Azure

System configurations are becoming more complex all the time. Each and every server, container, and key application and service today has log files that tell you a wealth about what’s going on under the covers. But how accessible are those log files in your organization?

If you aren’t using a log management tool, you probably should be.

Here are a few easy ones to get started with:

Azure Monitor

One thing that I do find frustrating with Microsoft tooling at present is the constant churn of product names. A while back, we had Application Insights that could collect details of what was happening within an app. The data for that was stored in a tool called Log Analytics, and it could also collect operating system logs and more. Agents were provided for on-premises systems.

2018-12-20

When I need to move small amounts of data between an on-premises SQL Server system and an Azure SQL Database, or run queries that involve both systems, the easiest option at present is to create a linked server to Azure SQL Database.

And the easiest way to do that (or if you can’t remember the commands) is with one of our free SDU Tools for developers and DBAs, called CreateLinkedServerToAzureSQLDatabase. You can read it to check out the code, or use it like this:

2018-06-27

Whenever I need to work on a new laptop or server, or whenever I change versions of SQL Server Management Studio, I kick myself for not remembering to export my settings, so I can import them again.

I spend quite a bit of effort getting SSMS configured the way I want, so it only makes sense to save the settings. Saving them isn’t perfect but it’s far better than not having done it.

2018-03-01

A current trend that I can’t say that I love is constant churn within software applications. I have no interest to go back to the days where we got a new version of SQL Server or Power BI, etc. every few years.

It’s also not a case of who moved my cheese?

In fact, I thrive on change. However, I’ve now become really concerned about how anyone:

• Learns to use a complex application
• Remembers how to use a complex application when they don’t use it daily

I first really struck this issue with Azure. If I was teaching a class that used Azure, I could check every single lab on Sunday night, then Monday morning, the students would find it had all changed. That’s OK for an experienced person, but not OK for a learner.

2018-02-20

If you have ever tried to write scripts to configure operating systems, you’d realize just how hard that is to get correct.

For example, if you need to ensure that your virtual machine has two network adapters, and they need to have a specific set of IP addresses, how do you do that?

[caption id=“attachment_2743” align=“alignnone” width=“461”] Image by Markus Spiske[/caption]

The traditional approach for PowerShell (and similar tools) was to try to write a step-by-step script to configure the network adapters the way you want. But where do you start? Do you write a script to check for any existing adapters and loop through them to try to remove them? Do you try to add the ones you want, and then remove the others?

2018-02-16

I’ve worked with T-SQL for a very long time, and over the years I’ve lost count of how many tools I’ve found the need to create to help me in my work.

They have been in a variety of script folders, etc. and whenever I go to use them now, I often have to decide which is the best version of a particular tool, as they’ve also been refined over time.

2017-02-05

There’s an interesting scenario that’s come up in creating some new samples for SQL Server 2016.

I know that for many, many years people have asked for a way to limit developer edition to only use standard edition features, or at least to have a way to flag them. I’ve often thought that I’d like a way to set a “target environment” and have the colorization change anything that I can’t use in standard to an obviously different color.

2016-06-03

Hi Folks,

One of the intriguing options that’s coming as part of SQL Server 2016 is StretchDB. I’ve been spending some time working with it and learning about it, and I’ve ended up with lots of questions.

It was great to get an opportunity to speak to Joe Yong to get all my questions sorted.

Hope you’ll enjoy it too. You’ll find it here:

SQL Down Under Podcast

2016-05-01

In recent months, I’ve been brushing up my R skills. I’ve had a few areas of interest in this:

* R in Azure Machine Learning

* R in relation to Power BI and general analytics

* R embedded (somewhat) in SQL Server 2016

As a client tool, I’ve been using RStudio. It’s been good and very simple but it’s a completely separate environment. So I was excited when I saw there was to be a preview of new R tooling for Visual Studio.

2016-03-10

Hi Folks,

Couldn’t make it to Ignite? The team from Microsoft Australia recorded all the sessions and they are online now.

Here are the three sessions that I delivered:

Azure Datacamp Power Hour:  NOTE: This event is now closed

Things I Wish Developers Knew About SQL Server: NOTE: This event is now closed

Working With SQL Server Spatial: NOTE: This event is now closed

Enjoy!

2015-12-11