Each month the Azure Synapse Analytics team works hard to get new features, updates, and improvements out the door. Here you will find a running list of updates released each month and links to the corresponding blog posts from the product team. You can always find the full updates from the product team and other great Synapse content over on the Azure Synapse Blog. April 2022 Read about the...
There are a lot of services in Azure. Way more than a few. What is something you want to do with all your services and applications? You want to monitor them. How do you do that? By looking at the logs that are produced. How do you capture and make sense of thousands of log entries from hundreds of services for this really awesome solution you’ve been working on? Azure Monitor. This post isn’t...
There are a lot of services in Azure. Way more than a few. What is something you want to do with all your services and applications? You want to monitor them. How do you do that? By looking at the logs that are produced. How do you capture and make sense of thousands of log entries from hundreds of services for this really awesome solution you’ve been working on? Azure Monitor. This post isn’t...
I’ve come across another error message in my seemingly never-ending battle with Azure Key Vault. A while back I couldn’t delete a resource group because of Key Vault soft-delete. Then I couldn’t recreate a Key Vault with the same name again because of soft-delete. Which brings us to today’s post where I had to go to PowerShell and purge a key that but ran into an issue...
Last year Azure SQL Database Managed Instance saw the introduction of bring your own key (BYOK) functionality for transparent data encryption (TDE). This functionality has been in the singleton database version of Azure SQL Database for a while longer and you can read about how to use that here. The experience between the two is very similar, but let’s focus on the Managed Instance side of...
I recently posted that I was doing my annual Azure sandbox rebuild but this time I wanted to do things a little differently…all in PowerShell. Unlike previous years when I would remove most of the resources, this year I removed all of the resources. As in I log into the Azure Portal and it says no resources to display. No databases, no networks, not even an empty resource group. As I work...
I’m a creature of habit. I have my routine when I get to my hotel room on business trips. I have a way I like my email and notes organized. I don’t want fruits or veggies on my pizza. And I like tools that I’ve always used. Don’t mess with my tools. I know my shortcut keys in SQL Server Management Studio. I work well in the PowerShell ISE. I know my way around Visual...
It’s that time of the year again. No, not fall, although I do love the weather change that’s around the corner. It’s time for me to rebuild my Azure environment! Each year I try to wipe out as much of my Azure environment and rebuild it as I possibly can. I like to keep up on product updates that I may have missed, try out new services that I haven’t gotten around to just...
Most people connect to a database, create tables, run update statements, tune queries, add indexes, and never once think about the underlying data and log files that support all these operations. Database administrators know the importance of managing those files. There are a lot of questions and things to consider. How many data files do I need?How many log files do I need?How should I configure...
I’m frequently on the move and switch between devices. I could be working at home one day, at a hotel working, on site at a customer office with no internet, on a plane. I just never know. Part of my workflow is running some of my daily activities on an Azure VM. I can get to it from pretty much anywhere and it doesn’t matter what device I do or don’t have access to, I can...
Bradley Schacht is a Senior Program Manager on the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics team based in Jacksonville, FL. He has worked with Microsoft SQL Server and Azure data services since 2009 as a consultant, trainer, and architect. He has co-authored 4 SQL Server and Power BI books, most recently the Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide. Bradley enjoys solving interesting problems and teaching others to use new technology. He frequently presents at community events around the country, is a contributor to sites such as SQLServerCentral.com, and is a member of the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG).