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• Lies, damned lies, and statistics Part 2

  - by Maria Colgan

  There was huge interest in our OOW session last year on Managing Optimizer Statistics. It seems statistics and the maintenance of them continues to baffle people. In order to help dispel the mysteries surround statistics management we have created a two part white paper series on Optimizer statistics.  Part one of this series was released in November last years and describes in detail, with worked examples, the different concepts of Optimizer statistics. Today we have published part two of the series, which focuses on the best practices for gathering statistics, and examines specific use cases including, the fears that surround histograms and statistics management of volatile tables like Global Temporary Tables. Here is a quick look at the Introduction and the start of the paper. You can find the full paper here. Happy Reading! Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Introduction The Oracle Optimizer examines all of the possible plans for a SQL statement and picks the one with the lowest cost, where cost represents the estimated resource usage for a given plan. In order for the Optimizer to accurately determine the cost for an execution plan it must have information about all of the objects (table and indexes) accessed in the SQL statement as well as information about the system on which the SQL statement will be run. This necessary information is commonly referred to as Optimizer statistics. Understanding and managing Optimizer statistics is key to optimal SQL execution. Knowing when and how to gather statistics in a timely manner is critical to maintaining acceptable performance. This whitepaper is the second of a two part series on Optimizer statistics. The first part of this series, Understanding Optimizer Statistics, focuses on the concepts of statistics and will be referenced several times in this paper as a source of additional information. This paper will discuss in detail, when and how to gather statistics for the most common scenarios seen in an Oracle Database. The topics are · How to gather statistics · When to gather statistics · Improving the efficiency of gathering statistics · When not to gather statistics · Gathering other types of statistics How to gather statistics The preferred method for gathering statistics in Oracle is to use the supplied automatic statistics-gathering job. Automatic statistics gathering job The job collects statistics for all database objects, which are missing statistics or have stale statistics by running an Oracle AutoTask task during a predefined maintenance window. Oracle internally prioritizes the database objects that require statistics, so that those objects, which most need updated statistics, are processed first. The automatic statistics-gathering job uses the DBMS_STATS.GATHER_DATABASE_STATS_JOB_PROC procedure, which uses the same default parameter values as the other DBMS_STATS.GATHER_*_STATS procedures. The defaults are sufficient in most cases. However, it is occasionally necessary to change the default value of one of the statistics gathering parameters, which can be accomplished by using the DBMS_STATS.SET_*_PREF procedures. Parameter values should be changed at the smallest scope possible, ideally on a per-object bases. You can find the full paper here. Happy Reading! +Maria Colgan

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• Hadoop growing pains

  - by Piotr Rodak

  This post is not going to be about SQL Server. I have been reading recently more and more about “Big Data” – very catchy term that describes untamed increase of the data that mankind is producing each day and the struggle to capture the meaning of these data. Ten years ago, and perhaps even three years ago this need was not so recognized. Increasing number of smartphones and discernable trend of mainstream Internet traffic moving to the smartphone generated one means that there is bigger and bigger stream of information that has to be stored, transformed, analysed and perhaps monetized. The nature of this traffic makes if very difficult to wrap it into boundaries of relational database engines. The amount of data makes it near to impossible to process them in relational databases within reasonable time. This is where ‘cloud’ technologies come to play. I just read a good article about the growing pains of Hadoop, which became one of the leading players on distributed processing arena within last year or two. Toby Baer concludes in it that lack of enterprise ready toolsets hinders Hadoop’s apprehension in the enterprise world. While this is true, something else drew my attention. According to the article there are already about half of a dozen of commercially supported distributions of Hadoop. For me, who has not been involved into intricacies of open-source world, this is quite interesting observation. On one hand, it is good that there is competition as it is beneficial in the end to the customer. On the other hand, the customer is faced with difficulty of choosing the right distribution. In future, when Hadoop distributions fork even more, this choice will be even harder. The distributions will have overlapping sets of features, yet will be quite incompatible with each other. I suppose it will take a few years until leaders emerge and the market will begin to resemble what we see in Linux world. There are myriads of distributions, but only few are acknowledged by the industry as enterprise standard. Others are honed by bearded individuals with too much time to spend. In any way, the third fact I can’t help but notice about the proliferation of distributions of Hadoop is that IT professionals will have jobs.   BuzzNet Tags: Hadoop,Big Data,Enterprise IT

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• Inappropriate Updates?

  - by Tony Davis

  A recent Simple-talk article by Kathi Kellenberger dissected the fastest SQL solution, submitted by Peter Larsson as part of Phil Factor's SQL Speed Phreak challenge, to the classic "running total" problem. In its analysis of the code, the article re-ignited a heated debate regarding the techniques that should, and should not, be deemed acceptable in your search for fast SQL code. Peter's code for running total calculation uses a variation of a somewhat contentious technique, sometimes referred to as a "quirky update": SET @Subscribers = Subscribers = @Subscribers + PeopleJoined - PeopleLeft This form of the UPDATE statement, @variable = column = expression, is documented and it allows you to set a variable to the value returned by the expression. Microsoft does not guarantee the order in which rows are updated in this technique because, in relational theory, a table doesn’t have a natural order to its rows and the UPDATE statement has no means of specifying the order. Traditionally, in cases where a specific order is requires, such as for running aggregate calculations, programmers who used the technique have relied on the fact that the UPDATE statement, without the WHERE clause, is executed in the order imposed by the clustered index, or in heap order, if there isn’t one. Peter wasn’t satisfied with this, and so used the ingenious device of assuring the order of the UPDATE by the use of an "ordered CTE", based on an underlying temporary staging table (a heap). However, in either case, the ordering is still not guaranteed and, in addition, would be broken under conditions of parallelism, or partitioning. Many argue, with validity, that this reliance on a given order where none can ever be guaranteed is an abuse of basic relational principles, and so is a bad practice; perhaps even irresponsible. More importantly, Microsoft doesn't wish to support the technique and offers no guarantee that it will always work. If you put it into production and it breaks in a later version, you can't file a bug. As such, many believe that the technique should never be tolerated in a production system, under any circumstances. Is this attitude justified? After all, both forms of the technique, using a clustered index to guarantee the order or using an ordered CTE, have been tested rigorously and are proven to be robust; although not guaranteed by Microsoft, the ordering is reliable, provided none of the conditions that are known to break it are violated. In Peter's particular case, the technique is being applied to a temporary table, where the developer has full control of the data ordering, and indexing, and knows that the table will never be subject to parallelism or partitioning. It might be argued that, in such circumstances, the technique is not really "quirky" at all and to ban it from your systems would server no real purpose other than to deprive yourself of a reliable technique that has uses that extend well beyond the running total calculations. Of course, it is doubly important that such a technique, including its unsupported status and the assumptions that underpin its success, is fully and clearly documented, preferably even when posting it online in a competition or forum post. Ultimately, however, this technique has been available to programmers throughout the time Sybase and SQL Server has existed, and so cannot be lightly cast aside, even if one sympathises with Microsoft for the awkwardness of maintaining an archaic way of doing updates. After all, a Table hint could easily be devised that, if specified in the WITH (<Table_Hint_Limited>) clause, could be used to request the database engine to do the update in the conventional order. Then perhaps everyone would be satisfied. Cheers, Tony.

