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Curated SQL Posts

SQL Server and File Access

Published 2025-01-27 by Kevin Feasel

Vlad Drumea troubleshoots an issue:

This is one of those things that’s obvious for anyone with a bit of SQL Server and Windows experience, but stumps a lot of newcomers.
Especially when it comes to students going through tasks like creating and restoring databases.

It’s also one of those things that I have to explain on a regular basis, so might as well have detailed explanation with examples I can direct people to in the future.

The latest example being this reddit post in r/SQL, where the wrongest answer has the highest upvotes.

Read on for a story about Operating system error 5 (Access is denied). And if I hear anybody switching the virtual service account running SQL Server to Local System, I will personally tell you it’s an awful idea and to stop it.

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Microsoft Fabric for the SMB

Published 2025-01-27 by Kevin Feasel

Eugene Meidinger looks out for the smaller fish in the pond:

If you are a small (or even medium) business, you may be wondering “What is Fabric and do we even need it?” If you are primarily on Power BI Pro licenses today, you may not find a compelling reason to switch to Fabric today, but the value add should improve over time as new features are added on the Fabric side and some features get deprecated on the Power BI side.

Read on for plenty of advice, metaphors, and even a few warnings.

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Building the Scaffolding of a Powershell Module

Published 2025-01-24 by Kevin Feasel

Adam Bertram has a series on creating Powershell modules:

In this guide, we’ll create a PowerShell module for gathering computer hardware information. This module will help system administrators collect and report on memory, storage, and processor details across multiple systems.

Our module will feature:

  • Functions to gather specific hardware information
  • Remote system support using PowerShell sessions
  • Standardized output format for consistent reporting

Click through for the article.

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The JSON Data Type in Azure SQL DB

Published 2025-01-24 by Kevin Feasel

Koen Verbeeck takes a peek at what’s coming in SQL Server 2025:

We have data coming into our database from a REST API endpoint. The data is formatted as JSON documents. Is there an efficient way to handle JSON data within the SQL Server ecosystem? In this article, we look at the new JSON data types for SQL Server.

The end result is not particularly clear-cut here: reads slightly faster, writes considerably slower. There aren’t any indexes on the data type at this time, so no opportunity for improvement there.

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Using PolyBase for Archiving Data

Published 2025-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Yun is speaking my language:

One of SQL Server 2022’s new features is something called Data Virtualization. It enables T-SQL to directly query files that reside in Azure object storage or S3-compatible object storage. In my opinion, since SQL Server 2022’s release, it’s one of those underrated capabilities that I think many have glossed over. But I strongly believe that it is insanely useful and you should take a few minutes to learn more!

Read on to learn more. Also, Andy mentions using S3-compatible local storage with PolyBase for local storage. As a spoiler, I have a video coming out on January 28th that covers exactly that same topic, though without the benefit of snappy all-flash storage arrays.

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Thoughts on Cloud Monitoring Solutions

Published 2025-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Mika Sutinen takes a look at built-in ways to monitor SQL Server databases in the three major cloud providers:

Monitoring SQL Server databases is one of the main responsibilities of DBAs, both in on-premises and on the public cloud platforms. Continuing from my previous post, where I reviewed the various options of SQL Server PaaS offerings from major hyperscalers, I’ll now focus on the monitoring solutions they provide.

While I always prefer commercial tools that come packed with features, it’s not the only way to go. Whether you’re using AWS, Azure, or GCP, each platform offers unique tools and features to help you keep an eye on your managed SQL Server database services.

Read on for information about what’s available in each.

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SQL Server 2019 and Row Mode Memory Grant Feedback

Published 2025-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Yvonne Vanslageren explains a solid feature in SQL Server 2019:

When SQL Server runs a query, it needs memory for operations like sorting and joining data. It also relies on memory during query compilation to hold intermediate plans while the Query Optimizer finds the best execution strategy. In parallel processing scenarios, the memory requirement grows even further.

SQL Server manages this by pre-allocating memory for each query through the SQL Server Operating System (SQLOS). This process ensures that no single query can monopolize the server’s memory.

Read on to learn more about memory grants, problems you can run into with memory grants, and one way SQL Server 2019 has improved to reduce the risk of bad memory grant estimates.

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