16Apr 2015 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Azure SQL Database v12 and SQL Magazine

Azure
I spend many of my evenings researching and writing. Sometimes it's writing new books. Sometimes it's fixing and rewriting old books. Occasionally it's a blog post like this one. Lately, it's been a series of articles for SQL Magazine that are all about the new functionality available in Azure SQL Database v12 that was released in February for most data centers in Azure. It's a whole new ball game. Check out my introductory article for v12 and the one on DMVs in Azure. I have more coming up on CLR in Azure, getting started, PowerShell, DBCC, T-SQL enhancements, Premium Tier and more. I'll also get into "old" functionality like backup and restore. I'll also explore new functionality, Azure is nothing if not dynamic, as becomes widely available. I know a…
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30Jan 2013 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Azure SQL Database Execution Plan Differences

Azure, T-SQL
I've been exploring execution plans in Azure SQL Databases a lot lately. I'm getting a presentation together for  some upcoming SQL Saturday events (first one is SQL Saturday #177, Silicon Valley). If you scroll to the bottom of this previous post, I mentioned that there were clearly differences in the optimizer because queries against empty databases were generating different plans. I've loaded up the data in my database, both SQL Server and SQL Database, so I can compare real behaviors. Doing so, I found a fun difference, even though I was running the query and generating the plan from SQL Server Management Studio. Here's the property sheet from the SELECT operator for the query run against SQL Server: And here's the property sheet from the SELECT operator for the query…
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23Jan 2013 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Saving Execution Plans on Azure SQL Database

Azure
In my previous post showing how to get to execution plans in the Database Management Portal, I showed that it's pretty easy to put a query in a query window and get the execution plan. This allows you to understand query behavior in order to tune your T-SQL or your data structures, all through the Azure interface. But, what happens if you want to share an execution plan with a friend, post it to an online forum, save it for later comparisons as part of troubleshooting bad parameter sniffing, track behaviors over time as statistics change, other purposes that I can't think of at the moment? To first answer this question, let me tell you how you would do these things in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). First, and most…
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21Jan 2013 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices: Chapter 12

Azure
I was very privileged to get the opportunity to write a chapter in a book with some of my friends and SQL Family, Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices . Just as each of us took a chapter to write, each of us going to take a chapter to review. But, being the greedy sort, I'm going to review two. First up, Chapter 12, "Windows Azure SQL Database for DBAs", by Herve Roggero (b|t) Personally, I love Azure. And I love Azure SQL Databases. But, I get the fear and trepidation they might cause. I also get the urge to write about them, but I never really felt like I should approach them from a book. Everything changes so much, so quickly in Azure and books just take a while to…
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