The sample databases for SQL Server 2012 haven’t been completely finalized, but I was able to find the latest version here for AdventureWorks. This download gives you an mdf, and that’s it. You can’t directly attach that in SSMS, but you can use T-SQL to do it.
CREATE DATABASE ADVENTUREWORKS
ON (FILENAME = ‘c:\SQLdata\ADventureWorks2008R2_data.mdf’)
FOR ATTACH_REBUILD_LOG
You get a note that the log file is invalid from the MDF, but a new log is created and you have your sample databases attached.
I saw a note about an outage on Windows Azure, apparently one that’s been going on for seven hours. Once again it seems that February 29 has struck again with a computer issue, and it makes me worry that if we mess with daylight savings time, we might have similar issues in the future.
I went to the main Azure page, and this is what I saw
I wrote about cloud computing today, and higher salaries. While this isn’t good news for the cloud, perhaps it means that salaries will be even higher.
Learning SQL Azure can be good for your next job interview
I think most of us know that the world is not really a meritocracy. We know that the value of many things is not necessarily intrinsic to the item; value is based on perception. That’s a large part of the economic theory of supply and demand. The more people want something, the more it should cost.
I ran across a piece that surveyed some salaries and it shows that people working with cloud platforms are commanding higher salaries, even when the underlying technologies are the same. It seems crazy, but that’s the world we live in. Perceptions drive a lot of things in the world, especially the ones that don’t seem to make sense.
Should you specialize in cloud technologies? In one sense, the platform is not a lot different than what you might run in your local data center. Virtualized machines, connections and deployments to remote networks, and limited access to the physical hardware. There are subtle differences, and learning about them and working with them, could be good for your next job interview, when the HR person or technology-challenged manager asks you about Azure.
Part of your career is getting work done, using your skills and talents in a practical and efficient manner. However a larger part of it, IMHO, is the marketing of your efforts and accomplishments. The words you choose, the way you present yourself, these things matter. I would rather be able to talk about SQL Azure as a skill, and then relate that to local Hyper-V installations of SQL Server than the other way around.
If you are considering new work, or interesting in the way cloud computing might fit into an environment, I’d urge you to take a look at SQL Azure or the Amazon web services. You can get a very low cost account for your own use, and experiment. You might even build a little demo for your next interview that impresses the person who signs the paychecks.
Steve Jones
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If you create your own certificate in SQL Server, you need to make sure that you back it up immediately. Once you start to encrypt anything with a certificate, you increase the risk that you’ll lose your data if an catastrophic event occurs. In this case, if you lose the certificate, you can’t access the data.
Let’s assume I have the certificate named MySalaryCert from the previous post. To create the backup of this certificate, I’d issue:
BACKUP CERTIFICATE MySalaryCert
TO FILE = N'c:\SQLBackup\MySalaryCert.cer'
WITH PRIVATE KEY
( FILE = N'c:\SQLBackup\MySalaryCert.pvk'
, ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = N'AReallyStr0ngK#y4You'
, DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = N'R3allyToughP@ssword4You'
)
;
This will generate two files for me in c:\sqlbackup as shown below.
The certificate was created with a password, so the backup must include the DECRYPTION BY option with that password. The password you use for the backup can be different, as shown, but you need to be sure that you manage this password properly. You will need it to restore the certificate, which I’ll show you next time.
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