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News about SQL Server and the SQL Server Community
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I just finished my last stop on my “World Tour”. The cities included Toronto, Johannesburg,
Hong Kong, Sydney, Milan, and Singapore. I missed South America and Antarctica
on this “tour”, but I hit the other continents.
I was part of a global team assembled from Microsoft and DB Best to
train partners on how to migrate customers from Oracle to SQL Server. Each event was four days. The first day of the Oracle Migration
Bootcamp was focused on customer discussions about licensing and, the latest
version of SQL Server 2016, and some of the challenges with a migration. The final 3 days were more technical in
nature and included Hands-On Labs which went through some of the typical steps
that you may encounter during a migration from Oracle to SQL Server. Many of the concepts and tools that we
covered could be used for other data platforms as well. BTW, Microsoft currently has an offer for
FREE SQL Licenses if you migrate from a competitive data platform – see your
local MSFT rep for details as some restrictions apply. J
One common theme that I found in our discussions with
partners around the world is that Oracle is expensive everywhere in the
world. Several partners had customer
stories about how expensive Oracle is and some of the software audits that took
place with their customers that resulted in additional licensing costs. One partner told me about a customer who had inadvertently
queried one of the DBA_HIST_ system views that is part of the Performance and
Tuning pack. Just querying the wrong one
can trigger the purchase of the additional pack without any warning. In the story, the customer had an additional
$300k of licensing because of this which was totally unexpected.
I always knew that SQL Server Licensing was simpler and
cheaper, but this view was re-enforced many times over. Also, everything
related to Oracle just seems a little more difficult. This is from just
connecting to the database to setting up an environment to licensing. For example, if a RAC configuration is going
to be stood up, this is normally a multi-day (perhaps multi-week) activity with
getting all the specific patches and combination of configuration options
correct while an AlwaysOn Availability Group environment can be put together in
a matter of hours (perhaps less).
On a personal note, it was great to see the far corners of
the world, but I also lost a lot of weekends travelling to these faraway places
and recovering after the trip home. I did not circumnavigate the globe as the
scheduling of these events was not conducive to that which meant a series of
back and forth trips. On the bright
side, I have a huge head start on my air mileage accumulation for the year. J
Overall, I enjoyed the experience. I saw some #SQLFamily
along the way and made some new friends. I would like to do this type of thing
again, but just not right now. J
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It was recently pointed out that there is no official event scheduled for Thursday night the week of the PASS Summit this year. I am fine with that. By the time Thursday rolls around, I might want to use that time to catch up on sleep. :-) Seriously, the Thursday night party was fun, but it wasn't a necessary thing IMHO. By the time Thursday rolls around, each attendee should already have met enough people to figure out something to do. There are some great spots to eat near the WSCC and some sights to see that aren't too far away. in the early years of the PASS Summit when I first attended, we had a free night, or there was a low key event at the convention center just to have something to do. I think this also presents a great opportunity for the exhibitors to perhaps have a private event to connect with those attendees to further discussions on products/services or to just get more familiar with each other. The week long schedule has always been jammed packed with little opportunity for these private events to flourish. My favorite night is Tuesday night at the welcome reception where you reconnect with old friends, meet new people, and feel the anticipation of a great week ahead. Once again, I am looking forward to the Summit!
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I was originally schedule in the 24th slot of the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS which was to begin at 7am ET on May 26. I called it the Grand Finale. As with many events, schedule conflicts arise. So, the Grand Finale session will now be referred to me as the Grant Finale session. Grant Fritchey will now be speaking at 7am ET on May 26. My session will be where Grant's was before the change - May 25 @7pm ET.. See the entire schedule here: http://www.sqlpass.org/24hours/2016/edp/Schedule.aspx My original post about this incarnation of 24 Hours of PASS is here: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/rick_heiges/archive/2016/05/18/24-hours-of-pass-evolution-of-the-data-platform.aspx Register Today!
