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Articles by Fox SQL
Understanding Microsoft Purview Pricing – SQLServerCentral
Ever since its official launch around October 2021, Microsoft Purview has been one of the more popular services in Azure, with a steady stream of new features expanding the product greatly beyond its base GA. For those new to Purview, its a multi-faceted service which includes features such as meta-data catalogue/repository/search, deep scanning and classifications, security/policy features, data sharing, etc – you can see the full details here on MS Docs.
Timeseries Analytics Capabilities, and Azure Data Explorer (ADX) – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] I’ve had a few recent conversations where customers/partners were encountering scale concerns in existing timeseries database applications hosted outside of Azure, and wished to explore the native services in Azure to support their list of critical analytical requirements. After reviewing the list my mind immediately went to the awesome Azure Data Explorer (ADX).
Timeseries Analytics Capabilities, and Azure Data Explorer (ADX) – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] I’ve had a few recent conversations where customers/partners were encountering scale concerns in existing timeseries database applications hosted outside of Azure, and wished to explore the native services in Azure to support their list of critical analytical requirements. After reviewing the list my mind immediately went to the awesome Azure Data Explorer (ADX).
Where Can I Manage Spatial Data in Azure? – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Every now and then you come across a use-case where you need to do something with spatial data, and you need to do it in the cloud (Azure, of course)! Up until that very point you maybe didn’t know, or perhaps even care, much about the intricacies of spatial data assets, let alone how the heck you were going to store it, process it, and query it, without making a mess of your current data stack.
Where Can I Manage Spatial Data in Azure? – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Every now and then you come across a use-case where you need to do something with spatial data, and you need to do it in the cloud (Azure, of course)! Up until that very point you maybe didn’t know, or perhaps even care, much about the intricacies of spatial data assets, let alone how the heck you were going to store it, process it, and query it, without making a mess of your current data stack.
The Journey to SQL Server 2019 – where does your own journey start? – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] A couple of weeks back I presented the keynote at SQL Server Saturday Sydney, which was an absolute blast. It was my first keynote, so honestly I wasn’t quite sure what to talk about.
Azure Service Logging in the Modern Data Warehouse – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] The “modern data platform” architecture is becoming more and more popular as organisations shift towards identifying, collecting and centralising their data assets and driving towards embracing a “data driven culture“. Microsoft Azure has a suite of best-of-breed PaaS based services which can be plugged together by organisations wishing to create large scale Data Lake / Data Warehouse type platforms to host their critical corporate data.
Machine Learning + DevOps = ML DevOps (Together at Last) – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] For the longest time data science was often performed in silos, using large machines with copies of production data. This process was not easily repeatable, explainable or scalable and often introduced business and security risk. With modern enterprises now adopting a DevOps engineering culture across their applications stack, no longer can machine learning development practises operate in isolation from the rest of the development teams.
SQL Saturday 769 Melbourne & 771 Sydney – SQLServerCentral
For those not aware there’s some excellent local SQL events coming up here in Melbourne and Sydney… SQL Saturday 769 (Sat 30 Jun 2018) Melbourne. SQL Saturday 771 (Sat 07 Jul 2017) Sydney. For those looking for some great free local SQL / Azure / BI / etc learning, you simply cannot go past a SQL Saturday anywhere in the world! And this one right here in Melbourne will again be no exception.
Using Elastic Query to Support SQL Spatial in Azure SQL DW – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Recently we had a requirement to perform SQL Spatial functions on data that was stored in Azure SQL DW.
Azure Cognitive Services API’s with SQL Integration Services Packages (SSIS) – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] I had a recent requirement to integrate multi-language support into a SQL DW via a SQL SSIS ETL solution. Specifically the SQL DW platform currently only supported English translation data for all Dimension tables, but the business was expanding internationally so there was a need to include other language translations of the Dimensional attributes.
Database Backup Options for SQL on Azure IaaS – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Recently I had a requirement to collate and briefly compare some of the various methods to perform SQL Server backup for databases deployed onto Azure IaaS machines. The purpose was to provide a few options to cater for the different types (OLTP, DW, etc) and sizes (small to big) of databases that could be deployed there.
Tuning Throughput from Azure Event Hub to Azure Stream Analytics – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Recently I had a requirement to load streaming JSON data to provide a data feed for near real-time reporting. The solution streamed data into an “Ingress” Azure Event Hub, shred the JSON via Azure Stream Analytics and then push subsections of data as micro-batches (1 sec) into a “Egress” Azure Event Hub (for loading into a stage table in Azure SQL DW).
