• Azure - Azure CLI - devops

    Use Azure CLI…I Beg You.

    FYI-  this was the one post I had to restore manually after my blog was hacked a week back.  Its intact, but the post may appear a bit different than before, as I copied and pasted from the emailed version that occurs as part of my RSS feed.  Enjoy! Azure CLI made me feel right at home after working at Oracle in the Enterprise Manager CLI, (EMCLI)  The syntax is simple, powerful and allows an interface to manage Azure infrastructure from the command line, scripting out complex processing that would involve a lot of time in the user interface. I’d…

  • Azure

    Configuring Firewall Access for SQL Database on Azure

    Its quite common that the first time you work with a feature in a cloud interface, it can appear so foreign until you’ve done it a few times.  If it’s a task that you may not do often or only once, it can be downright painful.  It doesn’t matter who the cloud provider is or the application, we all have felt the pain of this type of situation and why some of us even started blogging…:)  Until its familiar, it may not feel comfortable and you may not even like how it works. As a newer employee at Microsoft, I’m…

  • Azure - SQLServer

    DMV for Log Statistics in SQL Server

    There aren’t too many changes to the Dynamic Management Views in SQL Server 2017, but one was mentioned that I worth a second look and often have a lot more going on than upon first look. Gif Credit: ancsy55.tumbr.com DM_DB_LOG_STATS This is an addition to SQL Server 2017 and available in Azure Database/Azure Data Warehouse to simplify and synchronize how we query information about log statistics, not just backups.  The added benefit of this is that it only requires the VIEW DATABASE STATE privilege to utilize it, which eases the demand on anyone who’s tried to grant rights to view…

  • Azure - SQLServer

    Database Scoped Configurations

    As most of you know, I’m working to update all of my SQL Server knowledge, which hasn’t gone as deep as I would like since SQL Server 2012. So there are a couple things we’re going to focus on today, first of which is the top in the list which I’ve highlighted, Legacy Cardinality Estimation: By default, this value is turned off and as the optimizer is essential to database performance and in each database platform, handled differently, it’s worth starting to disect.  The Database Scoped Configuration settings, which are database specific, and can be accessed via the SSMS, right…

  • Azure - SQLServer

    Considerations When Using SQL Server 2016 Dynamic Data Masking

    SQL Server 2016 introduced a new security feature called Dynamic Data Masking.  With the General Data Protection Regulations, (GDPR) breathing heavy down most IT in America’s neck, its good timing. “Data Masking” is a term that has a strict definition, but different results when we actually discuss the technology behind it.  The main goal is to obfuscate critical data in a non-reversible process and I deem it separate from encryption technology. With SQL Server’s Dynamic Data Masking, the original data is still present in the database, with a masking rule applied to hide the data, allowing anyone with the unmask privilege…

  • Azure - SQLServer

    Azure SQL Database- Automatic Index Management

    As I begin my education in SQL Server 2017, as well as Azure SQL Database, my attention was caught by the optimizer improvements and especially automatic tuning. Often referred to with features starting with the naming convention of “dynamic” in Oracle, many automatic features either thrill or frustrate DBAs, no matter what the platform.  The frustration enters with the features introduction and often decreases as the feature matures and becomes more stable.  With the introduction of the Automatic Tuning from Microsoft, there’s a sense of concern, but also some very promising ways Microsoft is introducing these features. With Automatic Tuning,…

  • Azure - Linux - SQLServer

    Linux for the SQL Server DBA- Part II

    So we’ve covered a few basics of a Linux host in Part I– The File System Users, groups Basic Commands with basic arguments And file and directory permissions Hopefully, what I share next will build on the first post and enhance your knowledge as you move forward with Linux. Reading the contents of a directory, gathering information on files and locating files are some of the most common tasks a DBA will perform as they work on a server.  Many of the following commands require you to “pipe” a second command onto the first.  This is done by joining the…

  • Azure - Oracle

    Preparing an AzureEnvironment- Part I

    Azure is the second most popular cloud platform to date, so it’s where Delphix naturally is going to support second on our road to the cloud.  As I start to work with the options for us deploying Delphix, there are complexities I need to educate myself on in Azure.  As we’re just starting out, there’s a lot to learn and a lot of automation we can take advantage of.  It’s an excellent time for me to get up to speed with this cloud platform, so hopefully everyone will learn right along with me! We’ll be using Terraform to deploy to…