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• Access Denied

  - by Tony Davis

  When Microsoft executives wake up in the night screaming, I suspect they are having a nightmare about their own version of Frankenstein's monster. Created with the best of intentions, without thinking too hard of the long-term strategy, and having long outlived its usefulness, the monster still lives on, occasionally wreaking vengeance on the innocent. Its name is Access; a living synthesis of disparate body parts that is resistant to all attempts at a mercy-killing. In 1986, Microsoft had no database products, and needed one for their new OS/2 operating system, the successor to MSDOS. In 1986, they bought exclusive rights to Sybase DataServer, and were also intent on developing a desktop database to capture Ashton-Tate's dominance of that market, with dbase. This project, first called 'Omega' and later 'Cirrus', eventually spawned two products: Visual Basic in 1991 and Access in late 1992. Whereas Visual Basic battled with PowerBuilder for dominance in the client-server market, Access easily won the desktop database battle, with Dbase III and DataEase falling away. Access did an excellent job of abstracting and simplifying the task of building small database applications in a short amount of time, for a small number of departmental users, and often for a transient requirement. There is an excellent front end and forms generator. We not only see it in Access but parts of it also reappear in SSMS. It's good. A business user can pull together useful reports, without relying on extensive technical support. A skilled Access programmer can deliver a fairly sophisticated application, whilst the traditional client-server programmer is still sharpening his pencil. Even for the SQL Server programmer, the forms generator of Access is useful for sketching out application designs. So far, so good, but here's where the problems start; Access ties together two different products and the backend of Access is the bugbear. The limitations of Jet/ACE are well-known and documented. They range from MDB files that are prone to corruption, especially as they grow in size, pathetic security, and "copy and paste" Backups. The biggest problem though, was an infamous lack of scalability. Because Microsoft never realized how long the product would last, they put little energy into improving the beast. Microsoft 'ate their own dog food' by using Access for Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. They choked on it. For years, scalability and performance problems with Exchange Server have been laid at the door of the Jet Blue engine on which it relies. Substantial development work in Exchange 2010 was required, just in order to improve the engine and storage schema so that it more efficiently handled the reading and writing of mails. The alternative of using SQL Server just never panned out. The Jet engine was designed to limit concurrent users to a small number (10-20). When Access applications outgrew this, bitter experience proved that there really is no easy upgrade path from Access to SQL Server, beyond rewriting the whole lot from scratch. The various initiatives to do this never quite bridged the cultural gulf between Access and a true relational database So, what are the obvious alternatives for small, strategic database applications? I know many users who, for simple 'list maintenance' requirements are very happy using Excel databases. Surely, now that PowerPivot has led the way, it is time for Microsoft to offer a new RAD package for database application development; namely an Excel-based front end for SQL Server Express. In that way, we'll have a powerful and familiar front end, to a scalable database, and a clear upgrade path when an app takes off and needs to go enterprise. Cheers, Tony.

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• My Tech Ed North America Preview - Certification Edition

  - by Chris Gardner

  In my previous TechEd North America Preview, I addressed all the content I wanted to see at the show. This time, we shall turn our attention to the certifications I might try to pick up. If you have never been to TechEd North America before, one of the greatest things about the event is an on-site certification center. If you have a couple hours to spare, you can walk up to a test. The first test on my agenda is 70-5231. I took this update test once, but did not do well on the MVC portion2. A few practice tests later, and I think I'm ready to fake that section. After that, I need to complete my road to being a master. The good folks here at work have been having a real love / hate relationship with the idea of me become an MCM in SQL Server3. Of course, before I do that, I need to finally take the SQL Administration tests. Thus, we shall add 70-4324 and 70-4505 to the list. Speaking of MCM, TechEd North America will have a special on test 88-9706. This test is normally $500, and you have to find a place to take it7. However, there is a special 50% off rate for people who take it on location. With those kind of prices, I may just take it as a form of study guide. As a final push, I may take some Windows Phone exams. I mentioned in my previous post that I may attend the 70-5998 Exam Cram session. Unfortunately, I will be staffing the Hands-On-Lab at that time. As we know, this has never stopped me from taking a test. This may lead to fits of 70-5069, but after we've come this far... That should complete my list. Do I really think I'll find time to take 6 tests at TechEd North America? Probably not. I have done it at TechEd North America before, but that was before I was TechEd North America staff. I also had a co-worker pass 9 in one year, but he basically did nothing but travel to Orlando in 2007 to take tests. And what's the point of attending a HUGE conference if you don't network? Of course, networking will have to wait for Friday's post... 1 Upgrade: Transition Your MCPD .NET Framework 3.5 Web Developer Skills to MCPD .NET Framework 4 Web Developer 2Because I never have used, nor do I really think I ever will use, MVC... 3By that, I mean they love the idea, and they hate the price 4Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance 5PRO: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 6SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master: Knowledge Exam 7Which isn't nearly as expensive as the Lab Exam, nor as difficult to find a location. However, it is not offered at every testing facility. 8PRO: Designing and Developing Windows Phone Applications 9TS: Silverlight 4, Development

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• Book Review (Book 11) - Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform

  - by BuckWoody

  This is a continuation of the books I challenged myself to read to help my career - one a month, for year. You can read my first book review here, and the entire list is here. The book I chose for April 2012 was: Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform. I was traveling at the end of last month so I’m a bit late posting this review here. Why I chose this book: I actually know a few of the authors on this book, so when they told me about it I wanted to check it out. The premise of the book is exactly as it states in the title - to learn how to solve a problem using products from Microsoft. What I learned: I liked the book - a lot. They've arranged the content in a "Solution Decision Framework", that presents a few elements to help you identify a need and then propose alternate solutions to solve them, and then the rationale for the choice. But the payoff is that the authors then walk through the solution they implement and what they ran into doing it. I really liked this approach. It's not a huge book, but one I've referred to again since I've read it. It's fairly comprehensive, and includes server-oriented products, not things like Microsoft Office or other client-side tools. In fact, I would LOVE to have a work like this for Open Source and other vendors as well - would make for a great library for a Systems Architect. This one is unashamedly aimed at the Microsoft products, and even if I didn't work here, I'd be fine with that. As I said, it would be interesting to see some books on other platforms like this, but I haven't run across something that presents other systems in quite this way. And that brings up an interesting point - This book is aimed at folks who create solutions within an organization. It's not aimed at Administrators, DBA's, Developers or the like, although I think all of those audiences could benefit from reading it. The solutions are made up, and not to a huge level of depth - nor should they be. It's a great exercise in thinking these kinds of things through in a structured way. The information is a bit dated, especially for Windows and SQL Azure. While the general concepts hold, the cloud platform from Microsoft is evolving so quickly that any printed book finds it hard to keep up with the improvements. I do have one quibble with the text - the chapters are a bit uneven. This is always a danger with multiple authors, but it shows up in a couple of chapters. I winced at one of the chapters that tried to take a more conversational, humorous style. This kind of academic work doesn't lend itself to that style. I recommend you get the book - and use it. I hope they keep it updated - I'll be a frequent customer. :)  

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• Clone an Azure VM using Powershell

  - by jamiet

  In a few months time I will, in association with Technitrain, be running a training course entitled Introduction to SQL Server Data Tools. I am currently working on putting together some hands-on lab material for the course delegates and have decided that in order to save time in asking people to install software during the course I am simply going to prepare a virtual machine (VM) containing all the software and lab material for each delegate to use. Given that I am an MSDN subscriber it makes sense to use Windows Azure to host those VMs given that it will be close to, if not completely, free to do so. What I don’t want to do however is separately build a VM for each delegate, I would much rather build one VM and clone it for each delegate. I’ve spent a bit of time figuring out how to do this using Powershell and in this blog post I am sharing a script that will: Prompt for some information (Azure credentials, Azure subscription name, VM name, username & password, etc…) Create a VM on Azure using that information Prompt you to sysprep the VM and image it (this part can’t be done with Powershell so has to be done manually, a link to instructions is provided in the script output) Create three new VMs based on the image Remove those three VMs Simply download the script and execute it within Powershell, assuming you have an Azure account it should take about 20minutes to execute (spinning up VMs and shutting the down isn’t instantaneous). If you experience any issues please do let me know. There are additional notes below. Hope this is useful! @Jamiet  Notes: Obviously there isn’t a lot of point in creating some new VMs and then instantly deleting them. However, this demo script does provide everything you need should you want to do any of these operations in isolation. The names of the three VMs that get created will be suffixed with 001, 002, 003 but you can edit the script to call them whatever you like. The script doesn’t totally clean up after itself. If you specify a service name & storage account name that don’t already exist then it will create them however it won’t remove them when everything is complete. The created image file will also not be deleted. Removing these items can be done by visiting http://manage.windowsazure.com. When creating the image, ensure you use the correct name (the script output tells you what name to use): Here are some screenshots taken from running the script: When the third and final VM gets removed you are asked to confirm via this dialog: Select ‘Yes’

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• Is it possible to have multiple sets of key columns in a table?

