SQL Updates Newsletter - January 2016
Recent Releases and Announcements
- Changes to SQL cumulative update download process:
- SQL cumulative updates are now available in the download center. No longer requires hotfix server registration, can now download via self-service download link
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 CU10
- SQL Server 2012 SP3 CU1
- Windows Enforcement of Authenticode Code Signing and Timestamping impact on SQL Server
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/sql_server_team/archive/2016/01/05/windows-enforcement-of-authenticode-code-signing-and-timestamping-impact-on-sql-server.aspx
- Windows Enforcement of Authenticode Code Signing and Timestamping has recently announced a change where Windows (version 7 and higher) and Windows Server will no longer trust any code that is signed with a SHA-1 code signing certificate and that contains a timestamp value greater than January 1, 2016
- https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32288.windows-enforcement-of-authenticode-code-signing-and-timestamping.aspx
- Azure Stack Technical Preview Announced!
- Announcing the first Technical Preview of Microsoft Azure Stack
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-first-technical-preview-of-microsoft-azure-stack/
- With Azure Stack, Microsoft is bringing proven innovation – including IaaS and higher level PaaS services – from hyper-scale datacenters to on-premises, enterprise-scale environments to meet customers’ business requirements.
- Introducing the Advanced Analytics Solution Building Process (AA SBP)
- R-based analytics + machine learning announcements
- https://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2016/01/12/making-r-the-enterprise-standard-for-cross-platform-analytics-both-on-premises-and-in-the-cloud.aspx
- Microsoft R Server, Microsoft R Server Developer Edition, Microsoft Data Science Virtual Machine, Microsoft R Open
- Microsoft R Server is available to all students for academic use with the Microsoft DreamSpark program.
- Download just Nano Server in a VHD (Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4)
- Azure Security Information – What We’ve Done, Where We’re Going
- Let’s take a look at what the Azure Security team together with our partners have published last year to help you keep up to date
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/azuresecurity/archive/2016/01/06/azure-security-information-what-we-ve-done-where-we-re-going.aspx
- Preview the newest ODBC SQL Server Driver for Windows and Linux
- https://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2016/01/11/preview-the-newest-odbc-sql-server-driver-for-windows-and-linux.aspx
- We are pleased to announce the community technology preview of Microsoft ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server on Windows and Linux, supporting Ubuntu, RedHat and SUSE distributions! The updated driver provides robust data access to Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database via ODBC on Windows and Linux platforms.
- TLS 1.2 Support for SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012 and 2014
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2016/01/29/tls-1-2-support-for-sql-server-2008-2008-r2-2012-and-2014.aspx
- Microsoft is pleased to announce the release of (Transport Layer Security) TLS 1.2 support in all major client drivers and SQL Server releases. The updates made available on January 29th, 2016 provide TLS 1.2 support for SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014.
- Introducing Power BI publisher for Excel
- Share your Excel data with Power BI publisher for Excel Preview
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2016/01/15/share-your-excel-data-with-power-bi-publisher-for-excel-preview.aspx
- Save snapshots of important PivotTables, Charts, cell ranges, and more from across all of your spreadsheets to a single location quickly
- Creating reports against the relational database is now officially supported in Team Foundation Server
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/dstfs/archive/2016/01/04/creating-reports-against-the-relational-database-is-now-officially-supported-in-team-foundation-server.aspx
- Creating reports against the relational database is now officially supported. In general, you will want to use the Analysis Services cube for historical reports, or reports that require segmenting multiple parameters of aggregate data. The cube is the best choice to handle this type of report. However, the relational database lets you create reports that pull loosely related data together in ways that are not possible by using the cube.
- Power BI Mobile Apps Update - January 2016
- Power BI Service Update
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2016/01/06/power-bi-service-update-0106.aspx
- Dashboards: Export Tile Data (can export chart data to excel, if the visual is filtered, then the exported data is filtered, too) , Add an Image or Text box Widget to Dashboards, Print Dashboards, Refresh Time on Tiles, Tooltips on Dashboard Tiles
- Collaboration: Shared Dashboard Notification, Contact Owner of a Shared or Organizational Dashboard
- Reports: Print Current Report Page,Export Report Visual Data, Connectivity, Connect to Files on SharePoint Team Sites
- Excel Reports: Open Excel Reports in Excel Desktop, Pin Excel Charts. Format Improvements for Excel Tiles
- Other: Power BI in Brazil, Hebrew and Arabic Support
- Automakers join forces with Microsoft to create new connected car technologies
- https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/01/05/automakers-join-forces-with-microsoft-to-create-new-connected-car-technologies/
- Microsoft is bringing mobility, cloud technology, predictive analytics and machine learning to cars
- Products Reaching End of Support in the First Half of 2016
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search?sort=PN&alpha=SQL%20Server%202014&Filter=FilterNO#gp/support-reaching-end-2016-1st/
- Support for SQL Server 2014 RTM ends on 7/12/2016. Please upgrade to the latest service pack as soon as possible.
- Build 2016 Registration Opened Jan. 19
- Microsoft Data Insights Summit
- Join us for the inaugural Microsoft Data Insights Summit, on March 22-23 in Bellevue, Washington, and discover new ways to bring your data to life. This will be the first Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Excel user conference designed especially for you, the business analyst.
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2016/01/11/nate-silver-to-headline-microsoft-data-insights-summit.aspx
- Just announced: Details of sessions at the inaugural Data Insights Summit
- Contest Announcement: Create your Best Report with Power BI and Win
Recent Whitepapers/E-books/Training/Tutorials
- Upcoming Windows Server and SQL Server Webcast Series!
- Do you just want to do quick testing of the Azure machine learning service? Then we have another solution for you.
- Under the URL: https://studio.azureml.net/ you can create a free workspace that does not require any Azure subscription.
- Free e-book: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2016: Mission-Critical Applications, Deeper Insights, Hyperscale Cloud, Preview Edition
- New Whitepaper: Microsoft Technologies for Data Movement, Transformation and Storage
- Free e-book: Enterprise Cloud Strategy
- Simplest way to deploy SQL Server to the Cloud
- [Video] Power BI Updates: New Report Authoring Capabilities + Survey
- Older Versions Of Internet Explorer Reach End Of Support January 12, 2016 + Windows 10 App Compat series
- Watch the Microsoft Business Intelligence PASS keynote
- [Video] Part 1 of 2) Deploying Windows 10 using System Center Configuration Manager VNEXT
- [Video] What is Azure Data Lake?
- Microsoft R Webinars
- https://info.microsoft.com/Microsoft-R-Webinars.html
- Using Microsoft R Server to Address Scalability Issues in R
- Thursday, February 4, 2016 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PT
Monthly Script Tips
- [Script Of Jan. 26] How to import/export data with Excel to/from Azure table storage
- PowerTip: Use PowerShell to view properties and their values for a .NET Framework class
- [Script Of Jan. 28] How to clear out diagnostics logs within a specified timeframe in Table Storage
- Introducing the top five Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts in 2015
- How to Contribute to PowerShell Documentation
Issue Alert
- Critical: issue 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
- Changing @@SERVERNAME causes SQL Server Backups to Fail for AlwaysOn Availability Group
- Filestream caused Alwayson failover to fail
- Plan cache pollution or how important it is to properly define parameters in code
- What happens is that if you do not specify the size of your parameter and you are executing your queries adhoc (not using stored procedures), the client driver (in that case the ADO.NET library) is evaluating the size of the parameter at runtime and passes it to the SQL Server instance. So if you have 10 inputs with different sizes, then you will have 10 different cached plans
- https://blogs.msdn.com/b/ivandonev/archive/2016/01/09/plan-cache-pollution-or-how-important-it-is-to-properly-define-parameters-in-code.aspx
- The Azure Monitoring Extension for SAP on Windows – Possible Error Codes and Their Solutions
- ML workspace creation fails with error: "The location constraint is not valid"
- SQL SSMS not listing MSDAORA provider when connected to 64 bit instance
Fany Carolina Vargas | SQL Dedicated Premier Field Engineer | Microsoft Services