SQL Updates Newsletter - May 2016

Recent Releases and Announcements

• Cumulative update package 2 for SQL Server 2012 SP3
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/3137746
• Cumulative Update 3 for SQL Server 2012 SP3
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3152635
• Cumulative Update 12 for SQL Server 2012 SP2
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3152637
• SQL Server 2016 will be generally available on June 1, 2016.
  • https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/05/02/get-ready-sql-server-2016-coming-on-june-1st/
  • In March, we announced that the SQL Server 2016 Developer edition will be a free download for Visual Studio Dev Essentials members
  • Oracle migration offer: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/sql-license-migration.aspx
• Support for SQL Server 2005 ended on April 12, 2016.
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/04/12/today-is-last-day-of-extended-support-for-sql-server-2005-time-to-put-a-plan-of-action-in-place/
• Starting this week, Microsoft Enterprise Agreement customers can bring existing licenses to run SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
  • https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/easily-bring-your-sql-server-licenses-to-azure-vms
  • Starting this week, customers with Enterprise Agreement who already have SQL Server Licenses, can use them on Azure Virtual Machines with Microsoft-certified (BYOL) gallery images
  • Microsoft Enterprise Agreement customers will have access to new set of gallery images that they can use with their existing SQL Server licenses and deploy VMs with them.
• DSC Resource Kit – New Release
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/2016/05/18/dsc-resource-kit-anniversary-release/
  • Note: The modules updated in this release include xComputerManagement, xSqlPs, and xSQLServer
• Preview of Microsoft Drivers 4.0.4 for PHP for SQL Server Released
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlphp/2016/05/04/preview-of-microsoft-drivers-4-0-4-for-php-for-sql-server-released/
• Azure SQL Data Warehouse now supports AAD, large rows and additional T-SQL features
  • https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-sql-data-warehouse-now-supports-aad-large-rows-and-additional-t-sql-features/
• SQL Server Connector Public Preview Update
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlsecurity/2016/05/18/sql-server-connector-public-preview-update/
• New machine learning template helps energy companies forecast demand
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/05/04/new-machine-learning-template-helps-energy-companies-forecast-demand/
• New CU update allows you to change permissions for running sp_readerrorlog and sp_enumerrorlogs in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3149128
  • This cumulative update changes the permissions that are required in order to execute the sp_readerrorlog or sp_enumerrorlogs stored procedures in SQL Server 2012. If you use either the SecurityAdmin server-level role or the View Server State permission, you can execute the sp_readerrorlog and sp_enumerrorlogs stored procedures.
• Recent Case Studies:
  • Power BI delivers custom data visualization to business teams
    • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt709102.aspx
  • Using predictive analytics in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to improve sales
    • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt707763.aspx
  • Implementing a data analytics framework improves data management and reduces costs
    • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt709434.aspx

 

 

Recent Whitepapers/E-books/Training/Tutorials

• From https://mva.microsoft.com/ebooks
  • Windows 10 IT Pro Essentials: Top 10 Tools
  • Introducing Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview
  • Enterprise Cloud Strategy
• Speeding up analytics with In-Memory Columnstore Index
  • https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/DataDriven/SQLServer2016/Speeding-up-analytics-with-In-Memory-Columnstore-Index
• How to use Power Query to Split Date Column
  • https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/MVP-Data-Platform/How-to-use-Power-Query-to-Split-Date-Column
• SQL Unplugged Episode 13 - SQL Server 2016 GA & SQL on Linux
  • https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SQL-Unplugged/SQLUnplugged-Episode-13-SQL-Server-2016-GA--SQL-on-Linux
• Microsoft SQL Server 2016: Mobile Reports

  • https://channel9.msdn.com/events/DataDriven/New-SQL-No-Equal/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2016-Mobile-Reports

 

Monthly Script Tips

• Run T-SQL in parallel agents jobs and wait until all the jobs are done
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/lukassteindl/2016/04/28/run-t-sql-in-parallel-agents-jobs-and-wait-till-all-the-jobs-are-done/

 

Issue Alert

• 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.
  • https://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlserverfaq/archive/2013/04/30/do-not-delete-files-from-the-windows-installer-folder.aspx
• Important: You must precede all Unicode strings with a prefix N when you deal with Unicode string constants in SQL Server
  • https://support.microsoft.com/kb/239530
• Important: 3120595 - FIX: Column data may be deleted when you update another variable-length column in a table of a database upgraded from SQL Server 2005
  • https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3120595/EN-US
• FIX: "Cannot alter column" error after a database is restored to SQL Server
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3155558
• FIX: Unicode characters are displayed as square blocks after you paste them from an SSRS report
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3152596
• Max_Queue_Readers property is ignored when you try to limit activation tasks in Service Broker
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3163368
• FIX: MERGE statement to sync tables is unsuccessful when change data capture is enabled in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3155503
• FIX: Can't delete a row from a filtered table part of a merge publication in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3155209
• FIX: Incorrect page numbers are displayed when you export an SSRS 2012 report to PDF or TIFF format
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3160427
• FIX: Improvement for SQL Server AlwaysOn Lease Timeout supportability in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3156304
• FIX: Shared data sources and stored credentials are removed by the SharePoint daily cleanup jobs in SSRS 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3162396
• FIX: "Incorrect syntax near 'begi'" error message when you run a Transact-SQL statement in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/2829372
• FIX: Memory leak on the AlwaysOn secondary replica when change tracking is enabled in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3154226
• FIX: SQL Server database creation on a system with a large volume of memory takes longer than expected
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3158396
• FIX: Copy Database Wizard fails when a table contains a sparse column set in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3157575
• FIX: Error 1478 when you add a database back to the AlwaysOn availability group in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3152965
• FIX: Selection change on Excel grouping errors out when the data is from a SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services ROLAP partition
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3160874
• FIX: Error when you use the replication feature in SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3135748
• FIX: "Non-yielding Scheduler" error when versioning cleanup task runs on a SQL Server AlwaysOn secondary replica
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3138455
• FIX: sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats missing information after index rebuild on SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3160407
• FIX: Filestream directory is not visible after an AlwaysOn replica is restarted in SQL Server 2012
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3154421

 

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