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SQL Blogs by Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

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  • Azure

    Change Azure SQL Database Service Level Objectives in SSMS

    August 28, 2020 /

    Sometimes as a DBA, I am lazy and want the ability to execute all of my tasks in one place. Lucky for me I discovered the other day that I can change my Azure SQL Database Service Level Object options within SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) without ever having to go to the Azure Portal. By right clicking on your database properties and choosing the Configure SQL page you can change your Subscription and Azure Location. Even more and what is really cool is I can also scale up and down my Edition (which is generally referred to as Service Tier outside of SSMS), Size and Storage Tiers as well.…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Back to Basics: Why not parameterize?

    December 23, 2015

    What is Automatic Tuning in Azure SQL Database

    August 28, 2018

    Comparing Execution Plans

    June 19, 2019
  • Azure

    Caution When Dropping Unused Indexes on an Azure SQL Database

    August 12, 2020 /

    Index Maintenance is an important aspect of database health. Above and beyond regular index rebuilds and reorganizations it is important to understand the usage of the indexes on your database. Cleaning up unused indexes can save a lot of overhead on Insert/Update/Delete operations. To achieve that goal, I typically run a script like the one shown below and check out whether or not an index has had any seeks or scans against it as a starting point in my cleanup regiment. SELECT d.name,        OBJECT_NAME(i.[object_id]) AS [ObjectName],        i.[name] AS [IndexName],        s.user_seeks,        s.user_scans FROM sys.indexes AS i     LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats AS s         ON i.[object_id] =…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Can You Hear It Now?

    January 31, 2018

    Why DBAs Still Need to Know the Foundations of SQL Server

    August 19, 2025

    Comparing Execution Plans

    June 19, 2019
  • Azure

    What is Azure SQL Database Serverless?

    July 1, 2020 /

    What is Azure SQL Database Serverless? When I hear the term serverless my mind gets confused. How can a database exist without a server? Azure is a cloud platform, is my database just floating in the air? No, I am not really thinking that, but still the word serverless can be hard to understand. So, let’s walk through what it is. Serverless is a term commonly used for function as a service patterns like Amazon Lambda, or Azure Functions, where you have a piece of code that is called and executed without you deploying any infrastructure. Azure Logic Apps are another version of this—a program that exists to do a…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Does Your Code Have a Preamble?

    October 18, 2017

    Can You Hear It Now?

    January 31, 2018

    Understanding Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server Part 1

    June 26, 2019
  • Azure

    Moving Your SQL Workload to the Cloud   

    March 25, 2020 /

    Every day, more IT organizations decide to move their SQL Server databases to Azure. In fact, over a million on-premises SQL Server databases have been moved to Azure. There’s an interesting blog about how Microsoft is faster and cheaper than its competitors that’s worth a read. To assist with your move to Azure Microsoft offers a number of migration tools and services to make this move as smooth as possible which I think attributes to their success. Two of those options are below with some informational links. If you’re migrating a number of large SQL Server instances, Azure Database Migration Service  is the best way to migrate databases to Azure…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Keep It Simple Stupid

    July 24, 2019

    Admit You Can’t Do Everything

    September 28, 2015

    Solving SQL Server Mysteries with a Whole Gang of Sleuths -Scooby Dooing Episode 4

    September 10, 2025
  • Azure

    What is Azure Key Vault?

    February 6, 2019 /

    Keys and secrets (AKA passwords)  are an essential part of data protection management not only on-premises, but within the cloud as well. One of the many advantages of cloud is the ability to have a secure, persisted key store. If you have used a password manager like Keepass or 1Password, you can consider Azure Key Vault to be an enterprise level password manager, but also a lot more. One of the functions that Azure Key Vault supports is for you to keep small secrets such as passwords, tokens, connection strings, API keys as well as encryption keys and certificates in a safe tightly controlled secure location in the cloud. It…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    How Your Hypervisor Can Impact Your CPU

    March 6, 2019

    Time for a Change

    April 17, 2017

    What does this little check box do? Query Governor SQL Database Setting

    September 13, 2017
  • Azure

    Azure Advisor

    January 30, 2019 /

    Azure offers a lot of value-added services included with the price of what you pay . One of the things really, I like is Azure Advisor. this service provides information about your entire Azure landscape. It gives you a complete overview of your system needs including possible ways to save money. High Availability shows you ways to improve the continuity of your business-critical applications. Security detects threats and vulnerabilities that might lead to security breaches. Performance shows you ways to speed up your applications. Cost give you ways to reduce your overall Azure spreading. As you can see from the above screenshot, we have several recommendations on how we can…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    How to get started with Always Encrypted for Beginners Part 3: One Two Punch

