SQL Server 2016 New Features

Query Store

The Query Store feature maintains a history of query execution plans with their performance data. This allows you to quickly identify queries that have become slower recently and use different query plans. 

Polybase

This was introduced into the data warehouse appliance Analytics Platform System in 2015. It is a connector between Hadoop (and Azure Blob Storage) and its data warehouse appliance Analytics Platform System. This functionality is incorporated into the regular on-premises product. 

Stretch Database

The is a hybrid feature to help reduce storage and processing cost and some of your tables will be moved into an Azure SQL Database in the cloud. 

JSON Support

SQL Server 2016 adds support for the lingua franca of Web applications: Java Script Object Notation (JSON).

Row Level Security

This restricts which users can view what data in a table, based on a function which could be useful in multi-tenant environments.

In-Memory Enhancements

This feature will support foreign keys, check and unique constraints and parallelism. Additionally, tables up to 2TB are now supported (up from 256GB).

Alwayson Enhancements

There are some enhancements to Alwayson.

Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases

Useful links whilst studying for 70-462

Exam Syllabus

https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-gb/exam-70-462.aspx

Skills Measured

Install and configure (19%)

Maintain instances and databases (17%)

Optimise and troubleshoot (14%)

Manage data (19%)

Implement security (18%)

Implement high availability (12%)

Exam Prep Videos

MCSA Certification Prep | Exam 462: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases

Microsoft Virtual Academy 

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/

Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Jump Start

Training Kit Book

Training Kit (Exam 70-462): Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases

Ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/03/15/free-ebook-introducing-microsoft-sql-server-2012.aspx

Books online for SQL Server 2012

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130214%28v=sql.110%29.aspx

2014 ACM Turing Award

Michael Stonebraker received the 2014 ACM Turing Award. Michael Stonebraker was recognized for fundamental contributions to the concepts and practices underlying modern database systems.  The A.M. Turing Lecture is here.

 

 

 

31 days of Extended Events

A came across this excellent series of blog posts by Jonathan Kehayias to help provide a jumpstart to using Extended Events.

XEvents. XEvent A Day: 31 days of Extended Events http://bit.ly/1GpFptP

An XEvent a Day (1 of 31) – An Overview of Extended Events
An XEvent a Day (2 of 31) – Querying the Extended Events Metadata
An XEvent a Day (3 of 31) – Managing Event Sessions
An XEvent a Day (4 of 31) – Querying the Session Definition and Active Session DMV’s
An XEvent a Day (5 of 31) – Targets Week – ring_buffer
An XEvent a Day (6 of 31) – Targets Week – asynchronous_file_target
An XEvent a Day (7 of 31) – Targets Week – bucketizers
An XEvent a Day (8 of 31) – Targets Week – synchronous_event_counter
An XEvent a Day (9 of 31) – Targets Week – pair_matching
An XEvent a Day (10 of 31) – Targets Week – etw_classic_sync_target
An XEvent a Day (11 of 31) – Targets Week – Using multiple targets to simplify analysis
An XEvent a Day (12 of 31) – Using the Extended Events SSMS Addin
An XEvent a Day (13 of 31) – The system_health Session
An XEvent a Day (14 of 31) – A Closer Look at Predicates
An XEvent a Day (15 of 31) – Tracking Ghost Cleanup
An XEvent a Day (16 of 31) – How Many Checkpoints are Issued During a Full Backup?
An XEvent a Day (17 of 31) – A Look at Backup Internals and How to Track Backup and Restore Throughput (Part 1)
An XEvent a Day (18 of 31) – A Look at Backup Internals and How to Track Backup and Restore Throughput (Part 2)
An XEvent a Day (19 of 31) – Using Customizable Fields
An XEvent a Day (20 of 31) – Mapping Extended Events to SQL Trace
An XEvent a Day (21 of 31) – The Future – Tracking Blocking in Denali
An XEvent a Day (22 of 31) – The Future – fn_dblog() No More? Tracking Transaction Log Activity in Denali
An XEvent a Day (23 of 31) – How it Works – Multiple Transaction Log Files
An XEvent a Day (24 of 31) – What is the package0.callstack Action?
An XEvent a Day (25 of 31) – The Twelve Days of Christmas
An XEvent a Day (26 of 31) – Configuring Session Options
An XEvent a Day (27 of 31) – The Future – Tracking Page Splits in SQL Server Denali CTP1
An XEvent a Day (28 of 31) – Tracking Page Compression Operations
An XEvent a Day (29 of 31) – The Future – Looking at Database Startup in Denali
An XEvent a Day (30 of 31) – Tracking Session and Statement Level Waits
An XEvent a Day (31 of 31) – Event Session DDL Events

Temporal, Query Store, and JSON Support in Microsoft SQL Server

This recording provides an overview of implementation and real-world application scenarios, with demos, of three critical engine investments in SQL Server: Temporal, Query Store and JSON support.

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015/BRK2587

Cloud Changes to Computer Thinking

I came across this great animation.

Stephen Fry explains the history of computer thinking and the revolution of utility in cloud computing in a 5 minute animation.

SQL Saturday Exeter 2015

SQL Saturday Exeter was held Apr24-25 2015 at Jurys Inn Hotel in Exeter. I was excited to be helping at the event for the community again.  There were various excellent training day sessions. 

The Saturday keynote was the most amazing fun keynote I have seen and a highlight of the event. The video was by Phil Factor about Spinach and Database Development. 

Here a few of the points contained within the video on Spinach:

What has spinach got to do with Database Development? Generations of children were fed spinach in preference to more nutritious things, such as cardboard, because of the persistence of bad data.

Guarding the quality of your data is about the most important thing that you as a data professional can do. You may think that performance is important but it would just deliver you the wrong answer faster. Resilience? it would just make it more likely that you’d be able to deliver the wrong answer. Delivery? Yep you got it, the wrong answer quicker.

A good database professional must be unequivocal.

Statistics can help us to make very confident assertions about large datasets if they conform to one of the common distributions but they cannot tell us anything about individual items of data. You can of course remove outliers but in fact outliers are just items of data that don’t conform to your assumptions about the data and the whole point of data analysis is to test your assumptions. By cleaning data, by removing outliers you can prove almost anything scientifically.

I would recommend watching the keynote.