Microsoft Ignite US 2017 – Major Azure Announcements – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Microsoft Ignite is probably the biggest technical event that Microsoft host yearly with many major announcements across the entire solutions portfolio suite – and this year 2017 was certainly no exception to that! This year it was held in Orlando, FL over 5 days (25 – 29 Sep) and was attended by more than 30,000 people across the two major events of Ignite and Envision.
Query Azure CosmosDB from a SQL Server Linked Server – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Recently I had a requirement to combine data that I already had in SQL Server (2016) with JSON document data already stored in Azure CosmosDB. Both databases were operational and continuously accepting data so I didn’t want to go to the trouble of doing the delta load thing between them, instead I just wanted to be able to query directly on demand.
Streaming Reporting: SQL Change Data Capture (CDC) to Power BI – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Extending on my previous post about redirecting SQL CDC changes to Azure Event Hub, I have had a few people ask for details/options to stream SQL data into the Power BI API. Specifically – they were looking for an easy method to leverage the ADD ROWS functionality of the Power BI API so they could push real-time data into a Power BI service dataset.
Streaming ETL: SQL Change Data Capture (CDC) to Azure Event Hub – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] I had a recent requirement to capture and stream real-time data changes on several SQL database tables from an on-prem SQL Server to Azure for downstream processing.
Making Phone Calls from Azure Event Hub Messages – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Recently I did a presentation at our local SQL Server User Group (SSUG) on Managing Streaming Data Pipelines Using Azure Data Services and as such wanted to build a compelling Azure demo that worked with simple streaming data which under certain event conditions would trigger an outbound phone call.
What Exactly is the “Data Platform” Nowadays? – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] A couple of months ago I was presenting at SQL Saturday Melbourne (582) on Azure Cognitive Services and got chatting with some of the other presenters about our sessions.
A Collection of SQL Server Help Scripts – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Like probably every SQL DBA, consultant, architect etc etc out there that has ever worked on or used SQL Server they will likely have their own personal collection of SQL Server Help Scripts. So not unsurprisingly I also have such a collection – and so this is the purpose of this post! The below is a link to my GitHub repo of my personal collection of scripts. BTW this isn’t all of the scripts, but is probably 50% of the ones I have lurking around.
Azure Cognitive Services – Text Analytics API Application – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] [UPDATED 7 JUN 2020 – ADDED NEW TEXT ANALYTICS v3.0 FEATURES!] Just last week we had the fantastic opportunity to present at Microsoft Ignite 2017 in the Gold Coast on Azure Cognitive Services – and we had an absolute blast of a time! I co-presented with Kristina Rumpff who works at Microsoft in the Data Platform team as a Solution Architect.
SQL Saturday 582 Melbourne (11 Feb 2017) and Ignite 2017 (14-17 Feb 2017) – SQLServerCentral
For those not aware there are 2 cool local and national events coming to both Melbourne and Gold Coast… SQL Saturday 582 (Sat 11 Feb 2017). Melbourne. For those looking for some great free local SQL (and related!) learning, you simply cannot go past a SQL Saturday anywhere in the world! And this one right here in Melbourne will again be no exception. There is a lineup of fantastic local speakers including Microsoft and MVP’s as well as international speakers too.
Azure Cognitive Services API’s with SQL Server 2016 CLR – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Azure Cognitive Services is relatively new functionality within Azure that exposes some truly amazing APIs that have the ability to do some truly amazing things. Before I dive into SQL and DLL code to make use of Cognitive Services, lets take a second to understand what I am talking about – imagine this; A customer walks to an electronic kiosk in a shopping centre and says “Hi Cortana, I want to book a holiday, I really need a break from this bad weather.
Azure SQL IaaS – TempDB Performance on SSD vs Premium Disk – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] When it comes to deploying SQL Server onto an Azure IaaS VM, it is sometimes difficult to know the best option to deploy the SQL Server tempdb database for your workload. In many of the SQL templates on the marketplace it is often deployed to the C: by default after which you should redeploy the database to either D: (local SSD) or to an attached premium disk (P10, P20, P30).
