Download and install SQL Server 2016 RC3
You can now download the SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate 3 from TechNet Evaluation Center. In the below screenshot, I have chosen to download it as ISO copy. This will enable me to attach it as disk drive in my Hyper-V Virtual Machine.
Based on few browser plugin issues and local settings, the download may not start immediately. Hence you can click on Manual download again in case if the above chosen ISO file does not download.
I am looking to find if all the previous issues that I faced with previous releases have been fixed in this new Release Candidate 3 or not.
Have a good journey in this SQL Server 2016 as we have now come to the last RC3 before we get the full SQL Server 2016.
Manage Azure Storage Account using Azure CLI
We can manage storage account through Azure Portal or PowerShell Scripts.
This article will explain you the commands that you need to use inside Azure CLI to manage storage account.
Download the Azure CLI in following link and choose respective installer package.
Install it on your machine. if you are working with Azure and if you had installed different tools to interact with Azure, you may have different command line tools in your machine. To find the recently installed one, just search for “Microsoft Azure Command Prompt”.
You will see a tool like below,
#First login into Azure using below command
azure login
You need to open the following link in your browser, https://aka.ms/devicelogin and provide the given code to authenticate.
If you have multiple subscription, then you can able to choose the default one.
#List out all the subscriptions
azure account list
#To set the default subscription
azure account set “name of your subscription”
#Create a storage account on the selected subscription
azure storage account create <storage account name>
Above script will ask you to provide two values, “Account Type” & “Location”. Just provide the numbers of the respective information.
To create a containers or all other storage services, we need to fix the created storage account details in environment variable so that when we run a further commands, it will consider the correct storage account. If you missed to set up environment variable then you will end up with following error.
Azure has command called “export” which is used to hold your storage connection string, just like a variable but it is not working as expected. If you try like below,
export AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT=<account_name>
You will get below error. So we can follow different approach to have environment variable.
‘export’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
#Get the connection string of storage account
azure storage account connectionstring show <storage account name>
#Set Azure Connection string as environment Variable
SET AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING=<connection string>
#Create a container
azure storage container create <container name>
#Upload the blobs
azure storage blob upload <Path> <container name> <blob name>
Example:
azure storage blob upload E:\Encryption.png logs myblob
#Download the blobs
azure storage blob download <container name> <blob name> <local path>
Example:
azure storage blob download logs myblob E:\log.png
#Delete blobs
azure storage blob delete <container name> <blob name>
Example:
azure storage blob delete logs myblog
SQL Server 2016 RC2–Enhancements in R Integration
Microsoft released the latest version of SQL Server 2016 RC2 which has many enhancements. This article exploring the enhancements related R integration in SQL Server.
Before RC2, we need to install SQL Server 2016 prior versions and then R related components separately. This scenario has been changed, We can install R services or standalone R server through SQL Server 2016 RC2 installation itself.
Look at the below changes in the installation center.
New feature to create a standalone R Server.
Confirmation to install Microsoft R Open.
FREE Technical Data Seminar in London
Hi Everyone. I am very excited to announce the DAGEOP’s first FREE DATA SEMINAR programme now available for you to attend and enjoy the sessions from world renowned speakers. Please visit this link to get yourself registered and I have 3 sessions frozen already and awaiting for the final one. I will get back to you with final agenda once that is confirmed.
You can find more information on this from http://www.dageop.com/Events/DaGeopsDataDay.aspx
Also provided you the agenda that is available as of now. Don’t forget to register as this seating is limited.
Stretch in SQL Server RC0
SQL Server Release Candidate 0 version has been released. We have been discussed about stretch database in CTP 3.3. There are many improvements in RC0. This article is about, how to enable the stretch in RC0.
Go through Stretch in SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.3.
Steps to enable the Stretch in RC0 Version,
Step 1: Right click on your database and go to Tasks->Stretch->Enable
Step 2: Choose the tables you want to stretch.
Step 3: Provide your Azure subscription to configure SQL Server and database for stretch.
Step 4: Set up master key for your database.
Step 5: Provide your IP, in case if you have configured.
Step 6: Configuration process started to enable stretch for database and table.
As you can see, there are some difference in steps to configure when compare with CTP 3.3 version. There is no changes on Monitoring the stretch.
Enable Stretch for Tables
Previously, we need to select Reconfigure option to add new tables to stretch but that “Reconfigure” option has been removed. Now, we have “Enable”, “Disable” & “Monitor”.
To add new tables to stretch, follow the below steps.
Choose the new table to add into stretch. Right click –> Stretch –>Enable
Disable Stretch
To Disable the stretch for the database, we need to disable the stretch for tables first. We don’t have option to disable in one short if multiple tables are in stretch. Need to manually disable all the tables from stretch.
If we try to disable stretch for database without disabling tables then below message will be appeared.
There are two options in disable on table,
1. Bring data back from Azure
2. Leave data in Azure.
Once stretch is enabled for a table, data migration will be initiated from local to azure through batch process. If we decided to disable the stretch then make sure whether we want to bring data back to local or keep them on azure it self. Based on that choose any of the above option.
Note: The table in Azure database will not be deleted by process, you need to delete it by going to azure management portal.
If you are selected “Bring data back from Azure” then below message will be prompted.
Once disable the stretch for all your tables, then disable the stretch on your database.
Issues in R Package in SQL Server 2016
I have got a below error when I try to use one of the R package “ggplot2”.
It says that there is no package called ggplot2 even though I installed the ggplot2 package in R.
Message from R when I install ggplot2 package,
The above message clearly explaining that the package is not installed on defined path, it has been downloaded on temporary directory. It means there was no proper installation happened in R. This was the reason for error in SQL Server.
Follow the below steps to sort out the issue,
Use “.libPaths” to define the library path before install a package in R.
Command is,
> .libPaths (.libPaths()[2:3])
> install.packages(“ggplot2”)
Package will be installed like below,
Now run the same SQL Script with R, this time it will be executed without an issue.
Data Driven & SQL Server 2016
Following today’s Data Driven live streaming from New York, Satya Nadella have opened the speech by providing insights on what CEOs and organization owners should see with Data being the key factor driving the business.
Also SQL Server 2016 RC (Release Candidate) is now available here and no more CTPs from Microsoft download site. Be the first to download the latest Release Candidate and try the brand new features of SQL Server.
Monitor Stretch in SQL Server 2016
Go through my previous article to enable the stretch for your database and table. This article is about how to monitor the stretch. You can monitor the stretch through GUI or DMVs.
We have below DMVs available to monitor the status of the stretch.
select * from sys.remote_data_archive_databases
The above script will provide the details about what is the database name in Azure used for stretch.
select * from sys.remote_data_archive_tables
This will tell you, what is the table name in azure used for stretch.
The above result has column called “filter_predicate”. It means, if apply any predicate function while configure the stretch then you can see that predicate function here. unfortunately, we don’t have option to apply the predicate function in GUI method. It is available when we enable stretch through T-SQL Script.
select * from sys.dm_db_rda_migration_status
This script will tell you about data migration. Data will start migrate from the table once stretch is enabled. Migration will start from on-premises SQL Server to Azure. It is using batch process so it will migrate maximum of 4999 records in a batch. The batch id will be available in Azure table.
To see the live migration, we can use “SP_SPACEUSED”. By seeing the rows and size we can identify the data migration.
You can monitor the stretch using GUI,
