Microsoft Build Announcements for Data Professionals (2023-05-26)

SQLServerCentral Newsletter for May 26, 2023 Problems displaying this newsletter? [View online](. [SQL Server Central]( Featured Contents - [Unlock the Power of Google Cloud SQL: Setting Up SQL Server and PostgreSQL Instances]( - [Microsoft Build Announcements for Data Professionals]( - [Getting Started with Ensemble AI Models in SQL Server]( - [A First Look at PostgreSQL Monitoring in SQL Monitor]( - [From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Top Tools for SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting]( - [From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Data Platform WIT and DEI Mental Health and Wellness Day: Managing Chronic Pain]( - [Expert Performance Indexing in Azure SQL and SQL Server 2022]( Question of the Day - [Getting the Current Context in go-sqlcmd]( The Voice of the DBA  AI Thoughts on the Build Keynote If you haven't seen the [Build 2023 keynote]( it's, well, interesting. At a surface level, it's focused on AI and delivers some demos that many of us might find to be useful and intriguing. I didn't attend the event (or watch it live), but I did see it a bit later and I made some notes, pausing the 30-minute talk a few times to think about what I'd seen.  The opening lightly glosses over some of the AI enhancements to development tools and the environments that can be created quickly in GitHub or Azure. Some of us will like those, and maybe they'll grow on me, but I tend to prefer a development environment on my own hardware, where I have unlimited compute power at a fixed cost. The first big announcement is then showing CoPilot technology, essentially some ChatGPT-like abilities, embedded into Windows 11. The demo shows asking Windows where settings are, with the response including buttons to take actions, like setting dark mode. Minorly useful, though I think Windows search works fine. I can type "env" and get the "edit environment variables" in the results. I still have to click through to change things, but this doesn't seem like a better use of AI, especially if I need to type "set dark mode" instead of "dark".  To be fair, the demo has the user [asking for ways to adjust the system to get more work done](. The suggestions are for dark mode and a focus timer. I knew about the former, but not the latter. Perhaps being able to ask for general assistance with tasks is useful as there are likely lots of features I know nothing about and wouldn't even think to look for. There is also the option to [drop a document, like a PDF, in the chat]( and Windows asks if the user wants the system to "explain", "rewrite", or "summarize" the document. The user clicks summarize and gets a summary of the document.  There is also a demo with plugins that developers can write for Bing, such as one that uses a legal package to make a change to a document. While lawyers might be worried about their practices (or paralegals about job prospects), I'm more worried about a fundamental problem that many of us data professionals have seen in the past: garbage in, garbage out.  In this case, if the AI model isn't well-trained, can I really trust it to summarize a PDF or change a legal document? How can I tell if it's wrong, or slightly off? In some sense, this reminds me of a high school report. It might summarize some text at an A level, or a D level. It's up to me to judge that, and I can't assume the results are good or bad.  The important thing to keep in mind, however, is that we aren't in that place with AI. We can't just trust the AI. We are in a time when AI is an assistant, where it can help us complete a task or get something done a little quicker. We are still responsible. We still have to verify and do some work, but if the CoPilot can automatically launch Jira and navigate to a ticket, or attach a document and create a short message to our team, that saves us time. It saves us tedium. It can make our jobs easier. We are still needed, but we don't do all the heavy lifting.  