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I am honored that I was selected to present my session "Winning with Column Store: A Customer Story" for the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS event. Details about my session and the 23 other sessions may be found here - http://www.sqlpass.org/Events/24HoursofPASS.aspx I want to thank the other speakers for the preceding sessions warming up the crowd for me. :-) Yep, my session is the last one for this event which will start at 7am ET on May 26. 24 Hours of PASS kicks off on May 25 at 8am ET. There is a lineup of great sessions with extraordinary speakers - so don't let this opportunity to learn about the latest innovations of the Microsoft Data Platform. If you know my history, I am very excited to be a part of the content for this event! I first led the effort for this event back in 2009 and have volunteered to help out with this event when I can. Thankfully, we no longer need to deal with some of the limitations that LiveMeeting forced on us, but LiveMeeting served our needs for the first few years. This session is a bit different for me. Often my sessions are focused on how a particular feature or technology works or how to get started on a path to get to the next step. Although we will highlight some technical details and go over some index basics, I think the more interesting discussion will be around the decisions that we made in this time boxed pilot for this customer. As the title points out, this is a story from a customer engagement earlier this year. The session is designed to walk you through the experience as closely as possible and to cover the actions taken to get to the test which shows the magic of the Column Store index. We had to make some compromises along the way which I will call out. Our proving ground offered some challenges that never got to where I wanted it to be, but we made due with what we had and did not let "Perfect" be the enemy of the "good" or "good enough". I really want to encourage everyone to attend. I also invite you to let your co-workers, friends, customers, and even developers know about the event. I was fortunate enough to be able to present this session locally at two user group meetings in NC over the past few weeks. I received valuable feedback that will make this session even better on May 26. I look forward to seeing you at the event!
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Since SQL Server 2012, Database Mirroring (DBM) has been a
deprecated feature meaning that it will be eventually removed in a future
version of SQL Server. It is still
available in SQL Server 2016. One of the
best things about DBM is that it was a limited feature in Standard Edition
since SQL Server 2005. The AG feature first introduced in SQL Server 2012 was
the successor of DBM, but there were some details which prevented it from being
offered at the Standard Edition level such as the requirement for Active
Directory Domain security.
To address the eventual removal of DBM from SQL Server,
Microsoft has created a new level of AG called a Basic Availability Group. It is to be very similar to the pros/cons of
DBM in Standard Edition today. The
following represent a summary of the new Basic AG:
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Maximum of Two (2) Replicas (the Primary and one secondary)
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One (1) database per AG
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The Secondary Replica is not Active/Readable,
but a Database Snapshot could still be utilized
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Microsoft Clustering Services(MSCS) Required -
No Witness – MSCS detects failover via quorum
Due to this new term of Basic
Availability Group, the current term of Availability Group may also be referenced as Advanced Availability Group going forward. One other difference between DBM and a Basic AG is that the Basic AG supports both Synchronous and Asynchronous modes. DBM only supported Synchronous mode. I believe the main reason for this change is to make it easier for the secondary replica to be in an Azure VM. DBM is still in SQL Server 2016; I would have to believe that it will not be in the next release of SQL Server - whenever that is.
Here is another blog post about SQL Server 2016 Availability Groups. http://sqlblog.com/blogs/rick_heiges/archive/2016/01/20/new-article-what-s-new-in-sql-server-2016-availability-groups.aspx
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I am pleased to announce that I had another article published at TechTarget.com (SearchSQLServer.com). The topic is focused on what's new in SQL Server 2016 Availability Groups. I actually created this article a while back and finally got published. It does not have information about Basic Availability Groups, but I will be blogging about that soon in another post soon to follow. Here is the link: http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/feature/Whats-new-in-2016s-SQL-Server-AlwaysOn-Availability-Groups Enjoy! Follow-up Note: Here is a link to the follow-up blog post on Basic AGs. http://sqlblog.com/blogs/rick_heiges/archive/2016/01/21/basic-availability-groups-in-sql-server-2016.aspx
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I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at SQL Saturday 470 in Bethesda, MD at the Microsoft MTC on Dec 5! The event is already sold out with a waiting list! http://www.sqlsaturday.com/470/eventhome.aspx My topic is "First Look at SQL Server 2016". Microsoft has been busy working on the next version of SQL Server - SQL Server 2016. We will go over some of the new features at a high level and dig deeper on Row Level Security and StretchDB. Row Level Security allows you to add another layer of security to your environment. StretchDB will allow you to transparently place part or all of a table into a SQL Azure DB freeing up your valuable SAN space for data that is COLD.I also plan on being available throughout the day to answer questions on SQL Server 2016 to the best of my ability. I am currently scheduled for the first session in the morning. I hope to see you there! After my session is complete, I will try to find a table perhaps near the vendors to answer any questions that you may have about SQL Server 2016.
