Exploring Azure Storage for SQL Server DBAs
If you need to run SQL Server in an Azure Virtual Machine, your choice of Azure storage will have a great effect on its performance. If performance is important, you are likely to discover complications and barriers in the storage options when you come to provision the server. If you get it wrong, you could end up with an expensive service. Joshua explains the value of using a lab environment to allow you to make well-informed VM storage decisions when the time comes to provision your production system. … Read more
How to Build Your First SQL Server Virtual Lab in Windows Azure
If you are a DBA who hasn't so far dived in head-first into using Azure, it is worth setting up an Azure 'Virtual Lab' environment the easy way, using a template. This will then allow you to experiment, try things out with SQL Azure, and get familiar with Resource Groups. Joshua shows how to build a virtual lab, from the ground up in the first of a series that aims to give you a grounding in Azure.… Read moreWhy Would I Ever Need to Partition My Big ‘Raw’ Data?
Whether you are running an RDBMS, or a Big Data system, it is important to consider your data-partitioning strategy. As the volume of data grows, so it becomes increasingly important to match the way you partition your data to the way it is queried, to allow 'pruning' optimisation. When you have huge imports of data to consider, it can get complicated. Bartosz explains how to get things right; not perfect but wisely.… Read more
How to Start Big Data with Apache Spark
It is worth getting familiar with Apache Spark because it a fast and general engine for large-scale data processing and you can use you existing SQL skills to get going with analysis of the type and volume of semi-structured data that would be awkward for a relational database. With an IDE such as Databricks you can very quickly get hands-on experience with an interesting technology.… Read more
Azure SQL Data Warehouse: Explaining the Architecture Through System Views
The architecture of Azure SQL Data Warehouse isn't easy to explain briefly, but if you have some useful queries that access the management and catalog views, and diagrams that show how they relate together, you can very quickly get a feel for what is going on under the hood. By using and extending these queries that use these views, you can check on a variety waits, blocking, status, table distribution and data movement in ASDW.… Read more
SQL Database: How to Configure Active Geo-Replication
Active Geo-location is powerful magic for ensuring the high availability of a Azure SQL database, and for disaster-recovery. In choosing the best options, you need to accurately understand the value that the business places on the service you're running, long it will take for a secondary replica to be in synch with the primary replica, the importance of spreading the location of replicas widely, and the maximum tolerable unscheduled downtime. Just clicking all the options could prove to be expensive. … Read more
Azure SQL Database – How to Choose the Right Service Tier
So you've decided to use Azure SQL Database. You head for the portal and are suddenly faced with a number of questions. Sure, the choices you make have a number of repercussions, but what are they? You need a simple guide to get started.… Read moreWindows Containers and Docker
Windows Server 2016 features support for containers. These are not Linux-based, but containers that run on Windows and run Windows on the inside. These conform to the Open Container Initiative (OCI). They allow you to run applications insulated from the rest of the system, within portable containers that include everything an application needs to be fully functional. As they did with Linux, containers will change the nature of the software supply chain for Windows users.… Read more
Using SSIS to Load Data Into Azure SQL Data Warehouse
It is a good time to get familiar with Azure SQL Data Warehouse. The first objective must be to get data into it. SSIS is a good way to start, and it's certainly worth gaining confidence with the ETL processes supported by SSIS before setting off in other directions. Rob Sheldon provides a simple guide to getting up and running.… Read moreTaking Azure SQL Data Warehouse for a Test-Drive
Azure SQL Data Warehouse uses SQL to query the data, but there are some differences to SQL Server's dialect of TSQL, and queries don't necessarily work in the same way. DBAs are also required to use SSDT to access Azure SQL Data Warehouse. It is worth taking the time to try the preview of the product, and take it for a 'spin around the block', following Robert Sheldon's walk-through.… Read moreConnecting to SQL Data Warehouse
The most frustrating thing with any new system is often just working out how to connect to it. Oddly, you can't use SSMS with SQL Data Warehouse, but it is fine with SSDT, SSIS, Power BI desktop, sqlcmd, BCP, and a range of Microsoft cloud services - there are PowerShell Cmdlets too. Rob Sheldon provides the details.… Read moreGetting Started with Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Azure SQL Data Warehouse is an obvious first-step towards migrating on-premise organisational data to the cloud. So how do you get started with it? Robert Sheldon provides a simple guide that should provide you with sufficient of the the basics you need to get a SQL Data Warehouse database up and running.… Read moreComparing Networking Options in Azure
What are your options for connecting to an Azure VM? Sure, a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection will get you started but you'll soon need a full secure VPN connection. Azure can provide three different options for doing this: Point-to-Site (P2S), Site-to-Site (S2S), and ExpressRoute, but what are their relative advantages, and which one is right for the way you need to use Azure? … Read more
In Search of the Cortana Analytics Suite
Cortana Analytics Suite is important and significant, but it is difficult to work out why or how from the existing 'information'. After more setbacks than Dr Livingstone, Bob Sheldon emerged from the jungle of marketing hyperbole triumphantly with a small diagram which explained it. Here he reveals the individual components, and finds them, in combination, to be a curiously interesting attempt to bring Big Data under contro… Read moreAzure SQL Data Warehouse
Azure SQL Data Warehouse is a fully-managed and scalable cloud service. It is still in preview, but solid. Not only is it compatible with several other Azure offerings, such as Machine Learning and Data Factory, but also with various existing SQL Server tools and Microsoft products. It talks Power BI. Are we now seeing the final piece of the Azure jigsaw fall into place?… Read moreUsing Azure KeyVault with Node.js
Some of the most intractable problems of application design are concerned with how to store credentials for accessing sensitive application data, keys and, configuration settings in code. With Azure Key Vault you don't have to. You can, instead just authorise an application to access and use a Key Vault and perform operations that require authentication against a KeyVault. Christos Matskas shows how an application can interact with the service, using a node.JS application as an example.… Read more
How to Build and Deploy Azure IaaS VMs with PowerShell
The whole point of using a cloud service is to be able to use it intensively for a brief period just when it is needed and then clear out all your work when you've finished. This means automation to make the process as quick and easy as possible. It is likely to mean creating a VM, provisioning it from scratch and spinning it up using PowerShell. Relax, grab the popcorn, and let Adam Bertram show you how he does it in Azure.… Read moreSetting Up and Configuring an Azure Key Vault
No longer do developers need to store sensitive application data, keys and, configuration settings in code - Azure Key Vault can store them for our applications on the cloud. Christos Matskas shows how to provision a new Key Vault in Azure using the Azure PowerShell cmdlets, and how to authorise an application to access and use a Key Vault.… Read moreApplication Security with Azure Key Vault
The name 'Azure Key Vault' hides a valuable Azure service that allows us to easily protect our Cloud data by putting sound cryptography in Cloud applications without having to store or manage the keys or secrets. This makes it far easier to manage cloud data in applications in a way that that complies with industry-standards for sensitive data.… Read moreJoin Simple Talk
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