SQLServerCentral.com Community Update for {date}

Problems displaying this newsletter? View online.

Featured Contents

Question of the Day

Dataset Prereq in Azure Data Factory

The Voice of the DBA

Daily Coping Tip

Take a break and do something for yourself.

I also have a thread at SQLServerCentral dealing with coping mechanisms and resources. Feel free to participate.

For many of you out there working in a new way, I'm including a thought of the day on how to cope in this challenging time from The Action for Happiness Coping Calendar. My items will be on my blog, feel free to share yours.

How Often Do You Patch?

I saw two things recently. First, CU25 for SQL Server 2017 was released. I realized that I was CU8 locally, so I had work to do. Second, I noticed that SQL Server 2016 fell out of mainstream support on 13 Jul, 2021. Amazing that it's been around for 15 years and has moved into Extended support. We'll still get security updates, but nothing will be fixed.

Microsoft also announced they will put out a final Service Pack for SQL Server 2016. I've glad to see that, as I've often wanted to know there is a final patch that is released for each version, as I can know when I'm done patching.

Today I'm wondering if you track this at all. Do you actively look to ensure your instances are patched? Are you on a schedule of some sort, maybe matching Microsoft's every-other-month pace, or perhaps just a few times a year? Or is this more ad hoc? When I go visit companies, I often find instances at all different levels, often without any reasoning as to why systems aren't consistently patched.

I used to try and ensure we patched every quarter, though certainly, I faced resistance from some business owners of systems over the worry that a patch might break something. Valid concerns back then, and still somewhat valid today, though if a patch gets through a few months without reports of issues, it's probably safe for most systems.

These days, with so many hacking attempts, ransomware distribution channels, and no end to phishing, it makes sense to stay on top of patches and make sure you are up to date or at least planning to do so. Some of the high-profile hacks, like the Equifax one, have occurred on systems where patches were available but not applied. I don't know that many of the patches are closing holes in SQL Server, but there are definitely issues with Windows where you would want to ensure your host OS was patched. Maybe that's something you ought to check on today and ensure you have a plan to apply those updates.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

Featured Contents

Upsert Operation in Cosmos DB using Azure Data Factory

arindamxs from SQLServerCentral

This article covers the basics of upserting data in CosmosDB using Azure Data Factory.

Managing SQL Server transaction log size

Additional Articles from SimpleTalk

The SQL Server transaction log must be managed to keep a database running and performing well. In this article, Greg Larsen explains how to manage the transaction log size.

Peering into and Parsing Application Log Files

Additional Articles from Redgate

How to use PowerShell cmdlets, such as Select-String, to glance at the contents of the application logs, or use them in conjunction with Regular Expressions to sift through log files in detail looking for particular types of error.

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Crocs and Naps….

Diligentdba 46159 from Mala's Data Blog

I was planning a blog post for a TSQL2sday..instead would up writing an obituary blog post for a dear friend who passed on yesterday. Brian Moran was among the...

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Interview with the Amazing Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman

Kenneth.Fisher from SQLStudies

Thanks for agreeing to do this Kellyn. I’ve always found you to be one of the more interesting personalities in ... Continue reading

Question of the Day

Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):
	Dataset Prereq in Azure Data Factory
I want to create a dataset for my Azure Data Factory v2 Pipeline. What do I need to do before I create the dataset?
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)

A Lambda Function in Python

I have this in Python:

x = lambda a: a * 2
x(4)

What is returned?

Answer: 8

Explanation: This is a lambda, or anonymous function that is bound to the variable, x. This function doubles the value of the parameter passed in. Ref: Lambda Expressions - https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/controlflow.html#lambda-expressions

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 - Development

Having a hard time with time zones - I found a glitch in one of my reports. Its due to events spanning the hour difference when a time zone moves to daylight saving So 31st March 2019 was a Sunday, and being the last Sunday in March - we advance at 01:00 to 02:00 - so the time 01:30 cannot exist on 31st […]

Powershell script help sending the results in email body - Hi, i found some script to list out the primary ag groups in servers in powerhsell. but the results not coming in attachment. i need results through email email body. can any one help please find below script ## Setup dataset to hold results $dataset = New-Object System.Data.DataSet ## populate variable with collection of SQL […]

