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Author: Kevin Feasel

Lessons Learned from Azure Data Factory Integrating with DB/2 on Mainframe

Teo Lachev shares some thoughts:

I’ve done a few BI integration projects extracting data from ERPs running on IBM Db2. Most of the implementations would use a hybrid architecture where the ERP would be running on an on-prem mainframe while the data was loaded in Microsoft Azure. Here are a few tips if you’re facing this challenge:

Click through for five major points. Surprisingly, one of them isn’t “Avoid DB/2 like the plague.”

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Database Concurrency in Postgres

Mohan Saraswatipura explains how database concurrency works in Postgres:

Concurrency control is an essential aspect of database systems that deals with multiple concurrent transactions. PostgreSQL employs various techniques to ensure concurrent access to the database while maintaining data consistency using atomicity and isolation of ACID (stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID) properties.

The majority of the article focuses on Multi-Version Concurrency Control, which is also the concurrency option which would be least well-known to SQL Server users.

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SQL Server on Linux 2022 Available in Preview

Amit Khandelwal has an update on SQL Server on Linux:

We are glad to announce that SQL Server 2022 is now available in preview mode for both Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 and Ubuntu 22.04. For this preview, only Evaluation edition is available, which is limited to 180 days starting Thursday, July 27th, 2023. 

In your Dev/Test environments, you may now take advantage of the most recent SQL Server 2022 improvements on both RHEL 9 and Ubuntu 22.04. Currently, production workloads on RHEL 9 and Ubuntu 22.04 are not supported by the SQL Server 2022 preview packages. You can run the production workloads for SQL Server 2022 on RHEL 8 and Ubuntu 22.04 and they are fully supported. 

I’m going to wait until it’s actually available for real, not just in preview.

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Power BI and Eventual Browser Development

Chris Webb talks about the present and the future:

Turning the question around, however, leads you to some aspects of the question that haven’t been fully explored. Instead of asking “Can I run Power BI Desktop on my Mac?”, you can instead ask “Can I do all of my Power BI development using only a browser?”. At Microsoft our long-term goal is to make all Power BI development web-based, but how close are we to that goal?

Read on for Chris’s answer.

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Executing SQL Queries in Files against Postgres

Salman Ahmed automates query execution:

In PostgreSQL, there are several ways to execute queries, and one of them is by executing queries from SQL files. This approach allows users to manage and store their SQL queries separately and make debugging and development simpler. Using SQL files also helps in replication of database schemas. This blog discusses how to execute queries from SQL files in PostgreSQL.

Read on to see how you can use the psql command line tool to do just that.

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Diving into the Microsoft Fabric Copy Activity

Reza Rad does more than copies:

Copy Activity is one of the most commonly used activities in Microsoft Fabric’s Data Factory Pipeline. The Copy Activity copies the data from a source to a destination. However, there is more to that rather than just a simple copy. In this article, you will learn what Copy Activity is, its rationale, how it works, and its configuration options.

Reza has a video, as well as a demo-heavy full-length article on the topic.

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Managing Plot Parameters in R

Steven Sanderson switches up a visual:

When it comes to data visualization in R, the par() function is an indispensable tool that often goes overlooked. This function allows you to control various graphical parameters, unleashing a world of customization possibilities for your plots. In this blog post, we’ll demystify the par() function, break down its syntax, and provide you with hands-on examples to help you create stunning visualizations.

Click through to check it out. My loyalties definitely lie with ggplot2 for static visual development in R but it’s definitely not the only way to get images to look the way you want them.

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