Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Administration

Methods to Export Azure SQL Database

Published 2022-02-22 by Kevin Feasel

Abhishek Shaha and Ahmed Mahmoud enumerate techniques to export an Azure SQL Database:

Export Azure SQL Database is a common request for Azure SQL DB customers, in this article we are going to list down some advanced scenarios, on how this can be achievable through various tools not limited to Azure Portal, Azure CLI and PowerShell. In addition, this article will provide alternative methods when it comes to private endpoints and deny public access.

Click through for several options.

Comments closed

SQL Server’s Central Management Server

Published 2022-02-22 by Kevin Feasel

Lee Markup builds a SQL Server inventory:

Today, we will be looking at using T-SQL and a Central Management Server to create a SQL Server inventory. Let’s say that you’re  new at this company or in this role and all you have right now is the list of SQL Servers that people know about. you haven’t been able to run the MAP Toolkit or maybe you’ve been told that you can’t run it for some reason. the list of SQL Servers that people “just know about” probably isn’t anywhere near complete, but you have to start somewhere.

These things are a life-saver, especially once you have more than a couple of instances to worry about.

Comments closed

Server Variables with Azure DB for MySQL

Published 2022-02-14 by Kevin Feasel

Arun Sirpal shows how to see and set server variables in Azure’s MySQL offering:

If you have used MySQL before you will know about the system server variables, you know such commands as SHOW VARIABLES; You can access most of them via the Azure portal or connect to MySQL and issues the commands you come to know about.

Let’s see a quick example.

Click through for that quick example, including one minor difference from standard MySQL implementations.

Comments closed

Troubleshooting Networking Issues with SNITrace

Published 2022-02-11 by Kevin Feasel

Bob Dorr digs into SNITrace:

For my specific issue I was attempting to debug why the SQLDriverConnectW errored with TCP 10054 because it was failing the pre-login handshake.  For that I first needed to understand and capture the flow of the handshake activities and this is where SNITrace is helpful.

Read on to see what it does and how it works, as well as some nice Wireshark screen shots.

Comments closed

Postgres Backup and Restore

Published 2022-02-10 by Kevin Feasel

Grant Fritchey is learning about PostgreSQL:

One of the first things I worry about when I’m looking at a new system is the status of the backups. I don’t see anything in PostgreSQL that will lead me to a different conclusion. However, I didn’t realize just how big a can of worms I would open by pursuing backups and restores.

Instead of talking immediately about backups, let’s talk about restores.

This is a bit different from what we’re used to in SQL Server, so definitely check it out if you are looking at Postgres development or administration.

Comments closed

Finding Locking Chains in SQL Server

Published 2022-02-10 by Kevin Feasel

David Fowler is looking for lead blockers:

By far the most common cause for poor performance that I see is blocking. Unless you’ve got some monitoring in place it’s near impossible to identify the cause of any historical blocking incidents. Luckily, if you’re doing as I do and running the First Responder Kit regularly into tables, you will have a history of running statements thanks to sp_BlitzWho. That data will contain the SPIDs of any blocking processes.

Now, if you’ve ever had to look at that data and tried to figure out what the blocking chain is then you’ll know that it can be a total headache.

But David has a solution to find those fullbacks and pulling guards.

Comments closed

Data Compression and Caching

Published 2022-02-08 by Kevin Feasel

Paul Randal answers a question about caching of compressed values in SQL Server:

In the previous Curious Case post, I explained how to monitor how well page compression is working. That prompted a reader to ask me how to monitor the hit rate of lookups in the cache of decompressed column values. She was very surprised by my answer…

Read on for Paul’s answer. I’d say that even with the information Paul discloses, I don’t think I’ve ever seen page compression be a bad idea in any system I’ve worked with. There are specific tables in which it’s a bad idea but never have I seen a situation in which I could not use page compression at all due to a performance impact.

Comments closed

Querying Stats Data with a DMF

Published 2022-02-08 by Kevin Feasel

Grant Fritchey wants queryable data:

We’ve always been able to look at statistics with DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS. You can even tell SHOW_STATISTICS to only give you the properties, STAT_HEADER, or histogram, HISTOGRAM. However, it’s always come back in a format that you can’t easily consume in T-SQL. From SQL Server 2012 to everything else, you can simply query sys.dm_db_stats_properties to get that same header information, but in a consumable fashion.

Read on for a quick post showing a couple of things you can do with the DMF.

Comments closed

Restoring PostgreSQL Backups in Azure

Published 2022-02-04 by Kevin Feasel

Grant Fritchey tests a restore plan:

I recently wrote an article about PostgreSQL restores (and by extension, backups) over on Simple-Talk. The restore process within PostgreSQL, without 3rd party involvement, can be a little tricky. However, when you are using a Platform as a Service offering, like Azure Database for PostgreSQL, things get quite a bit easier. Let’s explore this just a little.

Read the whole thing if you’re thinking about PostgreSQL or Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

Comments closed