Storing the datediff between a row and the previous row - So I want to store the difference in milliseconds between rows in a column Table format ID , Label, Realdate, datediff . I've tried calculating the datediff using the following statement but if I try and combine with an update to the timediff column Im getting no joy SELECT id,label,realdate, DATEDIFF(MILLISECOND, pDataDate, realdate) as […]

SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL

Best Index Choices - Can you guys give a recommendation on what the best indexes would be for this query? Please let me know if more info is needed. SELECT IMLSMST_SQL.ser_lot_no AS 'Ser/Lot' ,CASE WHEN IMLSMST_SQL.qty_on_hand - IMLSMST_SQL.qty_allocated - Isnull(Sum(wsPKGSL.Qty), 0) > 0 THEN IMLSMST_SQL.qty_on_hand - IMLSMST_SQL.qty_allocated - Isnull(Sum(wsPKGSL.Qty), 0) ELSE 0 END AS 'Qty Avail' FROM IMLSMST_SQL LEFT […]

Development - SQL Server 2014

Hash join in query even after having clustered index - Hi, I have 2 tables which join on ID column. select name from Product P inner join LineItem L on P.ID = L.ID Product table has clustered index on ID while LineItem has non clustered index on ID. Initially, both the ID columns were nvarchar and query was doing an index scan and running pretty […]

updating data and keeping a history of the changes - Good Morning, I am looking for some advice on some work i have been given. currently we have a small database which is based on a zip file of 5 CSV files. The CSV files get updated each week and the files then need to be uploaded into the database each week. I am ok […]

SQL Server 2019 - Administration

View running indefinitely after rebuilding indexes - Hi, I have a Combined View which is fetching data from 2 underline views which in turn are referring to 2 tables. I did an index rebuild on the underlined tables due to fragmentation ,post which views on top of tables are working fine but the combined view on top of those views is running […]

Error when trying to restore previously encrypted database - Some background... we have a test environment where we are testing TDE. We log ship databases from one server (let's call it Primary) to another server (Secondary) for reporting purposes. Recently we had a power outage which caused, among other things, for log shipping to fail on many of these databases. When attempting to recreate […]

Want to Know SQL Server 2019 Reporting Services - what services is SQL Server 2019 provided at an advanced level? please help.

SQL Server 2019 - Development

String_Agg and Group By Error - Hello All, I am in need of your assistance. I am trying to use the string_agg function with a group by and keep on getting the error below. Column 'Integration_02_Clinical.Schedule.Source System' is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause. Could someone provide […]

Wrapping your SQL Server Database into a complete web app - Hi guys and gals, I just got laid off some few days ago, and in order to sustain a living, I had to become a bit "creative". Hence, I just started a service provider where I will create a complete Angular frontend application and a complete .Net5 based web API (CRUD), wrapping any existing database […]

SQL Server 2008 - General

Cross database user permissions - I have two databases: Db1 and Db2. For security (and other) reasons I don't allow the database users direct access to the tables or views so all SELECTs, INSERTs, etc are inside stored procedures. All works fine except when a stored procedure in Db1 needs to access data in DB2. I have to grant the […]

Reporting Services

Apply patch on the reporting server - I installed a 2016 standard edition of SQL Server instance along with reporting services. Now I am trying to apply CU15 on the instance but the option to select the instance isn't highlighted. I have never run into this type of issue before. For DB engine, we always use enterprise edition and I never have […]

Powershell

Move files and add datetime stamp to filename - Trying to move files and add the datetime stamp before the extension. I only want to copy files with a .csv extension, no other directories or sub folders. This runs but doesn't move anything. I would like to also move files where files have data, no zero byte files get moved. Thanks. Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Line_Dumps\' […]

The Future of Community

Loved it - Hi everyone! I just want to say that I really love the idea of the section daily coping. Do you agree with me? Please accept my applause to whoever created it! However, it seems to be a couple of days behind so plz try to keep it on. Thanks for reading.

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.