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Day: November 12, 2015

SQL Server 2016 IFI

Published 2015-11-12 by Kevin Feasel

Nic Cain has an outstanding blog post on enabling Instant File Initialization in SQL Server 2016, specifically wondering what happens when group policy explicitly prohibits setting Perform Volume Maintenance Tasks privileges:

Much to my surprise the virtual SQL account showed up in the PVMT secpol setting. I had no idea how it got there. Reviewing the setting I was able to confirm that the account I used for install was not able to make any adjustments and yet somehow the permissions were set.

I’m happy to hear why I’m wrong, but I’d consider this a reasonable instance of privilege escalation:  I may not want the DBA to be able to perform volume maintenance tasks on just any server, but I do want him to do it on SQL Server instances.

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Stop Using Datetime(?)

Published 2015-11-12 by Kevin Feasel

Kenneth Fisher says to stop using datetime and start using date, time, and datetime2(x):

Why is everyone still using the DateTime datatype exclusively?

Back in SQL 2008 we gained a whole new range of date/time datatypes. Isn’t it about time we started to use them?

In my experience, most of the issue is supporting legacy app code which chokes on these types.  You’d think people would have updated that .NET 2.0 code, but not always.

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Why Virtualize?

Published 2015-11-12 by Kevin Feasel

David Klee answers why you might still want to virtualize a single-instance SQL Server which resides on a single host:

That’s a wonderful question, and I get asked this all the time.

I can justify the desire for virtualization in the scenario you described. There are a number of reasons to consider virtualization given those constraints.

Virtualize everything, as Klee suggests.  The worst case is that administration gets slightly more complex, but the advantages are worth it.

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