SQL Server Radio

Guy and Eitan discuss the recent CrowdStrike incident and what it would mean for DBAs, and discuss options to load huge CSV files into SQL Server as fast as possible.

Relevant links:

• 101 of Troubleshooting SQL Server on Linux - Microsoft Community Hub
• bcp utility - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Altering lock escalation for SQL Server tables (mssqltips.com)
• dbatools docs | Import-DbaCsv
• A Fast Way to Load Large CSV Files into Microsoft SQL Server | by Sasha Korovkina

Guy and Eitan discuss some important and interesting news from Microsoft about SQL Server, Straight Path Solutions publish 30 articles about SQL Server security checks, Guy talks about his experience with Excel, and Eitan is irritated about people still not doing SQL jobs correctly in AlwaysOn Availability Groups.

Relevant links:

• SQLBits Free Videos - YouTube
• JSON data type (preview) - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Efficient Time-Based Audit Log Filtering for Azure SQL Database - Microsoft Community Hub
• UNISTR and ANSI SQL concatenation operator (||) (microsoft.com)
• SQL Server on Azure VMs: I/O analysis (preview) - Microsoft Community Hub
• Announcing the retirement of SQL Server Stretch Database - Microsoft SQL Server Blog
• 30 SQL Server Security Checks in 30 Days Archives - Straight Path Solutions
• Use Sparse Columns - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• SQL Server Jobs & AlwaysOn Interoperability | HADRMyJobs

Guy and Eitan continue discussing HADR solutions. But this time focusing on Transactional Replication, its cons and pros and potential use cases.

Also, some important announcements from Microsoft about Azure SQL!

Relevant links:

• Data API builder General Availability (microsoft.com)
• Build REST API with Azure Data API Builder (DAB) (mssqltips.com)
• Zero ETL, Near-real time replication, Mirroring Azure SQL Databases in Fabric (microsoft.com)
• Announcing EAP for Vector Support in Azure SQL Database - Azure SQL Devs’ Corner (microsoft.com)
• Update Policy for Azure SQL Managed Instance - Microsoft Community Hub
• Transactional Replication - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• MadeiraData/ReplicationManagementMechanism: Use SQL Server database tables to manage and configure Transactional Replication, and set it up easily between publishers and subscribers using stored procedures (github.com)

Guy and Eitan discuss the various High Availability and Disaster Recovery options available to us in Microsoft SQL Server, their main advantages, limitations, and when it's most suitable to use or not to use them.

Relevant links for further reading:

• AlwaysOn Basic Availability Groups / Database Mirroring
• AlwaysOn "Enterprize" Availability Groups
• Failover Cluster Instance
• Log Shipping
• Transactional Replication

Guy and Eitan talk about some interesting news from Microsoft about SQL Server in Azure.

And also discuss the topic of Backups and Recovery, RTO, RPO, RCO, and database Integrity Checks.

Relevant links:

• Microsoft Copilot in Azure extends capabilities to Azure SQL Database (Private Preview) - Microsoft Community Hub
• Regex in SQL DB (microsoft.com)
• SQL Server Regular Expressions Library Sample - Microsoft Community Hub
• STRING_SPLIT (Transact-SQL) - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Do You Have a Proper Backup Strategy? (madeiradata.com)
• CHECKDB From Every Angle: Consistency Checking Options for a VLDB - Paul S. Randal (sqlskills.com)
• Where to Run DBCC on Always On Availability Groups - Brent Ozar Unlimited®

Also, check out our previous episode, if you haven't yet:

SQL Server Radio: Episode 161 - EXCLUSIVE: Announcing the Biggest Innovation for Azure SQL Managed Instances (Codename: Hermes)

Niko Neugebauer and Vladimir Ivanovic are our esteemed guests for today, and they have a HUGE announcement to make about Azure SQL Managed Instances.

Extra! Extra! 🗞 Hear all about it on this exclusive scoop here at the SQL Server Radio podcast!

Relevant links:

• Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-gen GP (microsoft.com)
• Use Next-gen General Purpose service tier - Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn
• Try for free (preview) - Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn
• Next-gen General Purpose service tier brings 500 user dbs, improved storage and more to Azure #SQLMI (youtube.com) (2 min video)

Guy tries to convince Eitan that OPTION(RECOMPILE) is the ultimate "Turbo" button in SQL Server, and that it's strongly underappreciated.

Relevant links for more info:

• OPTION(RECOMPILE) (Transact-SQL) - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Recompile a Stored Procedure - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Should I use option(recompile)? – SQLServerCentral
• SQL SERVER - Parameter Sniffing and OPTION (RECOMPILE) - SQL Authority with Pinal Dave

Guy and Eitan discuss various practices in SQL Server that hurt performance and possibly waste money, negative VarDecimal numbers, renumbering Identity columns, and the new Azure Database Fleet Manager.

Relevant links:

• SQL Server IN Clause With Multiple Literal Values Performance Behaviour | Neeraj Prasad Sharma
• Could SQL Injection be dangerous even when perfectly safe? | Eitan Blumin
• The Anatomy of Vardecimals | Mark S. Rasmussen
• Utility Scripts/ReNumber_Identity_Column.sql
• Introducing Azure Database Fleet Manager

Also, Happy New Year! 🎉🎈🥂

Guy and Eitan talk about some great things about SQL Server, and mostly Guy’s experience in digging into execution plans and generating synthetic IO workloads.

Relevant links:

• What’s new in SQL Server and Azure SQL 2023 Year in Review

• Multi-Tenancy in the Real World | Eitan Blumin (Data Weekender 6.5)

Guy and Eitan go back to their SQL Server roots and go hardcore into execution plan analysis and database corruption.

Relevant links:

• Health Check Scripts/Find_Top_Exec_Plans_to_Optimize.sql

• SQLServerFast.com

• Database Corruption Challenge by Steve Steadman

• A DBA's Guide to the Proper Handling of Corruption

• Data TLV Summit

• PASS Data Community Summit