T-SQL Tuesday 159 – What is my Favorite 2022 Feature?

This months invitation for T-SQL tuesday came from Deepthi Goguri (B | L | T) . Here original request is explained here.

The invite can be found here. Deepthi surprised me with hosting this TSQL tuesday. It is well deserved that she is hosting this months edition. I know here since a few years when I was helping on Dataweekender. Sometimes Deepthi is a bit naughty. She does not ask for one thing, but for two. Next to the question about the favorite 2022 feature, she is also asking if we do have New year resolutions….

What is my favourite SQL 2022 Feature?

This question is really hard to answer for me. I was there in Seattle when the product was launched, played around with it during its training days (and before). This version has so many new cool things that it is somehow overwhelming. Most of these features require the SQL2022 to become “Azure connected.” This way it is possible to bring your data close to Internet Connected

If you look at Purview… It is a great application which has a lot to offer. If you do not have your Data Governance up to date, I can send you in this direction. For this, you can use your data in the Cloud, but also your on prem data can be inventorised. And it does not matter if it is SQL (Any version) or any other database. Connectors are or will be availlable to bring your Data Governance to the required level. As with all applications: you need to spend a lot of time and consultants to implement this in larger enterprises. But wait … Purview can do more. Since it enables you to control the way how data flows, it can also grant the appropriate permissions. For this to work, some extra groups are created in the Azure Connected SQL Server.

The same is valid with regards to the Synapse integration. Your server needs to be Azure enabled. But it brings a lot. If you want to use this integration, you have to setup a kind of publishing rule for your database data. It then will send parquet files over to the internet which are read by Synapse and integrated in the database there. Your ETL can start a new life from here….

Another cool feature is to connect your on premise SQL 2016 or later to a Managed Instance. It will create a distributed Availability Group for one database. That database will be merging its changes to the cloud. This way you are somehow a bit safer when it comes to Defense in depth against Ransomware. Managed Instance is defended by Defender for Azure and SQL. This means recovery in minutes instead of days when you have a ton of data. But Wait… There is more. If you stop the subscription on the SQL2016 site and connect an on prem 2022 to the created AG, you can fail back to on prem. Did i metnion easy LCM?

All off the above options require you to ARC enable your on premise instances. Is this good or bad? I have no written opinion on that, but what I do know is that if you ARC enable your esate, you are able to also implement Defender for SQL on premise, look at patching tools (other that SCCM/WSUS which are used nowadays), Monitoring. If you go for ARC enabled you also have the options on the Log Analytics Workspace solutions like health and vulnerability management. Drawback?? MS knows exactly how your servers are configured and how to count them… but.. as we know they do know that allready because of the TrueUps and required healt assesments for SQL Server on premise.

What about the improvements in SQL itself? I think I leave the removal of several locks and blocking issues to Anna Hofmann. She removed them almost all. Query Optimizer improvements.. Bob Ward knwos about them.. New TSQL improvements are for Itzek Ben-Gan to explain. But there is data in a date…

Do I have new year Resolutions?

Normally I do not make any new year Resolutions because I know, as anyone else, it is very hard to make them.

This year is an exception. After being to passdatacommunitysummit I decided to try to get into the speaking arena again. I tried before Covid came in, but that ended after I had a bell paralysis and after that Covid took over the universe.

So, my professional New Year resolution for this year is to become a speaker. If you are interested in topics that I am interested in as a platform DBA (like Group Managed Service Accounts, Automated Deployments, Desired State, Ansible, Defender for SQL, etc) you may contact me.

Next to that I have a few other new year resolutions like going abroad to do some mountainbiking, holidays, city trips and especcially have fun. Combining speaking and Mountainbiking will be interesting. For that I can take my Camper if the location to speak is in Europe.

Another new year resolution is to see as much as possible of the Data Guys and Galls, including Deepthi of course. Not sure how, but it will be a huge list of people I can think of.