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Category: Cloud

Bring-Your-Own-Key in Azure SQL Database

Published 2023-11-07 by Kevin Feasel

Rod Edwards shares some hard-earned guidance:

Some organisations are more strict on security than others. Thats just the way of the world, whether it be local policy, industry policy, paranoia or worryingly…just not considering it a priority.

This is why Microsoft have to offer BYOK, no, not the famous Icelandic singer from the 90’s and beyond either. I’m (very) tenuously referring to “Bring Your Own Key” which allows customers to let the encryption key to be handled by Microsoft for their encryption purposes, but create and use one of their own.

Read on to learn more about how it works, as well as a couple of important warnings you should keep in mind.

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Creating and Connecting to an Azure Postgres Cluster

Published 2023-11-06 by Kevin Feasel

Louis Davidson shares some notes:

As I have dealt with other platforms, PostgreSQL has stood out to me as the platform I am most interested in because it feels like the one that is most competitive with SQL Server’s platform (Oracle is out there too, as is MySQL, and many others, but PostgreSQL feels like the balance of affordability and features that it has a similar feel enough to get started.)

There are a few high-level differences that can be confusing. A cluster is really just a server (or in SQL Server, an instance). Second, the way you execute a batch of code is very different, and sometimes this is based on the tool you are using. As you dig into how PostgreSQL works, some things will feel really normal, and some stuff will be very different from the other servers you have used.

Read on for the first post in the series, covering setup and connection.

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Automated Alerts for Query Store Usage in Azure SQL DB

Published 2023-11-03 by Kevin Feasel

Jose Manuel Jurado Diaz doesn’t want to run out of disk space:

In this article, we will introduce a PowerShell script that helps monitor the usage of Query Data Store (QDS) in SQL Server databases. The script automatically sends an email alert when the storage space used by the Query Data Store reaches or exceeds 80% of its maximum allocated space. This can be particularly useful for database administrators to proactively manage and optimize their database storage.

Before we dive into the details, it’s essential to note that the script provided is a recommendation and should be adapted according to your specific environment and requirements. The responsibility of ensuring its compatibility and the impact on your system lies solely with the user.

Click through for the script. A quick glance of the code makes me think it will also work with on-premises SQL Server.

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Moving VMs and Disks between Azure Tenants

Published 2023-11-02 by Kevin Feasel

Dennes Torres makes a move:

Move objects on Azure is not simple. Move between Tenants is extremely difficult or not possible. I faced the challenge to move a virtual machine and disks between tenants recently and found the solution.

Some Years ago, I wrote an article about the Azure Resource Mover when it was still being created. Today the resource mover is integrated with the entire azure portal, although there are already many limitations in relation to moving resources. Anyway, this will not affect us on this blog post.

Click through for the step-by-step, as well as a few gotchas you might run into along the way.

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Transaction Isolation Level Changes in Azure SQL MI

Published 2023-10-31 by Kevin Feasel

Emre Gokoglu goes through a customer issue:

In this technical article, we will delve into an interesting case where a customer encountered problems related to isolation levels in Azure SQL Managed Instance. Isolation levels play a crucial role in managing the concurrency of database transactions and ensuring data consistency. We will start by explaining isolation levels and providing examples of their usage. Then, we will summarize and describe the customer’s problem in detail. Finally, we will go through the analysis of the issue.

This post describes an interesting difference between on-premises SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance in terms of how they handle wrapping multiple connections in a single transaction scope. It’s also the type of thing I would not have thought of when testing a cloud solution like Azure SQL MI or Azure SQL DB versus on-premises SQL Server.

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Loading Data from Sharepoint Lists into Microsoft Fabric

Published 2023-10-31 by Kevin Feasel

Stepan Resl loads some data:

In a time of Fabric, it’s worth pointing out our three options for data ingestion.

  • Data Pipelines with Copy Activity
  • Dataflows Gen 2
  • Notebooks

We must compare them to understand ​​what each can offer us from different perspectives. To be able to compare them thoroughly, there are some guardrails that we need to set so that everything goes the same way.

My biggest takeaway from this is, don’t load important business data into Sharepoint Lists to begin with.

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ApplicationContext Updates for Power BI

Published 2023-10-30 by Kevin Feasel

Chris Webb shares an update with us:

If you’re a fan of using Log Analytics for monitoring Power BI activity, then you may have noticed there’s some new data in the ApplicationContext column of the PowerBIDatasetsWorkspace table. Up until recently the ApplicationContext column only contained IDs that identify the report and the visual that generated a DAX query (something I blogged about here); it now contains additional information on the type of Power BI report that generated the query and an ID for the user session.

This is quite useful for seeing not just that people are using your Power BI services, but also who and what they are using to consume the information. Though do beware Chris’s warning about consumption method before you get too excited.

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Ensure Azure Backup Retention Periods via Azure Policy

Published 2023-10-30 by Kevin Feasel

Sabrin Alsahsah keeps backups around:

In this blog article, we will cover how to prevent and deny the automated backup retention days for Azure SQL database to be lower than X number of days.

We have received some service requests from customers that would like to ensure that they have for example 14 days as a retention period for their automated backup and would like to do this using a custom policy since they have multiple databases.

You can follow the steps below to create a custom policy and ensure this:

Click through for that process.

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Working with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure from Python

Published 2023-10-26 by Kevin Feasel

Brendan Tierney peruses an SDK:

Having set up your Oracle Cloud account and perhaps initiated some services, such as an Autonomous Database or an AI Service, you have some options with how you’ll interact with those services. The first is to use the online interfaces and tools for them. Another is to access these OCI services from your local PC or laptop. This latter method gives you greater flexibility for accessing these services, automating various tasks and building out some applications. This post will step through how to install the necessary Python library, how to configure for connecting to OCI and will demo some of the simpler APIs for accessing the OCI services. This will help you verify your connection is working correctly.

Click through for the details.

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