SQL Updates Newsletter - July/August 2015
Recent Releases and Announcements
- SQL 2016 CTP 2.3 has been released
- Cumulative Update package 7 for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3072100
- If you are using keyset cursors, please review https://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2015/07/16/how-it-works-sql-server-sqlncli11-odbc-driver-keyset-cursor.aspx which discusses improvements in the updated release of SQLNCLI11 and MSSQLODBC drivers
- Cumulative update 2 for SQL Server 2014 SP1
- MS15-058: Description of the nonsecurity update for SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 GDR: July 14, 2015
- An on-demand hotfix update package is available for SQL Server 2014 SP1
- Analytics Platform System Update 4 Generally Available
- August 2015 cumulative time zone update for Windows operating systems
- Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for July 2015
- https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms15-Jul
- There are some critical Windows patches as well as an important SQL Server security patch: MS15-058
- Windows 10 has been released
- 10 Reasons for Windows 10 https://blogs.technet.com/b/cdnitmanagers/archive/2015/07/27/10-reasons-for-windows-10.aspx
- Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 Now Available For Download
- SQL Server 2016 query optimizer hotfix trace flag 4199 behavior changes
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/974006
- Starting with SQL Server 2016 RTM, the database COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL setting will be used enable trace flag 4199-related hotfixes on-by-default.
- Changes with how version information is returned via SELECT @@Version
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2015/07/20/what-build-of-sql-server-are-you-running.aspx
- Starting with July 2015 CU – SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2 Cumulative Update 7, you will notice a very visible change in 2 places: SELECT @@VERSION and SQL Server Error log.
- CU name and KB article number will now be displayed along with the build number
- Microsoft Named a Leader in Gartner’s Server Virtualization Magic Quadrant for Fifth Consecutive Year
- Announcing SQL Server Management Studio - July 2015 Release
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2015/07/22/announcing-sql-server-management-studio-july-2015-release.aspx
- Database diagramming support for Azure SQL databases, IntelliSense support for new temporal table syntax, and more.
- Microsoft has released the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Microsoft JDBC 4.2 Driver for SQL Server.
- The ever expanding SQL Server family: SQL 2016
- https://blogs.technet.com/b/uktechnet/archive/2015/07/08/the-ever-expanding-sql-server-family.aspx
- SQL Server database engine
- In-memory OLTP engine
- In-memory analytics engine
- PolyBase integration services
- SQL Server Data Tools
- SQL Server Integration Services
- SQL Server Analysis Services - Multi-dimensional model
- SQL Server Analysis Services - Tabular model
- SQL Server Reporting Services
- Power Pivot for SharePoint
- Power View for SharePoint
- Master Data Services
- Data quality Services
- StreamInsight
- Datazen
- SQL Server 2016 Upgrade Advisor Preview now available
- SQL Server 2008 R2 CU2, SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU7 and SQL Server 2005 SP3 CU9 introduce trace flag 4136 to disable the "parameter sniffing" process
- Entity Framework 7 Beta 6 is now available
- Announcing Power BI General Availability - July 24th
- Power BI Desktop August Update
- The ability to import Excel Power BI artifacts into a new Power BI Desktop file
- A new HDInsight Spark connector
- A new Azure SQL Data Warehouse connector
- Support for custom MDX/DAX queries when importing data from SQL Server Analysis Services
- https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2015/08/20/power-bi-desktop-monthly-updates-include-new-data-connectors-and-better-query-editor/
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2015/08/20/announcing-the-power-bi-desktop-august-update.aspx
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2015/07/24/what-s-new-in-the-power-bi-desktop-ga-update.aspx
- Video demo: https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2015/08/20/power-bi-desktop-monthly-updates-include-new-data-connectors-and-better-query-editor/
- Power BI Easier dashboard sharing with Distribution Groups
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2015/08/05/10633038.aspx
- We’ve released an enhancement to the Share Dashboard feature
- If your organization uses Office 365 for email, you can now share to an email distribution group just the same way you would send an email in Outlook. Just enter the address of the distribution group and click Share. All members of the distribution group will receive an email invitation to view the dashboard.