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I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at SQL Saturday 452 in Charlotte on Oct 17! Last year, this event had a great turnout. Be a part of it this year! Register Now! http://www.sqlsaturday.com/452/eventhome.aspx My topic is "First Look at SQL Server 2016". Microsoft has been busy working on the next version of SQL Server - SQL Server 2016. We will go over some of the new features at a high level and dig deeper on Row Level Security and StretchDB. Row Level Security allows you to add another layer of security to your environment. StretchDB will allow you to transparently place part or all of a table into a SQL Azure DB freeing up your valuable SAN space for data that is COLD.I also plan on being available throughout the day to answer questions on SQL Server 2016 to the best of my ability. This should be a great event! Help make great by being part of it! See you there!
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Introduction
Recently, an article of mine was published by TechTarget.com
on the SearchSQLServer.com site titled “An introduction to SQL Server 2016
dynamic data masking” which can be found here.
I encourage you to read the article in order to get the most out of this blog post and to better understand this feature. This article was based on the SQL Server
2016 CTP 2.2 release. Since CTP 2.4 was
recently released, I decided to run my script from the article and look for
behavior differences.
The Difference
Everything in my script worked the same except for where I
test using a “SELECT INTO” approach to get around the data masking. Here is the code snippet and result from the
article.
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Execute as user = 'TestUser';
Select * INTO dbo.maskemployee
from dbo.employee;
REVERT;
Grant select on maskemployee to
TestUser;
Execute as user = 'TestUser';
Select * from dbo.maskemployee;
REVERT;
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When I ran this portion of my script in CTP 2.4, I was happy
to see that the security hole had been addressed. The “SELECT INTO” now creates the maskemployee table with the masked data
INSTEAD of the real data. On a side
note, I also ran this script in CTP 2.3; the behavior was the same as CTP 2.2.
What about Azure SQL Database?
The Azure SQL Database preview was also recently
updated. I am happy to report that the
above behavior is consistent with that outlined above. One other note that I’d like to make about
Dynamic Data Masking in Azure is that there are now suggestions for columns to
be masked and also suggestions of what type of mask to use when navigating the
blades. I think that this is a good idea
for those just starting to play with this feature, but that it will most likely
go unused once the user is more experienced
Summary
As SQL Server 2016 gets closer to release next year, the CTP
releases show progress on how the team at Microsoft is moving forward. I imagine the team is starting to move into
the “fit & finish” phase of some of these features. I continue to look forward to see what’s
next.
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I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at SQL Saturday #445 on October 10, 2015! When I first moved to North Carolina 25 years ago, I moved to Raleigh. The Triangle is a great place to live and raise a family. There is still time to register. Go to the following link: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/445/eventhome.aspx My topic is "First Look at SQL Server 2016". Microsoft has been busy working on the next version of SQL Server - SQL Server 2016. We will go over some of the new features at a high level and dig deeper on Row Level Security and StretchDB. Row Level Security allows you to add another layer of security to your environment. StretchDB will allow you to transparently place part or all of a table into a SQL Azure DB freeing up your valuable SAN space for data that is COLD.I also plan on being available throughout the day to answer questions on SQL Server 2016 to the best of my ability. This should be a great event! Help make great by being part of it! See you there!
