Using Containers to Avoid Installing SQL Server (2024-09-06)

SQLServerCentral Newsletter for September 6, 2024 Problems displaying this newsletter? [View online](. [SQL Server Central]( Featured Contents - [Using Containers to Avoid Installing SQL Server]( - [SQL ROUND Function vs. Bankers Rounding with T-SQL]( - [From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Creating a Test Pipeline in Azure DevOps using a Windows Agent]( - [From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Database CI/CD Basics (T-SQL Tuesday #177)]( - [Practical Database Auditing for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL: Troubleshooting, Regulatory Compliance, and Governance]( Question of the Day - [Am I on Synapse?]( The Voice of the DBA  Container Development Work On my new laptop, I only use containers as database servers. I made the decision not to install SQL Server or PostgreSQL and instead work on containers only. I've written lightly about this, but I set up docker-compose files to load different instances of SQL Server and PostgreSQL (and others) and batch files to start and stop them. I've also set dedicated places on my disk where I can drop backup files and access them from the host. It's 2024. I moved to containers on my laptop exclusively for databases for the first time this year. This is despite the fact that I like containers, am comfortable with them, and find them handy. Moving from installed database server software to containers took a conscious effort, and it took time to configure everything. Really, it took me a bit of time to think about how I'd want to configure my system so that my work in SSMS went smoothly. I saw an [blog recently from Microsoft on some of the devcontainer work]( they've done. I talked with a few people, who showed me how easy this was to do in ADS or VS Code and ensure your database was included as a part of your project. On one hand I was impressed. On the other, I don't see many people with projects in ADS/VS Code and the need to spin up/down containers and connect through that tool. Plus, how easy is it to get connected with SSMS or another tool to the container? If there is any friction in using a new technology, most of us won't adopt it. Even if we're forced, we'll be upset (and less productive) for quite some time if using something is a hassle. I believe in containers, but spinning one up from go-sqlcmd is far different from easily being able to grab a backup file from a friend and get it restored. While I see lots of companies where developers are excited to use containers, I see relatively few where containerized is the default, or even common, method of working with something. I see even fewer where containers are used for database work. Certainly some people use them, but not most. Local installs, dev servers, and VMs seem to still be very common. They're tried, true, and familiar, Most of us like things that are familiar and we fall back to them quickly. Do you use containers for anything? Testing out software? Actual work? Are you even allowed to use Docker or something similar to run containers? Maybe less likely, but I'm curious, how many of you actually deploy containers in production and with what tech installed in the containers? Let us know today. I think containers have lots of possibilities, but they haven't caught on as quickly or widely as I would have thought. Primarily because of friction. Steve Jones - SSC Editor [Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums](   Featured Contents [SQLServerCentral Article]( [Using Containers to Avoid Installing SQL Server]( Steve Jones - SSC Editor from SQLServerCentral I got a new laptop recently and instead of installing SQL Server, I decided to try and use containers to see how well this works. This article looks at how I got this working relatively quickly. The short list of things I did is: Install Docker Desktop Create a location for data/logs/etc. Create a docker-compose […] [External Article]( [SQL ROUND Function vs. Bankers Rounding with T-SQL]( Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com Learn about rounding values using T-SQL and how the ROUND function works compared to creating a user-defined function for bankers rounding. [Blog Post]( From the SQL Server Central Blogs - [Creating a Test Pipeline in Azure DevOps using a Windows Agent]( Steve Jones - SSC Editor from The Voice of the DBA A customer was having some trouble getting started with Azure DevOps (AzDO) and building their database, so we took a step back and decided to create a simple test... [Blog Post]( From the SQL Server Central Blogs - [Database CI/CD Basics (T-SQL Tuesday #177)]( Zikato from StraightforwardSQL This month’s invitation is from Mala Mahadevan (b) asking us how we manage the database code. Since this is my passion project, I have a few basic tips to... [Practical Database Auditing for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL]( [Practical Database Auditing for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL: Troubleshooting, Regulatory Compliance, and Governance]( Site Owners from SQLServerCentral Know how to track changes and key events in your SQL Server databases in support of application troubleshooting, regulatory compliance, and governance. This book shows how to use key features in SQL Server ,such as SQL Server Audit and Extended Events, to track schema changes, permission changes, and changes to your data. You’ll even learn how to track queries run against specific tables in a database. ss   Question of the Day Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):  Am I on Synapse? How can I tell from T-SQL if I'm connected to SQL Server or Synapse Analyics? Think you know the answer? [Click here]( and find out if you are right.    Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor) CONCAT NULLs What is the result of this code? DECLARE @name VARCHAR(10) = 'Steve'; DECLARE @title VARCHAR(10); SELECT CONCAT (@name, 'Jones', ', ', @title); The answers use brackets to delimit the results. Ignore them. Answer: [SteveJones, ] Explanation: The result is: [SteveJones, ]. The concat function will return nulls as an empty string of varchar(1). Ref: concat() - [ [Discuss this question and answer on the forums](    Database Pros Who Need Your Help Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, [visit the forums](. --------------------------------------------------------------- SQL Server 2017 - Administration [Does a Query Lock to the Table_Name or Table_ID]( - SQL 2017 ENT SCENARIO: Table_1 has a Sch-M lock on during an intended updating process. A QUERY is executed against Table_1 and is queued up, waiting for the Sch-M lock to release. While the QUERY is queued up on Table_1, Table_1 is renamed to Table_1_OLD A newly designed Table_2 is then renamed to Table_1 QUESTION: […] SQL Server 2017 - Development [update field on a select query]( - I have a sql query that runs on demand to generate a report. I want to update a field REPORTSENT to a Y on the selected results. So the next time the report is requested only the Records with a REPORTSENT = N will be returned. Normally would run the query for the records and […] SQL Server 2019 - Administration [Cluster Timeout Settings to handle transient network outages]( - I have an Availability group with 2 replicas on the same subnet. We've been experiencing short network outages that last a few seconds and cause connections to timeout. This causes the AG to fail completely (not failover automatically) and we have to manually bring it back online since the DBs are marked "not synchronizing" on […] [Question about SQL Certs and DNS aliases]( - About 15 years ago we started creating DNS aliases for each database. This allowed us to move databases without needing to change client connections. We now use these aliases in all applications, reporting, ETLs, etc... When we upgrade SQL we create new servers and migrate the databases, using the aliases made this simple. We also […] SQL Server 2019 - Development [SSIS Package runs on one server but getting an assembly component error on anoth]( - I posted this over on Stack Overflow and got bupkis and was hoping someone over here would be able to help me. I have an SSIS package that has been tested, and ran in Visual Studio 2019. It was originally created, tested, and ran in VS 2017 but when I started having the issue I […] [ssis dashboard suddenly missing from reports option under catalog/ssisdb]( - hi i rt clicked ssisdb today under integration services catalog , chose reports and didnt see the dashboard option under my regular id. my id has sa. so i connected with my admin which also has sa and did see it. losing permissions would have occurred in the last 24 hrs. i saw in one […] SQL Azure - Development [Hybrid Cloud Server Integration with SQLServerCentral’s SQL Server 2022]( - Hello everyone, I’m currently exploring the use of hybrid cloud servers and am focusing on integrating them with SQLServerCentral’s SQL Server 2022. While hybrid cloud environments offer flexibility, managing and optimizing them with SQL Server 2022 presents several challenges. Here are some specific areas where I’m seeking advice: Integration Best Practices: What are the best […] SQL Azure - Administration [SQL Server 2022 on Azure VM]( - I was provisioned this DB on an Azure VM. I needed to uninstall and reinstall it in order to set the proper collation. I dont know how it was originally setup or if it goes by another namelike "Managed SQL Instance" as another department handles setting these up. When they learned of my uninstall/reinstall they […] General [Performance of Derived table in large data(12 crores and more)]( - Using Derived Table in query on large data (12 crores and more) results in CPU utilization greater than 90% resulting in performance degradation. Why Using Derived Table in query utilizes high CPU when it is created in memory Powershell [dump to csv -- image column]( - If there is an Image Column in mssql table and I wanted to use export-csv to dump this info to file how do you handle that column to be able to import that csv to another DB. Thanks. SQLServerCentral.com Website Issues [Future Post]( - This post is from the future! How did that happen? SQL Server 2022 - Administration [How to connect to Developer Server Edition]( - Hi, I am attempting to connect to a local instance of sql developer installed today. When attempting to connect to the Server Name: EHL5CD4254Q4G with Windows Authentication ( its a domain joined laptop btw), I get an error: TITLE: Connect to Server ------------------------------ Cannot connect to EHL5CD4254Q4G. ------------------------------ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Login failed for user 'mydomain\myaccount'. […] SQL Server 2022 - Development [Text column is taking More time while Querying, Need to Replace DATALENGTH]( - select * from dbo.resolutions r where R.documentid = 828222222 and DATALENGTH(r.resolution_text) > 0 resolution_text Text column is taking More time while Querying, Need to Replace DATALENGTH, when i replace datalength condition as "r.resolution_text is not null" the above query is returning data [SSIS package project connections don't work on upgrade]( - We're upgrading from SQL Server 2016 to 2022. The SSIS package project level connections don't work as expected. One queries the server as an anonymous logon instead of the domain account associated with the SQL Server Agent. One even affects both the original server and the new one to which it is pointed. I have […] [2022 azure vm cant run same ssis pkg we run on prem]( - Hi, we set up an environment on our new azure 2022 vm with a cloned "prod target warehouse", ssis project clone from prod, cloned sql agent etc etc. amongst other things the ssis points at a new erp's sales data we are testing with in just one agent step/ssis project execution for that 2019 std […]   [RSS Feed]( This email has been sent to {EMAIL}. 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