'Dear Customers,
The 2nd cumulative update release for SQL Server 2014 SP2 is now available for download at the Microsoft Downloads site. Please note that registration is no longer required to download Cumulative updates.
To learn more about the release or servicing model, please visit:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/cumulative-update-2-for-sql-server-2014-sp2/
https://sqlserverupdates.com/news/sql-server-2014-sp2-cu2-released/
'Dear Customers,
The 9th cumulative update release for SQL Server 2014 SP1 is now available for download at the Microsoft Downloads site. Please note that registration is no longer required to download Cumulative updates.
To learn more about the release or servicing model, please visit:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/cumulative-update-9-for-sql-server-2014-sp1/
'Wer täglich mit Microsoft SQL Server arbeitet – sei es als DBA oder als Entwickler – wird sich schon mal mit dem Problem von Parameter Sniffing auseinandergesetzt haben. “Parameter Sniffing” bedeutet, dass Microsoft SQL Server beim Ausführen einer Stored Procedure/parametrisierten Abfrage den Übergabeparameter verwendet, um die Kardinalität des Wertes zu bestimmen und zukünftige Ausführungen der Abfrage auf Basis des ERSTEN Übergabeparameters durchführt. Die Kardinalität des Parameters fließt in die Bestimmung der Abfragestrategie mit ein. Die Abfragestrategie wird als Ausführungsplan im Plancache abgelegt. Dieser Artikel beschäftigt sich mit den Problemen, die sich aus dieser Arbeitsweise ergeben und zeigt mögliche Lösungsansätze.'...
http://www.db-berater.de/2016/09/parameter-sniffing-loesungsansaetze/?WT.mc_id=AID520629_EML_4609922
'In-Memory OLTP is the premier technology for optimizing the performance of transaction processing in SQL Server. Last week at Microsoft Ignite 2016 we presented two session about the In-Memory OLTP technology in SQL Server and Azure SQL Database. For those of you who did not attend the conference or did not make it to the session, here is a brief recap with links to the videos for the sessions. At the bottom of this post you will find links to the demos used in the sessions, as well as further resources for In-Memory OLTP.'...
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2016/10/03/in-memory-oltp-video-what-it-is-and-whenhow-to-use-it/
'I presented two talks on columnstore index during Microsoft Ignite Conference 2016 in Atlanta, GA. The talks focused on describing new enhancements to columntore index in SQL Server 2016 as well as sharing three customer success stories. Here is a high level overview of each session and the video recording of the session.'...
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2016/10/04/columnstore-index-in-memory-analytics-i-e-columnstore-index-videos-from-ignite-2016/
'When we released Always On Availability Groups in SQL Server 2012 as a new and powerful way to achieve high availability, hardware environments included NUMA machines with low-end multi-core processors and SATA and SAN drives for storage (some SSDs). Performance issues surrounding Availability Groups typically were related to disk I/O or network speeds. As we moved towards SQL Server 2014, the pace of hardware accelerated. Our customers who deployed Availability Groups were now using servers for primary and secondary replicas with 12+ core sockets and flash storage SSD arrays providing microsecond to low millisecond latencies. While we were confident in the design of SQL Server 2012, several customers reported to us performance problems that did not appear to be with disk subsystems, CPU, or networks. The rapid acceleration in technology brought on a new discovery and paradigm. Now disk I/O and CPU capacity were no longer an issue. Our design needed to scale and be adaptable to the modern hardware on the market. We needed to start thinking about how fast can we replicate to a synchronous secondary replica in terms of % of the speed of a standalone workload. (one without a replica).'...
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2016/09/26/sql-server-2016-it-just-runs-faster-always-on-availability-groups-turbocharged/
'Back in July, I told you about a new installation experience for SQL Server. One of our goals from the outset was to ensure we could iterate and enhance this experience as we obtained feedback from the community. Today, we are proud to announce Version 2 of the new SQL Server Installer.
Here is the opening screen from running the installer. If you used our V1 of the installer it looks just about the same on the surface. But two new features exist at the top right hand corner: 1) What’s New and 2) A feedback icon
The “What’s New” has a link to a KB article where we keep a complete log of changes when release updates or a new version. Use this option to see our V2 changes or go directly to the article at http://https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/the-sql-server-installer-version-2-just-install-it/support.microsoft.com/kb/3192738. Right next to this is the “Smiley Face” which is now your #1 method to get us feedback quickly. Just click the smiley face and put in your feedback (you can optionally provide us an email address so we can contact you about your feedback). This feedback goes directly to the developers who own the Installer.'
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/the-sql-server-installer-version-2-just-install-it/
'We are excited to announce that SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) now supports developing databases using Always Encrypted.
Always Encrypted is a feature in SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database that ensures your sensitive data is never revealed in plaintext to the database system. An Always Encrypted-enabled client driver achieves that by transparently encrypting and decrypting any data that is sent to or received from database columns, set up as with Always Encrypted.'...
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlsecurity/2016/07/05/developing-databases-using-always-encrypted-with-sql-server-data-tools/?WT.mc_id=AID522301_EML_4582059
'As a DBA when we have lots of shared location and ForFiles does not work and throws the below error
***
ERROR: UNC paths (\\machine\share) are not supported.
***
The procedure will be helpful to delete the files. The procedure needs to be run by providing the below details.
exec DeleteOldFiles @path= '\\sharelocation$\servename\transactional_logs\',
@days = -15
To extract the date, sbustring function is used in the procedure. Please make changes as necessary. In my case, I had the DatabaseName_Datetime.trn
e.g. MYDatabase_20160905080054.trn
'If you are a SQL DBA you will have heard of Ola Hallengrens Maintenance solution If you haven’t go and click the link and look at the easiest way to ensure that all of your essential database maintenance is performed. You can also watch a video from Ola at SQL Bits
Recently I was thinking about how I could validate that this solution was installed in the way that I wanted it to be so I turned to Pester You can find a great how to get started here which will show you how to get Pester and how to get started with TDD.
This isn’t TDD though this is Environment Validation and this is how I went about creating my test.
First I thought about what I would look for in SSMS when I had installed the maintenance solution and made a list of the things that I would check which looked something like this. This would be the checklist you would create (or have already created) for yourself or a junior following this install. This is how easy you can turn that checklist into a Pester Test and remove the human element and open your install for automated testing
-
SQL Server Agent is running – Otherwise the jobs won’t run
-
We should have 4 backup jobs with a name of
-
DatabaseBackup – SYSTEM_DATABASES – FULL
-
DatabaseBackup – USER_DATABASES – FULL
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DatabaseBackup – USER_DATABASES – DIFF
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DatabaseBackup – USER_DATABASES – LOG
-
We should have Integrity Check and Index Optimisation Jobs
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We should have the clean up jobs
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All jobs should be scheduled
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All jobs should be enabled
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The jobs should have succeeded'...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/sql-dba-with-a-beard/2016/09/24/powershell-pester-and-ola-hallengrens-maintenance-solution/
