Three Reasons RDS SQL Server Is Better Than Azure SQL Managed Instance

While every managed database service has high points and low points, there are three things that make RDS for SQL Server shine in comparison to Azure SQL Managed Instance: options for a higher memory:vCPU ratio, a well documented API that works beautifully with python, and fast and effective customer support that isn’t painful to use.

It’s just three things, but they make a huge difference. And these are three things that Microsoft can, and SHOULD, really fix for their cloud database services.

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The Restore-AzSqlInstanceDatabase Long Running Operation Failed Error on Azure SQL Managed Instance

What’s it like to be a Database Administrator for managed databases in Azure? Sometimes it’s a painful guessing game when a routine, core operation– restoring a database – fails with a most unhelpful error.

In this case, if the restore is run via PowerShell, following Microsoft guidance, the error message is:

Restore-AzSqlInstanceDatabase: Long running operation failed with status ‘Failed’. 
Additional Info: An unexpected error occured while processing the request.

The misspelling of “occurred” doesn’t bring confidence, but we try and try again.

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Trying Out the Azure SQL Database Quickstart

I’m working through a series of tutorials and learning paths for Azure SQL and sharing bite-sized reviews.

In this first walkthrough, I’m stepping through the Create a Single Database tutorial.

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Use Chocolatey to Install Multiple SQL Server 2019 Instances for Testing

I’m working on a project where it’s useful to automate environment setup and teardown for testing some devops deployment scenarios for databases using transactional replication.

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Setting a Custom Variable in an Azure DevOps Pipeline with PowerShell

Recently, I was doing a bit of work in Azure DevOps Services, preparing a demo for an upcoming webinar. I ran into a simple but frustrating problem.

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Adding Microsoft MVP Contributions with PowerShell: Lessons Learned Using the MVP API

One of the things that brings Microsoft MVPs together each year is complaining about reporting community contributions to Microsoft.

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Do I Need to Master PowerShell?

As a SQL Server DBA, do you need to be a master of PowerShell scripts?

In this 9 minute episode, I talk about how much you need to know about PowerShell, and examples of ways I personally use (and struggle with) PowerShell.

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