As I've been working more with PostgreSQL, I've found that I'm basically pretty happy just issuing SQL commands to get work done. However, it's handy to have an actual programming environment to work from. A few reasons for this. First, and probably most important, a good programming environment has easy connections to source control. Also, you'll get, hopefully, some help with type-ahead for the code you're writing. Finally, having a visual of the stuff in your database can be handy while working on it, so a GUI is nice. I use Azure Data Studio for most of my PostgreSQL work. Azure Data Studio and PostgreSQL I'm not sure exactly when support for PostgreSQL was added. The two years I've been poking around with PostgreSQL, Azure Data Studio (ADS) has supported…
I have long been a fan of Azure Data Studio, but one shortcoming has kept me from truly adopting it: Query Plans in Azure Data Studio. Sure, there was a plug-in you could install. Also, you could use a somewhat truncated version of Plan Explorer, but all I wanted was for SQL Server Management Studio plans to be query plans in Azure Data Studio. Go and get version 1.35 of the tool. Right now. DUDE! You have 1.35 of Azure Data Studio? Cool. Now, go to the menu bar. Click on "File." Click on "Preferences". Click on "Settings". Now, type the following into the search box: workbench editor enable preview. You should see this: Check the box below where it says "Workbench > Editor: Enable Preview" just like I have…
I recently saw a question about the Azure Data Studio Intellisense: "Why won't intellisense in Azure Data Studio work with different schemas?" Immediately I thought, "Wait, it does." But, testing is your buddy. Azure Data Studio Intellisense Azure Data Studio Intellisense is on by default. Also, I like it a little better than the one in SSMS because it will start trying to help you, as you type (like a 3rd party software I can't live without). However, they're partly right. Let's say I want 'Person.Address' so I start typing like this: It doesn't know that I have a table named 'Person.Address'. It's trying to be helpful. You can even see how it's doing a form of wild card search, suggesting that maybe 'db_accessadmin' is what I want since it…
I've been writing a bunch about Azure Data Studio. I've also been recording videos on the topic. A comment I received recently asked how to export a database from Azure Data Studio. It made me want to explore the topic of exporting a database as it relates to Azure Data Studio. Export? When we say export, what exactly do we mean. It could be as simple as exporting data to a flat file for consumption in Excel or something. It could be creating a backup. Maybe we mean creating a bacpac file. We could also be looking at creating individual scripts for objects within the database. Finally, what about a full export of the database object definitions? Any or all of these could be what the question was about. So,…
If you're even thinking about experimenting with, let alone actively using, Azure Data Studio, you need to plan on installing a few extensions. Buck Woody has a great list that you should look through in this blog post. If you're just getting started with Azure Data Studio, I have an introduction here. Depending on the extension, this could be a simple as a mouse click. However, not all the extensions are that easy. Let's explore this just a little so when you do start using Azure Data Studio, things are easy. Extension From a Mouse Click For this bit of the blog post, we'll stick to nothing but mouse clicks, but, if you really want to bring the power within Azure Data Studio, you really need to learn keyboard shortcuts…
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…
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…
Under the covers, Azure SQL Database is just good old fashioned SQL Server and this includes Query Store on Azure. While many things can be different when working with Azure, Query Store just isn't one of them. Let's talk about it a bit. Query Store on Azure Unlike your databases created on a SQL Server instance (big iron, VM, hosted VM, wherever), the databases you create on Azure SQL Database have Query Store enabled by default. Managed Instance and Synapse are different. In their case, they operate the same as an instance of SQL Server, off by default. Further, in the single database of Azure SQL Database, you can't, as in can not, disable Query Store. It's on by default and it's staying that way. This leads to a simple…
Knowledge of how your system behaves is vital to better control, maintain, and grow the system. While Azure provides all sorts of wonderful assistance within Azure SQL Database, you're still going to need that same knowledge. When it comes to getting detailed information about Azure SQL Database, the tools are a little more limited than with an on-premises instance of SQL Server, or any virtual instance of SQL Server. There are no trace events. To see individual query calls, recompile events, query store behaviors, and so much more, you're going to have to use Extended Events. I'm going to write a series of posts on using Extended Events with Azure SQL Database. Tradition would call for this first post to be an initial how-to. Instead, I want to take a…
I've said it before and I will repeat myself on this because it's an important concept: DevOps is about culture and communication, not tools Now, that said, to implement the automation required in DevOps, you're going to have to get into some degree of tooling. There are a whole slew of possible tools to support you: Jenkins, Team City, Octopus and more. All these tools offer excellent solutions with variations on limits, methodologies, etc. You'll need to explore them to understand which ones are best for you and your processes. I've been doing a lot of work lately in another tool, Azure DevOps. Let me show you a little of what I've done. Azure DevOps Pipelines I don't mean for this to be a complete tutorial on setting up Azure…