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Author: Kevin Feasel

Evaluating Power Query Programmatically in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2026-03-03 by Kevin Feasel

Mihir Wagle announces a new preview capability:

Power Query has long been at the center of data preparation across Microsoft products—from Excel and Power BI to Dataflows and Fabric. We’re introducing a major evolution: the ability to execute Power Query programmatically through a public API.

This capability turns Power Query into a programmable data transformation engine that can be invoked on demand through a REST API from notebooks, pipelines, and applications. Whether you’re orchestrating data pipelines, building custom data apps, or integrating Power Query into larger workflows, this API unlocks new flexibility and automation.

Click through for an overview of what’s available.

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Updates for sp_Check Tooling

Published 2026-03-03 by Kevin Feasel

Jeff Iannucci announces some updates:

It’s been a while since we have updated some of these tools, so we have reviewed a lot of outstanding issues. We’ve also been working on pending enhancements, and now have updates for each of the tools. Moreover, there are more updates on the way soon, as we are planning for a more frequent cadence of updates.

Also, I’ll let you in on a little secret: there are more sp_Check tools on the way. We have a few additional stored procedures we have been testing internally that should be ready for public release in the coming months. We’re really excited not just for the new tools, but also for the future feature updates to the current tools.

Click through for a list of tool updates and the GitHub repo where you can find them all.

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The Power of Naming Standards

Published 2026-03-03 by Kevin Feasel

Louis Davidson covers naming standards:

I am starting a new, huge project soon, using some different tools than I have used before. So the first thing we need to do in this project is to come up with new standards for these new tools, right? No.

Understanding the overall scope and desired results, requirements are first, then a high-level design and architecture plan including what tools one expects to use.

Standards however, are something that you should be in place before you start creating stuff.

I like naming standards a lot. I like them so much, I have a half-dozen of them and use them all at once.

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Excessive Crash Dumps in Power BI Report Server January 2026

Published 2026-03-03 by Kevin Feasel

Deepthi Goguri troubleshoots an issue:

I first updated the lower environments and then prod, but since most of the reports were used only in production, I didn’t see the issue coming. So, the issue with this release was that crash dump files were generated in the logfiles (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\LogFiles).

It’s bad enough that we who need to use Power BI Report Server are always at the end of the line when it comes to functionality, but this is adding insult to injury.

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A Primer on Microsoft Fabric Deployment Pipelines

Published 2026-03-03 by Kevin Feasel

Hamish Watson asks a question:

In the realm of software development and content creation, the deployment pipeline serves as a crucial bridge between innovation and implementation. Whether you are fine-tuning code, testing new features, or releasing a polished product to end-users, the deployment pipeline guides your content through distinct stages, each playing a vital role in ensuring a smooth and efficient journey from development to production.

Read on for a high-level overview of deployment pipeline structure and methods.

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SQL Server 2025 Installation on a Disk with Large Sector Size

Published 2026-03-02 by Kevin Feasel

Reitse Eskens runs into a problem:

This warning felt benign; more like you can run into errors. Well, as I found out, this lets you run into an SQL Server installation that just fails.

The error logs fill up with stack dumps and a fatal error that makes no sense. The installation log, however, shows you a more meaningful error.

Click through for the error message, as well as one way to fix the problem.

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Kerberos Error: It’s Always SPNs

Published 2026-03-02 by Kevin Feasel

Mike Lynn shares a story:

We were setting up a brand-new SQL Server 2022 instance and couldn’t connect remotely using valid Windows credentials. Every attempt gave us the same error: “Login is from an untrusted domain and cannot be used with Windows authentication.” The client only has one domain. Permissions and firewalls checked out. Local connections with domain accounts worked fine. So why was the server rejecting us from every remote machine, no matter how we connected? The answer turned out to be a change in Windows Server 2025 that more and more DBAs are going to run into.

My advice for every DBA is as follows: make sure you have at least a rudimentary understanding of SPNs, including what they are, what can go wrong when they aren’t set correctly, what “set correctly” even means, and how to set them. You don’t need to be an expert on Kerberos, but I think you do need to be a technician who can note a specific error code and troubleshoot the issue from there.

If you ever had to deal with SSRS or SSIS double-hop issues, you’ve likely already dealt with SPNs in some fashion. Just bite the bullet and spend a few hours boning up on the topic.

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Backup Updates in SQL Server 2025

Published 2026-03-02 by Kevin Feasel

AK Gonzalez summaries some changes:

For years, database professionals faced a frustrating limitation. With Availability Groups, you could offload some workloads to secondary replicas—but not your real backup strategy.Yes, you could run copy-only backups on a secondary. But true full backups? Differential backups that maintain the LSN chain? Those had to run on the primary replica, until now. SQL Server 2025 introduces the ability to run true full backups and true differential backups on secondary replicas.

Read on to see what this means. AK also looks at the change to ZSTD for backup compression and immutable backups in Azure Storage.

One thing I would want to warn anybody (or any company) looking into using immutable storage for backups is, Microsoft’s not joking about that immutability. That includes deleting them when you see what the bill is going to be. You can set retention polices to delete these automatically, but that’s the only way you’re getting rid of those old backups. And just because they’re old doesn’t mean you get charged less for the privilege of storing them off-site.

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