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Day: September 9, 2025

Automating SQL Server Deployments via dbatools

Published 2025-09-09 by Kevin Feasel

David Seis digs into scripted SQL Server installation:

In this and the next two blog posts I will be bringing diverse dbatools commands into scripts that can handle a complete deployment, do a checkup of major health and configuration metrics, and do a true up of a pre-existing instance. This post will cover the complete deployment, which if you have been reading the audit series will be much more than just the SQL install of last post. This time we are aiming for the whole thing. Install, update, configure host, configure SQL, Deploy maintenance. Everything  I can think of!!

Clicking next-next-next one or two times for SQL Server installation is fine—it gives you an idea of what capabilities are available and what you need to know about. By the time you’ve installed SQL Server 5-10 times, you should familiarize yourself with the configuration files (especially because they get auto-generated for you after you use the GUI—SQL Server itself uses these to install!), and should be looking for ways to automate this process and avoid misclicks or wasting time that you could otherwise be using by reading Curated SQL.

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No More Default Semantic Models in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2025-09-09 by Kevin Feasel

Nicky van Vroenhoven has good news for us:

Another quick post, because today is an important day for everyone working with Fabric and Power BI!

Last month, Microsoft announced they are Sunsetting Default Semantic Models: Yaay! 
Today marks that day: No more automatic child semantic models!

The idea of having a default semantic model seemed like a good one, but the problem was that too many environments had very specific needs that a default semantic model couldn’t anticipate or address. As a result, these tended to confuse end users more than save them time.

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RIP Phil Factor

Published 2025-09-09 by Kevin Feasel

Tony Davis has some sad news:

We are deeply saddened to share the news that Andrew Clarke, better known to Simple-Talk readers as Phil Factor, recently passed away. He was the site’s editor for several years and continued writing for Redgate long after. Many readers will have learned much of what they know about SQL from Andrew. Others will remember working with him on articles, benefiting from his sharp wit and knowledge, or perhaps meeting him at a PASS conference. To all who knew him, he was a uniquely talented, intelligent, kind, generous, and funny man.

I don’t think I ever met Andrew in person, but I loved his Phil Factor articles. I appreciated all of the work he would put into his testbenches, as well as the irreverent humor he’d sprinkle through. I think my favorite article he ever wrote was this one on the entity-attribute-value anti-pattern in T-SQL and how its siren-like allure drags wave after wave of developers to their doom.

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Installing SQL Server 2025 RC0 on an Azure VM

Published 2025-09-09 by Kevin Feasel

Koen Verbeeck performs an installation:

I already had a virtual machine in Azure, running SQL Server 2025 CTP 2.0 (which uses a pre-made image). I explain how to set that one up in the article Install SQL Server 2025 Demo Environment in Azure. But I wanted to use the latest preview, which is Release Candidate 0 at the time of writing. Unfortunately, there’s no image available (yet?), so I had to do it the old-school way: installing SQL Server manually.

Read on to see how to do it, as well as a few extra things necessary to make everything work well in Azure.

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