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SQL Server 2022 is released on 16 Nov 2022

Posted in Raresql News, SQL SERVER, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The most Azure Enabled SQL Server is now being launched as SQL server 2022(16.x). It has a lot of new features and enhancements too. You can download it from here and use its express and developer edition for FREE.

New Features & Enhancements of SQL Server 2022:

  • Analytics:

In analytics, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are shown below :

  1. Azure Synapse Link for SQL
  2. Object storage integration

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Analytics.

  • Availability:

In Availability, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are shown below.

  1. Link to Azure SQL Managed Instance
  2. Contained availability group
  3. Improved backup metadata

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Availability.

  • Security:

In Security, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are shown below.

  1. Microsoft Defender for Cloud integration
  2. Microsoft Purview integration
  3. Ledger

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Security.

  • Performance:

In Performance, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are shown below.

  1. Buffer pool parallel scan
  2. Ordered clustered columnstore index

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Performance.

  • Query Store and intelligent query processing:

In Query Store and intelligent query processing, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are shown below.

  1. Query Store on secondary replicas
  2. Query Store hints
  3. Memory grant feedback
  4. Parameter sensitive plan optimization

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Query Store and intelligent query processing.

  • Management:

In Management, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are as shown below.

  1. Manage Azure extension for SQL Server
  2. Max server memory calculations
  3. Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR) improvements

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Management.

  • Platform:

In platform, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are as shown below.

  1. Hybrid buffer pool with direct write
  2. Integrated acceleration & offloading

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Platform.

  • Language:

In Language, there are many new features and enhancements, few of them are as shown below.

  1. Resumable add table constraints
  2. CREATE INDEX
  3. Transactional replication

Here is the full list of enhancements and new features in the Language.

Reference Links:

  1. What’s new in SQL Server 2022

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2015 in review

Posted in Raresql News, SQL SERVER on December 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 490,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 21 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Raresql News – Introduction to Policy Based Management at SQL Server User Group, Dubai, UAE – May 26, 2015

Posted in Raresql News, tagged , , , , , , on May 27, 2015| 1 Comment »

Yet again I had another opportunity to present Introduction to Policy Based Management yesterday (26 May 2015) at SQL Server User Group meet-up @ Microsoft Office, Dubai, UAE. As mentioned earlier, this event is normally held every last Tuesday of the month. Meet-up was organised by SQL Server User group (www.uaessug.com) and usually consists of two comprehensive and informative sessions that focus on the SQL Server latest technology, best practice, user experience, tips & tricks. This is a good platform to network with SQL Server experts face to face. I was the speaker for yesterday’s meet up along with Mr. Mohammed Owais (CTO at CAZAR).

Following topics were covered in yesterday’s session:

  • Backups – not as simple as you think presented by Mr. Mohammed Owais
  • Introduction to policy based management was by me

We focused on how you can make your restore strategy instead of backup strategy 🙂 and discussed different types of backup and how can it be handy in case of disaster. Also we discussed, how can you manage your policies across the servers by just click of a button.

I hope yesterday’s session was factual as usual. Our next meetup will be held in June 2015. Hope the coming sessions would witness more participants.

Some glimpses of the session:

Mr. Owais busy explaining Backup :

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He explained us why tail log backup is important :

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Further he explained, how to boast performance of backup :

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Me presenting Introduction to policy based management :

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Explaining PBM with the help of demos :

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Last but not least, lunch 🙂

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Thank you guys. See you next month.

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Raresql News – Extended Events at SQL Server User Group, Dubai, UAE – March 24, 2015

Posted in Raresql News, tagged , , , , , on March 25, 2015| 6 Comments »

Yesterday (24 March 2015), I had the opportunity to present Extended Events at SQL Server User Group meet-up. This event was held at Microsoft Office in Dubai, UAE. Generally this event is held every last Tuesday of the month. SQL Server User group (www.uaessug.com) have been organizing it extremely well for the last one year. This meet up usually consists of two comprehensive and informative sessions that focus on the SQL Server latest technology, best practice, user experience, tips & tricks. I usually attend this meet up because I get an opportunity to network with SQL Server experts face to face instead of Facebook chat :). I was the speaker in yesterday’s meet up along with Mr. Mike Mohan (CFO at Microsoft).

