you can find all information about the Azure SQL Managed Instances in Azure portal or API (ARM, PowerShell, Azure CLI), sometime it is hard to list all ......(more) Azure SQL DatabaseAuto-Scaling Azure SQL DB - When I was presenting my Azure SQL Database session at DataRelay (used to be SQLRelay) I was asked (over coffee) about auto scaling capabilities. Quite simply there is nothing out of the box to achieve this. The idea of auto … Continue reading ? ...(more) Testing Failover for Azure SQL Database - It is always a good idea to test your failover processes when you have setup failover groups in Azure. I have the following setup: One SQL Server in West Europe being my primary called milkchoc and my secondary server in … Continue reading ? ...(more) Giant Azure SQL Databases - Okay it is not really called Giant Azure SQL Database but its close. There is a new public preview vCore service tier called Hyperscale. The architecture behind this is very different to that of a Standard tier SQL database (as … Continue reading ? ...(more) Azure CosmosDBAzure Cosmos DB Free Trial – walk through of Gremlin API for Graph - After the 2018 Microsoft Ignite event, Microsoft announced a free trial of Azure Cosmos DB. For those who are eager to check out Cosmos DB, this is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with the hottest No SQL database in the market. Cosmos DB ......(more) AI/Machine Learning/Cognitive ServicesHow Enterprises Can Help Build Ethical AI Strategies - We’re now confronted with a global need to make best of use of all this new, more intelligent IT; specifically, how to educate our communities on how to apply guard rails that will ensure the use of AI as both ethical and beneficial to all. ...(more) What we learn from AI's biases - Our bad AI could be the best tool we have for understanding how to be better people.In "How to Make a Racist AI Without Really Trying," Robyn Speer shows how to build a simple sentiment analysis system, using standard, well-known sources for word embeddings ......(more) Administration of SQL ServerEnd of support for SQL Server 2008 & 2008 R2 - If you are running SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2, what does July 9th, 2019 mean for you? With both of these versions of SQL Server reaching the end of their support lifecycle together, you will no longer be able to get critical security updates. ...(more) SQL SERVER – Unable to Launch SQL Server Configuration Manager. Error: Cannot Connect to WMI Provider. [0x80070422] - While playing with my virtual machine, I encountered an interesting error. In this blog we would learn how to fix error cannot connect to WMI provider [0x80070422] while launching SQL Server Configuration Manager. As I have been writing in my earlier ......(more) SQL SERVER – SQL Server Management Studio Crash While Using Backup to URL or Connecting to Storage - Recently, as a part of my on-demand consulting, I was helping a client who was into a disaster situation and there was an urgent need to restore the backup of a database which was taken in Azure Blob Storage. In this blog, we will learn about how to ......(more) Starting SSMS with a specific connection and script file - Have you ever wanted SSMS to start and automatically and establish a connection to your DBA \ hub server and have your daily routine queries already open ready to run? Good news, that is totally possible. SSMS actually uses the SSMS.exe in the background ......(more) Know How to Import SQL Server database From One to Another - Looking to import SQL Server database from one server to another ? Confused how to copy from one to another or which process method to use? Here we will learn how to import data from one SQL Server database to another. First let us understand what options ......(more) Failed In-Place Upgrade – Missing Backup Directory - I was recently performing an in-place upgrade of SQL 2008 R2 to SQL 2014 on one of my client’s servers. I have done a ton of successful and uneventful in-place upgrades and was surprised when the upgrade failed with the error message: “Failed to create ......(more) Managing the SQL Server Estate - Back in 2012, I was transitioning into the role of ‘Director of Data Services’, at the Fortune 500 insurance organization where I worked. It wasn’t that easy. Previously, as a DBA, I’d spent time developing my own database monitoring and documentation ......(more) |