  - by Peter Larsson

  Filtered indexes is one of my new favorite things with SQL Server 2008. I am currently working on designing a new datawarehouse. There are two restrictions doing this It has to be fed from the old legacy system with both historical data and new data It has to be fed from the new business system with new data When we incorporate the new business system, we are going to do that for one market only. It means the old legacy business system still will produce new data for other markets (together with historical data for all markets) and the new business system produce new data to that one market only. Sounds interesting this far? To accomplish this I did a thorough research about the business requirements about the business intelligence needs. Then I went on to design the sucker. How does this relate to filtered indexes you ask? I'll give one example, the Stock transaction table. Well, the key columns for the old legacy system are different from the key columns from the new business system. The old legacy system has a key of 5 columns Movement date Movement time Product code Order number Sequence number within shipment And to all thing, I found out that the Movement Time column is not really a time. It starts out like a time HH:MM:SS but seconds are added for each delivery within the shipment, so a Movement Time can look like "12:11:68". The sequence number is ordered over the distributors for shipment. As I said, it is a legacy system. The new business system has one key column, the Movement DateTime (accuracy down to 100th of nanosecond). So how to deal with this? On thing would be to have two stock transaction tables, one for legacy system and one for the new business system. But that would lead to a maintenance overhead and using partitioned views for getting data out of the warehouse. Filtered index will be of a great use here. MovementDate DATETIME2(7) MovementTime CHAR(8) NULL ProductCode VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL OrderNumber VARCHAR(30) NULL SequenceNumber INT NULL The sequence number is not even used in the new system, so I created a clustered index for a new IDENTITY column to make a new identity column which can be shared by both systems. Then I created one unique filtered index for old system like this CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_Legacy (MovementDate, MovementTime, ProductCode, SequenceNumber) INCLUDE (OrderNumber, Col5, Col6, ... ) WHERE SequenceNumber IS NOT NULL And then I created a new unique filtered index for the new business system like this CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_Business (MovementDate) INCLUDE (ProductCode, OrderNumber, Col12, ... ) WHERE SequenceNumber IS NULL This way I can have multiple sets of key columns on same base table which is shared by both systems.

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• SSAS Tabular Workshop online and other upcoming dates (and updates!) #ssas #tabular

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  After many conferences and travels, this summer I had some time to write and prepare new sessions for the next wave of conferences. In reality I am just doing that, even if I already restarted traveling for consulting and training. So expect new content about DAX and Tabular coming in the next months! Starting to see real customer adopting Tabular is showing many new challenges and there is still a lot to learn and to create. If you still didn’t started working on Tabular, well, you should. As I always say, as a BI developer you should be able to choose between Tabular and Multidimensional, and in order to do that you should know both of them! One thing that I don’t like very much about marketing is that “Tabular is simpler”, because it’s often translated in “Tabular is for simple projects” when this last statement is not true. Actually, I see a lot of good reasons to adopt Tabular in complex data models, especially in non-traditional scenarios. I know, this is because I love to understand what are the actual limits of a technology, and I’m learning that there is simple a lot of space of improvement also for Tabular. It’s already fast, but it could be faster! How can you start? Well, first of all, by reading our book. Then, by attending to our SSAS Tabular workshop. There is an online edition of the workshop on September 3-4, 2012 (hurry up if you want to register), and there are already several dates planned for the next months (and others will be added soon!). And, of course, by installing SQL Server 2012 and trying to create models over your databases. If you are too lazy, just start with PowerPivot. As soon as you start working with Tabular or PowerPivot, you will see that there is one important skill you need: learning DAX. In the next few days I should publish an article that I’m finishing these days about best practices using SUMMARIZE and ADDCOLUMNS. If only someone published this article one year ago, I would have saved many hours of my life. But, you know, flight manuals are written in blood… and someone has to write! Stay tuned.

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• StreamInsight 1.0 Released

  - by Roman Schindlauer

  One piece in the set of products offered in SQL Server 2008 R2 that has generated a lot of buzz and interest during its CTP phase is StreamInsight, Microsoft’s platform for Complex Event Processing. Microsoft’s information platform vision provides enterprises with a “complete approach” to managing information assets, enabling all businesses to gain strategic value from information from the desktop to the datacenter to the cloud. And StreamInsight V1 is one essential piece in this spectrum. After more than a year of blood, sweat, tears, and insane amounts of coffee we are proud to release the first version of our Complex Event Processing Framework.   Those of you who have been following our Community Technology Previews (CTPs) throughout last year have already had the possibility to familiarize themselves with the product. Early feedback was not only incredibly positive, but also very constructive and strongly influenced the final feature set. Four notable increments over our last public CTP are: Count windows Non-occurrence detection (Anti-Join) Dynamic query composition at runtime Synchronize time across input streams Additionally, many smaller issues and bugs were addressed. A few APIs slightly changed with respect to the November CTP, but porting your application to RTM should not require a lot of effort.   Here are the (english) bits - choosing the evaluation license during setup lets you already play with this version. Before you install, make sure to uninstall any previous CTP version:   StreamInsight X86StreamInsight X64   Within a few days, we will update our product page and add download links and instructions there as well.   The StreamInsight documentation is provided through a help file as part of the installation as well as through Books Online on MSDN. We also invite you to visit the StreamInsight Blog and the StreamInsight Forum, which is a great place to discuss questions and issues with the community and the development team.   Regards,Roman Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• New R Interface to Oracle Data Mining Available for Download

  - by charlie.berger

    The R Interface to Oracle Data Mining ( R-ODM) allows R users to access the power of Oracle Data Mining's in-database functions using the familiar R syntax. R-ODM provides a powerful environment for prototyping data analysis and data mining methodologies. R-ODM is especially useful for: Quick prototyping of vertical or domain-based applications where the Oracle Database supports the application Scripting of "production" data mining methodologies Customizing graphics of ODM data mining results (examples: classification, regression, anomaly detection) The R-ODM interface allows R users to mine data using Oracle Data Mining from the R programming environment. It consists of a set of function wrappers written in source R language that pass data and parameters from the R environment to the Oracle RDBMS enterprise edition as standard user PL/SQL queries via an ODBC interface. The R-ODM interface code is a thin layer of logic and SQL that calls through an ODBC interface. R-ODM does not use or expose any Oracle product code as it is completely an external interface and not part of any Oracle product. R-ODM is similar to the example scripts (e.g., the PL/SQL demo code) that illustrates the use of Oracle Data Mining, for example, how to create Data Mining models, pass arguments, retrieve results etc. R-ODM is packaged as a standard R source package and is distributed freely as part of the R environment's Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). For information about the R environment, R packages and CRAN, see www.r-project.org. R-ODM is particularly intended for data analysts and statisticians familiar with R but not necessarily familiar with the Oracle database environment or PL/SQL. It is a convenient environment to rapidly experiment and prototype Data Mining models and applications. Data Mining models prototyped in the R environment can easily be deployed in their final form in the database environment, just like any other standard Oracle Data Mining model. What is R? R is a system for statistical computation and graphics. It consists of a language plus a run-time environment with graphics, a debugger, access to certain system functions, and the ability to run programs stored in script files. The design of R has been heavily influenced by two existing languages: Becker, Chambers & Wilks' S and Sussman's Scheme. Whereas the resulting language is very similar in appearance to S, the underlying implementation and semantics are derived from Scheme. R was initially written by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at the Department of Statistics of the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand. Since mid-1997 there has been a core group (the "R Core Team") who can modify the R source code archive. Besides this core group many R users have contributed application code as represented in the near 1,500 publicly-available packages in the CRAN archive (which has shown exponential growth since 2001; R News Volume 8/2, October 2008). Today the R community is a vibrant and growing group of dozens of thousands of users worldwide. It is free software distributed under a GNU-style copyleft, and an official part of the GNU project ("GNU S"). Resources: R website / CRAN R-ODM

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• Windows Azure Recipe: Consumer Portal

