SQL Server 2008 end of support

2018 is about to end. In the case you didn't know or haven't heard, the extended support for SQL Server 2008 (and R2) reaches to an end in 2019.

This beloved version (lets be honest, is like windows XP for the database world) was launched on 8/6/2008, so that means that is a 10 years old technology, with the same time as the backberry and much other devices that almost no one uses this days, which were great, but trought be told, compared with Today's gadgets they are way behind although it marked a milestone to what we have now you would preffer something better for you, isn't it?

So what does the end of support means?

Basically it means, that Microsoft wouldn't offer any type of support for that version of SQL Server, which can be translated to:

• No new Service packs will be released
• No new cumulative updates will be developed

And what does that means to me? Why should I care?

If I depend of any type of regulation or my environment holds any type of certification (PCI-DSS, HIPPA, etc.) it means that I would be flagged as "non-compliant" because it requires that any software that I use is still with support of the company that provide it.

It means, that I won't be getting updates anymore, if any new vulnerability is found for this product, it is most likely that I won't be getting a patch to remediate it. Also, all the repositories will eventually be removed, so even if the package I need was developed and for some reason I didn't applied, and then I look for it, it is most likely that I won't be able to find it, like is now the case for SQL 2005.

So what options do I have?

1. Extended support: You can pay for extended support, this applies only if you have Software Assurance or Enterprise agreement and is only if you need to raise a ticket with Microsoft asking for support but not to resolve bug fixes and this extended support is Expensive, really really expensive.
2. Azure: Microsoft can offers the extended support for up to 3 years, if you move your SQL Server as a VM in Azure, with that you can still get support without paying the extended support fee like if you stay on-premises.

3. Upgrade: The best option is that you upgrade your environment, if you really need to stay on-premises, you can plan a migration in your own data center, however you can also plan to upgrade and take the new benefits of Azure in the different flavors it has to offer (Azure SQL, Azure Managed instance or VM with SQL Server)

Does it really worths the effort?

Absolutelly, the newer versions not only run faster but it also offers more features to secure your data, it also integrates monitoring tools and auto-tunning plus now you can run it in all different platforms not only with Windows.

So if you don't have your migration planned already, what are you waiting?

Contained Databases

Today's post is in regards a feature that was released with SQL Server 2012, it hasn't gotten the attention or used that it deserves even when it helps solving a lot of problems you face when upgrading or migrating the database servers and is Contained databases.

What is a Contained database?

A contained database is a database that is isolated from other databases and from the instance of SQL Server that hosts the database. A contained database basically includes all database settings and the metadata within itself thereby resulting in no configuration dependencies on the instance of the SQL Server Database Engine where the database is actually installed. Users will be able to connect to a contained database without authenticating a login at the Database Engine level. This feature really helps to isolate the database from the Database Engine thereby making it possible to easily move the database from one instance of SQL Server to another, this is incredibly useful when you have HA environments. The Contained databases feature is available at the instance level and is not enabled by default.

What type are available?

Contained database feature provides two containment modes:

None – By default each database has its mode set as NONE. This means there is no contained database feature being used.

Partial – With partially contained databases, we can define boundaries between databases and the server, so the metadata will exist inside the databases. It makes SQL Server databases more portable and less dependent on underlying hosts.

Advantages of contained databases :-

1. User authentication can be done at database level, so you only need to be sure to grant the users permissions in your database.

2. Have less dependency on instance than conventional databases. Objects & features of each database can be managed by them self, reduce workload of system database & SQL instance

3. Easier & Faster to migrate databases from one server to another. Errors related to missing users and orphan users are no longer an issue.

4. Contained database users can be Windows and SQL Server authentication users.

5. Contained database user can access only contained database objects. They cannot access system databases and cannot access server objects.

6. This is the preferred mode to be used with HADR (Always On)

7. Maintaining database settings in the database, instead of in the master database increase security & flexibility. Each database owner have more control over their database, without giving the database owner sysadmin permissions.

8. To close collation issues in contained database. New feature catalog collation introduced with contained database. Now database collation works for user objects & catalog collation works for system objects in database. Catalog collation will be same for all contained databases on all SQL instance, also this collation cannot be changed.

Disadvantages and Limitations of contained databases :-

1. A database owner has more control on contained database, User can create contained database users without the permission of a DBA that can lead to security issues & data theft threat

2. Contained databases cannot use replication, change data capture, change tracking, numbered procedures, schema-bound objects that depend on built-in functions with collation changes

3. Before changing containment settings at database level from NONE to PARTIAL , contained databases feature needs to be enabled at instance level, so make sure to enable it before releasing your server and database to production.