- Sway is now generally available, including new Sway for Windows 10 app
- Announcing Workgroup and Multi-domain clusters in Windows Server 2016
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2015/08/17/10635825.aspx
- In Windows Server 2012 R2 and previous versions, a cluster could only be created between member nodes joined to the same domain. Windows Server 2016 introduces the ability to create a Failover Cluster without Active Directory dependencies.
- Failover Clusters can now therefore be created in the following configurations:
- Single-domain Clusters: Clusters with all nodes joined to the same domain
- Multi-domain Clusters: Clusters with nodes which are members of different domains
- Workgroup Clusters: Clusters with nodes which are member servers / workgroup (not domain joined)
- The Windows ADK for Windows 10 is now available
- The Universal Windows app development tools for writing Windows 10 apps in Visual Studio 2015 have been released
- .NET 4.x and IE lifecycle transitions to take effect in January 2016
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/premier_developer/archive/2015/07/28/net-lifecycle-roadmap-and-announcements.aspx
- Beginning January 12, 2016, the only .Net 4.x build Microsoft will support is .NET Framework 4.5.2 or higher. This announcement does not impact .NET Framework versions prior to 4.
- Microsoft recommends that customers who use the .NET Framework 4, 4.5 and 4.5.1 proceed with the update to the .NET Framework 4.5.2 before January 12, 2016.
- Only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates starting in January 2016.
- Visual Studio 2015 and .Net 4.6 released
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2015/07/20/visual-studio-2015-and-net-4-6-available-for-download.aspx
- Visual Studio 2015 RTM: What’s New in the IDE https://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2015/07/21/visual-studio-2015-rtm-what-s-new-in-the-ide.aspx
- Unifies debugging and profiling into a single Diagnostics Tools window
- PerfTips provide performance information right in your code as you set breakpoints and step with the debugger
- C# and VB developers can use the new Roslyn-based tooling, including Light Bulbs that proactively suggest potential fixes or code refactorings tooling
- New XAML editor with tons of new features to easily navigate through code
- Along with Visual Studio 2015 and .NET 4.6 come C# 6 and Visual Basic 14. With dozens of new language features that simplify common coding patterns, the new versions of C# and VB.NET offer a big step forward for .NET developer productivity.
- Visual Studio 2015 also includes significantly improved support for C++ 11/14/17 along with TypeScript 1.5, F# 4.0 and tools for Python and dozens of other languages.
- Offers the ability to target new platforms, use new programming languages, and to take existing skills and applications to new environments.
- Along with .NET 4.6, we are also making available ASP.NET 4.6, the newest version of our Web development framework.
- VS 2015 also includes the latest Azure SDK providing one-click provisioning and deployment to Azure for web sites and cloud services, along with easy management of all or your cloud resources
- Visual Studio Customer Feedback Channels https://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2015/07/30/visual-studio-customer-feedback-channels.aspx
- Eliciting your feedback about upgrading SQL Server
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/sql_server_team/archive/2015/08/07/eliciting-your-feedback-about-upgrading-sql-server.aspx
- We're running a high-velocity planning program about upgrading SQL Server and this process is driven by your feedback.
- Feedback request: Protecting data in SQL
- The SQL Security product team would like to better understand the needs and frustrations of customers who are concerned about protecting their data, both in the cloud and on-premises. If you fit this profile and would be willing to talk with our team, please complete this brief survey: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlsecurity/archive/2015/07/31/feedback-request-protecting-data-in-sql.aspx
- Request for feedback: Where would you like our app to go?
- RSAT for Windows 10 released!
- Windows Azure Pack Update Rollup 7 (you should use 7.1 instead which contains additional fixes )
- 7.0: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3069121
- Update Rollup 7.1 for Windows Azure Pack - KB3091399 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48719
- Allows tenants to delete the checkpoint created for their virtual machines, adds support for VM names of up to 15 characters, hides irrelevant and incompatible VHDs, admins can now associate security groups with a plan to let only those tenants in the security groups to view and self-subscribe to the particular plans, and allows tenants to see performance data on their dashboard.
