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SQL Updates Newsletter – December 2017

Recent Releases and Announcements

 

Troubleshooting and Issue Alerts

  • Critical: Do NOT delete files from the Windows Installer folder. C:\windows\Installer is not a temporary folder and files in it should not be deleted. If you do it on machines on which you have SQL Server installed, you may have to rebuild the operating system and reinstall SQL Server.
  • Critical: Please be aware of a critical Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 runtime pre-requisite update that may be required on machines where SQL Server 2016 will be, or has been, installed.
    • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlcat/2016/07/28/installing-sql-server-2016-rtm-you-must-do-this/
    • If KB3164398 or KB3138367 are installed, then no further action is necessary. To check, run the following from a command prompt:
    • powershell get-hotfix KB3164398
    • powershell get-hotfix KB3138367
    • If the version of %SystemRoot%\system32\msvcr120.dll is 12.0.40649.5 or later, then no further action is necessary. To check, run the following from a command prompt:
    • powershell "get-item %systemroot%\system32\msvcr120.dll | select versioninfo | fl"
  • Important: If the Update Cache folder or some patches are removed from this folder, you can no longer uninstall an update to your SQL Server instance and then revert to an earlier update build.
    • In that situation, Add/Remove Programs entries point to non-existing binaries, and therefore the uninstall process does not work. Therefore, Microsoft strongly encourages you to keep the folder and its contents intact.
    • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3196535
  • Important: You must precede all Unicode strings with a prefix N when you deal with Unicode string constants in SQL Server
  • Important: Default auto statistics update threshold change for SQL Server 2016
  • Analyze Network Latency Impact on Remote Availability Group Replica
    • When network latency becomes an issue the most common symptom you will observe is sustained or growing log send queue. [To monitor...] (1) Add the Log Send Queue size (KB) column in AlwaysOn Dashboard and (2) Add the SQLServer:Database Replica:Log Send Queue Counter
    • Measure Network Latency Impact Using Performance Monitor. On the secondary replica, launch Performance Monitor and add the following counters: (1) SQLServer:Database Replica:Log Bytes Received/sec for appropriate database instance and (2) SQLServer:Database Replica:Recovery Queue for appropriate database instance
    • On the primary replica, launch Performance Monitor and add the following counters: (1) SQLServer:Databases:Log Bytes Flushed/sec for appropriate database instance and (2) Network Interface:Sent Bytes/sec for appropriate adapter instance
    • In order to better understand how fast an application can push changes to the remote server, use a third-party network bandwidth performance tool, [such as] iPerf or NTttcp.
    • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alwaysonpro/2017/12/21/analyze-network-latency-impact-on-remote-availability-group-replica/
  • Availability Group Database Reports Not Synchronizing / Recovery Pending After Database Log File Inaccessible
  • Centennial apps/desktop bridge, SQL Server and error "The data area passed to a system call is too small."
    • Problem: Launching a Centennial application may fail with the following error: The data area passed to a system call is too small.
    • Cause: This issue may be due to miscommunication between two filter drivers, namely WCNFS (the desktop bridge) and RsFxXXXX.sys driver (filestream system driver). RsFx system driver doesn't honor flags being passed by WCNFS driver appropriately, which causes startup failure of any Centennial application with the aforementioned error.
    • Status: We will provide a fix for this issue in Cumulative updates for SQL Server versions which are still being serviced.
    • Workaround: Disable Filestream feature or Move Filestream data to a different volume
    • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sql_server_team/centennial-appsdesktop-bridge-sql-server-and-error-the-data-area-passed-to-a-system-call-is-too-small/

Recent Blog Posts and Articles

Recent Training and Technical Guides

Monthly Script and Tool Tips

 

Fany Carolina Vargas | SQL Dedicated Premier Field Engineer | Microsoft Services