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Category: Versions

Updates to Always Encrypted since 2016

Published 2023-05-10 by Kevin Feasel

Aaron Bertrand notes some changes:

In 2015, during the SQL Server 2016 beta, I explored a new feature is this article, Always Encrypted. This feature finally allowed us to encrypt data at rest and on the wire, and I showed how beneficial this was and how much more secure your data could be. I also explained that, as a new feature, some limitations made it difficult to use and, sometimes, impossible to adopt.

Several major versions of SQL Server later, how has this feature evolved, and is it easier to use today?

Read on for the answer. Aaron also covers secure enclaves, a big topic for Always Encrypted users.

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CETAS in SQL Server 2022

Published 2023-05-04 by Kevin Feasel

Eric Rouach shows off a nice extension to T-SQL in SQL Server 2022:

Create External Table As Select or “CETAS” has finally become available on SQL Server with the release of the 2022 version.

After a short setup, we can create various formats files containing any query’s result set. The created file/s must be kept on an Azure storage solution i.e. Azure Blob Storage.

The process also creates an external table reflecting the updated file’s content.

We’ve been able to do this in Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated and serverless SQL pools for a while, so it’s good to be able to create an external table from a SELECT query on-premises, especially considering that it’s the only way we have left to write to external sources using PolyBase.

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Diffify Updates

Published 2023-05-03 by Kevin Feasel

Myles Mitchell celebrates a year of diffify:

We’ve just passed an important milestone for diffify: our app for tracking Python and R package releases has just turned 1 year old! To mark this exciting occasion we are delighted to announce an “anniversary update” featuring numerous quality of life improvements. This post will outline the latest changes and tease at some exciting developments in the works…

Check out these recent changes and a little bit of what’s on the horizon.

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A Post-Migration Go-Live Plan for SQL Server 2022

Published 2023-04-27 by Kevin Feasel

Brent Ozar takes it slow:

You’re planning to migrate to SQL Server 2022, and you want your databases to be faster after the migration.

This is NOT a blog post about how to migrate – that’s the same as it’s been for a long time. Go build the new 2022 servers, and use log shipping or database mirroring to sync the old and new servers. (I’m not a fan of using Distributed Availability Groups to do version upgrades. You can, but it is a heck of a lot of moving parts to set up for a one-time migration.)

This is a blog post about what to do after you migrate:

Click through for five steps and what they entail.

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In-Place Upgrades or New Builds?

Published 2023-04-13 by Kevin Feasel

Ben DeBow asks the tough questions:

An in-place upgrade involves upgrading the existing SQL Server to a newer version without creating a new instance. In other words, the new version of SQL Server is installed on the same server as the existing version, and the databases are upgraded to the new version.

On the other hand, a side-by-side upgrade involves creating a new instance of SQL Server and migrating the databases to the new instance. This approach requires more planning and preparation than an in-place upgrade but can be less risky.

Click through for the comparison. Historically, I’ve always been on Team New Build, though more recent versions of SQL Server do a better job of in-place upgrades, to the point where I’m fairly comfortable suggesting one to a client.

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Accelerated Database Recovery in SQL Server 2022

Published 2023-03-29 by Kevin Feasel

Perry Skountrianos takes us through some recent changes:

In SQL Server 2019 (15.x), the ADR cleanup process is single threaded within a SQL Server instance. Beginning with SQL Server 2022 (16.x), this process uses multi-threaded version cleanup (MTVC), that allows multiple databases under the same SQL Server instance to be cleaned in parallel.

MTVC is enabled by default in SQL Server 2022 and uses one thread per SQL instance.

Read on to see how you can change that, as well as additional product updates.

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.NET Framework Versions and ADO Pipeline Builds

Published 2023-03-28 by Kevin Feasel

Olivier Van Steenlandt runs into a versioning issue:

The error message I received during the build process in my Azure DevOps YAML Pipeline was :

##[error]C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\MSBuild\Current\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(1229,5): Error MSB3644: The reference assemblies for .NETFramework,Version=v4.5 were not found. To resolve this, install the Developer Pack (SDK/Targeting Pack) for this framework version or retarget your application. You can download .NET Framework Developer Packs at https://aka.ms/msbuild/developerpacks

I wasn’t sure how to solve this issue, and when I was using my on-premise Agent Pool, the Database Project was able to build successfully.

Click through for the solution

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SQL Server 2022 CU2 Released

Published 2023-03-16 by Kevin Feasel

Srinivas Kandibanda shares the news:

The 2nd cumulative update release for SQL Server 2022 RTM is now available for download at the Microsoft Downloads site. Please note that registration is no longer required to download Cumulative updates.

Click through for a link to get the latest CU, as well as a link leading to notes on what’s in it. One interesting PolyBase-related note is that SQL Server 2022 CU2 finally supports using TNS files when connecting to Oracle databases. That was the norm the last time I semi-seriously used Oracle (quite a while ago), but for PolyBase, you had to specify all connection details separately.

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February 2023 Updates for Azure Synapse Analytics

Published 2023-03-08 by Kevin Feasel

Ryan Majidimehr has a new round-up for us:

Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark 3.3 has been in Public Preview since November 2022. We are excited to announce that after notable improvements in performance and stability, Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark 3.3 now becomes Generally Available and ready for production workloads.   

The essential changes include features that come from upgrading Apache Spark to version 3.3.1, Delta Lake to version 2.2.0, and Python to 3.10. 

This month’s set of changes isn’t quite as big as some prior months, though there are a couple items of great importance to make up for it.

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