A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Introducing
azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against a local Azure SQL Database Developer container — the same engine as the cloud, running on your machine.The problem: proving a migration works shouldn’t require the cloud
The tool is AI-generated and it looks like the blog post is as well, but it does look to be useful.
Leave a CommentCarlos Robles and Vandana Mahtani make an announcement:
Big news: Azure SQL Developer is here, in private preview. It’s the Azure SQL Database engine, on your laptop, in a container. Build against the exact engine you run in the cloud. Ship the same code to Azure. Change one line, the connection string, and you’re in production. Free for local dev and CI. No subscription. No credit card. No catch. Run it yourself, or hand it to an AI agent and watch it go.
That’s pretty neat, especially because there is a surface area difference between Azure SQL Database and SQL Server.
Leave a CommentIn the on-prem world, or when we’re working with SQL Servers on VMs, wherever they might live it was pretty easy with dbatools to run a query against all the databases, collect some info and collate it into one record set. This used to work with Azure SQL Instances too – but Azure auth, or cloud auth in general is hard and recently the
Connect-DbaInstancecommand needed to change to make it more reliable.So, this is a quick post to cover how we can still manage this.
Click through to see how.
Leave a CommentGerhard Brueckl pushes boundaries:
Microsoft and Databricks recently announced the next step of their collaboration and integration. It is now possible to store Databricks Unity Catalog tables directly in Microsoft OneLake. Here are the official announcement from Microsoft: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Fabric-Updates-Blog/Extending-interoperability-Azure-Databricks-can-now-store-Unity/ba-p/5199741
Both parties have been working together to make this possible: Microsoft introduced the new item type
Azure Databricks Storageand Databricks added support for OneLake forUnity Catalog External Locations(which can then be used to store the actual data). TheUC External Locationwould then simply point to the storage endpoint provided by theAzure Databricks Storageitem in Microsoft Fabric.
Click through to see what Gerhard found, as well as the results of some experimentation.
Comments closedTaiob Ali wants to use Entra for authentication:
During the livestream of my session at the POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2026 conference, I received the following question on the hallway track via Discord:
I have one question : I added an Entra group as PostgreSQL Entra administrator, created/mapped the PostgreSQL role for that group, and granted permissions to that group. I am a member of the Entra group, but I still cannot log in with my own Entra user. Does Azure PostgreSQL allow group members to authenticate through the group role, or must each user also be individually created/mapped as a PostgreSQL role?
Read on for Taiob’s full answer.
Comments closedGarry Bargsley solves a problem:
Many routine administrative tasks that have traditionally been handled by SQL Agent still need to be performed:
- Scheduled stored procedures
- ETL processes
- Report generation
- Data cleanup
- Monitoring and alerting
- Business process automation
However, Azure SQL Database does not include SQL Agent.
Garry provides several solutions, and I would add to it third-party job scheduling solutions. Granted, that’s usually an extra expense (whether due to fees or supporting a roll-your-own solution), but it’s on the table. And some of them are better than what SQL Agent has to offer, even if I do like the fact that there’s an okay option built-in for DBAs.
Comments closedAndy Leonard shares some thoughts:
Right-sizing didn’t always work out the way some clients were led to believe it would.
In nearly every instance, the right-sizing argument was presented (sold) as the solution to over-provisioning, or purchasing hardware to serve peak loads. The classic example was a US income tax service that needed more and faster compute available to meet increasing demand starting in late January and peaking in mid-April each calendar year. After mid-April, hardware that was beefy enough to handle that peak load sat mostly idle for the next 9 months.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a company where this scenario really made sense. Even in the e-commerce company where a sizable fraction of our total annual revenues happened over a 5-day period, the load was still significant enough the rest of the year that we made good use of our on-premises SQL Server hardware.
Comments closedSam Debruyn looks at what lurks inside a Spark pool:
Microsoft Fabric has been out for a couple of years now. Have you ever wondered what is under the hood? There are lots of interesting things hiding in plain sight. Today, let’s take a look at Project Vegas, the intelligent caching layer for Spark in Synapse and Fabric.
Click through for the results of Sam’s dive.
Comments closedChad Callihan takes a look at a preview feature:
There isn’t one set way to manage indexes. Maybe you use Ola Hallengren scripts. Maybe it’s something you put together yourself. Either way, there might be a big shift coming for SQL Server database administrators and how index management is handled.
Last month, Microsoft announced Automatic Index Compaction, which is in preview for Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Database in Fabric. Instead of utilizing something like Ola Hallengren scripts or your own homegrown setup to monitor and rebuild indexes, the database engine will continuously run in the background and handle indexes for you, hence the “automatic” in the name.
Read on to see how it works, as well as a note around page density and index fragmentation. But Jeff Moden makes a good point in the comments, so check that out.
Comments closedKoen Verbeeck answers some questions:
Is Microsoft Fabric replacing Azure Data Factory?
Officially, no. Or maybe not yet. At the time of writing, ADF still remains a separate product but it’s noticeable that more new features are added to Fabric than to ADF. There are still many customers using ADF, so Microsoft might keep the service around for a while. There’s also still a bit of a feature gap between the two services, but this becomes more narrower each month. Microsoft is offering migration scenarios from ADF to Fabric.
I picked this question because of how much the concept annoys me. There are three separate Data Factory code bases in Azure with overlapping but not matching functionality (which is how you can tell it’s multiple code bases and not just one code base reskinned). This can lead to a scenario where Person A says, “Oh, do this thing in Data Factory.” Person B then says, “But I can’t do that in Data Factory.” Person A’s response: “Oh, that’s weird, because I can do it in Data Factory.” This leads to necessary but somewhat absurd clarifications around how you need to use Microsoft Fabric Data Factory, not Azure Data Factory because, even though Microsoft Fabric Data Factory is hosted in Azure, it’s a different product.
And don’t get me started on the wide variety of KQL platforms, all of which are subtly different.
Comments closed