A newsletter by any other name, zielschmerz, and more

Database Weekly for November 4, 2023 Problems displaying this newsletter? [View online](. [Database Weekly]( The Complete Weekly Roundup of SQL Server News by SQLServerCentral.com Hand-picked content to sharpen your professional edge Editorial  A rose by any other name would not be a rose William Shakespeare once wrote in the play Romeo and Juliet: “What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.” It is a beautiful sentiment in that context, and even still you might say that there is some truth to this saying in a lot of ways. But it is a terrible foundation for a naming convention. The problem is: the word "rose" doesn't typically reference a single rose, but rather a class of plants. Hence when someone says "a bouquet of roses", and you are an English speaker, you likely know exactly what they are talking about without a second of thought. Now let's consider you rename the concept of a rose to a shoe. Now we have to be careful when ordering a pair of shoes that we don't get a thorn in our foot when putting them on. Before this gets even more silly, the point here is that for a class of things in this world, we typically have a specific name, and in many cases, an agreed upon domain (or set of allowed values for that name) that allows us to speak to one another with only minimal ambiguity. Concepts change, are added, and even the domain for any concept can change over time; though typically quite slowly. Which leads me to my very simple point for this editorial. Names matter. When you are writing code, designing a database, or any of a range of similar activities, naming objects and attributes is important. In fact, for most people (myself included), object names are very likely the only piece of documentation one is likely to read...Unfortunately, due to some folks not realizing that names matter, this practice of trusting them has gotten me into trouble more than once in my professional career. In the years I have been working with relational databases, I have found that 99% of the time I can read a database structure like a book, just using the names of objects, foreign keys, datatypes, etc. to interpret the meaning the data architect had for the design. However (to tie this back to the title at least somewhat), there is absolutely nothing other than common sense that stops someone from saying "we have this column named 'rose', if we named it something else, would it still smell as sweet?" Of course when this happens in reality, it is more likely that the question pertains to a column that has been abandoned and repurposed to some new functionality, but that really didn’t fit the storyline all that well. Now everyone else on the team, never having used the rose column themselves, just grunts "whatever" and there you have it. The woadget column now represents what the original rose column did and exactly one person in the universe understands it. The rest of us just wonder if woadget is spelled right for 10 seconds, then grunt and repeat "whatever." It is always important to realize that names matter, and naming entire classes of things doubly so. The more you can make your code and designs read like a book the better. Louis Davidson (@drsql) [Join the debate, and respond to the editorial on the forums](  The Weekly News All the headlines and interesting SQL Server information that we've collected over the past week, and sometimes even a few repeats if we think they fit. Vendors/3rd Party Products [Finding Object Dependencies in SQL Doc]( From SQLServerCentral Blogs I had a customer recently ask if they could find out which objects are dependent on others using SQL Doc. This post shows how to do that. Using SQL... The... AI/Machine Learning/Cognitive Services [ChatGPT Confident in Its Software Development Capabilities, Survey Finds]( From IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools Generative AI's growing role in software development sparks a debate about human versus AI capabilities. Administration of SQL Server [SQL SERVER – Understanding Maximum Server Memory]( From Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave When optimizing your SQL Server for superior performance, understanding and correctly implementing the 'maximum server memory' setting is crucial. First appeared on SQL SERVER – Understanding Maximum Server Memory [SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for November 2023]( From Glenn Berry Introduction These are my SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for November 2023, aka my DMV Diagnostic Queries. They allow you to get a very comprehensive view of the configuration... [Change the default SQL Server locations for database data files, transaction log files and backup files]( From MSSQL Tips In this article, we look at how to change the defa... [Deployment checklists]( From SQLBlog.org In this tip, I talk about checklists to keep everyone involved in a deployment or migration - regardless of technical acumen - on the same page. Cloud - Azure [Move Disks or Virtual Machines between Tenants on Azure]( From Simple Talk Move objects on Azure is not simple. Move between Tenants is extremely difficult or not possible. I faced the challenge to move a virtual machine and disks between tenants... Conferences, Classes, Events, and Webinars [How to join the free PASS Data Community Summit Livestream from around the world]( PASS Data Community Summit have announced that they have handpicked 16 sessions to livestream, for free, from this year’s event. These sessions have been chosen because they represent topics of interest to the broader data community. The benefit of livestreaming a selection of sessions means that data professionals from around the world will have the opportunity to hear the latest announcements from Redgate, Microsoft, Intel, AWS and community experts. [Game Night at the PASS Summit]( From SQLServerCentral Blogs Games Night is back at the Summit, this time on Wednesday night in a large space for 200 people plus to enjoy some fun with friends and colleagues. This... The... [Summit 2023 Is Nearly Here!]