28Jan 2019 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Input Into Azure Data Studio

Azure
I see more and more people starting to use Azure Data Studio. As it keeps growing and expanding, it's going to become more and more a go-to tool for everyone that has to work with the Microsoft Data Platform. Wouldn't it be good to be able to provide direct feedback to the development team? Why not do that? GitHub Microsoft does a heck of a lot work with GitHub. It just so happens that the Azure Data Studio team is using it as well. In fact, they have a public Issues resource within GitHub. You can go there yourself, search out the existing issues, submit a problem, or, better still, submit a suggestion. The people working on this are clearly busting their behinds to add functionality and improve functionality. You…
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23Jan 2019 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

All Day, Training Day at SQLBits

Azure, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, T-SQL
It's a somewhat late addition, but I have an all-day Training Day at SQLBits. It takes place on Thursday, February 28th. You can read all about it on the SQLBits web site. I want to take a moment here to expand on the information that we're going to cover. I think the abstract does a good job of conveying what we'll be doing all day, but I figured a little more detail won't hurt. Query Tuning is Hard This is the very first thing I talk about. Query tuning is hard. I've got a nearly 1,000 page book on the topic, which should give you an idea of just how much material there is to cover. With the training day I've decided to focus on the tools that Microsoft gives…
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24Sep 2018 by Grant Fritchey 12 Comments

Introducing Azure Data Studio

Azure
If you're watching Microsoft Ignite or tracking the information coming out of it on social media, then you know that Azure SQL Studio has been changed to Azure Data Studio. I've got an early release on some of the bits. Let's explore what's going on. Azure Data Studio The core concept here is to have a development tool that gives you a common framework for working with data, not just SQL data, but CosmosDB and others. Further, a tool that you can run where you work. Do you have a Mac? Cool. Use Azure Data Studio. Running Linux? Cool. Use Azure Data Studio. Still on Windows with me? We also get Azure Data Studio. The first thing I'm excited about is the load time. It's fast. Really fast. Out of…
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27Aug 2018 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Why I Love Extended Events, Reason 394: Customize Live Data

Azure, SQL Server, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017
There are so many reasons to love Extended Events that it can really be overwhelming, but, one more reason that I love them are the ability to customize Live Data. More importantly, you can share that customization with others or move it between machines. Let's explore this. Customize Live Data If you open up an Extended Events file, or connect to a running Session, you're looking at the Live Data window and it looks something like this: I won't lie, that's a pretty ugly UI. At the top are all the events you've captured. At the bottom are the event fields. If you want to look at the information in different events, you click on the event, then down at the fields... blech! However, I have some options. Let's right…
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30Apr 2018 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Automating Automatic Indexing in Azure SQL Database

Azure
I've been in love with the concept of a database as a service ever since I first laid eyes on Azure SQL Database. It just makes sense to me. Take away the mechanics of server management and database management. Focus on the guts of your database. Backups, consistency checks, these easily automated aspects can just be taken care of. Same thing goes with some, not all, but some, index management. Azure SQL Database can manage your indexes for you. I call it weaponizing Query Store. Anyway, I needed a way to automate this for the book I'm writing. I couldn't find any good examples online, so I built my own. Queries in Need of Automatic Indexing Because I want this to be as simple and repeatable as possible, I'm using…
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26Dec 2017 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

SQL Server Automatic Tuning and sys.dm_db_tuning_recommendations

Azure, SQL Server 2017
In Azure SQL Database for quite some time and now available in SQL Server 2017, Microsoft has put a lot of the knowledge they've gleaned from running more databases that any of the rest of us ever will to work with Automatic Tuning. Automatic Tuning The core of automatic tuning at this point in time (because I'm sure it's going to evolve) is the ability of the query engine to spot when a query has generated a new plan and that new plan is causing performance to degrade. This is known as a regression in the plan. It comes from bad parameter sniffing, changes in statistics, cumulative updates, or the big notorious one, the cardinality estimator introduced in SQL Server 2014 (it's been almost four years, I'm not calling it…
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18Dec 2017 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

Query Store Wait Statistics with sys.query_store_wait_stats

Azure, SQL Server 2017
The second best thing to questions that people ask is when I sit down to write a book. It's so easy to miss things in the day-to-day grind of doing work. Then, late at night, you're working on a chapter, so you read up on the documentation to ensure that you're not missing anything. Of course, then you find, yes, you are missing something. In my case, sys.query_store_wait_stats. sys.query_store_wait_stats. If you follow the link above, it'll give you what you need to know, but, I figured I'd provide a little more clarity because I think there are some pitfalls in using this data. I love Query Store (do a search to see all the exploration I've done with it). One of my favorite things is the time intervals. It breaks…
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15Nov 2017 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Presenting Azure Vs. Working With Azure

Azure
I have a real infatuation with Azure. I'm especially interested in the Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings in and around the Data Platform. I truly believe that these are the subversive elements that are going to change how a lot of us get our jobs done with data. I've worked with Azure SQL Database within my organization and I do lots of experimentation and testing. Any chance I get, I like to present sessions on Azure. Funny thing though, my presentations are never as easy as work, and I think I ought to discuss why. Connectivity, Connectivity, Connectivity In case you can't tell, I'm starting off talking about connectivity. However, this is an important topic. When I'm working on Azure, I'm usually hooked up to my home office or…
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19Sep 2017 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Azure, PowerShell, Databases and the PASS Summit

Azure, PowerShell
I am quite honored to say that I am speaking at the single largest and most important Microsoft Data Platform conference in the world, PASS Summit 2017. Now, I'm excited to say that I get to speak on three topics that are near and dear to my heart, Azure, PowerShell and databases. The session is called Using PowerShell to Manage Your Azure Databases. You can read the abstract there at the link. I'm going to go through a whole bunch of the database types on Azure and show how you can manage each. I'm not sticking to SQL Server. We'll cover MySQL, Cosmos and others. Let's get together and talk about these topics. Azure adoption is growing like mad. You're going to need to automate it, so PowerShell is your…
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28Aug 2017 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Speaking at Live360 Orlando

Azure
Are you going to be in Florida in November? Me too. I'm privileged to say that I get to speak at SQLServerLive, part of the Live360 event. It takes place November 12-17 at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios in Orlando. I'm going to be presenting three different sessions. The first is on Azure SQL Database for the DBA. Adoption and interest in Azure and the platform as a service offering is growing like crazy. Get ahead of the curve and figure out how you can use this technology in your organization. I'm also going to be doing a session on automating the management of your Azure databases using PowerShell. I'm sticking to the platform databases with this session (no VMs), but I'm covering Pools, MySQL, Postgres, Azure SQL…
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