Following topics were covered in yesterday’s session:

  • Real Life Power BI presented by Mr. Mike Mohan – Microsoft
  • Introduction to Extended Events was by me

We focused on how a non technical user can make best use of Power BI & its integration on different devices, best practices and troubleshooting (the scariest part) throughout the event and hands on with live demos to demonstrate the practical implementations of Power BI & Extended Events.

I hope yesterday’s session was informative as usual. Our next meetup will be held in April 2015. Hope the coming sessions would witness more participants.

Some glimpses of the session:

Mr. Mike busy explaining Power BI :

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He showed us how to generate a power map and its auto zoom feature :

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Showed us, how to combine many graphs in one page :
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Displaying look n feel of Power BI on multiple devices :

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Me presenting SQL Server Extended Events :

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Showing the components of EE :
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Thank you guys. See you next month.

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2014 in review

Posted in Raresql News, SQL SERVER on December 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 370,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 16 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Raresql News – SQL Server Community Meet up

Posted in Raresql News, SQL SERVER, tagged , , , on November 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Today I had a very informative session in SQL Server community meet up at Microsoft Office in Dubai, UAE. This usually occurs every last Tuesday of the month. I must appreciate the SQL Server User group (www.uaessug.com) who have been organizing it very well for the last one year. This meet up usually consists of two comprehensive and informative sessions that focus on the SQL Server latest technology, best practice, user experience, tips & tricks. I usually attend this meet up because I get an opportunity to network with SQL Server experts face to face instead of Facebook chat :). I was the speaker in today’s meet up along with Mr. Mohammed Owais (CTO at CAZAR).

Following topics were covered in today’s session:

  • UDFs are evil and other execution plan nightmares presented by Mr. Mohammed Owais
  • The easy path to compliance with SQL Server Audit presented by me

We focused on delivering the latest technology enhancements, best practices and troubleshooting (the scariest part) throughout the event and hands on with live demos to demonstrate the real world challenges and its solution.

I hope today’s session was informative and believe that everybody got to add something to their knowledge-village 🙂
Our next meetup will be in January 2015.

Some pictures from today’s sessions.

Mr. Mohammed Owais busy explaining UDFs execution plans :

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Me presenting SQL Server Auditing :

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Group discussions :

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Mr. Waqar discussing BI with Mr. Kevin :
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Thank you guys.

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SQL SERVER – Upgrading to SQL Server 2012 from SQL 2005/2008 – Part 1

Posted in Raresql News, SQL SERVER, tagged , , , , on April 8, 2014| 2 Comments »

In general, upgrading of SQL Server in any latest version is quite complex. However, in my opinion it is NOT at all a rocket science, it is completely based on your planning and understanding about the complexity of your database(s) and its related applications. If you plan and understand it properly, there is no way you cannot make it smooth and up to the mark. In addition, before upgrading it directly on your production database server, you must test it on your test database server like any other application’s deployment and upgrading. But how will I know that is there any problem in my upgrading or NOT ? The solution is one of the best FREE tools that SQL Server provides namely SQL Server Upgrade Advisor. This tool can be downloaded from Microsoft site or it comes with SQL Server 2012 media (Setup files) . The installation of this tool is self explanatory.

SQL Upgrade Advisor

Please note that the database you are planning to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 must have a compatibility of 90 or above. In addition, as much as the gap is between the versions, so is the complexity and problems you can expect. In order to avoid this, it is highly recommended that you should upgrade your SQL Server in a timely manner.  

In this article, I will demonstrate how SQL Server Upgrade Advisor works step by step.

Step 1 : 
Once you install SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Advisor, you will find it in the Start >> Program files as shown below.

upgrade.1.1.1

Step 2 :
Now, it is time to execute the SQL Server Upgrade advisor, it will take you to the first screen, from where you can launch the upgrade Advisor Analysis Wizard. Here you will find the summary about the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor. I strongly recommend that you go through it. Once you review the summary, you need to launch the Upgrade Advsior Analysis Wizard as shown below.

upgrade.1.1

Step 3 :

This is a welcome screen. It will give you the summary of how upgrade Advisor works step by step as shown below. However, you can check mark the Do not show this starting page again in order to avoid this screen recurring, as it is for information ONLY.

upgrade.1.2

Step 4 :

Once you crossed the welcome screen, immediately after that you need to select the components you want to analyse for upgrading. Please make sure that you do NOT  select Notification Services and Data Transformation Services because these two services have been discontinued in the SQL Server 2012. Reporting services you can select if you have installed in that particular server. In my case reporting service was not applicable.

