Andy Leonard has a recording of his introductory session on BIML He also has a series of links and resources.
If you use Integration Services at all, ever, then you want to learn BIML. BIML:SSIS::Powershell:Administration.
Comments closedDay: November 24, 2015
Koen Verbeeck talks about the Reporting Services overhaul:
And these are all awesome changes. But sometimes it’s the little things that make me smile.
For example, I was toying with SSRS 2016 CTP3.0 and I wanted to insert a new chart. Suddenly I noticed they had updated the little chart icons in the dialog:
Here’s hoping the final product ends up being what we all wanted back in 2008; if so, that’d be pretty awesome.
Comments closedThere’s something quite odd about this session. It has no target! The data isn’t being written to memory in the ring buffer or to a file or even a counter.
So I did a little testing. I right clicked the session and selected ‘Watch Live Data’ to see if I could consume the data flowing through in SQL Server Management studio even though it didn’t have a target. And then I ran this in another session:
It looks like this extended event is designed to track serious error messages. I’m liking it and hope it sticks around in RTM.
Comments closedRichie Lee has a quick script to check which objects are compressed. Given that I ended up needing to use this script within a day of his posting it (hey, I’m as lazy as anybody else…), I figured it was worth linking.
Comments closedJan Mulkens has started an interesting series on data science using the Microsoft stack. His first post is an overview of the products currently available:
But on a more serious note, I’m going to be crude to Microsoft here.
A long time ago, Power BI started as an over-hyped and underwhelming experience. Everyone saw the potential this Excel stuff had but I’m guessing the experience most people had was similar to mine. That is, Power BI back then was a disappointment because of what we were expecting.
The one good thing it did have at one point was PowerPivot.Skip forward to august 2015.
The Power BI dream had suddenly come true!
Most of the things we were expecting in the past suddenly were there, in a web service AND a desktop application.
AMAZING!
From there, Mulkens shares a number of training materials:
Make Microsoft’s Virtual Academy your first or last stop when learning, but you should always pay it a visit!
It’s filled with incredible information broken down in some great free courses.It seems that (at least some of) the closed edX.org courses are being placed on here, so you can follow up on them at your own pace.
Do be aware that you can’t receive certificates on Microsoft Virtual Academy.
This is an exciting time to jump into analytics. Most of the material is free, and it’s easy to get VMs to practice, so the barrier to entry is low.
Comments closedWarner Chaves reminds us that SQL Server 2005 is within a few months of End Of Life:
As I sit here typing this blog post in my home, we are 145 days or more accurately about 3480 hours until April 12, 2016. That is the date when Extended Support for SQL Server 2005 will be done. Over. Dunzo. Kaput. Yes, Microsoft can do Custom Support Agreements for large companies but it will cost you and you still will be stuck without all the sweet features that have been released in the last 7 years (since 2008 came out). So let’s face, it’s time to upgrade SQL Server 2005!
Chaves gives two good options: either upgrade or move your database into Azure. The unfortunate thing is that there are industries (health care, I’m looking at you) whose vendors are so slow to support new versions that some servers will be stuck on 2005 or (ick) 2000 forever. I feel for you guys.
Comments closed