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Category: Administration

Limiting Jobs to the Primary Replica of an AG

Published 2024-07-08 by Kevin Feasel

Chad Callihan doesn’t want jobs running willy-nilly:

Transitioning from a failover cluster configuration to an Availability Group configuration brings with it all kinds of “fun” challenges. One such challenge that you may not have considered is the handling of jobs on whatever server is Primary, along with secondary servers. Let’s briefly discuss a potential challenge and an option to address it.

Click through for the example and a solution. Eitan Blumin has another solution in the comments, so check that one as well.

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Export Azure SQL DB to Blob Storage

Published 2024-07-03 by Kevin Feasel

Josephine Bush runs an import-export business and wants a database to “fall off a truck”:

After a data migration, we needed to decommission the old Azure SQL DBs, but we wanted to keep a copy in case we needed anything later. Enter exporting an Azure SQL DB to storage!

Click through for an example of how it works. Given that we’re getting bacpac files out, I wonder what it would look like with a really large database.

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Suspend and Resume Microsoft Fabric Capacity

Published 2024-07-03 by Kevin Feasel

Olivier Van Steenlandt saves some cash:

With only a limited budget for exploring and testing new tools, I had to figure out how to use my budget efficiently. Therefore, before making any decisions, I looked at the Microsoft Fabric pricing and possibilities.

If you want to take a look at the Microsoft Fabric pricing models, you can find an overview via the following link: Microsoft Fabric – Pricing | Microsoft Azure

To avoid any surprises and to be as cost-effective as possible, I created an easy Python script that I can use to pause and start my Microsoft Fabric capacity, or better said resume and suspend.

I highly recommend this for any organization that does not need 24/7 uptime for Fabric capacity. If you run your system 12 hours a day instead of 24, it takes your F64 capacity from $8k a month to $4k.

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Postgres Tuning Settings

Published 2024-07-03 by Kevin Feasel

Semab Tariq shares a few tips:

PostgreSQL is a widely used database known for its robust performance and reliability. To get the most out of PostgreSQL, tuning its parameters is crucial.

In this blog, we will explore the various PostgreSQL performance-related parameters and how to tune them effectively. By measuring Transactions Per Second (TPS) before and after tuning, and analyzing the results, we will demonstrate the significant impact of tuning on PostgreSQL performance.

Click through for some of the sorts of settings you might want to review. In Semab’s case, a simple server achieved nearly 30% better throughput after making these changes, so that’s not bad for the level of effort.

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Certificate Expiration Dates and TDE

Published 2024-06-27 by Kevin Feasel

Mike Lynn talks Transparent Data Encryption:

Transparent Data Encryption uses certificates in its architecture for protecting your data while at rest. One attribute of a certificate is they have an expiration date. Certificates expire for a couple reasons, but the main reason is to enforce security. When a website certificate expires it forces the website owners to get a new certificate by proving they are who they say they are with a trusted third party. 

SQL Server certificates that are used for TDE also have an expiration date, but these dates are only checked when you are creating a self-signed certificate using the “CREATE CERTIFICATE” T-SQL command. If you don’t supply an expiration date when creating your certificate SQL Server will assign one that is 1 year into the future.

Read on to learn more about how it works with TDE. I will say that with encrypting backups, SQL Server does care about the expiration date when it comes to creating a new encrypted backup, but not when it comes to restoring a backup.

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Failure Mode and Effect Analysis on Databases

Published 2024-06-27 by Kevin Feasel

Mika Sutinen thinks about how things could go wrong:

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis(FMEA) is a process of building more resilient systems, by identifying failure points in them. While it’s highly recommended to perform FMEA during the architecture design phase, it can be done at any time. More importantly, it should be reviewed periodically, and especially when the system architecture changes.

While you can do Failure Mode and Effect Analysis for whole systems, in this post, I will share an example on how to get started with FMEA for a database environment.

Read on for a description of the concept and some tips on how to perform one.

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Copying an Azure SQL Database

Published 2024-06-26 by Kevin Feasel

Josephine Bush makes a copy:

It’s as simple as this for each db you want a copy of. Just run it from the master db. This works if you want to make a copy on the same server. If you want to make a copy from another server, you would have to connect via PowerShell.

Click through for the T-SQL syntax. I’ve used this before on some reasonably large databases and it can take a while for that copy command to finish, but if you’re feeling impatient, you can check the status of the job using sys.dm_operation_status.

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xp_cmdshell and Security

Published 2024-06-26 by Kevin Feasel

Jeff Iannucci talks xp_cmdshell:

That most likely means the hacker in the incident gained access to SQL Server, and then used xp_cmdshell to open a Windows command shell. With that shell opened, they could then pass DOS and/or PowerShell commands to collect information and download malware onto the server.

It sounds dangerous. It is. But whether or not xp_cmdshell is enabled is irrelevant.

Exactly. This is something Sean McCown has harped upon for years, and I’ve done my best to follow. You can do bad things with xp_cmdshell, but disabling it doesn’t actually help for reasons Jeff mentions. Instead, assuming you need xp_cmdshell for some work, don’t go beyond the pre-set limitations (where a user needs sysadmin or CONTROL SERVER) and it’s fine.

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