Quick and Dirty - SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2017 Migration

June 10, 2019 by Nathaniel Avery in Enterprise, Tip

SQL Server 2008 R2 is quickly approaching EOL. Some are still looking for ways to migrate their databases to newer releases of SQL Server such as SQL Server 2017. This blog post details a simple method for migrating simple databases using detach and attach. By simple, I mean databases without complicated transnational replication technologies such as mirroring. I imagine this method would used for databases supporting simple applications.

Azure Stack Benefit - Extended Support for SQL Server 2008 / 2008 R2

May 07, 2019 by Nathaniel Avery in Enterprise

Microsoft SQL Server is quickly approaching End Of Life. While most customers would prefer to upgrade to the latest release, that’s not always possible. Some customers, especially in large enterprises and government, simply need more time to clean up old code in order to address deprecated features. Others maybe plan to refactor the application completely. Either way, having a few more years to transition would help several user bases. Microsoft heard these concerns and and offered a lifeline. Customers who migrate SQL Servers to Azure cloud will get an additional three years of patches for free. While at Dell Technologies World, I discovered this offer also extends to the on-premises Azure Stack.

Troubleshooting - MS SQL Server - Cannot connect to WMI provider. [0x8004100e]

March 04, 2019 by Nathaniel Avery in Bugs, Tip

I ran into a strange error today. I attempted to launch SQL Server Configuration Manger on a server deployed in Azure, and I was greeted with an error dialog that implied either the server was unreachable or that I didn’t have rights. The error read, “Cannot connect to WMI provider. You Do not have permission or the server is unreachable. Note that you can only manage SQL Server 2055 and later servers with SQL Server Configuration Manager. Invalid namespace [0x8004100e].” After a bit of digging, I found a solution, and possibly even a root cause.

Project Repository - Azure DB Lessons

December 11, 2018 by Nathaniel Avery in POC

I’ve created a new GitHub repository to track various Azure DB projects I’m working on in my spare time. Azure DB’s fully managed nature makes it somewhat different than traditional Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) installs. There are some features (like ETL) which are not available to end users which means customers may need to reconsider some architectural decisions. My plan is to work on the basics in addition to more advanced topics related to the architectural changes. Like any side project, I can’t quite commit to timelines, but as long as I keep coming up with questions I’d like to answer, I’ll keep adding. The first project is to build a SQL DB via code. The beauty of doing this in the public via GitHub is that anyone can fork the code, or contribute.

Tip: New Azure Images Available Sql Server 2019 and Windows Server 2019

October 11, 2018 by Nathaniel Avery in Tip

A few new images showed up on Azure. Looking through the images, one can now find images for both SQL Server 2019 and SQL Server 2019 CTP. This is an excellent way to test the new software before going live with it in production. One note is that at the time of this writing, the only version of Windows Server 2019 that’s available is datacenter.

Install SQL Server 2019 via Docker Container on Windows 10

September 25, 2018 by Nathaniel Avery

One of the big announcements from the Microsoft Ignite Conference was SQL Server 2019 being made available for public preview. Public preview means the software isn’t very far from being made generally available (GA) to everyone as a finished product. IT Pros who support SQL Server typically take a look at the new version to investigate features and understand how the software might fit into their environment. In this post I show an easy way for IT pros to try using SQL Server 2019 on a Windows 10 computer running Docker.

DevOps - Don’t Forget the DBA

April 23, 2018 by Nathaniel Avery in DevOps

The DevOps movement has been great at increasing inclusion among the various roles in IT, breaking down solos and creating groups capable of deploying code. But one group seems to have been left out of the mix - DBAs. For whatever reason, DBA tools have been slow to build in features synonymous with DevOps such as source control.

The Phoenix Project and DevOps Handbook spend a great deal of time discussing Flow and how a we’ll run organization will look to eliminate blockages at choke points. Often these blockages occur during hand-offs. The best way to avoid hand-offs is to build teams with all members needed to make a deployable package.