'Today, Microsoft is releasing the SQL Server Diagnostics (Preview) extension within SQL Server Management Studio and Developer APIs to empower SQL Server customers to achieve more through a variety of offerings to self-resolve SQL Server issues.
What this offers to our customers?
Analyze Dumps - Customers using this extension will be able to debug and self-resolve memory dump issues from their SQL Server instances and receive recommended Knowledge Base (KB) article(s) from Microsoft, which may be applicable for the fix. The memory dumps are stored in a secured and compliant manner as governed by the Microsoft Privacy Policy.'...
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sql_server_team/sql-server-diagnostics-preview/
'Problem
You are developing a SQL Server application and at some point in your code you receive the error "String or binary data would be truncated". After digging into the code you discovered that this error message is caused because a table has a VARCHAR(1000) column and you need to insert more than 1000 characters. Someone on your team suggest using the VARCHAR(max) data type, but you are unsure about the implications of the this data type. Read this tip to learn what you should know about the SQL Server VARCHAR(Max) vs. VARCHAR(n) data types.
Solution
In order to decide between using VARCHAR(Max) or VARCHAR(n) we have to understand that even when both data types look the same, they have some major differences pertaining to storage, behavior and of course their intended usage.'...
https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/4485/comparison-of-the-varcharmax-and-varcharn-sql-server-data-types/
'If you have problems with linked servers in SQL Server 2016, review this troubleshooting checklist to find potential solutions.
1. Install the latest SQL Server 2016 service pack.
Because some SQL Server 2016 linked servers bugs were fixed in SQL Server service
packs, you should install the latest SQL Server service pack.
At the time this article was written the latest SQL Server 2016 service pack was
service pack 1. You can download the SQL Server 2016 service pack 1 at here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46694
2........'...
https://www.sswug.org/alexanderchigrik/sql-server/troubleshooting-problems-with-linked-servers-in-sql-server-2016/
'SQL Server 2017 will bring with it support for the Linux OS and containers running on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Our goal is to enable SQL Server to run in modern IT infrastructure in any public or private cloud.
With support for containers, SQL Server can now be used in many popular DevOps scenarios. Developers working with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines can now include SQL Server 2017 containers as a component of their applications for an integrated build, test, and deploy experience.'...
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2017/07/17/sql-server-2017-containers-for-devops-scenarios/?MC=SQL&MC=DevOps&MC=Virtual