Press "Enter" to skip to content

Curated SQL Posts

Connectivity Modes for Cosmos DB

Published 2021-05-24 by Kevin Feasel

Hasan Savran takes us through two ways to connect to Cosmos DB:

 There are two ways to connect to the Azure Cosmos DB. You need to specify the way you want to connect to Azure Cosmos DB in SDK. The way that you pick for connectivity mode can make a big difference for your application’s performance. 

     First connectivity mode is Gateway Mode. This is the default way to connect Azure Cosmos DB in earlier version of SDK platforms. This method is mostly for applications that stays behind corporate firewall or It is for environments that have a limited number of socket connections. If your company have strict firewall restrictions, Gateway mode is the way to go for sure. Gateway mode uses standard HTTPS port and single endpoint.

Read on for the second mode, as well as the pros and cons of using each mode.

Comments closed

Azure Purview Support for Azure SQL Database Views

Published 2021-05-24 by Kevin Feasel

Wolfgang Strasser looks at a new feature in Azure Purview:

There was one big thing missing so far – the scanning of SQL Server / Azure SQL Views. Which – well – in many cases (customer databases) was a huge loss of information in the data catalog.

This known limitation is listed on the documentation page but many of us overread this sentence.

But check out Wolfgang’s most recent finding and it’s clear that the team is working on it.

Comments closed

So You Want Database Documentation

Published 2021-05-24 by Kevin Feasel

Joey D’Antoni gives us a primer on database documentation techniques:

Although writing better queries and building the right indexes are important parts of improving database performance, building clear database documentation can also contribute to this goal by helping you understand your database architecture. Painting a clear picture of the structure of your database gives you insight into your data flows and helps you identify redundant data and clarify business processes.

Let’s take a look at a few approaches you can take to documenting your database and your data, depending on the nature of your application.

I do like the idea of using extended properties for documentation purposes, though for the longest time, the tooling to show those extended properties was fairly limited and it was easy to miss them on scripting.

Comments closed

One…Million IO Requests

Published 2021-05-24 by Kevin Feasel

Sean Gallardy wins the jackpot:

If, somehow, you’ve managed to see this error in your errorlog then congratulations, you’ve won an instance of SQL Server that probably won’t be doing much.

I found out about this message a few months ago, but it has been in the product for years and I went this long without ever even knowing it existed (congrats me!) until I was asked about it and coincidentally ended up finding it in an errorlog the same week. Clearly, I have too much fun packed into my weeks. I asked around, only one other person had ever found this in an errorlog before… that’s either impressive, depressing, or some perfect quantity of both – mellow it out to a smooth melancholy.

Click through to see more information about the 1000000 IO error message and when you might find it.

Comments closed

Enforcing Powershell Named Parameters

Published 2021-05-24 by Kevin Feasel

Dale Hirt is the law:

Line 3 is a named parameter called $badParam. This becomes important a little later. Lines 4, 5, 6, and 7 are named parameters. Now, how can we enforce that someone uses those named parameters.

Read on for an interesting technique to ensure that your callers are using named parameter rather than positional parameter calls.

Comments closed

Comparing Fluentd to Logstash

Published 2021-05-21 by Kevin Feasel

Ajit Chelat compares two popular log agents:

Log collectors, or aggregators, are critical aspects of the log management infrastructure. They help collect logs from various systems and parse and groom them for ingestion into a monitoring or observability tool for further visualization and analysis. DevOps and SRE teams are quickly adding log collectors to their toolchain. With millions of users across domains, two log collectors have risen to the forefront of log collection—Fluentd and Logstash. 

This article compares the two and sees which one is the best for your log management and analysis initiatives—Fluentd vs. Logstash. 

Click through for the round-by-round comparison and see which one comes out on top in your scenario.

Comments closed

Ignoring Backups in the SQL Server Error Log

Published 2021-05-21 by Kevin Feasel

Garry Bargsley has a solution to an annoyance:

Whether you are new to SQL Server or a seasoned veteran, you will notice odd behavior in the SQL Server Error Log. When a database backup is performed, an entry is put into the SQL Error Log. The SQL Server team decided to log successful backup messages to the Error Log. If you ask most technology professionals, you will find that logging successful events are not really a common occurrence.  This behavior causes a bloated Error Log that can make it hard to find what you need quickly.

Luckily, that same SQL Server team built in a solution to this situation.

Read on to see what the solution is, as well as how to use it.

Comments closed