Voice of the DBA

Tag: Microsoft

  • Do You Want a Microsoft Solution?

    Microsoft constantly releases new features and products in the data platform space. Many of us have seen the SQL Server product grow in new ways, some of which are very useful to us. As an example the changes from log shipping to clustering to Availability Groups has improved our HA/DR options as well as the capabilities available to us in different situations.

    With that in mind, I saw someone recently that wanted to deploy SQL Server on Kubernetes, which is something that could be a very interesting way of managing your different systems. However, this individual wanted to know when Microsoft would release their own supported solution with a Microsoft operator to manage the instance. There is guidance from Microsoft, but no official operator.

    I saw a recommendation to use DH2i, which has a solution with an operator that can help here. In fact, in the MS docs, there are articles on using DH2i with SQL Server. However, the docs note that DH2i is responsible for supporting their product. The person asking about support didn’t want another vendor and wanted a Microsoft solution.

    Is that something you want? Do you want a Microsoft solution for most (or all) things? Or do you think third parties or bespoke solutions are acceptable? This could be your opinion or a policy/guideline from your employer, but let us know.

    To me, I think third parties are necessary. Microsoft can’t do everything, and they might not provide the support or flexibility that someone else can. Many of us sp_whoisactive, which isn’t an official Microsoft solution. There is a First Responder kit, diagnostic queries, a pressure detector, and plenty of other resources that people have created and shared. There are plenty of tools for SQL Server (and most other products) that various vendors have produced and sell which meet the needs of their customers.

    My view isn’t to choose a Microsoft solution for everything because their solutions aren’t always the best choice for my problem. Even when they work well, they are often incomplete and I need to do some work to get them to fit into my environment. To be fair, most anything often needs a little work (or time) to fit into many environments.

    Let us know today. Do you want official Microsoft solutions for your data platform? Or Oracle ones for Oracle? Who makes you comfortable with PostgreSQL, Aurora, Redshift, Databricks, or other platforms? Or do you only use tools and capabilities inside the platforms?

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

  • What’s New for the Microsoft Data Platform

    Today is the first day at the PASS Data Community Summit and I’m in Seattle where I’ll get to open the conference and introduce the Microsoft keynote. I’m sure the keynote will be full of announcements on something, but what?

    I’m writing this a little over a week before the event, and I have no idea what Microsoft will do. Actually, by the time you read this I may have some ideas as there was a practice session yesterday, but I can’t tell you anything. NDA, and really, by the time I got something organized, the keynote will be done.

    You can stream the keynote, and watch the opening (and wave to me if you want) for the conference for free. Some of you may read this before that time, and if you do, then think about this question: what do you want to hear Microsoft announce or what would get you excited about data work.

    I don’t often spend time thinking about what I might like, mostly because I can’t influence things and I don’t like to spend too much time dreaming about databases or what things would help sell more licenses or compute or anything else. However, I am interested to know if a new version of SQL Server is coming (and when) and what might be in it. Or if there are structural changes that might be interesting to me as someone who helps customers work with databases and data.

    If you complain about the performance of SQL Server 2022 and want bugs fixed, that’s fine, but that’s not going to be in a keynote. Instead, think about what things could be added to SQL Server, Azure, Fabric, or some part of the data platform. Where will Microsoft go that might help our organizations or be interesting? Think about what you might want to adopt in a year or 2 if it works as designed.

    I have no idea, though I suspect AI is going to be said once, maybe twice, or maybe even a few more times 😉

    Leave a guess in the comments. If you don’t watch it live, then take a guess and watch it tomorrow to see if you were right.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

  • 30 Years of SQL Server on Windows

    I’ve spent over 30 years working with SQL Server. I saw a post recently from Bob Ward who is celebrating 30 years at Microsoft, noting this is also the 30th anniversary of SQL Server on Windows. It’s been an honor for me to get to know Bob, learn from him, and spend time socially at various events around the world. He’s truly been a force in improving the SQL Server platform through the years.

    While SQL Server has been on Windows for 30 years, I’ve got a bit more than 30 years working with the platform as I actually started managing a SQL Server instance on OS/2. With the addition of Linux, I’ve now run SQL Server on three different server OS hosts: OS/2, Windows, and Linux. That’s somewhat amazing to me, especially as one of my April Fools jokes came true. This was one of the most-read articles on SQL Server Central for a long time, and perhaps it influenced enough people at Microsoft to build and release a Linux version.

    Over three decades, the growth of the platform has been amazing. We’ve had the core engine lose tables in memory and then get them back with In-Memory objects. We have seen the heavyweight trace evolve into Extended Events and SQL Audit. The language has grown with many new ANSI features that help us write better code. We’ve deprecated a number of objects and added the ability to create our own with the CLR. We’ve added new data types, not all of which are named well, but we still have the ability to process more types of data natively. We’ve even added new services, with SSIS, SSRS, and SSAS packaged into the platform.

    Not a lot has been removed, but a few things are gone, like Notification Services. Replication doesn’t seem to have changed a lot in 30 years, which is a bit disappointing to me, but there have been a lot of improvements in HADR capabilities. We even have other companies (Amazon and Google) selling their own version of SQL Server as a platform, where you don’t have to manage the instance.

    In many ways, I’ve found SQL Server to be easier to use, but also much harder to learn about because the breadth of what’s in the product is so wide now. I can’t imagine anyone actually knows the entire product at a very deep level. I’ve also found myself more disappointed with the experiments Microsoft makes when adding features and not continuing to invest and evolve them (or even fix all the bugs).

    There certainly have been plenty of bugs, security issues, and maddening moments in working with SQL Server, but it’s been a great 30 years of a career working on the Windows version. I likely won’t do that for another 30 years, but I hope those of you making a living working with the platform enjoy it as much as I do.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Webinar: The Cloud, the Future, and Bob Ward at the Summit

    I’m doing a webinar next week with Bob Ward, a principal architect for Microsoft working on Azure and SQL Server. I’ve had the chance to work with Bob quite a few times over the years, and I’m honored that I get to host a webinar with him.

    He has spent the last couple years doing a number of pre-con talks on SQL Server 2022 and how it integrates into a modern application. This year he has a pre-con on Monday at the Summit that looks at how you take your skills and move them to the cloud, with some hands-on experience in Azure. It’s not designed to sway you to Azure, but help you decide if it makes sense for your situation.

    It’s a great opportunity to learn about the Cloud and how it works. In the webinar, we’ll discuss some of the concepts and rational for considering the cloud as part of your future career.

    You can register here for our webinar next week. It’s Monday, Sep 18, at noon Eastern time.