Press "Enter" to skip to content

Curated SQL Posts

Notes on DBATools’s Get-DecryptedObject

Published 2023-01-26 by Kevin Feasel

Sean Gallardy explains an issue:

Let me start off by saying that DBATools is a great tool that is immensely helpful to the community, if you haven’t heard about it or tried it, please give it a shot! I personally believe that the SQL Server community is truly the best out there, with so many people helping each other and developing great, free, tools that benefit all. Having said that, I’ve been asked quite a few times to look into a “SQL Server Bug” decrypting data.

This is not an issue with SQL Server nor is it a bug/feature/whatever. It is, in fact, a bug in the source material for DBATools.

Read the whole thing.

Comments closed

Azure Data Studio 1.41 Now Available

Published 2023-01-26 by Kevin Feasel

Erin Stellato has a bundle of updates for us:

The query results window got a fair bit of attention this release as we work through the backlog of open issues. First, we introduced a new configuration option to show or hide the action bar in the query results view. The Query Editor > Results: Show Action Bar option can be found in the command palette (CTRL + , ) if you type Show Action Bar. By default, the action bar is shown in the query results pane, as seen in the screenshot below:

Check out the full set of changes in the article.

Comments closed

App-Consistent and Crash-Consistent Snapshots in SQL Server

Published 2023-01-26 by Kevin Feasel

Andrew Pruski talks snapshots:

When we talk about snapshots of SQL Server there are two types, application consistent snapshots and crash consistent snapshots.

Application consistent snapshots require freezing IO on a database allowing for a checkpoint to be performed in order to write all dirty pages to disk.

In the past, application consistent snapshots relied on the third party software to call the SQL Writer service but now with SQL Server 2022 T-SQL snapshot backups we have the ability to use T-SQL commands to freeze IO on a database in order for us to take an application consistent snapshot of the database.

Read on for more detail on the topic. With SQL Server 2022, I’ve softened a bit on using snapshots for data retention—prior to that, I was not a fan of the idea.

Comments closed

Tools for the DBA Jumpbox

Published 2023-01-25 by Kevin Feasel

Tracy Boggiano has a script:

I wrote a blog post a few months ago about the tools I use on my jumpbox you can read here.  Since then, I have automated most of the install with Chocately and so I’ll have the script later I’m going to blog it here.  First, we need to install Chocately on the jumpbox by opening PowerShell as the adminstrator.

Read on to see how to do that, the installation of a slew of tools via Chocolatey, and then several Powershell modules.

Comments closed

PostgreSQL Sans Superuser in v16

Published 2023-01-25 by Kevin Feasel

Robert Haas doesn’t wear a cape:

As I’ve written about before, a PostgreSQL superuser always has the ability to take over the operating system account in which PostgreSQL is running, but sometimes you’d like to have a role that can administer the database but not break out of it. In existing releases, there’s no good way to accomplish that. You can either make a new role so weak that it can’t perform ordinary administration tasks, or you can make it so strong that it can easily break into the operating system account and thus take over the superuser role as well. Unless you hack the source code, which some people have done, there’s no real way to set up an account that has enough power to usefully administer the database in meaningful ways but yet not enough power to take over everything. I’ve committed a number of patches to v16 to try to improve the situation, and I think that we can look forward to big improvements in this area once it is released.

Read on for some of the implications of this change.

Comments closed

Dashboard Sharing in Power BI

Published 2023-01-25 by Kevin Feasel

Reza Rad takes us through one form of data sharing in Power BI:

Power BI provides multiple ways of sharing content with users. Each sharing method has pros and cons and can be used for specific scenarios. Some sharing methods can be used together to build a framework for sharing. This article and video discuss the most basic way to share Power BI content. This method is called Dashboard (or Report) Sharing. Dashboard sharing is the easiest way of sharing; however, it may not always be the best way. In this article and video, you’ll learn how this method works, you will learn about the pros and cons of this method, and the scenarios of using it.

Click through for a video and article.

Comments closed

CI/CD for the Synapse Serverless SQL Pool

Published 2023-01-25 by Kevin Feasel

Kevin Chant has some links for us:

Last week the January 2023 video of the Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft MVP series was released. Where I covered how to do CI/CD for dedicated SQL Pools in Azure Synapse Analytics.

Since the release of that video the most popular question raised has been how to perform CI/CD for serverless SQL Pools within Azure Synapse Analytics?

Read on for links galore.

Comments closed

Unpivoting a Multi-Field Matrix in Power BI

Published 2023-01-25 by Kevin Feasel

Meagan Longoria gets out of a tricky situation:

I had to do this for a client the other day, and I realized I hadn’t blogged about it. Let’s say you need to include data in a Power BI model, but the only source of the data is a matrix that is output from another system. And that matrix has multiple fields populating the columns. An example of this is below. The matrix has fiscal year and product category on columns, vertical on rows, and the profit metric populating the values.

Read on for a step-by-step guide on how to do this.

Comments closed

A Free Training Offer for the Recently Laid Off

Published 2023-01-25 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Leonard has an offer for free training:

My LinkedIn and social media feeds are filled with contacts and friends sharing their availability for a new career opportunity. While some are more gracious than concerned and others more concerned than gracious, it’s normal to be both concerned and gracious. Well, it was normal for me when it happened to me. If you haven’t been laid off before, I hope you never learn what that feels like.

If you have been laid off already, or if you’ve been notified you are about to be laid off, I encourage you to see this as the beginning on your Next Opportunity.

Click through for the details on this generous offer.

Comments closed