Azure Cortana Intelligence Suite – with Azure Data Catalog – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] I presented at our local Melbourne SQL Server User Group (SSUG) this week on Azure Cortana Intelligence Suite – and the integration with the Azure Data Catalog.
Azure DocumentDB – Preparing, Loading and Querying Data – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Recently I have been using Azure DocumentDB (aka CosmosDB) to validate several business use cases for a variety of application purposes. For those SQL DBA’s and others who are new to Azure CosmosDB, its a recent entrant to the NoSQL document database world, and as its a PaaS document database cloud service it has the agility, scalability and availability of the Azure Cloud.
PASS – A Business Case for Attendance – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] For those tech professionals who play in the SQL Server and Business Intelligence world (and let me say that’s a huge number!) the PASS Summit provides one of the most fantastic and focused learning and networking experiences available. I simply cannot think of any other SQL/BI event that brings together such a range of deep expertise and learning, open networking opportunities, knowledge sharing and community involvement than that of PASS.
Compression Performance with Low Key Selectivity – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] When it comes to enabling data compression in SQL Server I suspect most people don’t do a lot of testing as to the impacts of either enabling compression and its ongoing maintenance.
SQL Filegroup/File Proportional Fill Algorithm – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] I had a question at work recently where there was some confusion around how SQL Server allocates data across data files within a filegroup in a user database. There was a mention that data was not being distributed evenly across files and also that a trace flag was needed for SQL Server to distribute data evenly. I am uncertain if those circumstances were database config related or something else outside of proportional fill.
SQL Saturday Melbourne (#464) – 20 Feb 2016 – SQLServerCentral
For those not aware SQL Saturday is coming to Melbourne on Sat 20 Feb 2016. SQL Saturday is an excellent free learning resource for all things SQL Server – all costs are covered by donations and sponsorships. Some of the excellent sponsors this year are PASS, RockSolid SQL, MelissaData, and Jade.
A “Business Intelligence” (BI) Definition – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Over the years I have presented many times to various clients describing Business Intelligence (BI) solutions using the Microsoft BI solutions stack. In all of my sessions, regardless of the specific focus, each time I always start with the same 2 content slides. The first is always the positioning graphic from the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence & Analytics.
Calculating Table Partition Sizes in Advance – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Continuing on with my Partitioning post series, this is part 7. The partitioning includes several major components of work (and can be linked below); partitioning large existing non-partitioned tables measuring performance impacts of partitioned aligned indexes measuring performance impacts of DML triggers for enforcing partitioned unique indexes rebuilding tables that are already partitioned (ie.
Implementing Partition Aware Index Optimisation Procedures – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Continuing on with my Partitioning post series, this is part 6. The partitioning includes several major components of work (and can be linked below); partitioning large existing non-partitioned tables measuring performance impacts of partitioned aligned indexes measuring performance impacts of DML triggers for enforcing partitioned unique indexes rebuilding tables that are already partitioned (ie.
PASS 2015 Session Report – Azure SQL DW Integration with the Azure Ecosystem & End of PASS 2015 – SQLServerCentral
PASS 2015 continues (and finishes up today!) in Seattle. Its been an amazing conference this year with a few things really hitting home; Amazing technology announcements around SQL 2016 CTP3 Incredible advances in almost every component in Azure Data Services Full and seamless SQL/Azure ecosystem integration – and by that I mean both On-Prem and/or within the Azure Cloud.
PASS 2015 Session Report – Understanding Real World Big Data Scenarios – SQLServerCentral
PASS 2015 continues in Seattle, and today was my session at 1045am on Using Azure Machine Learning (ML) to Predict Seattle House Prices. The background and info on my session is here http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2015/Sessions/Details.aspx?sid=7794 Overall I was pretty happy with how it went - and I think everyone who attended had a lot of fun with some of the games and tests I injected into the presentation.
PASS 2015 Session Report – KeyNote and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines: Features, Best Practices & Roadmap – SQLServerCentral
So PASS officially kicked off this morning leading into the next 3 days of back to back sessions. You could certainly tell that the keynote was on… I mean the dining room was pumping…! Oh that’s right, everyone is at the keynote! So the Keynote session was hosted by Joseph Sirosh Group Vice President, Data Group. The big tell for the key note was undoubtedly the SQL Server 2016 CTP3 and just whats packed to the rafters within the software.