  - by Clint Edmonson

  Nearly every company on the internet has a web presence. Many are merely using theirs for informational purposes. More sophisticated portals allow customers to register their contact information and provide some level of interaction or customer support. But as our understanding of how consumers use the web increases, the more progressive companies are taking advantage of social web and rich media delivery to connect at a deeper level with the consumers of their goods and services. Drivers Cost reduction Scalability Global distribution Time to market Solution Here’s a sketch of how a Windows Azure Consumer Portal might be built out: Ingredients Web Role – this will host the core of the solution. Each web role is a virtual machine hosting an application written in ASP.NET (or optionally php, or node.js). The number of web roles can be scaled up or down as needed to handle peak and non-peak traffic loads. Database – every modern web application needs to store data. SQL Azure databases look and act exactly like their on-premise siblings but are fault tolerant and have data redundancy built in. Access Control (optional) – if identity needs to be tracked within the solution, the access control service combined with the Windows Identity Foundation framework provides out-of-the-box support for several social media platforms including Windows LiveID, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook. It also has a provider model to allow integration with other platforms as well. Caching (optional) – for sites with high traffic with lots of read-only data and lists, the distributed in-memory caching service can be used to cache and serve up static data at higher scale and speed than direct database requests. It can also be used to manage user session state. Blob Storage (optional) – for sites that serve up unstructured data such as documents, video, audio, device drivers, and more. The data is highly available and stored redundantly across data centers. Each entry in blob storage is provided with it’s own unique URL for direct access by the browser. Content Delivery Network (CDN) (optional) – for sites that service users around the globe, the CDN is an extension to blob storage that, when enabled, will automatically cache frequently accessed blobs and static site content at edge data centers around the world. The data can be delivered statically or streamed in the case of rich media content. Training Labs These links point to online Windows Azure training labs where you can learn more about the individual ingredients described above. (Note: The entire Windows Azure Training Kit can also be downloaded for offline use.) Windows Azure (16 labs) Windows Azure is an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services which can be used individually or together. It gives developers the choice to build web applications; applications running on connected devices, PCs, or servers; or hybrid solutions offering the best of both worlds. New or enhanced applications can be built using existing skills with the Visual Studio development environment and the .NET Framework. With its standards-based and interoperable approach, the services platform supports multiple internet protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, and plain XML SQL Azure (7 labs) Microsoft SQL Azure delivers on the Microsoft Data Platform vision of extending the SQL Server capabilities to the cloud as web-based services, enabling you to store structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. Windows Azure Services (9 labs) As applications collaborate across organizational boundaries, ensuring secure transactions across disparate security domains is crucial but difficult to implement. Windows Azure Services provides hosted authentication and access control using powerful, secure, standards-based infrastructure. See my Windows Azure Resource Guide for more guidance on how to get started, including links web portals, training kits, samples, and blogs related to Windows Azure.

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• Updates about Multidimensional vs Tabular #ssas #msbi

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  I recently read the blog post from James Serra Tabular model: Not ready for prime time? (read also the comments because there are discussions about a few points raised by James) and the following post from Christian Wade Multidimensional or Tabular. In the last 2 years I worked with many companies adopting Tabular in different scenarios and I agree with some of the points expressed by James in his post (especially about missing features in Tabular if compared to Multidimensional), but I strongly disagree in others. In general, Tabular is a good choice for a new project when: the development team does not have a good knowledge of Multidimensional and MDX (DAX is faster to learn, not so easy as it is sold by MS, but definitely easier than MDX) you don’t need calculations based on hierarchies (common in certain financial applications, but not so common as it could seem) there are important calculations based on distinct count measures there are complex calculations based on many-to-many relationships Until now, I never suggested to migrate an existing Multidimensional model to a Tabular one. There should be very important reasons for that, such as performance issues in distinct count and many-to-many relationships that cannot be easily solved by optimizing the Multidimensional model, but I still never encountered this scenario. I would say that in 80% of the new projects, you might use either Multidimensional or Tabular and the real difference is the time-to-market depending on the skills of the development team. So it’s not strange that who is used to Multidimensional is not moving to Tabular, not getting a particular benefit from the new model unless specific requirements exist. The recent DAXMD feature that allows using SharePoint Power View on Multidimensional is a really important one, even if I’d like having also Excel Power View enabled for this scenario (this should be just a question of time). Another scenario in which I’m seeing a growing adoption of Tabular is in companies that creates models for their product/service and do that by using XMLA or Tabular AMO 2012. I am used to call them ISVs, even if those providing services cannot be really defined in this way. These companies are facing the multitenancy challenge with Tabular and even if this is a niche market, I see some potential here, because adopting Tabular seems a much more natural choice than Multidimensional in those scenario where an analytical engine has to be embedded to deliver one of the features of a larger product/service delivered to customers. I’d like to see other feedbacks in the comments: tell your story of choosing between Tabular and Multidimensional in a BI project you started with SQL Server 2012, thanks!

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• NHibernate and Stored Procedures in C#

  - by Jess Nickson

  I was recently trying and failing to set up NHibernate (v1.2) in an ASP.NET project. The aim was to execute a stored procedure and return the results, but it took several iterations for me to end up with a working solution. In this post I am simply trying to put the required code in one place, in the hope that the snippets may be useful in guiding someone else through the same process. As it is kind’ve the first time I have had to play with NHibernate, there is a good chance that this solution is sub-optimal and, as such, I am open to suggestions on how it could be improved! There are four code snippets that I required: The stored procedure that I wanted to execute The C# class representation of the results of the procedure The XML mapping file that allows NHibernate to map from C# to the procedure and back again The C# code used to run the stored procedure The Stored Procedure The procedure was designed to take a UserId and, from this, go and grab some profile data for that user. Simple, right? We just need to do a join first, because the user’s site ID (the one we have access to) is not the same as the user’s forum ID. CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetForumProfileDetails] ( @userId INT ) AS BEGIN SELECT Users.UserID, forumUsers.Twitter, forumUsers.Facebook, forumUsers.GooglePlus, forumUsers.LinkedIn, forumUsers.PublicEmailAddress FROM Users INNER JOIN Forum_Users forumUsers ON forumUsers.UserSiteID = Users.UserID WHERE Users.UserID = @userId END I’d like to make a shout out to Format SQL for its help with, well, formatting the above SQL!   The C# Class This is just the class representation of the results we expect to get from the stored procedure. NHibernate requires a virtual property for each column of data, and these properties must be called the same as the column headers. You will also need to ensure that there is a public or protected parameterless constructor. public class ForumProfile : IForumProfile { public virtual int UserID { get; set; } public virtual string Twitter { get; set; } public virtual string Facebook { get; set; } public virtual string GooglePlus { get; set; } public virtual string LinkedIn { get; set; } public virtual string PublicEmailAddress { get; set; } public ForumProfile() { } }   The NHibernate Mapping File This is the XML I wrote in order to make NHibernate a) aware of the stored procedure, and b) aware of the expected results of the procedure. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <hibernate-mapping xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2" namespace="[namespace]" assembly="[assembly]"> <sql-query name="GetForumProfileDetails"> <return-scalar column="UserID" type="Int32"/> <return-scalar column="Twitter" type="String"/> <return-scalar column="Facebook" type="String"/> <return-scalar column="GooglePlus" type="String"/> <return-scalar column="LinkedIn" type="String"/> <return-scalar column="PublicEmailAddress" type="String"/> exec GetForumProfileDetails :UserID </sql-query> </hibernate-mapping>   Calling the Stored Procedure Finally, to bring it all together, the C# code that I used in order to execute the stored procedure! public IForumProfile GetForumUserProfile(IUser user) { return NHibernateHelper .GetCurrentSession() .GetNamedQuery("GetForumProfileDetails") .SetInt32("UserID", user.UserID) .SetResultTransformer( Transformers.AliasToBean(typeof (ForumProfile))) .UniqueResult<ForumProfile>(); } There are a number of ‘Set’ methods (i.e. SetInt32) that allow you specify values for any parameters in the procedure. The AliasToBean method is then required to map the returned scalars (as specified in the XML) to the correct C# class.

