Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

Creating a Synapse Workspace
As part of my job, I needed to research how a few things work with Synapse and Fabric. The latter includes the former, mostly. I decided to setup a workspace and a do some experimentation.

My first stop was the Stairway to Synapse Analytics. I started with Level 1, since I needed to create something.

In the portal, I created a new Synapse Analytics resource. I won’t go into details, but basically create a new resource and search. Read the article to see how this works. From there, I used a resource group I had for work stuff. I also had to create a new Data Lake Storage Gen2 account. I didn’t bother with the Managed Resource Group.

I added a user account and password and then clicked Create. I went to the summary page, where I could see the small cost for serverless. I clicked “Create” again to start the deployment.

The deployment failed.

I was leaning towards this not being helpful, but I went into the details of the error message and found something interesting. My subscription couldn’t deploy in this region (westeurope).

OK, go back, recreate the resource in UKSouth. That worked fine and I saw my resources.

At this point, I had a resource.

Adding Data

The next step for me was to add some data. I grabbed a few csv files and uploaded them to my storage account. Lots of querying in Synapse is through external tables to flat files, so I picked some files I can query.

Once these were uploaded, I was next interested to see if I could query this data. In my main Synapse resource, I see some endpoints.

I copied the serverless one and then opened SSMS. I put this, my user and pwd, and got connected. I was hoping that @@Version would tell me I was connected to Synapse, but I got the same results I get some Azure SQL Database, albeit with a different timestamp. However, ServerProperty() helps.

That works, what about my data? Let’s try a query from Level 2.

I’ll take this query and run it. I’ve adjusted this from the values in Level 2, which actually uses the Synapse Workspace explorer online.

–retrieve data from csv file
```
SELECT
TOP 100 *
FROM
OPENROWSET(
BULK 'https://synapsesqlprompt.blob.core.windows.net/sqlpromptfs/solar_2024_01.csv',
FORMAT = 'CSV',
        HEADER_ROW = TRUE,
        PARSER_VERSION = '2.0'
    ) 
WITH (
    [Time]  DATE,
    [System Production (Wh)] VARCHAR (100)
    ) AS [result]
```
It fails.

Hmmm, let’s try that in the browser. Here it works.

The error is with a credential.

There is a quickstart online, and that query works. However, there is a note in the query that I need a credential if my file is protected.

The article had this link and used the sample code to create a credential:
```
CREATE CREDENTIAL [https://synapsesqlprompt.blob.core.windows.net/sqlpromptfs]

WITH IDENTITY='SHARED ACCESS SIGNATURE'

, SECRET = '';

GO
```
Now I can run my original query and it works.

That was a pretty cool exercise for me to get started. In less than 30 minutes I was able to create a Synapse workspace, add some data, and query it.

Now to learn a bit more about how this works, and to use Flyway to deploy some objects.
August 26, 2024
One Month with the Dell Latitude 7450

It was just over a month ago that I got a Dell Latitude 7450 from our corporate IT group. It wasn’t my first choice, but as Redgate grows, they’re trying to be more secure and standard. I didn’t have a good reason to not try it, to I agreed to give it a try. My boss said if it was a problem, we’d get an exception and I’d choose another one. I had hoped for another HP Spectre, but this really is just a toaster to me. I need it to just work.

The Design

This is a bit heaver than my old Spectre, but also larger. It also has more ports.

I got the laptop, so it doesn’t fold over into a book or tablet or tent. I had thought that might be useful at times, but in 8 years of two Spectre versions that opened past 10 degrees, I think I’ve done that 5 times.

The screen is nice and works well for me. I like that I have both USB C and USB B ports on the laptop. I wish I had one of each on each side, but I have 2 Cs on the left and 2 Bs on the right. It’s a very minor gripe.

I do like I have an HDMI port built in, which is something my Spectre was missing. This means I can take something else out of my travel kit.

I got this with 32GB of RAM, which is probably a good reason why Windows 11 runs smoothly here. I also got a 1TB drive, which is overkill. I had a 512 in the last machine and after 5 years, I still had space.

The keyboard is OK, fairly standard, backlit, and responds well. The trackpad is large, and seems to work well with the left/right clicks.

The touchscreen is good and it also works with a pen, and I got an Active one from Amazon that I’ve used in whiteboard sessions with customers.

Annoyances

The big thing was the trackpad for me. It is a little sensitive and if a finder or hand brushes it, I get some weird actions. Mostly I do something the causes windows to minimize, which is really annoying. I’ve tried tuning down some of the actions, but I need to do more. It doesn’t cause too many problems, but enough that it’s on my mind.

The Home and End keys moved to the top row. They were on the side of my old machine, and I was used to those. I still can’t quite hit home and end without looking, or without hitting insert. I also lost my page up/down keys as well. I can use Funtion+up arrow (or down), but that’s not something I think about.

Concerns

I’ve had 2 blue screens coming out of a closed machine in a month. The system was unresponsive once and when I tried to CTRL+ALT+DEL it blue screened after a few minutes.

I’m keeping an eye on it. This might be my machine or this model, but if I get a few more, I might need to replace it.

Overall

Overall I learned that I don’t really care anymore about a laptop. It’s a tool, and I need it to work, but I’m not that wedded to the hardware. They keyboard matters to me, but of a bunch I tested, they were all find enough. Small differences, but overall they worked.

Other than that, this thing works well and runs fine. I still think some of the Win11 stuff that changed wasn’t an improvement and I need to figure out if I can turn some things off, but it works well.

I’d get another one of these without complaints. Assuming the blue screens stop.

August 23, 2024
A New Word: Midding

midding – n. the tranquil pleasure of being near a gathering but not quite in it – hovering on the perimeter of a campfire, talking quietly outside a party, resting your eyes in the back seat of a car listening to friends chatting up front – feeling blissfully invisible yet still fully included, safe in the knowledge that everyone is together and everyone is okay, with all the thrill of being there without the burden of having to be.

I thinking I feel midding all the time, often with family or friends. My wife, my oldest, and some friends often talk a lot and dominate a conversation. I can be happy to be there, adding bits here and there, but often being a bit on the outside.

I see lots of tech professionals at conferences or user groups comfortable with midding, being around other conversations, perhaps standing near others, but not a part of the conversation. But still involved, trying to learn or glean some insight from what others are talking about.

I think midding is a nice community feeling, and the data platform world, at least in the Microsoft space, has been very open here. We welcome others to hang out and learn or listen or just be entertained. I think that’s great.

I also think that at least some of the time you need to leave behind the midding and actively engage in the gathering.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

August 23, 2024
Back to Syracuse for SQL Saturday

Syracuse is having their first SQL Saturday on Sept 7, 2024. I’ll be there and hope to see you there as well. If you’re anywhere close, come on over and join us for a free day or learning about how to better work with data.

I’ll be doing a professional development talk on Branding Yourself for a Dream Job. You can also check out the rest of the schedule.

I never thought I’d go back to Syracuse when I left in 1987. I spent a couple of years at Syracuse University and learned a lot, but it was far to cold and snowy (and expensive) for me.

Then my daughter decided to attend SUNY Potsdam and I’ve made quite a few trips through Syracuse as the closest major airport for travel to see her. I even managed to steal an hour on a trip and drive around the campus.

I don’t know I’ll get to do much this trip, but I do hope to at least go get a slice of pizza at an old haunt.

August 22, 2024