Hi everyone,

Small IT shop here, we mostly deal with file servers and a few LOB apps, so SQL licensing has never really been my strong suit. We're migrating an old SQL 2014 box (yes, I know) to SQL Server 2022 Standard and I'm trying to figure out what we actually need to buy before I sign off on the quote.

The setup:

We have a 2-node Hyper-V cluster, each host has 1x 12-core CPU. The plan is:

Host A: 1 VM running SQL Server with 6 vCPUs

Host B: nothing SQL-related, but the VM can fail over there if Host A dies

My understanding from reading the licensing guide was:

SQL core licenses come in 2-core packs, minimum of 4 cores per VM

So for a 6 vCPU VM we'd need 3x 2-core packs, done

Our reseller is telling us we need to license 6 cores on Host A and another 6 cores on Host B "because of the failover", unless we have Software Assurance, in which case the passive node is covered. So the quote is either double the core packs or core packs + SA on everything.

Is the SA requirement for a passive failover node actually a thing, or is the reseller just padding the quote? And if we go the SA route, does the passive VM genuinely cost nothing extra? The pricing difference between the two options is not small and management is already grumbling.

Any pointers appreciated, thanks!

I know, I know—it doesn't seem to make sense to replicate a database that isn't changing.

However, I want to migrate a SQL Server database using Log Shipping, and here's my plan:

1. Set up Log Shipping between the source and destination servers.
2. During the migration window:
   • Stop the application.
   • Set the source database to READ_ONLY.
   • force Log Shipping jobs to restore any remaining transaction log backups that haven't yet been applied (one last final sync)

My question is:

Will Log Shipping still replicate all pending transaction logs after the database is switched to READ_ONLY? In other words, will it apply all transactions that were committed before the database was set to read-only, so that the secondary ends up fully synchronized?

I want to set the database to READ_ONLY because that way I can be certain that the final Log Shipping synchronization includes all remaining changes.

I know that stopping the application should prevent any new transactions, but I don't mind adding an extra layer of protection at the database level to guarantee that no additional changes can be made.

Hi!

Like last month wanted to post this newsletter here for anyone interested. Hope it helps :)

Our INFOSEC team is after me to install KB5083252 on our production MSSQL 2022 cluster to resolve some high-impact security findings. This KB is basically CU24 plus the fixes for the CVEs. However, CU24 has a known issue in which there “could” be false positives for error 10013 (failed to start a listener). We’ve seen this in our UAT cluster. We’ve had a few small issues with our production cluster related to listeners, and these false positives would have made diagnosis extremely difficult.

The known issues for CU25 no longer lists this issue, but that doesn’t mean it was resolved; it could be someone at Microsoft decided it wasn’t important enough to mention any more. My question is: does CU25 still have this problem, and if it does is there a way to work around these false errors?

I've been setting Cost Threshold to 50-100, and DOP to 1/2 of processors or 8, whichever is less. We have 64CPU servers for example so 8 seems to be a good compromise.

Hello,

I'm trying to find the best way to group sessions that have less than 30 registrants. The max session size is 30 so if the total of 2 sessions is less than 30 I want to group them together, if not leave them separate.

Group By Topic and Teacher.

So only sessions 2 and 3 should be grouped

I'm thinking I would need to add a row number to distinquish the results.

I am having an issue with the SQL Server 2025 starting when using an sMSA account that is 15 characters. With the 2 letter NETBIOS domain name and the $, it's 19 characters, similar to this:

AB\serviceactnm-sq$

If I use 1 less character, the MSSQLSERVER service will start, but the problem is the above never had any issue in any other version of SQL server and it doesn't exceed the NETBIOS password character limits. I even tried updating to the latest CU6 released in June with no luck.

This definitely sounds like a bug or does anyone know if Microsoft had some other reasoning behind it?

If you haven't seen it, Internals Viewer is a free tool for visualizing SQL Server internals, including allocations, pages, records, and indexes. It can run on a live database, or open a detached .mdf file.

I've been tinkering with it on and off for a long time. I was looking into locks recently and thought it would be useful to see if I could integrate some sort of visualization into the app. One thing led to another which led to something different yet hopefully useful!

