The Bit Bucket

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

https://use-the-index-luke.com/blog/2016-07-29/on-ubers-choice-of-databases

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

With SQL Server (and MySQL), 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 I can see why users might not want that behavior.

2016-08-04

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

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

Several of my customers lately have mentioned that when they’ve added a node to a Windows failover cluster for supporting an Availability Group, that they’ve ended up with an outage because the non-shared drives have been taken offline by the installation process. All commented that it didn’t use to happen on Windows Server 2008 R2 and they were taken by surprise when it happened on Windows Server 2012 R2.

I mentioned it in the MVP list and one of my US buddies Allan Hirt said that we need to uncheck the relevant checkbox during the install.

2016-05-02

One of the 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. I’m really struggling with seeing how it would really work.

So it was great to get an opportunity to speak to Joe Yong to get all my questions sorted. I’m not sure he’s convinced me yet but I’d love to hear your opinions.

2016-05-01

Last week I had an opportunity to record a new podcast with Kasper DeJonge from the SQL Server Analysis Services team. Kasper has also been working on Power Pivot and many other areas.

SQL Server 2016 is lining up to be a great release for Analysis Services with significant enhancements for both tabular and multi-dimensional data models.

I hope you enjoy the show. You’ll find it here:

https://sqldownunder.com/podcast

2016-04-09

I spend a lot of my time working with ISVs (or software houses) and with individual developers. For SQL Server to have a long-term future, we need to be appealing to more and more new developers, to get them to understand that SQL Server is a great platform for building their applications above.

One of the most important aspects of this right up front, is making it really frictionless to get started with SQL Server.

2016-04-04

Hi Folks,

I recently got to record a new podcast with Riccardo Muti and Chris Finlan from the SQL Server Reporting Services team.

Over recent years, Reporting Services seemed to be in a rut without forward momentum.

2016 however promises to be a really big year for Reporting Services.

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

Enjoy!

2016-03-13

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,

We’ve taken a fairly long break but now back into the swing for SQL Server 2016 and Power BI.

The first of the new series of shows is a show on the current state of Power BI with Jen Underwood.

You’ll find it here: SQL Down Under Podcast

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2015-12-27