The Bit Bucket

SQL Server Management Studio has moved into the Visual Studio 2015 shell. In general, that’s a really good thing. There are many built-in benefits that come from using that shell. I’ve been showing people many of these. One that surprises many people is the ability to change the font in Object Explorer. No longer do you need to squint at the tiny writing in Object Explorer. You too can change the text in Object Explorer to a readable size (particularly on high-resolution monitors):

2016-11-26

Hi Folks,

The next SQL Down Under show is now online. In it, Glenn Berry discusses hardware and hardware-related performance issues for SQL Server.

You’ll find the show here: SQL Down Under Podcast

Enjoy !

More on Glenn:

Glenn Berry is a Principal Consultant with SQLskills. He has worked as a SQL Server professional for many years in a variety of roles, most recently as Database Architect for Avalara in Parker, CO.

2016-10-16

I ran into this one today and it’s the in the category of things that I’m likely to run into again one day so it’s worth recording it here.

I was trying to configure an unattended execution account for SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 and was getting the above error.

The problem was that even though the machine is just in a workgroup, SQL Server Reporting Services Configuration Manager needs a domain or machine specified for the user name.

2016-09-01

Hi Folks,

I’ve been continuing with my Data Tales series up at sqlmag.com.

This time I’ve written about a pet hate: seeing code that counts rows when all it needs to do is to check for existence. However, all is not as bad as it seems because the optimizer does a pretty good job of protecting us from ourselves. (At least the SQL Server optimizer does )

It’s here: http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/data-tales-10-it-s-matter-existence

Enjoy !

2016-08-25

Hi Folks,

That Power Query webinar that I’m doing for the global Power BI team is on this week.

Love to see you attend.

Registration is here: https://info.microsoft.com/CO-PowerBI-WBNR-FY17-08Aug-25-PowerQuery-PowerBI-Registration.html

2016-08-24

Hi Folks,

I’ve been writing articles for SQL Server Magazine as part of my Data Tales series.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been writing a min-series about a database on a diet.

Earlier parts described the need for size reduction, how ROW and PAGE compression come into play, how to choose between them, etc.

Part 4 (the final part) is now online here:

http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/data-tales-9-case-database-diet-part-4

It covers GZIP compression of large string fields, PDF size reduction in BLOBS, and more.

2016-08-12

Hi Folks,

Want to get your head around Power Query in both Excel and Power BI Desktop?

I’ve got a webinar happening for the Power BI team later this month: https://info.microsoft.com/CO-PowerBI-WBNR-FY17-08Aug-25-PowerQuery-PowerBI-Registration.html

2016-08-05

The link below is to quite a fascinating article that on the surface is about why Uber moved to MySQL from PostgreSQL.

What it really is about is a severe limitation in how PostgreSQL indexes are updated.

With SQL Server, if you update a few columns in a row, only the indexes that have that column are updated. In PostgreSQL, all indexes still need to be updated. I understand why they’ve done that but it’s not a good outcome.

2016-08-04

It’s hard to believe that it’s only a year, given how far Power BI has come.

Many of us in the community got together under the lead of Paul Turley and Adam Saxton and created a short video for Power BI’s birthday.

Looks good:

2016-07-25

I’ve been using the Polybase services in SQL Server 2016 all throughout the pre-release period without any issue.

When I tried using them in the GA (Generally Availability) release, I could never get the two Polybase services to start. They were always stuck in a “Change Pending” state. Trying to start them in SQL Server Configuration Manager basically made SSCM look like it was hung.

Trying to use the Polybase services to create an external data source returned:

2016-07-06