I do worry about some of the opportunities for plugins that developers will write strictly to monetize their efforts. If I want a shopping list, I don't want it to go to Instacart. I want a list I can use. I realize that doesn't necessarily make Microsoft or a developer any money, but not all the tasks and advances are about profit. Or at least, I hope they all aren't. I hope some are here to just make the world better. For a quick view of what that could be, watch [the keynote closing video](. Steve Jones - SSC Editor [Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums](   Featured Contents [SQLServerCentral Article]( [Unlock the Power of Google Cloud SQL: Setting Up SQL Server and PostgreSQL Instances]( Parthprajapati from SQLServerCentral Learn how to get started with Google Cloud MySQL and PostgreSQL databases by creating and configuring a database. [SQLServerCentral Article]( [Microsoft Build Announcements for Data Professionals]( Steve Jones - SSC Editor from SQLServerCentral This week was Microsoft Build. After four years, it was back in person in Seattle and available online. I didn't attend in person, but I did watch a number of sessions and also went through the Build 2023 Book of News. You can download the book if you want, as it provides a lengthy list […] [External Article]( [Getting Started with Ensemble AI Models in SQL Server]( Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com In this article, we look at an ensemble AI model which can be considered a collection of two or more AI models that complement each other to arrive at an outcome for a set of historical data. [External Article]( [A First Look at PostgreSQL Monitoring in SQL Monitor]( Additional Articles from Redgate PostgreSQL monitoring is now supported by Redgate SQL Monitor to improve performance and reduce downtime. [Blog Post]( From the SQL Server Central Blogs - [Top Tools for SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting]( Matthew McGiffen from Matthew McGiffen DBA When you've got the symptoms of a database issue you can run a series of diagnostic queries to try and drill down on the problem and then start figuring... [Blog Post]( From the SQL Server Central Blogs - [Data Platform WIT and DEI Mental Health and Wellness Day: Managing Chronic Pain]( hellosqlkitty from SQLKitty Thank you to Data Platform WIT and DEI for hosting Mental Health and Wellness Day! I was honored to be included. To see the full lineup, please visit ... [Expert Performance Indexing in Azure SQL and SQL Server 2022]( [Expert Performance Indexing in Azure SQL and SQL Server 2022]( Site Owners from SQLServerCentral Take a deep dive into perhaps the single most important facet of query performance―indexes―and how to best use them. Newly updated for SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL, this fourth edition includes new guidance and features related to columnstore indexes, improved and consolidated content on Query Store, deeper content around Intelligent Query Processing, and other […]   Question of the Day Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):  Getting the Current Context in go-sqlcmd The new open-source sqlcmd, written in go-lang, uses contexts to run queries. You can run this to get the contexts that are set up on your system: sqlcmd config get-contexts However, this doesn't tell you which context is current, as you can see here: [sqlcmd context listing] How can I determine which context is active? Think you know the answer? [Click here]( and find out if you are right.    Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor) SQL MI Stop/Start Billing I can stop and start an Azure SQL Managed Instance on demand. I start an instance at 9am and then stop it at 17:05pm. It takes 5 minutes to stop and it stopped at 17:10. How many hours am I billed for? Answer: 9 hours Explanation: The billing is by the hour, so if I have used part of an hour, I am billed for that hour. In this case, I am billed 8 hours for 9am to 4:59pm (16:59). Because I used part of the ninth hour, I am billed for that. Nine hours in total. Ref: Stop and Start an Instance (billing) - [  [Discuss this question and answer on the forums](    Database Pros Who Need Your Help Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, [visit the forums](. --------------------------------------------------------------- SQL Server 2017 - Administration [Best migration approach]( - Hi Colleagues, I am considering the across-the-wire migration method to SQL Server 2017. However, my source is an SQL Server 2014 Availability group with three nodes, one asynchronous. Is launching a new VM on the remote site and the same cluster to migrate this first node a good idea? Later, demote the old node, then […] SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL [import from CSV - special chars]( - My data csv file sometimes comes in with special characters and French accents too (è ë à ç ) And then this special apostrophe in surnames e.g. O’Brien. They go in the database as this: O’brien I am using SSIS for import. Where do I need to make changes to allow these special chars? The tables have […] SQL Server 2019 - Administration [Does Query Store persist data across an upgrade from SQL 2016 to SQL 2019]( - This may be somewhere in the docs, but my Google-fu wasn't able to find it... We're testing an upgrade from SQL 2012 to SQL 2019, but tests indicate performance in SQL 2019 with compatibility level 110 is worse than native SQL 2012 for some critical queries and switching to compatibility level 150 (native 2019) is […] [adaptive memory grants]( - Hi we have a sql server we use as a data warehouse. It has 1TB of RAM but still suffers from memory pressure. 