4. To connect to a contained database, you need to specify the database name in the default database option tab.

5. Temporary stored procedures are currently permitted. But can be removed from future versions of contained database.

6. Contained database user can access other databases on the Database Engine, if the other databases have enabled the guest account, which can be a security issue.

Changes cross versions:

This feature hasn't gotten any change since it got released with SQL 2012, mostly as the new versions have been focused in improving the performance, security and integrating Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning features, however, personally if you have environments where you need High Availability and every time that you failover your groups you need to resynch your users and principals, this might work for you, however, you will need to remove you database from your availability group if you want to enable this in your database, but we will be working with it in next week's post.

Thanks for reading!

Resources:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/mssqlfun/2014/06/23/sql-server-2012-contained-database/

https://www.sqlshack.com/contained-databases-in-sql-server/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/databases/contained-databases

What's new in SQL 2017

SQL Server 2017 became General Availability (GA) on 10/2, I've been sharing through the different social media channels the different features and enhancements included in this new version, however I want to consolidate in this posts most of those that you will be seeing in most of the production scenarios with an explanation of each one.

1. Resumable online index rebuild resumes an online index rebuild operation from where it stopped after a failure (such as a failover to a replica or insufficient disk space), or pauses and later resumes an online index rebuild operation. See ALTER INDEX and Guidelines for online index operations. This is a great improvement specially with index operations where you run out of space or have to pause it due to performance degradation, you can later resume where you left it instead of having to cancel, wait the rollback and then start from the beginning.
2. A new generation of query processing improvements that will adapt optimization strategies to your application workload’s runtime conditions. For this first version of the adaptive query processing feature family, we have three new improvements: batch mode adaptive joins, batch mode memory grant feedback, and interleaved execution for multi-statement table valued functions. See Adaptive query processing in SQL databases.
3. Automatic tuning is a database feature that provides insight into potential query performance problems, recommend solutions, and automatically fix identified problems. Automatic tuning in SQL Server, notifies you whenever a potential performance issue is detected, and lets you apply corrective actions, or lets the Database Engine automatically fix performance problems. This feature in particular is one of the few Azure first, you can see this included in the Azure SQL database since at least V12 (current), for more reference See Automatic tuning.
4. sys.dm_os_sys_info has three new columns: socket_count, cores_per_socket, numa_node_count. This in particular helps you check if your current setup exceeds NUMA boundaries, in the case you exceed it, it will lead to an overcommitted host and in the end will cause you performance issues.
5. A new column modified_extent_page_count, is introduced in sys.dm_db_file_space_usage to track differential changes in each database file of the database. The new column modified_extent_page_count allows you to build smart backup solution, which performs differential backup if percentage changed pages in the database is below a threshold (say 70-80%) else perform full database backup.
6. SELECT INTO … ON FileGroup - SELECT INTO now supports loading a table into a filegroup other than a default filegroup of the user using the ON keyword support added in SELECT INTO TSQL syntax. This feature in particular will help when you need to run the first step of an archive solution or if you create a "troubleshoot filegroup" so you move the data directly to it instead of you PRIMARY filegroup where you might be troubleshooting a performance issue or anything else and you want to isolate the problem. See SELECT INTO.
7. A new DMF sys.dm_db_log_info is introduced to expose the VLF information similar to DBCC LOGINFO to monitor, alert, and avert potential transaction log issues caused due to number of VLFs, VLF size or shrink file issues experienced by customers. This dmv helps you to analyze the current health of your transaction log file that can become fragmented due to either an incorrect design or that the current management of your log is not the adequate. Pro Tip: If you have a large number of VLF's that could be one of the reasons why your replications are failing or some other CRUD operations are performing poorly, so go and check this number.
8. Cluster-less Availability Groups support added. Remember this post (Introduction to SQL Server Always On) where I explained the Key components of Always on, with SQL 2017 Windows Failover Clustering (WSFC) is no longer needed so you can enable the Always On feature even if the SQL Server is not part of a Windows cluster.
9. Linux. Did I mention SQL 2017 can run in Linux? Well, this new version is fully supported either in Windows or Linux

The items described above are related with the most frequently used with the database engine but there are more, also in this post I'm not reviewing features such as SSIS, SSAS, SSRS or Machine Learning and in this last one Microsoft made a lot of improvements with it.

There are templates already ready in Azure for you to go an create VM's with it or if you like to create containers, there is one in Docker already with Linux (Ubuntu 16.04)and SQL 2017 (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/quickstart-install-connect-docker)

For a complete list of the new features you can see this sites:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/whats-new-in-sql-server-2017

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/what-s-new-in-sql-server-2017

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2017/10/02/sql-server-2017-on-windows-linux-and-docker-is-now-generally-available/