- SQL Server Connector for Azure Key Vault Public Preview Refresh Now Available
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/azuresecurity/archive/2015/08/19/sql-server-connector-for-azure-key-vault-publish-preview-refresh-now-available.aspx
- https://i1.blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlsecurity/archive/2015/08/27/public-preview-refresh-of-sql-server-connector-for-microsoft-azure-key-vault.aspx
- The SQL Server Connector enables SQL Server encryption at rest scenarios including Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), Column Level Encryption (CLE) and Encrypted Backup to leverage the Azure Key Vault service as an Extensible Key Management (EKM) provider to protect its encryption keys.
- The release also enables SQL Server to use the GA version of the Key Vault service. The previous Connector used a prior version of the Key Vault service that will be deprecated soon.
- Announcing the Azure SDK 2.7.1 for .NET
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-azure-sdk-2-7-1-for-net/
- Azure SDK 2.7.1 brings Visual Studio 2013 on par with the capabilities available in the Azure SDK 2.7 release for Visual Studio 2015
- Visual Studio 2013 now supports DreamSpark and Cloud Solution Provider customer accounts.
- Improvements to the HDInsight tools for Visual Studio, including some improvements to IntelliSense suggestions for HDInsight.
- Azure Resource Manager Tools have been updated to include better IntelliSense and to automate deployment of virtual machines with in-guest customization easier.
- AZCopy 3.2.0 RTM update includes the support for new storage blob type Append Blob and FIPS compliant MD5 setting.
- Azure Data Factory JSON Changes in July 2015
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/bigdatasupport/archive/2015/07/21/azure-data-factory-json-changes-in-july-2015.aspx
- There are JSON Schema changes in Azure Data Factory when the new PowerShell SDK (update as of July 17, 2015) is downloaded.
- Announcing Apache Spark on Azure HDInsight
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/farukcelik/archive/2015/07/11/apache-spark-on-azure-hdinsight-is-announced.aspx
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/hdinsight/apache-spark/
- Apache Spark is an open source processing framework that runs large-scale data analytics applications. Built on an in-memory compute engine, Spark is known for high performance querying on big data. It leverages a parallel data processing framework that persists data in-memory and disk if needed
- Azure Data Catalog is in Public Preview
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/farukcelik/archive/2015/07/11/quot-azure-data-catalog-quot-is-in-public-preview.aspx
- An enterprise metadata catalog / portal for the self-service discovery of data sources.
- Cloud Platform Release Announcements for July/August
- Announcing availability of Linux RDMA on Microsoft Azure
- Announcement: Azure RMS Documentation Library Update for July 2015
- Azure SQL Web and Business databases will be retired September 2015. The Basic, Standard, and Premium service tiers replace the retiring Web and Business databases.
- Azure Data Factory is in GA (General Availability)
- https://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2015/08/06/announcing-the-general-availability-of-azure-data-factory.aspx
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/data-factory/
- ADF is a fully managed cloud-based data integration service that orchestrates and automates the movement and transformation of data. It is part of a family of state-of-the-art cloud analytics products including Azure Data Catalog, Azure Machine Learning, HDInsight, Power BI, and Azure Stream Analytics that are helping our enterprise customers transform data into intelligent action.
- Create, schedule, orchestrate, and manage data pipelines
- Visualize data lineage
- Connect to on-premises and cloud data sources
- Monitor data pipeline health
- Automate cloud resource management
- Row-Level Security for Azure SQL Database is Generally Available
- Check out the New Public Preview of Converged Microsoft Account and Azure Active Directory Programming Model
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/azuresecurity/archive/2015/08/17/check-out-the-new-public-preview-of-converged-microsoft-account-and-azure-active-directory-programming-model.aspx
- The Azure Active Directory team is introducing a new converged programming model that makes is far easier to provide your applications access both Microsoft accounts and Azure Active Directory accounts.