( From FLX SQL All week, my phone has been reminding me (via photo memories) of the amazing experience I had at PASS Summit 2017. This can mean only one thing - PASS... [PostgreSQL 101: Database monitoring and optimization]( Monitoring your PostgreSQL databases is crucial to ensure the overall health and performance of your ecosystem. PostgreSQL provides a wealth of metrics, but which ones are most important to measure and how best should you do this? In this webinar, you will gain insights and strategies to help keep your database environment running smoothly and efficiently so you can avoid some of the most common bottlenecks. Join us on November 28th DMO/SMO/Powershell [Alter SQL Jobs With PowerShell]( From Callihan Data I’ve been experimenting with PowerShell and SQL Server recently and noticed how missing the “Alter” step when altering SQL Server jobs with PowerShell may cause some confusion. Let’s walk... Database Design, Theory and Development [Video: Database Normalization–4th Normal Form]( From 36 Chambers – The Legendary Journeys THE VIDEO THE SYNOPSIS In this video, explain what Fourth Normal Form (4NF) is and why I consider 5NF to be significantly more important. Even so, 4NF does make... [SQL Server Table Design Guidelines - Data Types, Designing for Deletes and Primary Keys]( From MSSQL Tips In this article, we look at three table design guidelines when building an SQL table including data types, designing for deletes, and primary keys. DevOps and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) [Five database DevOps practices for boosting team productivity]( Speed of delivery and protecting data can often feel incompatible, but there are industry-proven database DevOps practices that bring them together in harmony. Across each of these five key practices, there’s a theme of removing barriers and cognitive load for teams; but crucially, they are also putting safeguards in place to reduce the risks to production environments. DocumentDB/Key-Value/Graph/other NoSQL Databases [Is your organization using MongoDB? Help the Redgate Flyway team understand your pain points.]( Is MongoDB in use within your organization? The Flyway development team are adding MongoDB support into Flyway and would like to better understand the current pain points. If you are able help, or are interested in finding out more, please participate in our 5-minute survey. General [How to Avoid Transaction Isolation Level Issues on Azure SQL Managed Instance]( From Azure Database Support Blog In this technical article, we will delve into an i... Microsoft Fabric ( Azure Synapse Analytics, OneLake, ADLS, Data Science) [SQL Endpoints and Lakehouse UI Differences and Access Secrets]( From Simple Talk There are some differences and secrets between the... Oracle/PostgreSQL/MySQL/other RDBMS [Getting connected to PostgreSQL for the first time]( From Simple Talk PostgreSQL continues to be all the rage in 2023, whether in “vanilla” form of the fully open-source distribution or a variant like Amazon RDS, Neon, Yugabyte, and others. If... PowerPivot/PowerQuery/PowerBI [How to Make Power BI Reports More Useful for End Users]( From MSSQL Tips This tip demonstrates how to make Power BI reports... [Exploring New Card Visual in Power BI Desktop for Better Data Presentation]( From MSSQL Tips Learn about the new Card visual for Power BI and h... [Why On-Object Editing in Power BI???]( From Guy in a Cube Curious about why Power BI introduced On-object ed... SQL Server on Linux [Deploying availability groups for SQL Server with HPE Serviceguard for Linux - The Ansible Way!!]( From MS SQL Server Blog It's time for a new blog on how Ansible can simplify SQL Server deployment, configuration, and availability. If you've read my previous blogs on Ansible for SQL Server installation... Security News and Issues [How Do We Truly Make Security 'Everyone's Responsibility'?]( From Dark Reading: Dark Reading News Analysis When everybody is responsible for a task, sometime... [US Leads 40-Country Alliance to Cut Off Ransomware Payments]( From Dark Reading: Dark Reading News Analysis The parties within the International Counter Ransomware Initiative intend to use information-sharing tools and AI to achieve their goals of cutting off the financial resources of threat actors. The Lighter Side [Tips, ideas, and recommendations on your technical blog]( From SQLServerCentral Blogs This technical blog is hardly the ideal, but I'll ... [Analyzing Goal Line Shotgun Runs with nflfastR]( From 36 Chambers – The Legendary Journeys A common theme among Buffalo Bills fans is the ide... [Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Are Not the Same Thing]( From SQLHA -- Allan Hirt The Beatles are using technology again in 2023 ... The post Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Are Not the Same Thing appeared first on SQLHA. [A New Word: Zielschmerz]( From SQLServerCentral Blogs zielschmerz – n. the dread of pursuing a lifelong dream, which requires you to put your true abilities out there to be tested on the open savannah, no longer... The...  [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. This newsletter was sent to you because you signed up at SQLServerCentral.com. 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