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• Guaranteed Restore Points as Fallback Method

  - by Mike Dietrich

  Thanks to the great audience yesterday in the Upgrade & Migration Workshop in Utrecht. That was really fun and I was amazed by our new facilities (and the  "wellness" lights surrounding the plenum room's walls). And another reason why I like to do these workshops is that often I learn new things from you So credits here to Rick van  Ek who has highlighted the following topic to me. Yesterday (and in some previous workshops) I did mention during the discussion about Fallback Strategies that you'll have to switch on Flashback Database beforehand to create a guaranteed restore point in case you'll encounter an issue during the database upgrade. I knew that we've made it possible since Oracle Database 11.2 to switch Flashback Database on without taking the database into MOUNT status (you could switch it off anyway while the database is open before in all releases). But before Oracle Database 11.2 that did require MOUNT status. SQL> create restore point rp1 guarantee flashback database ; create restore point rp1 guarantee flashback database * ERROR at line 1: ORA-38784: Cannot create restore point 'RP1'. ORA-38787: Creating the first guaranteed restore point requires mount mode when flashback database is off. But Rick did mention that I won't need to switch Flashback Database On to create a guaranteed restore point. And he's right - in older releases I would have had to go into MOUNT state to define the restore point which meant to restart the database. But in 11.2 that's no necessary anymore. And the same will apply when you upgrade your pre-11.2 database (e.g. an Oracle Database 10.2.0.4) to Oracle Database 11.2. As soon as you start your "old" not-yet-upgraded database in your 11.2 environment with STARTUP UPGRADE you can define a guaranteed restore point. If you tail the alert.log you'll see that the database will start the RVWR (Recovery Writer) background process - you'll just have to make sure that you'd define the values for db_recovery_file_dest_size and db_recovery_file_dest. SQL> startup upgrade ORACLE instance started. Total System Global Area  417546240 bytes Fixed Size                  2228944 bytes Variable Size             134221104 bytes Database Buffers          272629760 bytes Redo Buffers                8466432 bytes Database mounted. Database opened. SQL> create restore point grpt guarantee flashback database; Restore point created.SQL> drop restore point grpt; And don't forget to drop that restore point the sooner or later as it is guaranteed - and will fill up your Fast Recovery Area pretty quickly Just on the side: in any case archivelog mode is required if you'd like to work with restore points. - Mike

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• PaaS, DBaaS and the Oracle Database Cloud Service

  - by yaldahhakim

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} As with many widely hyped areas, there is much more variation within the broad spectrum of products referred to as “Cloud” that is immediately apparent. This variation is evident in one of the key misunderstandings about the Oracle Database Cloud Service. People could be forgiven for thinking that the Database Cloud Service was a Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS), but this is actually not true. The Database Cloud Service is a Platform-as-a-Service, which presents a different user and developer interface and has a different set of qualities. A good way to think about the difference between these two varieties of Cloud offerings is that you, the customer, have to deal with things at the level of the offering, but not for anything below it. In practice, this means that you do not have to deal with hardware or system software, including installation and maintenance, for DBaaS. You also do not have much control over configuration of these options. For PaaS, you don’t have to deal with hardware, system software, or database software – and also do not have control over these levels in the stack. So you cannot modify configuration parameters for the database with the Database Cloud Service – your interface is through SQL and PL/SQL, with Application Express, included in the Database Cloud Service, or through JDBC for Java apps running in the Java Cloud Service, or through RESTful Web Services. You will notice what is not mentioned there – SQL*Net. You cannot access your Oracle Database Cloud Service by changing an entry in the TNSNames file and using SQL*Net. So the effort involved in migrating an existing Oracle Database in your data center to the Database Cloud Service may be prohibitive. The good news is that Application Express and the RESTful Web Services wizard in the Database Cloud Service allow you to develop new applications very quickly, and, of course, the provisioning of the entire Database Cloud Service takes only minutes.

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• Generate MERGE statements from a table

  - by Bill Graziano

  We have a requirement to build a test environment where certain tables get reset from production every night.  These are mainly lookup tables.  I played around with all kinds of fancy solutions and finally settled on a series of MERGE statements.  And being lazy I didn’t want to write them myself.  The stored procedure below will generate a MERGE statement for the table you pass it.  If you have identity values it populates those properly.  You need to have primary keys on the table for the joins to be generated properly.  The only thing hard coded is the source database.  You’ll need to update that for your environment.  We actually used a linked server in our situation. CREATE PROC dba_GenerateMergeStatement (@table NVARCHAR(128) )ASset nocount on; declare @return int;PRINT '-- ' + @table + ' -------------------------------------------------------------'--PRINT 'SET NOCOUNT ON;--'-- Set the identity insert on for tables with identitiesselect @return = objectproperty(object_id(@table), 'TableHasIdentity')if @return = 1 PRINT 'SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[' + @table + '] ON; 'declare @sql varchar(max) = ''declare @list varchar(max) = '';SELECT @list = @list + [name] +', 'from sys.columnswhere object_id = object_id(@table)SELECT @list = @list + [name] +', 'from sys.columnswhere object_id = object_id(@table)SELECT @list = @list + 's.' + [name] +', 'from sys.columnswhere object_id = object_id(@table)-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------PRINT 'MERGE [dbo].[' + @table + '] AS t'PRINT 'USING (SELECT * FROM [source_database].[dbo].[' + @table + ']) as s'-- Get the join columns ----------------------------------------------------------SET @list = ''select @list = @list + 't.[' + c.COLUMN_NAME + '] = s.[' + c.COLUMN_NAME + '] AND 'from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS pk , INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE cwhere pk.TABLE_NAME = @tableand CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY'and c.TABLE_NAME = pk.TABLE_NAMEand c.CONSTRAINT_NAME = pk.CONSTRAINT_NAMESELECT @list = LEFT(@list, LEN(@list) -3)PRINT 'ON ( ' + @list + ')'-- WHEN MATCHED ------------------------------------------------------------------PRINT 'WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET'SELECT @list = '';SELECT @list = @list + ' [' + [name] + '] = s.[' + [name] +'],'from sys.columnswhere object_id = object_id(@table)-- don't update primary keysand [name] NOT IN (SELECT [column_name] from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS pk , INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE c where pk.TABLE_NAME = @table and CONSTRAINT_TYPE = 'PRIMARY KEY' and c.TABLE_NAME = pk.TABLE_NAME and c.CONSTRAINT_NAME = pk.CONSTRAINT_NAME)-- and don't update identity columnsand columnproperty(object_id(@table), [name], 'IsIdentity ') = 0 --print @list PRINT left(@list, len(@list) -3 )-- WHEN NOT MATCHED BY TARGET ------------------------------------------------PRINT ' WHEN NOT MATCHED BY TARGET THEN';-- Get the insert listSET @list = ''SELECT @list = @list + '[' + [name] +'], 'from sys.columnswhere object_id = object_id(@table)SELECT @list = LEFT(@list, LEN(@list) - 1)PRINT ' INSERT(' + @list + ')'-- get the values listSET @list = ''SELECT @list = @list + 's.[' +[name] +'], 'from sys.columnswhere object_id = object_id(@table)SELECT @list = LEFT(@list, LEN(@list) - 1)PRINT ' VALUES(' + @list + ')'-- WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCEprint 'WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE THEN DELETE; 'PRINT ''PRINT 'PRINT ''' + @table + ': '' + CAST(@@ROWCOUNT AS VARCHAR(100));';PRINT ''-- Set the identity insert OFF for tables with identitiesselect @return = objectproperty(object_id(@table), 'TableHasIdentity')if @return = 1 PRINT 'SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[' + @table + '] OFF; 'PRINT ''PRINT 'GO'PRINT '';

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• PASS Summit 2011: Save Money Now

  - by Bill Graziano

  Register by March 31st and save $200.  On April 1st we increase the price.  On July 1st we increase it again.  We have regular price bumps all the way through to the Summit.  You can save yourself $200 if you register by Thursday. In two years of marketing for PASS and a year of finance I’ve learned a fair bit about our pricing, why we do this and how you react to it.  Let me help you save some money! Price bumps drive registrations.  We see big spikes in the two weeks prior to a price increase.  Having a deadline with a cost attached is a great motivator to get people to take action. Registering early helps you and it helps PASS.  You get the exact same Summit at a cheaper rate.  PASS gets smoother cash flow and a better idea of how many people to expect.  We also get people that are already registered that will tell their friends about the conference. This tiered pricing lets us serve those that are very price conscious.  They can register early and take advantage of these discounts.  I know there are people that pay for this conference out of their own pockets.  This is a great way for those people to reduce the cost of the conference.  (And remember for next year that our cheapest pricing starts right after the Summit and usually goes up around the first of the year.) We also get big price bumps after we announce the program and the pre-conference sessions.  If you wrote down the 50 or so best known speakers in the SQL Server community I’m guessing we’ll have nearly all of them at the conference.  We did last year.  I expect we will this year too.  We’re going to have good sessions.  Why wait?  Register today. If you want to attend a pre-conference session you can always add it to your registration later.  Pre-con prices don’t change.  It’s very easy to update your registration and add a pre-conference session later. I want as many people as possible to attend the Summit.  It’s been a great experience for me and I hope it will be for you.  And if you are going to go, do yourself a favor and save some money.  Register today!