PASS 2015 Session Report – Optimize “All Data” with a Modern Data Warehouse Solution – SQLServerCentral
PASS 2015 has kicked off in Seattle, well the precon’s have anyway on Mon & Tue. The actual conference starts on Wed-Fri! I attended a precon session today called Optimize “All Data” with a Modern Data Warehouse Solution held by Bradley Ball and Josh Luedeman of Pragmatic Works. The session had a focus on moderising the corporate data warehouse via focusing on Data Lifecycle Optimisation. What does that mean?
House Price Predictions @ PASS 2015 – SQLServerCentral
The PASS speakers were announced a quite a number of weeks ago now for PASS 2015 in October – and I felt pretty damn honored to be one of the 160 or so selected to speak at the conference (…and as a quick aside I also note a reasonably large contingent of Aussie & Kiwi presenters too!). It will be my 2nd conference, and first time speaking at it. Exciting? Absolutely! Nervous? Absolutely! So what is my topic I hear you *think* – and why might it be interesting to you?
Experiences of Submitting a PASS Session – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] The PASS speakers were announced a quite a number of weeks ago now for PASS 2015 in October – and I felt pretty damn honored to be one of the 160 or so selected to speak at the conference (…and as a quick aside I also note a reasonably large contingent of Aussie & Kiwi presenters too!). It will be my 2nd conference, but first time speaking at it.
Implementing Partial Backups and Restores (via Leveraging Partitions) – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Continuing on with my Partitioning post series, this is part 5. The partitioning includes several major components of work (and can be linked below); partitioning large existing non-partitioned tables measuring performance impacts of partitioned aligned indexes measuring performance impacts of DML triggers for enforcing partitioned unique indexes rebuilding tables that are already partitioned (ie.
Pie Charts Aren’t THAT Evil! – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Its time to take a well deserved 1/2 time break in my 8 part post series on SQL Partitioning and so I have decided to take a slight “light-hearted” tangent and talk about visualisations, or more specifically Pie Chart visualisations. In all seriousness, this actually came up as I overheard a conversation at a client site debating the usage of this very visualisation.
Rebuilding Existing Partitioned Tables to a New Partition Scheme – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Continuing on with my Partitioning post series, this is part 4. The partitioning includes several major components of work (and can be linked below); partitioning large existing non-partitioned tables measuring performance impacts of partitioned aligned indexes measuring performance impacts of DML triggers for enforcing partitioned unique indexes rebuilding tables that are already partitioned (ie.
Performance Impacts of Partitioning DML Triggers – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Continuing on with my Partitioning post series, this is part 3. The partitioning includes several major components of work (and can be linked below); partitioning large existing non-partitioned tables measuring performance impacts of partitioned aligned indexes measuring performance impacts of DML triggers for enforcing partitioned unique indexes rebuilding tables that are already partitioned (ie.
Performance Impacts of Partitioned Aligned Indexes – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] Continuing on with my Partitioning post series, this is part 2. The partitioning includes several major components of work (and can be linked below); partitioning large existing non-partitioned tables measuring performance impacts of partitioned aligned indexes measuring performance impacts of DML triggers for enforcing partitioned unique indexes rebuilding tables that are already partitioned (ie.
SQL Server 2016 Preview this Year – SQLServerCentral
Quick, short and sharp blog post for those interested in the latest and greatest that the SQL Server mothership has to offer… It was announced by the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at Microsoft Ignite 2015 that SQL Server 2016 will be released for preview summer this year (I assume that means Q3 CY).
New Bug: Change Data Capture (CDC) Fails after ALTER COLUMN – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] EDIT #1: Fri 19 Jun 2015 We received confirmation the Microsoft Support Team the bug can be reproduced – however at this point in time they have confirmed that there will be NO FIX ———- EDIT #2: Thurs 02 Jun 2016 Bug reproduced in SQL Server 2016 (GA release).
Rebuild a Standard Table to a Partitioned Table – SQLServerCentral
[read this post on Mr. Fox SQL blog] I have been working on a SQL DW database and revisiting an existing SQL table partitioning scheme. The main reasons we’re going to all this trouble is to (a) implement a full partition based optimisation process and (b) implement a partial database backup scheme.
Mr. Fox SQL Blog… – SQLServerCentral
So I’ve decided that its finally time I took a bite out of the magic apple and started doing some Blogging. Starting a blog has been on my mind for some time (read years), and I never really got onto it mostly due to timing issues.
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