- Pen testing your applications hosted in Microsoft Azure
- https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/mt346049.aspx
- When you’re ready to carry out penetration tests of your Azure-hosted applications, all you need to do is let us know. Once we know that you’re going to be performing specific tests, we’ll have insight into what’s going on and we won’t shut you down, as long as your tests conform to the Azure pen testing terms and conditions.
- https://security-forms.azure.com/penetration-testing/terms
- Introducing a public preview of two additional service tiers for Elastic Databases, Basic and Premium
- Azure Powershell: Switch-AzureMode is being deprecated
- https://blogs.technet.com/b/lukeb/archive/2015/06/15/arm-replacing-asm-in-azure-powershell.aspx
- The Azure PowerShell installation included both Azure Service Management (ASM) and Azure Resource Manager (ARM) modules. These modules were not designed to be used in the same session. To allow use of the modules within the same session, one module would be loaded and the other module would be unloaded using Switch-AzureMode
- Azure PowerShell will now be stateless and enable simple use of ARM and ASM
- Changes are targeted for September 2015 release
- Azure Backup has increased the size of datasources that can be protected to 54,400 GB from 1,700 GB
- Azure Blob now has append functionality
- Microsoft Azure SQL Supports Up to 1 TB Databases
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/zxue/archive/2015/08/27/microsoft-azure-sql-supports-up-to-1-tb-databases.aspx
- Microsoft has announced two new Azure SQL Database tier options for standalone databases, P4 and P11.
- With P11 Azure SQL now supports databases up to 1 TB.
Recent Whitepapers/E-books/Training/Tutorials
- Sept. 1 webinar will cover predictive analytics for sales and marketing
- https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2015/08/28/sept-1-webinar-will-cover-predictive-analytics-for-sales-and-marketing/
- Microsoft will host a free webinar on Sept. 1 that will cover the solutions, including an end-to-end, cloud-based service with Cortana Analytics.
- https://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2015/08/28/free-webinar-predictive-analytics-for-sales-amp-marketing.aspx
- Download many Microsoft eBooks
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/mssmallbiz/archive/2015/07/07/i-m-giving-away-millions-of-free-microsoft-ebooks-again-including-windows-10-windows-8-1-windows-8-windows-7-office-2013-office-365-sharepoint-2013-dynamics-crm-powershell-exchange-server-lync-2013-system-center-azure-clo.aspx
- Includes the following e-books among others: OneNote 2013 Keyboard Shortcuts, Introducing Windows Azure™ for IT Professionals, Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2014, Troubleshooting SQL Server AlwaysOn, SQL Server Distributed Replay, XQuery Language Reference, Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Solutions Guide for High Availability and Disaster Recovery, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2014 Product Guide, SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP Internals Overview.
- New training videos on Microsoft Public Cloud Services
- Free Webinar: Introduction to Azure Data Factory
- (Part 4) Open Source + Microsoft Azure - Implementing Big Data Solutions with Hadoop on Microsoft Azure
- Using the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit
- TechNet Radio: (Part 23) Building Your Hybrid Cloud - Azure Key Vault
- MCP Insider Series: Developing Universal Windows Apps
- Latest SQL server courses
- [Webinar] Learn about Power BI content packs and direct query capabilities
- [Webinar] Creating Reports for Power BI Using Power BI Desktop
- Becoming a Power BI User in 7 Quick Steps
- Windows Container Video Series
- [Webinar] Power BI Mobile - Your Data on the Go
- Killer Visualizations in Power BI
- Deploy a high-availability line of business application in Azure
- Join us for our Cortana Analytics workshop on September 10 & 11
- Windows 10 Deployment
- [Whitepaper] Azure Resource Manager – create templates
- Introducing Creative Coding through Games and Apps - a free course
- Preparing Your Enterprise for Windows 10 as a Service
Monthly Script Tips
- New Azure Mobile samples and tutorials
- PowerShell, FSMOs and Netdom
- One-Liner: Stop and Deallocate Azure Virtual Machines
- Scripting Tips & Tricks: The PowerShell Script Analyzer Module
- Getting Started with the PowerShell Gallery
Issue Alert
- Criticalissue in SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 that could crash your SQL server
- 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.