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• What Counts For a DBA – Depth

  - by Louis Davidson

  SQL Server offers very simple interfaces to many of its features. Most people could open up SSMS, connect to a server, write a simple query and see the results. Even several of the core DBA tasks are deceptively straightforward. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to perform a basic database backup or run a trace (even using the newfangled Extended Events!). However, appearances can be deceptive, and often times it is really important that a DBA understands not just the basics of how to perform a task, but why we do a task, and how that task works. As an analogy, consider a child walking into a darkened room. Most would know that they need to turn on the light, and how to do it, so they flick the switch. But what happens if light fails to shine forth. Most would immediately tell you that you need to consider changing the light bulb. So you hop in the car and take them to the local home store and instruct them to buy a replacement. Confronted with a 40 foot display of light bulbs, how will they decide which of the hundreds of types of bulbs, of different types, fittings, shapes, colors, power and efficiency ratings, is the right choice? Obviously the main lesson the child is going to learn this day is how to use their cell phone as a flashlight so they don’t have to ask for help the next time. Likewise, when the metaphorical toddlers who use your database server have issues, they will instinctively know something is wrong, and may even have some idea what caused it, but will have no depth of knowledge to figure out the right solution. That is where the DBA comes in and attempts to save the day. However, when one looks beneath the shiny UI, SQL Server has its own “40 foot display of light bulbs”, in the form of the tremendous number of tools and the often-bewildering amount of information they can present to the DBA, to help us find issues. Unfortunately, resorting to guesswork, to trying different “bulbs” over and over, hoping to stumble on the answer. This is where the right depth of knowledge goes a long way. If we need to write a SELECT statement, then knowing the syntax and where to find the data is not enough. Knowledge of indexes and query plans is essential. Without it, we might hit on a query that “works”, but we are basically still a user, not a programmer, because we have no real control over our platform. Is that level of knowledge deep enough? Probably not, since knowledge of the underlying metadata and structures would be very useful in helping us make sense of any query plan. Understanding the structure of an index makes the “key lookup” operator not sound like what you do when someone tapes your car key to the ceiling. So is even this level of understanding deep enough? Do we need to understand the memory architecture used to process the query? It might be a comforting level of knowledge, and will doubtless come in handy at some point, but is not strictly necessary in most cases. Beyond that lies (more or less) full knowledge of SQL language and the intricacies of every step the SQL Server engine takes to process our query. My personal theory is that, as a professional, our knowledge of a given task should extend, at a minimum, one level deeper than is strictly necessary to perform the task. Anything deeper can be left to the ridiculously smart, or obsessive, or both. As an example. tasked with storing an integer value between 0 and 99999999, it’s essential that I know that choosing an Integer over Decimal(8,0) will likely offer performance benefits. It is then useful that I also understand the value of adding a CHECK constraint, to make sure the values are valid to the desired range; and comforting that I know a little about the underlying processors, registers and computer math. Anything further, I leave to the likes of Joe Chang, whose recent blog post on the topic offers depth by the bucketful!  

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• The five steps of business intelligence adoption: where are you?

  - by Red Gate Software BI Tools Team

  When I was in Orlando and New York last month, I spoke to a lot of business intelligence users. What they told me suggested a path of BI adoption. The user’s place on the path depends on the size and sophistication of their organisation. Step 1: A company with a database of customer transactions will often want to examine particular data, like revenue and unit sales over the last period for each product and territory. To do this, they probably use simple SQL queries or stored procedures to produce data on demand. Step 2: The results from step one are saved in an Excel document, so business users can analyse them with filters or pivot tables. Alternatively, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) might be used to generate a report of the SQL query for display on an intranet page. Step 3: If these queries are run frequently, or business users want to explore data from multiple sources more freely, it may become necessary to create a new database structured for analysis rather than CRUD (create, retrieve, update, and delete). For example, data from more than one system — plus external information — may be incorporated into a data warehouse. This can become ‘one source of truth’ for the business’s operational activities. The warehouse will probably have a simple ‘star’ schema, with fact tables representing the measures to be analysed (e.g. unit sales, revenue) and dimension tables defining how this data is aggregated (e.g. by time, region or product). Reports can be generated from the warehouse with Excel, SSRS or other tools. Step 4: Not too long ago, Microsoft introduced an Excel plug-in, PowerPivot, which allows users to bring larger volumes of data into Excel documents and create links between multiple tables.  These BISM Tabular documents can be created by the database owners or other expert Excel users and viewed by anyone with Excel PowerPivot. Sometimes, business users may use PowerPivot to create reports directly from the primary database, bypassing the need for a data warehouse. This can introduce problems when there are misunderstandings of the database structure or no single ‘source of truth’ for key data. Step 5: Steps three or four are often enough to satisfy business intelligence needs, especially if users are sophisticated enough to work with the warehouse in Excel or SSRS. However, sometimes the relationships between data are too complex or the queries which aggregate across periods, regions etc are too slow. In these cases, it can be necessary to formalise how the data is analysed and pre-build some of the aggregations. To do this, a business intelligence professional will typically use SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) to create a multidimensional model — or “cube” — that more simply represents key measures and aggregates them across specified dimensions. Step five is where our tool, SSAS Compare, becomes useful, as it helps review and deploy changes from development to production. For us at Red Gate, the primary value of SSAS Compare is to establish a dialog with BI users, so we can develop a portfolio of products that support creation and deployment across a range of report and model types. For example, PowerPivot and the new BISM Tabular model create a potential customer base for tools that extend beyond BI professionals. We’re interested in learning where people are in this story, so we’ve created a six-question survey to find out. Whether you’re at step one or step five, we’d love to know how you use BI so we can decide how to build tools that solve your problems. So if you have a sixty seconds to spare, tell us on the survey!

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• Keeping your options open in a cloud solution

  - by BuckWoody

  In on-premises solutions we have the full range of options open for a given computing solution – but we don’t always take advantage of them, for multiple reasons. Data goes in a Relational Database Management System, files go on a share, and e-mail goes to the Exchange server. Over time, vendors (including ourselves) add in functionality to one product that allow non-standard use of the platform. For example, SQL Server (and Oracle, and others) allow large binary storage in or through the system – something not originally intended for an RDBMS to handle. There are certainly times when this makes sense, of course, but often these platform hammers turn every problem into a nail. It can make us “lazy” in our design – we sometimes don’t take the time to learn another architecture because the one we’ve spent so much time with can handle what we want to do. But there’s a distinct danger here. In nature, when a population shares too many of the same traits, it can cause a complete collapse if a situation exploits a weakness shared by that population. The same is true with not using the righttool for the job in a computing environment. Your company or organization depends on your knowledge as a professional to select the best mix of supportable, flexible, cost-effective technologies to solve their problems, whether you’re in an architect role or not.  So take some time today to learn something new. The way I do this is to select a given problem, and try to solve it with a technology I’m not familiar with. For instance – create a Purchase Order system in Excel, then in Hadoop or MongoDB, or even in flat-files using PowerShell as an interface. No, I’m not suggesting any of these architectures are the proper way to solve the PO problem, but taking something concrete that you know well and applying that meta-knowledge to another platform will assist you in exercising the “little grey cells” and help you and your organization understand what is open to you. And of course you can do all of this on-premises – but my recommendation is to check out a cloud platform (my suggestion would of course be Windows Azure :) ) and try it there. Most providers (including Microsoft) provide free time to do that.

