A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Mauricio Vargas S. shows correlation:
spuriouscorrelations package started as a fun project for one of my tutorials.
Here is a case of an interesting correlation: the number of people who drowned by falling into a pool and the number of films Nicholas Cage appeared in.
Click through for examples and how to use the package. If you’re interested in more of these, Tyler Vigen’s website has plenty, and he even wrote a book. H/T R-Bloggers.
Leave a CommentSemab Tariq takes us through a problem:
Backfilling data into a TimescaleDB hypertable in production can be very tricky, especially when automated processes like compression policies are involved. From past experience, we have seen that if backfill operations aren’t handled properly, they can interfere with these automated tasks, sometimes causing them to stop working altogether.
This blog covers a safer and more reliable approach to backfilling hypertables, along with best practices to prevent disruptions to compression and other background processes.
Read on for several tips. Backfills can be challenging in any database, but time-scale databases like TimescaleDB introduce their own unique issues.
Leave a CommentChris Webb runs some performance tests:
If you have a Power BI report with a matrix visual on it it’s quite likely that you’ll want all the levels in the matrix to be fully expanded by default. But did you know that the way you expand all the levels could have performance implications, especially if you’re using DirectQuery mode? Here’s an example.
Click through to see what options are available to you and their performance implications.
Leave a CommentJosephine Bush doesn’t want to do things one at a time:
I was sick of changing context in Azure Data Studio while cleaning up things discovered in our vulnerability assessments.
Read on to see how you can do this, but also see the complexity involved.
Leave a CommentKevin Hill shares some thoughts:
Here’s the truth: if you’re doing this daily on indexes smaller than 10,000 pages, you might be chewing up CPU, bloating your logs, and annoying your users for zero gain.
Let’s fix that.
I disagree with Kevin on index reorganization, in that I would never perform index reorgs—there’s no there there. Even so, I firmly agree with the thrust of Kevin’s argument and believe that, in the majority of cases, companies with DBAs (or people who have stumbled through maintenance plans before) are maintaining indexes too much rather than not enough.
Leave a CommentElena Drakulevska explains that you can’t succeed without both:
There’s this UX law called the Aesthetic-Usability Effect. And it basically says:
People will lean more toward better-looking products—even if they’re not the best-performing ones.
Sounds wild, right? But it’s true. A gorgeous report might win hearts even if a more useful, but less attractive one, is sitting in the corner gathering dust.
And honestly? I agree… to a point.
Read on to see when it falls apart and why you can’t focus solely on one or the other. Utility curves are convex, after all.
Leave a CommentBen Johnston looks at the art of the possible:
In my last post I described issues that might stop your migration to a SQL Server Managed Instance (SQL MI). This covers configuration items that differ or are not supported in SQL MI. These likely won’t stop your migration, but they could slow you down if you aren’t ready for these changes.
As with previous issues discussed, testing your migration is key. Validate all of your settings and be prepared to make some changes during your migration process. Most of the incompatible options make sense when you think about the purpose of SQL MI – it is controlled by Microsoft. Hardware settings, local file access, high-availability settings, and auditing are configured differently or completely disabled.
Click through to see what you can and cannot do when it comes to configuration.
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