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Step 5 :

The next screen will ask you to select the instance and provide the valid credential of that particular instance as shown below.

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Step 6 :

The next step is the selection of all or any one databases of the above selected instance that you want to upgrade to SQL Server 2012. Kindly select the appropriate database and press NEXT button.

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Step 7 :

Here you need to provide the instance of Analysis services. In addition, you need to provide its credential as well.

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Step 8 :

In this step, you need to select the location and the packages of  your integration services. In my case, my SSIS packages are available in the same server so I selected the first option. However, you can select as per your requirement as shown below.

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Step 9 :

In this step, SQL upgrade advisor will show you the path of Upgrade advisor report & its log files for your reference.

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Step 10 :

Once you press NEXT button, it will start analyzing your selected components on selected databases. It takes 2-30 minutes, depending upon the database size, number of component and performance of your server.

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Step 11 :

Once Analysis is done, it will show you a summary report along with the status and a Launch Report button.  Here you need to launch the report, in order to see the results of the SQL Server upgrade analysis for your selected components.

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Step 12 :

Once you launch the report, SQL Server Uprade Advisor will show you all the critical issues that you must fix it before or after upgrading. In order to do a smooth migration make sure that you resolve all the given below issues. In my case it is displaying only one issue related to the keyword. In fact I used one word that became a keyword in SQL Server 2012. So I need to replace this keyword.

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Step 13 :

Once you select the issue as shown above, it will show where the conflict exactly is. In addition, it will provide all necessary details that you may require at the time of fixing.

upgrade.1.13

 

Let me know about your experience relating to SQL Server upgrade advisor.

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SQL SERVER 2014 – Community Technology Preview (CTP) 1, now available

Posted in Raresql News, SQL SERVER, tagged , , , on June 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

In my earlier article, I had discussed about new features of SQL Server 2014. Those features are very exciting and I was waiting for the CTP. Now, CTP 1 is available for download.

Given below are the few instructions that you should follow to install CTP 1.

  • The machine should not have any earlier versions of SQL Server.
  • There is no upgrade / side by side installation available in this CTP.
  • This CTP is only available for X64 architecture.

System requirement for SQL Server 2014 is available here.

Let me know if you face any issues with the installation.

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SQL SERVER 2014 Announcement & its features

Posted in Raresql News, SQL SERVER, tagged , , , on June 14, 2013| 4 Comments »

SQL Server 2014 was announced a couple of weeks ago during TechEd North America Conference 2013. So, I started research about its features and I found few features very exciting to me. Given below are the details of the few features available in SQL Server 2014.

  • In-Memory OLTP : It improves the performance of database applications about 50x as compared to the normal database application. It can achieve significant performance. 
  • Enhanced In-Memory ColumnStore : Now, you can update the columnstore index (woww) , also you can apply a new option called COLUMNSTORE_ARCHIVE for higher compression and storage space savings of as much as 90 per cent in columnstore index.
  • Buffer pool extension to SDD (solid-state drives) : SQL Server improved the query performance by allowing the use of non-volatile devices (e.g solid-state drives (SSDs)) to reduce usage of SQL Server memory with no risk of data loss.
  • Enhanced Query Processing : SQL queries became much faster due to the enhancement of query processing and one of the reasons why querying process became faster is, it separates querying into two steps, decision-making and execution. 
  • Enhanced Always On : Now it can support up to 8 secondaries.

  • Backup to Azure : SQL Server can take backup and restore directly to the Windows Azure Blob service.

  • Resource Governor Enhancements : 

    Resource Governor can provide better control and performance for different types of workloads in SQL Server applications.

  • SQL Server Audit Enhancements : Auditing became more easier because it is enabled by default and it will record each and every database activities, including database reads, with minimal impact on performance.

Let me know if I missed out any important features.

For further details, you can download given below sources:

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