SQL Server 2019 security improvements: Feature Restrictions

Posted on by Mika Sutinen in Database Design, Databases, Security, SQL Database, SQL Server
Tilted Stop sign vector image
Restricted!

Very recently I was working on a customer databases, when I more or less stumbled on a something I had not noticed before. Apparently at some point the latest version of SQL Server (I was working with Azure SQL DB) had a new security enhancement added into it called Feature Restrictions. As this was something I had not heard about before, I figured this would be a good opportunity to dig in and learn more about it.

Note: As I was finishing up this post to add links and such, I noticed that the official documentation from Microsoft regarding Feature Restrictions has completely vanished.

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Platform-as-a-Service databases and the future of the DBA role

Posted on by Mika Sutinen in Azure, Azure Cloud VM, Career advice, Databases, SQL Database, SQL PASS, SQL Server, SQL Server DBA

I just realized that it has been awhile since my last post, so I figured it’s time to do one before the end of the year. Last few months have been rather hectic with me migrating new workloads to Cloud as well as taking the time to visit PASS Summit 2019 to learn more about Microsoft Data Platform.

I also wanted to finish up my year of blogging by writing about a topic close to my heart, the evolution of the DBA role in the Cloud era. I did have a session about this topic in SQLSaturday Finland earlier this year and I will be doing a PASS Cloud Virtual Group presentation about it on January 16th.

In this post we’ll be looking at one of the Cloud technologies that have significant impact on the DBA role in the future, Platform-as-a-Service databases.

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Azure SQL Database SLA is awesome

Posted on by Mika Sutinen in Azure, Data Platform, Databases, SQL Database

Microsoft recently released their new SLA, RPO and RTO guarantees for Azure SQL Database and oh boy, those are really something else. In fact they are so much something else, that at the moment of me writing this, no other cloud provider has managed to promise the same level of business continuity for their Platform-as-a-Service database services.

Besides the highest SLA currently in the market Microsoft has gone one step further and is now guaranteeing also RPO and RTO for their service. Now this is very interesting approach because neither Google or AWS is giving any for their own services.

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SQL Server Backups to Azure Part 4: Managed Backups

Posted on by Mika Sutinen in Azure, Backups, SQL Server, SQL Server Administration, SQL Server DBA

You’re now reading the 4th and final post in my SQL Server Backups to Azure series. In previous posts I’ve described how to setup an Azure Storage Account, Blob Storage container an how to take SQL Server backups there. This time we’ll take a look at one more option that puts our backups on autopilot, with destination to cloud!

The feature I am writing about is Managed Backups, option that has been available since SQL Server 2014 but one that I have not seen often used. One reason for that maybe being, that there’s an unfixed feature that makes enabling it bit difficult if you’re not aware of the workaround.

Despite this shortcoming, if you have SQL Servers (on-premise or Cloud) but no DBA to care for them, I’d recommend that you take a look at this option.

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SQL Server Backups to Azure Part 3: Custom Backups

Posted on by Mika Sutinen in Azure, Backups, SQL Server, SQL Server Administration, SQL Server DBA

You are now reading the 3rd part of the 4 part series on backing up databases to Azure. In Part 1 we looked at some of the benefits of using Azure for your backups and in Part 2 we setup the Storage Account with the Block Blob storage container.

In this post we’ll take a look at how to use the freshly created Blob storage with our customized backup routines.

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SQL Server Backups to Azure Part 2: Setting up the Storage Account

Posted on by Mika Sutinen in Azure, Backups, SQL Server Administration, SQL Server DBA

This is the second part of a 4 part blog post series about backing up SQL Server to Azure. If you’re wondering why you’d like to backup data to Azure in the first place, please read the Part 1 of this series that explains some of the benefits of using Azure for backups.

In this post we’ll look at how to setup your very own Storage Account and how to use some of the nice security features in it.

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SQL Server Backups to Azure, Part 1: Introduction

Posted on by Mika Sutinen in Azure, Azure Cloud VM, Backups, SQL Server Administration, SQL Server DBA
Gone to Cloud!

I’ve said it before and I say it again: Understanding how database backups and restores work is one of the more important topics for DBAs to understand. This time we’ll approach the topic from the cloud, and more precisely, from Azure perspective. Why cloud perspective you might as? For one simple reason. Even if you’re not (yet) running your SQL Server workloads in Azure, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make use of it for other purposes, such as backups. And while the idea of placing your data into Azure, or into any other cloud platform, might still seem scary to some, I want to help put your minds at ease. To do this, I’ll just point you to this fine piece of documentation describing the Azure infrastructure security. I think you’ll find it quite satisfying.

As there’s quite a few topics to cover with database backups to Azure, I have split the details into 4 separate posts. You’re now reading Part 1, the introduction.

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