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• Insert Or update (aka Replace or Upsert)

  - by Davide Mauri

  The topic is really not new but since it’s the second time in few days that I had to explain it different customers, I think it’s worth to make a post out of it. Many times developers would like to insert a new row in a table or, if the row already exists, update it with new data. MySQL has a specific statement for this action, called REPLACE: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/replace.html or the INSERT …. ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE option: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/insert-on-duplicate.html With SQL Server you can do the very same using a more standard way, using the MERGE statement, with the support of Row Constructors. Let’s say that you have this table: CREATE TABLE dbo.MyTargetTable (     id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY,     alternate_key VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE,     col_1 INT,     col_2 INT,     col_3 INT,     col_4 INT,     col_5 INT ) GO INSERT [dbo].[MyTargetTable] VALUES ('GUQNH', 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000), ('UJAHL', 20, 200, 2000, 20000, 200000), ('YKXVW', 30, 300, 3000, 30000, 300000), ('SXMOJ', 40, 400, 4000, 40000, 400000), ('JTPGM', 50, 500, 5000, 50000, 500000), ('ZITKS', 60, 600, 6000, 60000, 600000), ('GGEYD', 70, 700, 7000, 70000, 700000), ('UFXMS', 80, 800, 8000, 80000, 800000), ('BNGGP', 90, 900, 9000, 90000, 900000), ('AMUKO', 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000) GO If you want to insert or update a row, you can just do that: MERGE INTO     dbo.MyTargetTable T USING     (SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('ZITKS', 61, 601, 6001, 60001, 600001)) Dummy(alternate_key, col_1, col_2, col_3, col_4, col_5)) S ON     T.alternate_key = S.alternate_key WHEN     NOT MATCHED THEN     INSERT VALUES (alternate_key, col_1, col_2, col_3, col_4, col_5) WHEN     MATCHED AND T.col_1 != S.col_1 THEN     UPDATE SET         T.col_1 = S.col_1,         T.col_2 = S.col_2,         T.col_3 = S.col_3,         T.col_4 = S.col_4,         T.col_5 = S.col_5 ; If you want to insert/update more than one row at once, you can super-charge the idea using Table-Value Parameters, that you can just send from your .NET application. Easy, powerful and effective

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• Let&rsquo;s keep informed with &ldquo;Data Explorer&rdquo;

  - by Luca Zavarella

  At Pass Summit 2011 a new project was announced. It’s a Microsoft SQL Azure Lab and its codename is Microsoft “Data Explorer”. According to the official blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dataexplorer/), this new tool provides an innovative way to acquire new knowledge from the data that interest you. In a nutshell, Data Explorer allows you to combine data from multiple sources, to publish and share the result. In addition, you can generate data streams in the RESTful open format (Open Data Protocol), and they can then be used by other applications. Nonetheless we can still use Excel or PowerPivot to analyze the results. Sources can be varied: Excel spreadsheets, text files, databases, Windows Azure Marketplace, etc.. For those who are not familiar with this resource, I strongly suggest you to keep an eye on the data services available to the Marketplace: https://datamarket.azure.com/browse/Data To tell the truth, as I read the above blog post, I was tempted to think of the Data Explorer as a "SSIS on Azure" addressed to the Power User. In fact, reading the response from Tim Mallalieu (Group Program Manager of Data Explorer) to the comment made to his post, I had a positive response to my first impression: “…we originally thinking of ourselves as Self-Service ETL. As we talked to more folks and started partnering with other teams we realized that would be an area that we can add value but that there were more opportunities emerging.” The typical operations of the ETL phase ( processing and organization of data in different formats) can be obtained thanks to Data Explorer Mashup. This is an image of the tool: The flexibility in the manipulation of information is given by Data Explorer Formula Language. This is a formula-based Excel-style specific language: Anyone wishing to know more can check the project page in addition to aforementioned blog: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazurelabs/labs/dataexplorer.aspx In light of this new project, there is no doubt about the intention of Microsoft to get closer and closer to the Power User, providing him flexible and very easy to use tools for data analysis. The prime example of this is PowerPivot. The question that remains is always the same: having in a company more Power User will implicitly mean having different data models representing the same reality. But this would inevitably lead to anarchical data management... What do you think about that?

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• 11gR2 RAC ASM????

  - by Liu Maclean(???)

  11gR2 RAC?ocr?votedisk???????ASM??, ????10g??????2?RAC????????????,  ?? 11gR2 ?ASM?spfile??????ASM diskgroup???????ASM??????? ????????????,????? ASM?????mount diskgroup??????diskgroup????, ??ASM??????ASM spfile????????,?2???????? ????T.askmaclean.com?????ASM?????: hello maclean, ??spfile??ASMCMD> spget+CRSDG/rac/asmparameterfile/registry.253.787925627?????,ASM ?????ORACLE instance,?????????????diskgroup,????????????????????????????thanks.! ?????????: ?11.2??Oracle Cluterware??voting disk files?????????11.1?10.2????,11.2??voting disk file??????OCR?, ?????11.2??ocr?votedisk?????ASM? , ???11.2?voting disk file??GPNP profile??CSS voting file discovery string???? CSS voting disk file?discovery string???ASM,??????ASM discovery string???  ????????udev???????ASM???LUN, ??udev????????/dev/rasm-disk* , ????gpnptool get????gpnp profile: [grid@maclean1 trace]$ gpnptool get Warning: some command line parameters were defaulted. Resulting command line: /g01/grid/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/gpnptool.bin get -o- <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><gpnp:GPnP-Profile Version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.grid-pnp.org/2005/11/gpnp-profile" xmlns:gpnp="http://www.grid-pnp.org/2005/11/gpnp-profile" xmlns:orcl="http://www.oracle.com/gpnp/2005/11/gpnp-profile" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.grid-pnp.org/2005/11/gpnp-profile gpnp-profile.xsd" ProfileSequence="9" ClusterUId="452185be9cd14ff4ffdc7688ec5439bf" ClusterName="maclean-cluster" PALocation=""><gpnp:Network-Profile><gpnp:HostNetwork id="gen" HostName="*"><gpnp:Network id="net1" IP="192.168.1.0" Adapter="eth0" Use="public"/><gpnp:Network id="net2" IP="172.168.1.0" Adapter="eth1" Use="cluster_interconnect"/></gpnp:HostNetwork></gpnp:Network-Profile>< orcl:CSS-Profile id="css" DiscoveryString="+asm" LeaseDuration="400"/><orcl:ASM-Profile id="asm" DiscoveryString="/dev/rasm*" SPFile="+SYSTEMDG/maclean-cluster/asmparameterfile/registry.253.788682933"/>< ds:Signature xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#"><ds:SignedInfo><ds:CanonicalizationMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/><ds:SignatureMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#rsa-sha1"/><ds:Reference URI=""><ds:Transforms><ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#enveloped-signature"/><ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"> <InclusiveNamespaces xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#" PrefixList="gpnp orcl xsi"/></ds:Transform></ds:Transforms>< ds:DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/><ds:DigestValue>L1SLg10AqGEauCQ4ne9quucITZA=</ds:DigestValue>< /ds:Reference></ds:SignedInfo><ds:SignatureValue>rTyZm9vfcQCMuian6isnAThUmsV4xPoK2fteMc1l0GIvRvHncMwLQzPM/QrXCGGTCEvgvXzUPEKzmdX2oy5vLcztN60UHr6AJtA2JYYodmrsFwEyVBQ1D6wH+HQiOe2SG9UzdQnNtWSbjD4jfZkeQWyMPfWdKm071Ek0Rfb4nxE=</ds:SignatureValue></ds:Signature></gpnp:GPnP-Profile> Success. ?????2???: <orcl:CSS-Profile id=”css” DiscoveryString=”+asm” LeaseDuration=”400?/>==»css voting disk??+ASM<orcl:ASM-Profile id=”asm” DiscoveryString=”/dev/rasm*” SPFile=”+SYSTEMDG/maclean-cluster/asmparameterfile/registry.253.788682933?/>==»??????ASM?DiscoveryString=”/dev/rasm*”,?ASM??????????????,SPFILE???ASM Parameter FILE?ALIAS ???????GPNP???ASM Parameter FILE?ALIAS,?????ASM???????SPFILE,???Diskgroup?Mount???????ASM ALIAS?????? ??????+SYSTEMDG/maclean-cluster/asmparameterfile/registry.253.788682933??SPFILE?ASM??????: [grid@maclean1 wallets]$ sqlplus / as sysasm SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Tue Jul 17 05:45:35 2012 Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production With the Real Application Clusters and Automatic Storage Management options SQL> set linesize 140 pagesize 1400 col "FILE NAME" format a40 set head on select NAME "FILE NAME", AU_KFFXP "AU NUMBER", NUMBER_KFFXP "FILE NUMBER", DISK_KFFXP "DISK NUMBER" from x$kffxp, v$asm_alias where GROUP_KFFXP = GROUP_NUMBER and NUMBER_KFFXP = FILE_NUMBER and name in ('REGISTRY.253.788682933') order by DISK_KFFXP,AU_KFFXP; FILE NAME AU NUMBER FILE NUMBER DISK NUMBER ---------------------------------------- ---------- ----------- ----------- REGISTRY.253.788682933 39 253 1 REGISTRY.253.788682933 35 253 3 REGISTRY.253.788682933 35 253 4 SQL> col path for a50 SQL> select disk_number,path from v$asm_disk where disk_number in (1,3,4) and GROUP_NUMBER=3; DISK_NUMBER PATH ----------- -------------------------------------------------- 3 /dev/rasm-diske 4 /dev/rasm-diskf 1 /dev/rasm-diskc ?????ASM SPFILE??????(redundancy=high),????? /dev/rasm-diskc?AU=39?/dev/rasm-diske AU=35?/dev/rasm-diskf AU=35? ????kfed?????????ASM DISK?header: [grid@maclean1 wallets]$ kfed read /dev/rasm-diske|grep spfile kfdhdb.spfile: 35 ; 0x0f4: 0x00000023 [grid@maclean1 wallets]$ kfed read /dev/rasm-diskc|grep spfile kfdhdb.spfile: 39 ; 0x0f4: 0x00000027 [grid@maclean1 wallets]$ kfed read /dev/rasm-diskf|grep spfile kfdhdb.spfile: 35 ; 0x0f4: 0x00000023 ????ASM disk header?kfdhdb.spfile??ASM SPFILE???DISK??AU NUMBER????, ASM???????????GPNP PROFILE?? DiscoveryString?????????,????ASM disk header?????kfdhdb.spfile??????,?????MOUNT DISKGROUP??????ASM SPFILE,?????ASM, ?????????????????

