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Category: Tools

Building a Test Data Generator for PostgreSQL

Published 2024-09-11 by Kevin Feasel

Mika Sutinen builds some data:

I recently had a project where I needed quickly to generate some realistic looking test data to PostgreSQL database. While I often like to go for ready-made solutions, this felt like a good opportunity to stretch my coding muscles and develop it myself. Moreover, this seemed like a fun puzzle to solve, and I could probably use the same solution later on elsewhere.

Click through for a description of the generator, as well as a link to Mika’s GitHub repo. Taking a quick peek at it, it does appear that you could probably use this for other data platforms like SQL Server with very limited modification.

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mssql-tools 18 and Two Common Errors

Published 2024-09-10 by Kevin Feasel

Vlad Drumea covers a pair of errors you might run into with mssql-tools version 18:

In this post I cover the 0A000086 and “command not found” errors that you might encounter with the new version of SQL Server command-line tools, namely sqlcmd and bcp, for Linux.

While the latest version of SQL Server command-line tools, based on Microsoft ODBC 18, brings improvements, it also brings some gotchas that can break your automations.

Read on to learn more about each.

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Missing Columns in the Extended Events Live Data Explorer

Published 2024-09-04 by Kevin Feasel

Grant Fritchey explains a UI oddity:

Let me be extremely clear up front, this is not my original work. I saw this post on DBA.StackExchange.com and I wanted to share and promote it. Nice work FevziKartal.

The rest of this post is just me replicating work already done by others. I just want to see it in action.

Read on for the example and what happens when you don’t have any events in the live data explorer.

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Tips for Bringing a Streamlit App into Production

Published 2024-08-28 by Kevin Feasel

I have wrapped up another series:

In this video, I discuss some of the things you should consider as you transition a Streamlit application from development to production. We will cover four methods of bringing a Streamlit app to production and some thoughts on performance optimization.

This one doesn’t have much in the way of demos, but I do spend a lot of time at the virtual whiteboard, so it’s got that going for it.

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pg_dump and the Backup Tool Debate

Published 2024-08-26 by Kevin Feasel

Gulcin Yildirim Jelinek explains the debate around whether pg_dump is a backup tool or not:

Recently, while writing about the vulnerability affecting pg_dump, the topic of decommissioning pg_dump came up on Twitter. Unlike the nostalgic feelings many had for Pluto, there was less reluctance to see pg_dump reclassified. In fact, some people were eager to retire it as a backup utility, and I even got a bit of pushback for still referring to pg_dump as one

I was talking to my colleague Simona the other day, and she mentioned that everybody in Postgres circles says, “pg_dump is not a backup tool,” but perhaps it’s not always explained well why it is not.

Read on for that explanation.

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Checking SQL Server Backup Status with sp_CheckBackup

Published 2024-08-19 by Kevin Feasel

Jeff Iannucci announces a new tool:

Whether you are backing up your SQL Server databases with Ola Hallengren’s scripts, Maintenance Plans, or some third-party software, your backups are your lifeline for recovering your data in case of a disaster.

So…are your databases recoverable? Do you know WHERE your most recent backups were written? Do you know WHEN they were written? Did you verify the backups for recoverability? Have you backed up any encryption certificates associated with your backups?

And if you think know the answers to these questions…are you sure? And can you confirm your Recovery Point Objective (RPO)?

Read on to learn more about the procedure and grab a copy from the GitHub repo.

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Direct Query of Flat Files in Postgres via file_fdw

Published 2024-08-14 by Kevin Feasel

Semab Tariq uses a Postgres extension:

The file_fdw (Foreign Data Wrapper) is a PostgreSQL extension that lets you access data stored in flat files, like CSV files, as if they were regular tables in your PostgreSQL database. This is useful for integrating external data sources without needing to import the data directly into your database.

file_fdw is a contrib module, meaning it’s an additional feature included with PostgreSQL but not part of its core functionality. Contrib modules provide extra capabilities and enhancements beyond the core database system.

At first, I was going to write that the mechanism looks a lot like PolyBase in SQL Server. But in actuality, it’s more like a hybrid of PolyBase and OPENROWSET, as there’s no definition of external data sources or file formats, but there is the creation of an external (“foreign”) table.

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SSMS Layout and Tips

Published 2024-08-05 by Kevin Feasel

Tom Zika talks about SQL Server Management Studio:

I’d like to pin my Object Explorer and Registered Servers to the right and set them to auto-hide for these reasons:

  • I spend most of my time in the Query window and I like that it’s left-aligned
  • I have to resize the Object Explorer based on the level of nesting or length of the object name, sql jobs, etc
  • The Solution Explorer in Visual Studio is also on the right side

Read on for quite a few tips. Tom has a good tip regarding tabs and I’d bring up a separate tool for consideration: Tabs Studio. I paid for a license of it out of my own pocket when I was a database engineer and absolutely loved the control it gave me over displaying SSMS tabs, including having literally dozens of them on the screen at once.

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Execution Plan Analysis in Postgres with StatsViaExplainAnalyze

Published 2024-08-02 by Kevin Feasel

Deepak Mahto shares a tool with us:

Tuning SQL is an integral part of most developer’s or DBA’s primary responsibilities. Understanding and dissecting problematic execution plans are critical steps in the overall tuning process.

One key ingredient of SQL performance tuning, along with the runtime plan, is object statistics. Looking only at the execution plan is often insufficient for making solid recommendations; we need a fair understanding of current object statistics.As the saying goes,

Behind every optimized SQL query lies a deep understanding of the underlying object stats.

Click through to see examples of the StatsViaExplainAnalyze tool and how you can get a copy of it from GitHub.

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Building a Series of T-SQL Statements via Regular Expression

Published 2024-08-01 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Levy now has two problems:

Earlier this year, I embarked on a bit of a project to tidy up the indexes in a sizeable database. This database has over 900 tables, and there are quite a few indexes which I have long suspected don’t need to exist for a variety of reasons. Some indexes are redundant, others don’t get used, still others could be combined into a single index. By reducing the number of indexes, we can improve write performance in the database, and the size of the database itself. But we have to do it carefully.

Read on for an example of how you can use a regular expression to take text in one form (DatabaseName.SchemaName.IndexName, for example) and convert it into a T-SQL script.

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