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Author: Kevin Feasel

Using PolyBase for Archiving Data

Published 2025-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Yun is speaking my language:

One of SQL Server 2022’s new features is something called Data Virtualization. It enables T-SQL to directly query files that reside in Azure object storage or S3-compatible object storage. In my opinion, since SQL Server 2022’s release, it’s one of those underrated capabilities that I think many have glossed over. But I strongly believe that it is insanely useful and you should take a few minutes to learn more!

Read on to learn more. Also, Andy mentions using S3-compatible local storage with PolyBase for local storage. As a spoiler, I have a video coming out on January 28th that covers exactly that same topic, though without the benefit of snappy all-flash storage arrays.

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Thoughts on Cloud Monitoring Solutions

Published 2025-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Mika Sutinen takes a look at built-in ways to monitor SQL Server databases in the three major cloud providers:

Monitoring SQL Server databases is one of the main responsibilities of DBAs, both in on-premises and on the public cloud platforms. Continuing from my previous post, where I reviewed the various options of SQL Server PaaS offerings from major hyperscalers, I’ll now focus on the monitoring solutions they provide.

While I always prefer commercial tools that come packed with features, it’s not the only way to go. Whether you’re using AWS, Azure, or GCP, each platform offers unique tools and features to help you keep an eye on your managed SQL Server database services.

Read on for information about what’s available in each.

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The Contents of a Database Page in SQL Server

Published 2025-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Simon Frazer takes a peek:

In SQL Server, data is stored in tables. Behind the scenes, however, these tables are divided into 8-kilobyte (8 KB) units called pages. Each page is 8,192 bytes in size, and this is a fixed value that cannot be changed.

Out of the 8,192 bytes, the first 96 bytes are reserved for the page header, which stores metadata about the page. This leaves 8,096 bytes for storing rows of data. However, a single row can only use up to 8,060 bytes, as 36 bytes are reserved for additional metadata, such as the slot array, versioning tags, and forwarded record pointers.

Read on for more information about the fundamental unit of storage in SQL Server.

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SQL Server 2019 and Row Mode Memory Grant Feedback

Published 2025-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Yvonne Vanslageren explains a solid feature in SQL Server 2019:

When SQL Server runs a query, it needs memory for operations like sorting and joining data. It also relies on memory during query compilation to hold intermediate plans while the Query Optimizer finds the best execution strategy. In parallel processing scenarios, the memory requirement grows even further.

SQL Server manages this by pre-allocating memory for each query through the SQL Server Operating System (SQLOS). This process ensures that no single query can monopolize the server’s memory.

Read on to learn more about memory grants, problems you can run into with memory grants, and one way SQL Server 2019 has improved to reduce the risk of bad memory grant estimates.

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Repairing a SQL Server Instance

Published 2025-01-22 by Kevin Feasel

Vlad Drumea fixes an installation problem:

I’ve needed to run the repair process in the following cases:

  • An instance or some of its components become corrupted or missing after OS patching.
    One of the most common examples I’ve ran into is SQL Server Configuration Manager being gone from the machine.
    Not to be confused with database corruption.
  • A failed or cancelled SQL Server instance upgrade or patching.
  • SQL Server failing to uninstall.
    From what I’ve seen, this tends to be a side-effect of the first scenario in this list going undetected.

Read on to see what you need to have and how to perform the task.

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Three Incremental Load Patterns with Azure Data Factory

Published 2025-01-22 by Kevin Feasel

Temidayo Omoniyi likes a good pattern:

This article is divided into three major sections—each showing the different abilities and use cases of performing incremental load with Azure Data Factory. This process can also be done in an Azure Synapse Pipeline and Fabric Pipeline.

The document contains the following:

Section 1: Copy Data Based on Last Modified Date or Latest File

Section 2: Incremental Copy Using Dataflow

Section 3: Incremental Copy Using Lookup and Stored Procedure Activities

Click through for each of these three patterns, with plenty of screenshots and step-by-step instructions.

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Using the OUTPUT Clause

Published 2025-01-22 by Kevin Feasel

Erik Darling has a new video. Erik mentions the best use case of this being for archival tables, but I’ll add one more: if you’re using a queue table (ignoring how good or bad of an idea this is), you have multiple processes operating on this queue table, and you want to reduce the likelihood of two processes picking up the same value, you can perform the equivalent of popping off of a queue: delete the first element(s) from the queue table and output it into a temp table. From there, you can operate on that data at your leisure, and the next process will grab some other batch of data. And if everything goes mildly wrong, re-insert that data back into the queue and let some other sucker try it. I’ve used this a few times for data warehousing processes and it works out pretty well.

The only thing I’m unsure about is how he figured out that I’m CommonTableExpressionLover11357.

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SSIS Deprecating Microsoft Connector for Oracle

Published 2025-01-22 by Kevin Feasel

Debbi Lyons has an announcement:

In July 2025, Microsoft will discontinue support for the Microsoft Connector for Oracle in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). This blog provides essential details to help customers prepare for this change in advance.

The Microsoft Connector for Oracle enables data export from and import into Oracle databases within an SSIS package. This feature, available in Enterprise editions of SQL Server 2019 and 2022, will remain functional for the lifecycle of the SQL Server product. However, support for this feature will officially end on July 4, 2025. With the deprecation, future product releases will provide no further bug fixes. Additionally, it will not be supported from SQL Server 2025 and onwards.

See, and people have told us there hasn’t been anything happening in SSIS since 2016!

The alternative of using ADO.NET reminds me of when Microsoft tried to take OLEDB out of Integration Services and got the pushback that no, we really don’t want to move from a fast component to a slow component. I would expect much less pushback on this one, simply because I doubt many people are using SSIS to ferry around data in Oracle.

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