A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Arun Sirpal shows how to connect your Databricks cluster to Power BI:
A very common approach is to query data straight from Databricks via Power BI. For this you need Databricks token and the JDBC address URL. This is found within Account settings of the cluster.
Read on to see how to get this token and how to connect to Databricks using it.
Comments closedArun Sirpal shows us how to build an Azure Function:
The title is a mouthful and so is this post. In the past I have linked to blog posts from Microsoft that say consistency checks for Azure SQL Database is the responsibility of Microsoft. (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/data-integrity-in-azure-sql-database/)
However, Paul Randal got me thinking about his thoughts on it (via his insider email). Forming the core of this post. If you desire to run DBCC CHECKDB against Azure SQL Database (which I know people do) – how can you do this? There are many ways, but for this blog post – Enter Azure functions. There are many moving parts to this, but once setup and coded it is a very satisfying experience. Let’s dig in. I am NOT going to copy and paste every little element of the high-level guide from Microsoft, there is no point in that but I will show you the links that you need to setup the relevant function app project then the tailored bits around CHECKDB forms the bulk of this post.
This isn’t necessary to do, but if you want to learn how Azure Functions work, it’s a good example of working through the mechanics.
Comments closedArun Sirpal takes us through one method for improving performance in Azure SQL Database:
One of the main benefits of configuring active geo-replication for Azure SQL Database is leveraging the read-only endpoint, a good technique to split away read only activity from OLTP based workloads. This means that there is no reason why you cannot point users to these databases via tools such as Power BI as highlighted below.
But there are some things to keep in mind, as Arun points out.
Comments closedArun Sirpal asks and answers a question:
Question, can you take a built-in backup ( a backup that Microsoft takes as part of the service) and create a new database from it on a NEW server in a different region?
Let’s find out.
Yes, let us.
Comments closedArun Sirpal takes us through the process of moving data from Databricks into Azure SQL Database:
Recently I got to a stage where I leveraged Databricks to the best of my ability to join couple of CSV files together, play around some aggregations and then output it back to a different mount point ( based on Azure Storage) as a parquet file, I decided that I actually wanted to move this data into Azure SQL DB, which you may want to do one day.
This isn’t just dropping files into Blob Storage and picking them up, but rather a direct integration.
Comments closedArun Sirpal shows us how to handle scaling events in Azure SQL Database:
For some reason I have friends / colleagues telling me that when scaling (up and down for this example) that no downtime occurs. Well, not only does Microsoft documentation say differently, I will show it. So let’s test it out. Before the practical test, this is the official stance. “There is a switch over period where connectivity is lost to the database for a short amount of time, which can be mitigated using retry logic”.
Retry logic is an important part of any application. We tend to forget about it with on-prem applications talking to on-prem databases, but that’s a mistake.
Comments closedArun Sirpal takes us through a few things administrators tend to miss in Azure SQL Database:
2. Allow Azure Services and resources to access this server setting set to on/off?
I always set this to off. I do not like it ON.
Why? Because I like to control things via vnets (maybe IPs if really needed – it depends on your solution). Nowadays you can use private endpoint connections which allow connections from within a vnet to a private IP. Sure, you may want to use IP addresses, if you do then I suggest database level firewall rules over server level, especially if you use failover groups.
There are several good ones here.
Comments closedArun Sirpal shows how we can get execution plans from Azure SQL Database:
Yes you can still get execution plans for Azure SQL Database, you cannot get this from the Azure Portal so it is good to know for your tuning days. It is based on the same code you have probably run many times before. Lets get the plan handle and work through an example.
Click through for the example.
Comments closedArun Sirpal takes us through restoration of a database from a URL:
I think many have covered how you should backup your SQL Server database to Azure storage (also known as backup to URL) but what about restoring? Lets assume you have setup backups and they are working, this is what I usually do.
It’s very similar to restoration of databases from disk, so nothing too crazy.
Comments closedArun Sirpal looks at three techniques for backing up SQL Server running on Azure virtual machines:
In the previous blog post I did a quick overview building a SQL VM (imaged) in Azure. It is now time to clarify some backup techniques because it can get confusing.
At a high level there are 3 techniques.
– Automated backup.
– Azure backup for SQL VM (that’s what MS call it).
– Manual backup, for example backup to URL.
Read on to learn more about each.
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