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SQL Server Certifications
Recently, I have spoken at several user groups and/or SQL Saturday events on SQL Server Certifications. I have posted my powerpoint presentation below. But I thought I would give a quick overview. First you will need to start by earning one of the four eight MCSA cerfitications. You have the classic MCSA: SQL Server 2012/2014 certification which has been available for several years. Or, you could obtain one of the newer SQL Server 2016 MCSA certifications in either Database Development, Database Administration, or BI Development. (Four new SQL Certification introduced in Spring 2017 are listed at the bottom of this post.) I really like the new streamlined 2016 certifications because you can focus on your area of expertise and you only need two exams. With the SQL Server 2012, you needed a broader knowledge base to earn the MCSA certification. I for one had difficulty with the 70-463 exam as I do not work with Data Warehousing on a regular basis, but I had to learn that material for the exam. If you still want to demonstrate your breadth of knowledge, there is nothing to stop you from earning more than one MCSA. Once you have earned your MCSA, it is now even easier to earn you MCSE. You only need to take ONE of the exams from the electives listed in the next picture to obtain an MCSE. What is even better is that your MCSE no longer expires. However, you can re-earn the MCSE by taking an additional elective exam in subsequent years. I really like this option, because in years past I would need to study older material to renew my MCSE. Now, I can learn new skills for new exams each year while I re-earn my MCSE. UPDATE: (March 22, 2017) You can now retake an exam that you have already passed to re-earn your MCSE certification, however you must wait at least 365 days from when you passed the exam before being allowed to take the exam again. You can still earn the two older MCSE certifications (Database Developer or BI Developer) until March 31, 2017. After that only the MCSE: Data Management & Analytics will be available. Don't forget that once you pass an exam or obtain a certification, head over to the Acclaim website to pick up your shiny, new badge that you can use on social media to show your freinds, family, and co-workers. UPDATE: (April 12, 2017) Four new MCSA certifications were announced today. (Update May 23, 2017) Names of new MCSA certifications have changed.
sql operation studio enable preview features / azure data studio
to be able to perfom a database restore throught the new azure data studio, if it require you to enable preview feature, you have to do it under the "setting->workbench" sub-menu where you would find the checkbox "enable preview features". I had the same issue and while trying to find how to enable it, I realised that many peoples had the same question, I hope that this will help...
Performance issues on an extremely large table
A table in a database has a size of nearly 2 TB. Even though the server is running with 8 CPUs, 80 GB RAM and very fast Flash disks, performance is bad. Is this just what to expect with a table as big as this? For some reasons, the server never been set up with any maintenance scripts. No Index defragmentation, no update statistics. But trying to run this takes ages and makes the server run even worse. This big table has some indexes setup. One for primary key, and when I run a script like this https://basitaalishan.com/2012/07/06/find-the-size-of-index-in-sql-server/ to tell me the size of the indexes, I am told that the PK-index has a size of 1.8 TB. I really do not understand how this can be as the disk on the server is less than 4 TB and also carries other databases. The index and the table itself will take up more than the disk available. So how to understand Index size? Listing fragmentation on the index tells me that the PK index only has a fragmentation of 1% - this is probably because data are never deleted. Then I assume that index optimization will not help. But how about update statistics. What does this do, and can this benefit performance in my case? Regards, Lars.
Parameter is incorrect
Has anyone else received the error "the parameter is incorrect" while installing any of the SQL Server ISO files? If so, what do I do to get around it? I specifically need the 2017 Developer Edition, with that not working I tried downloading nearly every other version and I get the same error. I've talking to the Microsoft help, instructors at my college and even the Dell help. Nothing seems to be working and I'm at a loss. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!Disk size considerations
Hello. Could you suggest if there are any considerations regarding disk size for database files? Are there any limitations from MS SQL? Version that we use is SQL 2014 SP1. What we need is handling 200+ SharePoint content databases of total size about 16TB. So the question is whether it will be better from the SQL perspective to have, say, 4 x 4TB logical disks instead of one 16TB disk. Or are there only hardware considerations to take into account, but not SQL-related? Alex
Using Azure as an HA/DR site for SQL 2016
I wonder if anyone has dabbled with this concept, or if it is economically viable to my customer, which is a "little big shop" that would like to spend $-- for SQL HA and/or DR (probably the latter is the only realistic cost-effective approach across data centers that feature geodiversity). So I'd like to have 3 on-premises instances replicate Async say 3-4x/day (RPO=6-8 hrs) to either IAAS instances that power on the same 3-4x/day to receive replication, or, if SQL Azure supports AlwaysOn, use that for a "target." Idea would be to use this as a read only DR site in use cases ranging from extended power outages to cratered HQ. Anything in this scheme that might work with reasonably limited engineering effort? I don't want to add a ton of complexity or cost. Any ideas or suggestions for reading will be appreciated.
