Today we have Kevin Chant as our guest!

We talk about Kevin’s favorite topics: Microsoft Fabric, Azure DevOps, SQL Server, and more.

Relevant links:

• https://www.kevinrchant.com/2023/06/13/create-your-own-microsoft-fabric-environment/

Guy and Eitan discuss several interesting topics and recent experiences that you'd want to hear about!

Relevant links:

• Trigram Wildcard String Search in SQL Server
• The Story of DBeaver, PostgreSQL, and the silly data engineer
• SQL Server Error Log Management
• High VLF Counts Got You Down? Here's How to Keep Them Low and Performance High

As promised in the previous episode, Guy and Eitan interview an actual human this time!

The one and only, the famed Erik Darling is our guest for today!

Check out his official website:

• Erik Darling Data
• Erik Darling's YouTube Channel

We apologize in advance for Guy's occasional audio glitches, as he was having network issues on the day of recording.

Guy and Eitan try something new for today's show - we interview ChatGPT as our guest for today, and make it pretend that it's a SQL Server expert!

Let's see how it does.

Relevant links:

• Monitor performance by using the Query Store
• Brent Ozar Unlimited
• SQLSkills
• Scary DBA
• SQL Authority
• PASS Data Community Summit
• SQLBits
• GroupBy Virtual Conference
• Data Platform Summit

Guy and Eitan share their experience from SQLBits 2023 and some of their favorite sessions.

Relevant links:

• Official SQLBits Website
• SQLBits Content Library
• SQLBits YouTube Channel
• SQL Server Debugging with WinDbg – an Introduction
• Join #TeamHugo and Help Fight Leukemia
• Parameter Sensitive Plan optimization
• Azure Functions overview
• GitHub CoPilot

Guy and Eitan discuss some new and existing capabilities in the SQL Server engine related to Intelligent Query Processing, and whether our job positions as DBAs are at risk due to the imminent takeover by our robot overlords.

Relevant links:

• Intelligent Query Processing
• Adaptive Joins (Batch)
• Intelligent Query Processing Feedback family of features
• Parameter Sensitive Plan Optimization
• Scalar UDF Inlining

Guy and Eitan list several common mistakes done by DBAs in SQL Server.

Some relevant links:

• Architecting Database Dev and Test Environments: Best Practices and Anti-Patterns for SQL Server
• Ola Hallengren's Maintenance Solution
• HADR My Jobs - Open Source Solution by Madeira
• Columnstore Indexes: Planning and Implementation
• TSQL Script to Check for Weak Passwords
• Script to Check for Max DOP Configuration Best Practice

Today we have the pleasure of hosting Rob Sewell, and talking about the upcoming SQLBits event of 2023!

Relevant links:

• SQLBits 2023 agenda, speakers, pricing, and registration - events.sqlbits.com/2023
• YouTube playlist of all 195 sessions from SQLBits 2022 - available for free!
• SQLBits helpers form - beard.media/sqlbits-helpers
• Rob Sewell's blog - blog.robsewell.com

Guy and Eitan finally celebrate the generally available release of SQL Server 2022! And also discuss other announcements from PASS Data Community Summit, and also various interesting news and features of Azure SQL announced in November 2022.

Relevant links:

• SQL Server 2022 is now generally available
• Consumption-based PAYG billing model for SQL Server 2022 on-prem
• PASS Data Community Summit
• Hug a DBA song by Killa DBA
• SQL Server 2022 song by Killa DBA
• The SQL Server Native Client has been removed from SQL Server 2022 (16.x) and SQL Server Management Studio 19 (SSMS). Switch to the new Microsoft OLE DB Driver (MSOLEDBSQL) for SQL Server or the latest Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server going forward.
• Mid-November 2022 Public Preview updates to Azure SQL
  • Azure SQL database external REST endpoints integration in public preview
• Mid-November 2022 General Availability updates to Azure SQL
• Public Preview Azure SQL Managed Instance feature wave for November 2022
• General Availability Azure SQL Managed Instance feature wave for November 2022
• Learn more about the November 2022 Feature Wave for Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Azure SQL - General availability updates for late November 2022
• Azure SQL - Public preview updates for late November 2022
• DR Secondary licensing is free with Azure VM and SQL Managed Instance in PAYG model

Guy and Eitan play a game of word associations to spout a bunch of stuff about SQL Server features - mostly reviewing new system objects that replaced old DBCC commands, useful scripts in our toolbox, and talking about Application Reliability Errors.

Relevant links:

• Buffer Pool Extension
• SQL Server editions comparison dashboard by domains, features, and scale capacities – by Romain Ferraton
• SQL Server Standard vs Enteprise Edition features history – by Romain Ferraton
• SQL Server Scale Limits by Version and Edition - by Eitan Blumin
• sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors
• Madeira Toolbox: Buffer Pool Distribution by Tables.sql
• Get the last known actual execution plan using sys.dm_exec_query_plan_stats
• sys.dm_db_page_info
• sys.dm_db_log_info
• sys.dm_db_stats_properties
• sys.dm_db_stats_histogram
• Madeira Toolbox: Shrink All Shrinkable Transaction Logs.sql
• Madeira Toolbox: Shrink_Transaction_Log_File.sql
• Madeira Toolbox: Application_Reliability_Monitor_SQLServer.sql
• Madeira Toolbox: Application_Reliability_Monitor_AzureSQLDB.sql
• PASS Data Community Summit 2022 - Register now!