Troubleshooting

Tag: troubleshooting

How to Survive Opening a Microsoft Support Ticket for SQL Server or Azure SQL

How to Survive Opening a Microsoft Support Ticket for SQL Server or Azure SQL

Asking Microsoft for support for SQL Server or Azure SQL is a lousy experience these days, whether you’re using a cheaper service tier or the more expensive support tier formerly known as “Premiere Support.” You need to know a lot about the root cause of your problem and how to solve it, or your request will be dismissed with misinformation. You’ll need data and metrics to back up your claims to get the ticket escalated, and you’ll need to provide those receipts multiple times. Once escalated to the Product Group, you may get a helpful response, but it takes a while. If the answer is relayed through a lower support tier, it often won’t make much sense.

These issues aren’t due to bad work ethics or personal failings of support workers. These are good humans trying their best. The problem is worse because it’s systemic.

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What To Do When They Are Sure It Was The Database... All The Time

What To Do When They Are Sure It Was The Database... All The Time

It can be tiring to have the database constantly be the Prime Suspect for performance problems.

I’ve had many variations of this conversation over the years:

“Something happened, and we’re pretty sure it was the database. Again.”

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Find Query Execution Timeouts with Query Store

Find Query Execution Timeouts with Query Store

During a discussion of troubleshooting query timeouts in Azure SQL Database recently, I wondered: can you find queries that timed out in Query Store?

You can.

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What I Learned Writing About How to Diagnose and Troubleshoot High CPU in Azure SQL Database

What I Learned Writing About How to Diagnose and Troubleshoot High CPU in Azure SQL Database

Writing helps me learn. In my job as a Content Developer, this is more true than ever: there’s a fantastic group of folks, both in the Database Docs team and in the Microsoft Data Platform engineering team, who review and contribute to content.

I’ve just had the pleasure of publishing my first new article in the Microsoft Docs, Diagnose and troubleshoot high CPU on Azure SQL Database.

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How to Enable TCP/IP in SQL Server Developer Edition, Even If the Configuration Manager Is Missing

How to Enable TCP/IP in SQL Server Developer Edition, Even If the Configuration Manager Is Missing

SQL Server’s Developer Edition installs with a different default network protocol configuration than Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition.

Fixing this has gotten more complicated because it’s become common for the SQL Server Configuration Manager to not be installed on a developer’s workstation in an easily accessible way.

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Kendra Breaks and Fixes SQL Source Control in 9 Minutes

Kendra Breaks and Fixes SQL Source Control in 9 Minutes

I love breaking technology.

I love breaking technology on purpose, in a place where it’s not going to slow anyone else down. It’s a great way to learn more about how everything works and what your options are to fix the situation when things go sideways.

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SQL Change Automation, Visual Studio, and the Unknown SQL Server Platform Error

SQL Change Automation, Visual Studio, and the Unknown SQL Server Platform Error

I recently set up Redgate’s SQL Change Automation in Visual Studio 2017, and I ran into a confusing error when I started trying to use it. For any other folks out there searching on “Unknown SQL Server Platform,” here’s how I got past it.

Spoiler: Visual Studio suggested updating Microsoft’s SQL Server Data Tools, which failed for me and wasted a lot of time.Β Updating Visual StudioΒ did fix my issue.

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