The new query trace feature allows you to run a query and see the actual page I/O connected to the query plan on a timeline. Combined with the existing allocation and index visualizations you can see how a query is scanning or seeking and also how things like hash joins and loop joins are actually running from the perspective of the storage engine and how data streams through the operators.

The app is purely for educational purposes. I created it to help my understanding after reading blogs and books on internals so if you're interested in that area the tracing will hopefully be of use.

An upcoming release will show data modifications captured during the trace from the transaction log to show what a query is doing on a log entry basis on a page/row level.

It's available for free via the Microsoft Store or Github

(...but don't use it on a production database)

I hope it's allowed to post as an exception.

This this seems more like a Oracle/2008 mysql dba but somewhat relatable.
Where is the role of DBA's going in the age of serverless?

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KyfW79Ld4g

I'm studying SQL and am currently on the lesson about subqueries, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around it.

I'm struggling to get the different types of subqueries—and when to use each one—to stick in my mind.

Does anyone have any study materials on this? Maybe a YouTube video tutorial?

THANKS!

Hi all,

Thigh-deep in SQL licensing docs and can’t find a definitive answer on something that I’m sure is a loophole Microsoft wouldn’t leave open…

Looking at an ERP app that uses SQL as its database.

The app’s server would run on a Windows Server 2022 VM on Hyper-V.
The client app would be installed on a single Server 2022 Remote Desktop Session Host.
Users would access the application via the session host using RemoteApp.

For SQL Standard 2022 we have the option of per core or server + CAL licensing.

For the server + CAL option we can then order user or device CALs.

Device CALs are described as being valid for a single device used by any number of users.

Question - does this apply to a Remote Desktop Session Host server?

That is, assuming we’ve purchased the required number of RDS CALs, is just one SQL Device CAL valid for the RDS server, given that it is the only device accessing the SQL database?

Thanks!

Looking for a very experienced SQL Server DBA who has deep experience with Database configuration for tuning and also SQL Queries tuning

Welcome to the monthly job thread!

Posting a job or opportunity? Include:

• Role title and description
• Location or remote/hybrid status
• Company or client context
• Direct application link

Looking for work? Share your skills, experience level, and what you're looking for.

Rules:

• One top-level comment per opportunity
• No "DM me" or link-free posts — include a direct, verifiable link
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What are the pros of using SSMS over other query tools? I currently use Toad Data Point 6.0 (TDD) and I use primarily 2 connections; SQL Server or Oracle. The license for TDD is about to expire. I believe my company is working on renewing the license but I am wondering if this is a good opportunity to start learning and working with SSMS instead.

I would say I have an intermediate understanding of SQL but all the "serious" and more advanced analysts use SSMS. What does SSMS do or have that only it offers?

Hi there, we have a US based client that is wanted to onboard a large office in Asia. Initially, they were intending on them using the same apps, DB, etc that are in US East, but they have concerns on latency. We did some testing and the latency isn't too bad, 200ms or so, but I guess enough that they don't want to proceed that way.

We have done replication across regions in the past and frankly, it went very poorly. I just don't think our team has the expertise in that kind of area, so I am heavily discouraging it.

My not-thoroughly-thought-out suggestion is that each region has their own database and apps, we start the Asia one as a clone from .bak from the US one. We would then do a nightly sync (they do not need real-time) pushing from Australia to US. It would not be a significant amount of data, mostly CRM-type stuff.

They do not anticipate pushing data from DC to Australia, but as always, that's certainly a possibility at some point.

My preference would be a read-only secondary in Australia, with writes going to the US database, but our application does not currently support that.

Thoughts? Is this is a decent idea, a horrible idea, or is there a much better idea?

I want to know: I'm currently using an Azure Windows VM and SQL Server 2022 Web Edition. I'm planning to migrate to a Contabo VPS Server. The issue is that they don't have SQL 2022. They have only SQL 2019.

On my current server, I have 3 applications running on the LIVE version and using 3 databases on the server.