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• ??AMDU?????MOUNT?DISKGROUP???????

  - by Liu Maclean(???)

  AMDU?ORACLE??ASM??????????,????ASM Metadata Dump Utility(AMDU) AMDU??????????: 1. ?ASM DISK?????????????????2. ?ASM?????????????OS????,Diskgroup??mount??3. ????????,???C?????16????? ?????????AMDU??ASM DISKGROUP??????; ASM???????????????, ?????????????,?????????ASM????? ??DISKGROUP??MOUNT????????????????????????? AMDU???????, ????????ASM DISKGROUP ??MOUNT???????,???RDBMS?????ASM??????? ?? AMDU???11g??????,?????10g?ASM ???? ???????????, ORACLE DATABASE?SPFILE?CONTROLFILE?DATAFILE????ASM DISKGROUP?,?????ASM ORA-600??????MOUNT?DISKGROUP, ???????AMDU??????ASM DISK?????? ?? 1 ??? ??SPFILE?CONTROLFILE?DATAFILE ????: ???????SPFILE ,????SPFILE??PFILE???,?????????????control_files??? SQL> show parameter control_files NAME TYPE VALUE———————————— ———– ——————————control_files string +DATA/prodb/controlfile/current.260.794687955, +FRA/prodb/controlfile/current.256.794687955 ??control_files ?????ASM???????????,+DATA/prodb/controlfile/current.260.794687955 ?? 260????????+DATA ??DISKGROUP??FILE NUMBER ???????ASM DISK?DISCOVERY PATH??,??????ASM?SPFILE??asm_diskstring ???? [oracle@mlab2 oracle.SupportTools]$ unzip amdu_X86-64.zipArchive: amdu_X86-64.zipinflating: libskgxp11.soinflating: amduinflating: libnnz11.soinflating: libclntsh.so.11.1 [oracle@mlab2 oracle.SupportTools]$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./ [oracle@mlab2 oracle.SupportTools]$ ./amdu -diskstring ‘/dev/asm*’ -extract data.260amdu_2009_10_10_20_19_17/AMDU-00204: Disk N0006 is in currently mounted diskgroup DATAAMDU-00201: Disk N0006: ‘/dev/asm-disk10'AMDU-00204: Disk N0003 is in currently mounted diskgroup DATAAMDU-00201: Disk N0003: ‘/dev/asm-disk5'AMDU-00204: Disk N0002 is in currently mounted diskgroup DATAAMDU-00201: Disk N0002: ‘/dev/asm-disk6' [oracle@mlab2 oracle.SupportTools]$ cd amdu_2009_10_10_20_19_17/[oracle@mlab2 amdu_2009_10_10_20_19_17]$ lsDATA_260.f report.txt[oracle@mlab2 amdu_2009_10_10_20_19_17]$ ls -ltotal 9548-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 9748480 Oct 10 20:19 DATA_260.f-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 9441 Oct 10 20:19 report.txt ???????DATA_260.f ??????,?????????startup mount RDBMS??: SQL> alter system set control_files=’/opt/oracle.SupportTools/amdu_2009_10_10_20_19_17/DATA_260.f’ scope=spfile; System altered. SQL> startup force mount;ORACLE instance started. Total System Global Area 1870647296 bytesFixed Size 2229424 bytesVariable Size 452987728 bytesDatabase Buffers 1409286144 bytesRedo Buffers 6144000 bytesDatabase mounted. SQL> select name from v$datafile; NAME——————————————————————————–+DATA/prodb/datafile/system.256.794687873+DATA/prodb/datafile/sysaux.257.794687875+DATA/prodb/datafile/undotbs1.258.794687875+DATA/prodb/datafile/users.259.794687875+DATA/prodb/datafile/example.265.794687995+DATA/prodb/datafile/mactbs.267.794688457 6 rows selected. startup mount???,???v$datafile????????,????????DISKGROUP??FILE NUMBER ???./amdu -diskstring ‘/dev/asm*’ -extract ???? ??????????? [oracle@mlab2 oracle.SupportTools]$ ./amdu -diskstring ‘/dev/asm*’ -extract data.256amdu_2009_10_10_20_22_21/AMDU-00204: Disk N0006 is in currently mounted diskgroup DATAAMDU-00201: Disk N0006: ‘/dev/asm-disk10'AMDU-00204: Disk N0003 is in currently mounted diskgroup DATAAMDU-00201: Disk N0003: ‘/dev/asm-disk5'AMDU-00204: Disk N0002 is in currently mounted diskgroup DATAAMDU-00201: Disk N0002: ‘/dev/asm-disk6' [oracle@mlab2 oracle.SupportTools]$ cd amdu_2009_10_10_20_22_21/[oracle@mlab2 amdu_2009_10_10_20_22_21]$ lsDATA_256.f report.txt[oracle@mlab2 amdu_2009_10_10_20_22_21]$ dbv file=DATA_256.f DBVERIFY: Release 11.2.0.3.0 – Production on Sat Oct 10 20:23:12 2009 Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. DBVERIFY – Verification starting : FILE = /opt/oracle.SupportTools/amdu_2009_10_10_20_22_21/DATA_256.f DBVERIFY – Verification complete Total Pages Examined : 90880Total Pages Processed (Data) : 59817Total Pages Failing (Data) : 0Total Pages Processed (Index): 12609Total Pages Failing (Index): 0Total Pages Processed (Other): 3637Total Pages Processed (Seg) : 1Total Pages Failing (Seg) : 0Total Pages Empty : 14817Total Pages Marked Corrupt : 0Total Pages Influx : 0Total Pages Encrypted : 0Highest block SCN : 1125305 (0.1125305)

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