- Important: You must precede all Unicode strings with a prefix N when you deal with Unicode string constants in SQL Server
- FIX: "Failed to create kernel event for collection set" error occurs when you use Data Collection in SQL Server 2012
- FIX: "Unable to create restore plan due to break in the LSN chain" error when you restore differential backup in SSMS
- FIX: ROLAP Distinct Count on data source is not started when it is running from SSAS 2012 to back-end SQL Server 2014
- FIX: Indexed view returns incorrect result after insert or delete operation on the base table in SQL Server 2012
- FIX: SSAS 2012 crashes when you execute an MDX query that contains lots of Union expressions
- FIX: A SQL Server 2012 SSIS package with an Execute SQL Task may stop responding
- FIX: "Cannot find the OLAP cube Model" error when you update the pivot table in a SharePoint document in SQL Server 2012
- FIX: Access Violation error occurs when you run DDL SQL statements on a database in an instance of SQL Server 2012 Email
- FIX: Schema lock occurs on a table with large data when you delete lots of rows from it in SQL Server 2012
- Error configuring distribution- "Publishing and distribution are supported only in SQL Server version 7.0 or later"
- Error 17053 when using third party network storage device / SMB file share
- Import / Deployment / Execution of SSIS packages fails after you migrate SSISDB from SQL Server 2012 to SQL Server 2014.
- User Interface freezing during SQL Server database restore.
- SQL Server Report Execution Fails with "rsRenderingExtensionNotFound" error.
- Transparent Data Encryption Preview Issues
- Error while connecting to SQL Server – “Could not connect because the maximum number of '1' user connections has already been reached.”
- Report Server database migration fails at "Setting DSN" step
- Error occurred during the pre-login handshake
- OPENDATASOURCE query execution error while using SQL public account
- Report Manager: “System.InvalidOperationException: This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.”
- The OLE DB provider "MSDASQL" for linked server " " supplied inconsistent metadata for a column.
- Error 0xC1900101 - 0x20017 upgrading to Windows 10 build 10162
- PowerPivot addin for Excel fails to refresh when SQL authentication and Save Password are used
- Case of the 30 second File Explorer
- FIX: Access violation occurs when you execute a query that contains many joins and coalesce functions in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: Access violation occurs when you connect to an instance of SQL Server by using sqlcmd utility in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: Access violation and unexpected SQL Server shutdown occur when common criteria compliance is enabled
- FIX: It takes longer time than expected to list the databases in Object Explorer in SSMS 2014
- FIX: AlwaysOn database on a secondary replica shows a "NOT SYNCHRONIZING" status in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: Case-sensitive does not work in MDS database in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: TDE certificate creation fails in SQL Server 2014 SP1 if the serial number is greater than 16 bytes
- FIX: Can't view the properties of a contained database in Object Explorer in SQL Server 2014 SP1
- FIX: "Possible schema corruption. Run DBCC CHECKCATALOG" error occurs when you delete column in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: Increased wait time of HADR_SYNC_COMMIT wait types when you have memory-optimized tables defined in at least one availability group database
- FIX: Rare index corruption when you build a columnstore index with parallelism on a partitioned table in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: A stalled dispatcher system dump forces a failover and service outage in SQL Server 2014 Service Pack1
- FIX: "Cannot Start Application" error when you start SQL Server Reporting Services Report Builder in SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1
- FIX: "Requested value was not found" error when you deploy a SQL Server 2014 database to Windows Azure
- FIX: Cannot find file error occurs when you execute a maintenance plan to back up database in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: Automatic failover and service outage occur on availability groups in SQL Server 2014
- FIX: An online rebuild of indexes is unsuccessful when a table partition is read-only in SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1
- Permission error occurs when you use a volume mount point in SQL Server Setup
- SSIS execution timeout error when using SSISDB stored procedure [catalog].[create_execution]
- Cannot Login to SQL Server using administrator account
Fany Carolina Vargas | SQL Dedicated Premier Field Engineer | Microsoft Services