The Complete Weekly Roundup of SQL Server News

Hand-picked content to sharpen your professional edge

Many of us work for some organization and get paid to do so. We might work for ourselves or others, but every so often we hope to get some renumeration for our efforts. For most of us, we negotiated some pay rate and then hope to get annual raises the reflect our work product.

The interesting thing that I've learned in many years of changing jobs and negotiating pay is that many of us have no idea what others doing similar jobs are being paid. There isn't a set scale of pay, unlike many other industries, and since our jobs can vary dramatically from organization to organization, despite having similar titles, we may learn that our compensation deviates dramatically from others in similar situations. I have found in the past that many people base their salary request on what they were previously making, not on what the market might be for others doing similar work.

Last year SQLServerCentral ran a salary survey and then released the aggregated data. This was a quick attempt to help you understand where you might stand relative to others, and it was very popular. Brent Ozar took our survey a step further, with a more detailed set of questions and data. This week Brent has beat us to the punch, with a new survey for 2017. I encourage you to participate and help build a useful data set. I plan on doing our own in the new year, and hopefully we'll have two good sets of data that you can review and analyze.

Most of us are data professionals, and we know that having more information helps us to make better decisions. Filling out these anonymous surveys can help others understand where they might stand relative to others. This is the type of data that can enable you to better negotiate your own pay in the future. I've had good luck asking for adjustments when I had information and confidence. You'll get both of these from the results of the survey, so take a few minutes and submit your information.

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

» Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

All the headlines and interesting SQL Server information that we've collected over the past week, and sometimes even a few repeats if we think they fit. These headlines are gathered throughout the week and are posted in real time at the website. Check there for information throughout the week or enjoy this weekly summary of the SQL Server world.

T-SQL

Can you prevent deletes and inserts without a WHERE clause from running? - File this under bad idea thong In the tradition of Klaus Aschenbrenner wanting to prevent people from writing SELECT * queries, I thought it might be nice to prevent people from running deletes or updates without a WHERE clause. In a vaguely scientific ......(more)

Renaming a Column–#SQLNewBlogger - Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers. One of the things I rarely do is rename objects. There are good reasons to do so, but often the changes required in other objects ......(more)

The Lighter Side

The 2017 Christmas List of Best STEM Toys for kids - In 2016 and 2015 I made a list of best Christmas STEM Toys for kids! If I may say so, they are still good lists today, so do check them out. Be aware I use Amazon referral links so I get a little kickback (and you support this blog!) when you use these ......(more)

SpaceX has a momentous launch this week [Updated] - Enlarge / The rocket launching Tuesday first flew on June 3, 2017, and then (shown here) landed back on the Florida coast. (credit: SpaceX) SpaceX will attempt to launch its 17th mission of 2017 on Tuesday, a cargo supply flight to the International ......(more)

Ready Player One arrives—abundant references intact—in its first full trailer - It's here, folks. After an initial glimpse at this summer's San Diego Comic-Con, the first full trailer for Ready Player One premiered this weekend. Author Ernest Cline brought the footage to his hometown theater—Austin, Texas' Alamo Drafthouse—and ......(more)

Check out this awesome Ralph McQuarrie-inspired The Star Wars concept trailer - While most Star Wars pieces you'll see this week are focused on the soon-to-be-revealed adventures ......(more)

Tech News

Why the Role of Chief Data Officer Is Gaining Influence in Enterprises - A Gartner research report finds that the role of the corporate chief data officer is gaining in importance and influence in enterprises that recognize the value of data analytics to drive growth in revenue and profits. ...(more)

Ajit Pai offers no data for latest claim that net neutrality hurt small ISPs - With days to go before his repeal of net neutrality rules, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued a press release about five small ISPs that he says were harmed by the rules. Pai "held a series of telephone calls with ......(more)

SQL Server Security

SQL SERVER – FIX: Msg 15150 – Cannot Alter The User ‘dbo’. - One of my clients was deploying SharePoint and they were following some documents to make sure it is as per their standard deployment. They were seeing below error while updating the login from dbo to some other login from user mapping window (for login ......(more)

Understanding Keys and Certificates with Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) - I’ve been taking a bit of a deep dive into understanding Transparent Data Encryption (TDE). As part of that I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts, stack overflow answers and technical documentation to try and deepen my knowledge. Within that I’ve found ......(more)

SQL Server on Linux

Configure SQL Server 2017 on Linux with mssql-conf, the Linux way - The configuration of any system plays a vital role in its working efficiently. However, configuring a system needs not necessarily be a daunting task. There are several tools that help with the process. SQL Server on Linux provides a wide range of options ......(more)