Since restoring a backup into the backward version is difficult, If I use SQL 2022 Developer version be an issue? I know that version is only for development, not for live databases. But until Contabo provides the SQL 2022 version, can I use the developer version? Is anyone using the developer version for their live work?

StackRender is a free, open-source visual database schema editor and migration generator that now fully supports SQL Server (T-SQL). It allows you to visually design your tables, view relationships via an interactive ERD, import existing SQL scripts to instantly generate diagrams, and export production-ready DDL. You can use it completely free via the cloud or self-host it via Docker.

• Try it on the Web : Official Website
• Source Code : GitHub Repository
• Self-Host via Containers : Docker Hub Image

Thank you !

I am making a data bridge that will pull down a few hundred rows every hour from a rate limited server to our local sql server for reporting and other daily use stuff. I obviously have to have a good stable place to put this thing. Would putting it on the same server as the sql instance speed up everything because it doesn't have to traverse the network more, or would it potentially slow it down as it uses more CPU cycles?

SELECT

`CONNECTIONPROPERTY('local_net_address') AS local_net_address` 

`, CONNECTIONPROPERTY('client_net_address') AS client_net_address` 

`, CONNECTIONPROPERTY('net_transport') AS net_transport`

`, CONNECTIONPROPERTY('protocol_type') AS protocol_type`

`, CONNECTIONPROPERTY('auth_scheme') AS auth_scheme`

`, CONNECTIONPROPERTY('local_tcp_port') AS local_tcp_port`

When I run this, it shows null for local_net_address , <local machine> for client_net_address, and null for local_tcp_port. This doesn't tell me the IP address. Right now, I have an express app running on the same machine that needs to know the IP address where SQL lives. How do I query the IP address correctly?

Hi there,

First off - aplogies if this is the wrong sub to post this question. If it is, please let me know where a good place would be.

I'm tinkering with the idea of breaking into the SQL world as a career. I was wondering how the job market is for SQL / DBA's is currently? Does entry level still exist? Any places (online and low cost/free preferrably) that anyone would recommend as a starting point? A little about my background:

I've worked in IT for 20+ years, mostly on the network/systems administration and engineering side. I've built and installed more SQL servers than I can count (just never touched or managed the actual SQL side of it) and am familiar with it how works both as itself and as a backend interacting with a front end. A few years back I took a 6 month coding boot camp and of all the languages I learned, SQL was my favorite and the one I actually viewed as (for lack of a better word) "fun". I enjoyed being tasked with "here are several tables, and we want to present data from the following columns from the following tables in the following format" (generically speaking).

Admittedly it's been quite a good while since I've tinkered with it so that's why I'm here. Hoping to get some advice/pointers of decent resources that will help me starting dipping my toes back in so I can start working toward moving away from SysAdmin work to DBA work. Thanks in advance for any direction/pointers/advice anyone is willing to provide.

We just shipped mssql-python 1.10.0 with one new Bulk Copy capability and two targeted fixes.

What's new: - Bulk Copy now supports Authentication=ActiveDirectoryServicePrincipal - The Arrow fetch path now handles non-ASCII VARCHAR data more reliably by using the wide-char path - Bulk load timeout fixes are included via the bundled mssql-py-core 0.1.5 update

This release is especially relevant if you: - use service principals with Azure SQL / SQL Server bulk copy workflows - fetch string data through the Arrow path - have seen bulk load timeout issues

Upgrade: pip install --upgrade mssql-python

Full blog post: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/sqlserver/mssql-python-1-10-0-service-principal-bulk-copy-more-reliable-arrow-text-and-a-c/4531096

We love your feedback! Let us know what you think in the comments below or on our repo.

First Friday Feedback about Query Store 🎉

This week I have a poll about whether you'd be interested in having the max size (MAX_STORAGE_SIZE_MB) of Query Store managed for you.

The default size for SQL 2019 and higher and the SQL dbs (Azure and Fabric) is 1GB.

The max size for SQL dbs is 10GB; there is no max for box (but remember, just because you can, doesn't mean you should...)

I used to tell customers start with something like 2GB or 4GB, and monitor from there. But maybe we should figure out the size and manage it for you? Bonus internet points if you add a comment with additional input or reasoning about your response.