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I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at SQL Saturday #440 on October 3, 2015! I am originally from Western PA and it is always good to get back "Home". This will be my 3rd time at this SQL Saturday event. There is still time to register. Go to the following link: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/440/eventhome.aspx My topic is "First Look at SQL Server 2016". Microsoft has been busy working on the next version of SQL Server - SQL Server 2016. We will go over some of the new features at a high level and dig deeper on Row Level Security and StretchDB. Row Level Security allows you to add another layer of security to your environment. StretchDB will allow you to transparently place part or all of a table into a SQL Azure DB freeing up your valuable SAN space for data that is COLD.I also plan on being available throughout the day to answer questions on SQL Server 2016 to the best of my ability. This should be a great event! Help make great by being part of it! See you there!
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I will once again be going to the PASS Summit. This year I will have a 10 minute Lightning Talk on Rethinking the Resume. Essentially, we will discuss various ways to make your Resume stand out and show some examples of how others have rethought their resume. I have reviewed 100s of resumes over the years and I want to share several that stood out. Perhaps you will get an idea on how to make your resume stand out. If you haven't registered yet, what are you waiting for? It is a week long celebration of being a data professional. It is a great place to Connect with your peers, Share a Tip / Story / Issue, and Learn how too make your life easier. Here's a link so that you can register. http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2015/RegisterNow.aspx The summit has been a success for many years and while many things change, many things stay the same. I wrote a series of blog posts about what to expect at the summit. Although there will be some differences, these blog posts are still relevant for this year. Below is a link to the Summary Blog post. http://sqlblog.com/blogs/rick_heiges/archive/2011/09/19/pass-summit-2011-what-you-can-expect-at-the-conference-summary.aspx Hope to see you there!
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The following is an observation and not a swipe at the process. As I understand the current process, the regional seats are filled first before the open seats are filled. We have 4 excellent candidates running for 3 seats on the PASS BoD this year. One seat is earmarked for EMEA; one is for US/Canada; and one is open. We have 1 candidate that qualifies for the EMEA seat - Jen Stirrup. This means that Jen will be re-elected. The remaining three candidates are all eligible for the other two seats - one US/Canada and one Open. When you cast your vote, there are three main scenarios as I see it: - Scenario 1: Don't vote for Jen and cast three votes for the other candidates. This effectively means that you voted but really did not vote. BTW, I am not advocating that you don't vote for Jen - this is an observation on the situation and no endorsement is put forth here. - Scenario 2: You vote for Jen and you need to pick 1 or 2 of the others - OR - you don't vote for Jen and cast only two votes for the other candidates. This will at least make your vote impact the results in some aspect. Again, there is no advocacy here to support or not support any particular candidate. - Scenario 3: You only cast a vote for the ONE candidate that you feel most strongly about. Perhaps this magnifies your vote the most. Again, I am just illustrating how you vote impacts the results. As an aside, you can't vote more than once for a particular candidate; in other words you can't cast all three of your votes for Candidate A. At this point, I am unsure of what I am going to do. But I will vote. I hope that this blog post will make you do some additional research on the candidates before deciding how to cast your vote. I'm sure that all of these candidates want to make sure that you have an informed opinion when you cast your vote. Go Research and then Go Vote!
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My latest article on a new feature (Dynamic Data Masking) coming to SQL Server 2016 and Azure is now available. Dynamic Data Masking essentially displays characters instead of real data to non-privileged users. The data is not stored as a masked values. As with anything, there are pros and cons with this approach. It is another tool in the toolbelt to help keep data secure. Combining DDM with other security features may be the right solution for your situation. Here is the link to the article. Enjoy!
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SQL Saturday finally comes to South Dakota! Register Now! - http://www.sqlsaturday.com/427/eventhome.aspx Here are some of the other featured speakers: Database Snapshots - Making Your Job Easier Paul Timmerman Continuous Integration for Databases Steve Jones Developing SQL Skills Panel Discussion I will be doing a session titled "A First Look at SQL Server 2016" which will first highlight the new features coming out in the next version and also focus on two features that I have had more exposure to - Row Level Security and StretchDB If you are in the area, please drop by and experience SQL Saturday for yourself. Best of all - it is FREE!
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