Reset SA password on SQL Server on Linux - This article is about how to proceed when you forgot the password of your SQL Server “sa” account, Password was entered wrong many times then “sa” account got locked, or someone wants to reset the password without using SQL Server management studio (GUI). The ......(more)

SQL Server News

What’s new in SSMS 17.4: SQL Vulnerability Assessment - This post is authored by Ronit Reger, Senior Program Manager, SQL Data Security and Alan Yu, Program Manager, SQL Server We are excited to announce the release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.4! Download SSMS 17.4 and review the Release Notes ......(more)

Try mssql-cli, a new interactive command line tool for SQL Server - We are excited to announce the Public Preview release of mssql-cli, a new and interactive command line query tool for SQL Server. This open source tool works cross-platform and is a proud ......(more)

Software Development

An introduction to regular expressions - Decoding simple regex features to match complex text patterns.Many data science, analyst, and technology professionals have encountered regular expressions at some point. This esoteric, miniature language is used for matching complex text patterns, and ......(more)

Security news and thoughts

Have You Been 'Pwned' in a Hack Attack? Troy Hunt Can Tell - Troy Hunt has collected a trove of 4.8 billion stolen identity records pulled from the darkest corners of the internet -- but he isn't a hacker. Instead, he uses that repository to help ordinary people navigate the growing scourge of the corporate data ......(more)

Hundreds of HP Laptops, Tablets Found with Pre-Installed Keylogger - A security researcher has found that hundreds of different models of HP notebooks, tablets and other devices include a keylogger that could track and record every keystroke a user makes. Linked to touchpad drivers made by Synaptics, the keylogger is ......(more)

Hackers hit key ATM network in crime spree that clears $10 million - A previously undetected hacker group has netted around $10 million in heists on at least 20 companies, in some cases by targeting the transfer networks banks use to transfer money, ......(more)

R Language

R in the Windows Subsystem for Linux - R has been available for Windows since the very beginning, but if you have a Windows machine and want to use R within a Linux ecosystem, that's easy to do with the new Fall Creator's Update (version 1709). If you need access to the gcc toolchain for ......(more)

PowerShell

Install SQL Server 2017 Using PowerShell Desired State Configuration and SqlServerDsc - How many times have you clicked through the SQL Server installation interface just clicking the same old buttons, entering the same old information, not giving it much of a second thought? Then the installation finishes and the realization of "I forgot ......(more)

PowerPivot/PowerQuery/PowerBI

Scatter RViz: Power BI R Custom Visual - ScatterRViz ScatterRViz is a custom visual for showing three variables in one chart. There is a possibility to zoom in and zoom out on the chart. This custom visual needs 1- X-axis as the first variable 2- Y-axis as the second variable 3- ......(more)

Power BI Custom Visuals Class (Module 81 – Social Network Graph) - In this module you will learn how to use the Social Network Graph Custom Visual. The Social Network Graph allows you to visualize relationships between people or items in your data. Module 81 – Social Network Graph Downloads Power BI Custom Visual ......(more)

List.Accumulate Hidden Gem of Power Query List Functions in Power BI - There are a number of List transformations available in Power Query’s graphical interface. However, the number of functions in the graphical interface is very limited. In this post, I’m going to explain about a function that is really powerful and is ......(more)

The Power BI Gateway; All You Need to Know - Power BI is a data analysis tool that connects to many data sources. If the data source for Power BI is located in an on-premises location, then the connection from cloud-based Power BI service, and on-premises located data source should be created with ......(more)

Dynamically change chart axis in Power BI - In this video, Patrick builds on a blog post from Scott Senkeresty to dynamically change the axis of your visual within Power BI. This uses a combination of Power Query and DAX. Chris Cook - @Finalyst89 Scott Senkeresty – @ScottSenkeresty Dynamically ......(more)

Polybase/HDInsight

Troubleshooting Failed PolyBase Installation in SQL Server 2017 - This article shows you how to troubleshoot a failed installation of SQL Server and how to implement a workaround to allow SQL Server 2017’s PolyBase feature to be installed when version 9 of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is present. An installation ......(more)

Performance Tuning SQL Server

Is Your Database Overweight? - The obesity epidemic is much in the news these days. The list of health issues related to being overweight is long, and admonitions to watch what we eat and to exercise regularly and stay active abound. But it’s not just people that can be affected adversely ......(more)

Query Plan Oddities: Two Identical Missing Indexes - As I’ve been building labs for my Mastering Query Tuning class, I’ve been spelunking through data.stackexchange.com. It’s where anybody can write queries against the Stack Overflow databases, and share them with friends. For example, Daniel Vandersluis ......(more)

Execution Plan Metrics and Units of Measure - Have you ever looked at the properties inside an execution plan and wondered what the units of measure were? I know I have. I also get the question pretty frequently about all sorts of properties. What does EstimatedAvailableMemoryGrant display it’s ......(more)