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We've had […] [DBCC CHECKDB error 2576 allocation errors]( - Getting the following after the execution of the DBCC CHECKDB:  Msg 2576, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 The Index Allocation Map (IAM) page (0:0) is pointed to by the previous pointer of IAM page (3:17) in object ID 0, index ID -1, partition ID 0, alloc unit ID 72057617208115200 (type Unknown), but it […] SQL Server 2019 - Development [Query to Insert Data Based on CustomerID from one table to another]( - Hello All, Below is the my existing table structure from which I need to insert records to a new table I need a query to insert records into a new table for each customer for same date.  For example considering above data structure query should insert records into a new table as below based on […] [Encryption insert driving me mad]( - Hi all, I'm wondering if someone can help me with this, I have a table (very simple) CREATE TABLE [api].[Employee]( [EmployeeID] [int] NULL, [CreatedDate] [datetime] NULL, [Title] [varchar](10) NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO I've then gone and encrypted the Title column in SSMS using Randomized encryption type with a key in our Azure Key vault, […] [Most performant way to join a DATE to an INT]( - Hello and thanks in advance if you can help. I guess its somewhat acceptable in dimensional modeling to use the INT data type when creating a date dimension surrogate key. I can't say I agree with this but here we go. I need to join tables on DATE and INT columns. What is the most […] [Cumulative Sum by Groups]( - HEY, I HAVE TWO TABLES: CUSTOMERS AND USERS PER CUSTOMER I NEED TO CREATE TWO CUSTOMERS GROUPS: DVIR & RON - 'CRNTER GROUP', AND DANNY & DAVID 'OTHER GROUP'. AFTER THAT I NEED TO SUM THE NUMBER OF USERS FOR EACH GROUP. I STARED BY USING UNION ALL AND PARTITION BY: WITH "CUST-CTE" AS ( […] [Trigger Email After the record is inserted/deleted/updates from a table]( - Hi, I have following requirement. There is Sql server DB table OrderDetails. It has date, UserName , Details, OrderID columns. Case 1: I want to send email alert whenever any new record is inserted then email should be sent with below details. The new records date and time of insertion, UserName who inserted the record, […] SQL Azure - Administration [Scheduled Jobs in Azure SQL Databases Failing for Auto-Paused DB]( - Hello! I have somewhat similar kind of PowerShell script which executes the stored procedure on a schedule. Since the database is set to auto-pause, job is failing at times with the error message below: "Exception calling "Open" with "0" argument(s): on server is not currently available. Please retry the connection later. " How can I […] Integration Services [Visual Studio 2019 Pro won't load my projects]( - HI all, For some reason I've been having issues with VS pro opening up my projects that are in my SIS Solution. I'm NOT having the same problem with my SSRS solution. That opens fine. I have both Solutions/projects under Azure Devops/Git. I had this issue about 2 weeks ago and I was able to […] Design Ideas and Questions [Database Design Help]( - Hello, I am looking for some input on a database I am attempting to design for a video game. I have most of the design basically done, but I am having trouble finishing this last part. The basis of the database is around the entities "item", "fluid", "node", and "building". The schema related to these […] SQL Server 2022 - Development [VNN and unique ports]( - Background TLDR: We are creating non-prod WFC clusters. Each node in the cluster will have a handful of sql instances and each instance will have many Always on groups separating logic database sets.  The Issue: I did some testing and while the warning about 1433 on VNN creation with unique IP's per VNN is […]   [RSS Feed]( This email has been sent to {EMAIL}. To be removed from this list, please click [here](. If you have any problems leaving the list, please contact the webmaster@sqlservercentral.com. 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