Periodically people post looking for an answer to the following error message which is also shown in Figure 1. Frequently zebra diagnoses are presented as the response. In healthcare, a zebra diagnosis is when you overlook the simple and the obvious. If you hear hoof beats, you should think of horses before you think of zebras. The Windows Azure ...

Several customers have told me that the time it takes to back up their databases is taking longer than they are comfortable with. Others have told me their backups take a long time but they don’t mind. Whatever the case, getting things done more quickly is usually worth at least a quick look. There are two basic approaches to speeding up a ...

Microsoft is now offering a preview version of Azure Operational Insights, which is a cloud based server monitoring solution and replacement for System Center Advisor. I decided to try it out on my desktop’s default installation of SQL Server 2014. I picked this SQL Server instance because it’s not configured how I would configure a production ...

Last week Microsoft released a preview of the next version of Azure SQL Database, which is available now in a preview version. The feature set is nearly complete when compared to the standalone version of SQL Server 2014 and a clustered index on every table is no longer required. To help highlight the differences, I’ve used the SQL Database ...

Azure is great for sharing reproductions on difficult problems. I managed to reproduce an application problem in a virtual machine on my laptop. It’s really not reasonable to ask for others to help me after following a long set of steps to build a matching test environment. Besides, something could go wrong. I had the perfect test case, but only ...

The proper place to seek help is MSDN. The SQL Server forums are found at https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/home?forum=sqldatabaseengine. The forums are moderated and are specifically for problem resolution.

SQL Server Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI) is the replacement for Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS). SSDT-BI is a 32-bit application. If you have 64-bit Office installed instead of 32-bit Office, you will encounter problems when attempting to create SSIS packages that use Excel files. This is easily resolved by ...

Thanks, Greg. I've had several people ask for help in "finding" the templates that used to be in BIDS, which is why I made this post.

The Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) does not come with SQL Server 2014 like it did in previous versions of SQL Server. Furthermore, it has been renamed as SQL Server Data Tools Business Intelligence. If you have Visual Studio 2012, download this. If you have Visual Studio 2013, download this. I recommend that you download and save ...

Creating your first SQL Database in Azure is quick and easy. There are a few things I’ve discovered that might help you be successful faster. Many people have asked me how to get started, so I’ve provided these steps to success. The steps I show you aren’t the only way to achieve success. This is an adaptation of one of my Azure demos. First, you ...