Microsoft News

Microsoft adds more AI-powered updates to Bing, Cortana, Office 365 - Bing, Cortana and Office 365 are getting more features that Microsoft is categorizing as powered by AI. Here's what's coming. ...(more)

Microsoft Takes Path Less Traveled to Build a Quantum Computer - On Monday, the company unveiled a new programming language called Q# – pronounced Q Sharp – and tools that help coders craft software for quantum computers. ...(more)

Hardware News

Corsair Launches 'World’s Fastest' DDR4 SODIMM 32GB Memory Kit - Corsair announced that its new Vengeance SODIMM DDR4 4,000MHz 32GB (4x8GB) memory kit as—surprise!— the “world’s fastest.” These modules arrived just a few short weeks after G.Skill announced that its SODIMM DDR4 modules were the fastest on the planet. ...(more)

Volta-Powered GPU Delivers 110 Teraflops of Deep Learning Horsepower to Researchers - According to a recent press release, “NVIDIA today introduced TITAN V, the world’s most powerful GPU for the PC, driven by the world’s most advanced GPU architecture, NVIDIA Volta. Announced by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang at the ......(more)

Graph Databases

Bring clarity to complex data with graph databases on SQL Server 2017 - SQL Server 2017, in addition to processing relational data, now fully integrates with graph database models, all on the same familiar system. This will bring clarity to the increasing amounts of data businesses generate every day. What’s the difference ......(more)

DevOps and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)

What is database DevOps, and why is it important for DBAs? - I’ve had many conversations at conferences where people have asked me about the role of the traditional DBA being phased out. When I ask why they think that’s the case, there’s a variety of answers: “The introduction of the cloud will take care of everything ......(more)

Computing in the Cloud (Azure, Google , AWS)

PaaS and the ever changing role of the DBA - I’ve never been a fan of a GUI for DBA work. Give me a hand crafted script or a list of DMVs and I’m a happy camper. Perfmon is probably my best friend. It’s always there and happy to tell me the truth. It seldom falters and has helped me get to root ......(more)

Career Growth

Tell Us What You Make: The 2018 Data Professional Salary Survey - Not what you’re worth, dear reader: we know your worth cannot possibly be calculated in base-10 numbering systems because you’re just so awesome, but what you make. How many stacks of Paul Whites are you pulling down? A few things to know: It’s totally ......(more)

BK’s Professional Learning Plans for 2018 #tsql2sday - With 2018 coming, I’ve thought about the question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” I ask this question every few years because it helps me develop a plan of attack with respect to learning and opportunities to pursue. As a result, this T-SQL Tuesday ......(more)

T-SQL Tuesday #97 – Learning Goals for 2018 - This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is brought to us by Mala Mahadevan. Mala has challenged us to set some goals for our own learning in 2018. This could be learning to improve our social skills, technical skills, or perhaps some other area of our lives. The ......(more)

Backup and Recovery

Installing the ‘Ola Scripts’…quick and easy database maintenance - I was recently in a conversation about the best way to go about setting up maintenance (Backups, Integrity Checks, Indexes and stats) for a group of SQL Servers, with minimal hassle, and easy to deploy to new servers. The factors that came into play ......(more)

AI/Machine Learning/Cognitive Services

Machine Learning Services and Result Sets part 3 - To quickly recap the last couple of posts, the set of data returned by sp_execute_external_script has no column names by default. The column names (and data types) can be defined by using the WITH RESULT SETS options of the EXECUTE statement. But you ......(more)

Accessing AzureML models through SQL Server in-database R services - In a previous article I discussed the various methods available in SQL Server 2016 & 2017 to perform in-database analytics. In the article I used a model that was stored directly inside SQL Server to perform predictions. But what if your models are not ......(more)

Administration of SQL Server

SQL SERVER – FIX: SQL Service Does Not Start After Promoting the Machine as Domain Controller - One of my blog reader contacted me to check if I can help him via phone to fix a show-stopper issue with SQL Server. I offered him On Demand (55 minutes) and he readily accepted it. Let us learn in this blog post how to fix an error related to domain ......(more)

SQL Server Failed to Open Loopback Connection – What? - I could not read my error log on one of my local SQL Servers, when I executed the following code: EXEC sp_readerrorlog I received the below: Msg 22004, Level 16, State 1, Line 2 Failed to open loopback connection. Please see event log for more information. Msg ......(more)

Centennial apps/desktop bridge, SQL Server and error "The data area passed to a system call is too small." - The title of the blog may throw someone off a little. After all, SQL Server is not a centennial app and the error message doesn't appear to have anything to do with SQL Server. So please bear with us while the whole scenario is explained. Note: Here ......(more)