    January 17, 2018

    Hide and Group Columns in SSRS Using a Parameter

    December 9, 2016

    How to Get Started with Always Encrypted for Beginners Part 2

    December 13, 2017
  • New SQL Version

    SQL Data Discovery and Classification in SSMS 17.5

    December 5, 2018 /

    Data exploration and documentation can be cumbersome, classifying data can be one of those tedious but necessary things. With the introduction of such things as GDPR there is an ever greater need to classify and label your sensitive data. Microsoft attempts to help us out with this in the new SQL Data Discovery and Classification feature in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). This a new feature is available in Azure SQL Database and SSMS 17.5 and higher. It can be used against databases in SQL Server 2008, compatibly mode 100, and greater. This feature will scan through your database tables and identifies columns that contain possible sensitive data. It then…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Filtered Index Basics

    May 22, 2019

    Comparing Execution Plans

    June 19, 2019

    What does this little check box do? Query Governor SQL Database Setting

    September 13, 2017
  • Azure,  Performance Tuning

    What is Automatic Tuning in Azure SQL Database

    August 28, 2018 /

    Microsoft has long given us DBA tools and suggestions to help tune databases, to fix queries with indexes, and many times they were of questionable merit. We have all seen the dreaded dta_index names in a database and rolled our eyes knowing that sometimes these indexes are not what is needed. While the Database Tuning Advisor, has gotten better over time it is still not a tool more senior DBAs use. Microsoft made big steps in helping DBAs with performance with the introduction of Query Store in both Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2016. Query Store collects execution and run-time performance information.  Microsoft has taken an additional leap with…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Why DBAs Still Need to Know the Foundations of SQL Server

    August 19, 2025

    Time for a Change

    April 17, 2017

    The Case of the Forgotten Compatibility Mode – Scooby Dooing Episode 3

    September 3, 2025
  • Azure

    Save Money On Your Azure Monthly SQL Database Bill

    August 22, 2018 /

    Microsoft gives you two purchasing models for your Azure SQL Databases (SQL DB), a DTU and a vCore based model (logical CPU’s). Both options allow you to scale up or down based on your compute and storage requirements. Regardless of which model you choose performance tuning can save you money using SQL DB. DTU (s) (Database Transaction Units) measure  “a blended measure of CPU, memory, and data I/O and transaction log I/O” that Microsoft uses to help estimate which DTU based Service Tier you should be using. By reducing your I/O, memory or CPU consumption you utilize less DTUs or cores and thus can step down service tiers. Stepping down service…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Are My SQL Server Indexes Being Used?

    August 28, 2019

    Bloggers Should Have Reach

    February 14, 2018

    How Your Hypervisor Can Impact Your CPU

    March 6, 2019
  • Azure

    TIL: Microsoft Azure Part 2

    May 24, 2017 /

    Last week I started a multi-part series on Today I Learned (TIL) about Microsoft Azure.  This is part two of what I am learning in Azure. Today’s topic is simply about Tenants, Subscriptions, Subscription Roles, Resource Groups, and Tags. It’s Always Good to Start with Pictures Here is a glimpse of how these topics relate. I will define and explain each below. What is a Tenant? In simplest terms, a Tenant is container for multiple subscriptions. An example of two subscriptions would be Azure and Office 365. They would be owned by one account, an individual or a company. A very large enterprise may use multiple subscriptions to better manage…

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    Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

    Related Posts

    Add Azure Cache for Redis to Your Azure SQL Performance Tuning Toolbox

    July 14, 2021

    Synchronous VS Asynchronous Statistics Updates

    October 25, 2017

    Keep It Simple Stupid

    July 24, 2019
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About Me

Monica Morehouse (Rathbun)

Microsoft MVP, Performancing Tuning Expert, Leader Hampton Roads SQL Server User Group, Read More…

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Top Posts & Pages

  • Resizing Tempdb (When TEMPDB Wont Shrink)
    Resizing Tempdb (When TEMPDB Wont Shrink)
  • What’s a Key Lookup?
    What’s a Key Lookup?
  • DMV’s for the Beginner
    DMV’s for the Beginner
  • Scooby Dooing Episode 10: The Case of the Copy-and-Paste Consultant
    Scooby Dooing Episode 10: The Case of the Copy-and-Paste Consultant
  • It's All in the Name, Index Naming Conventions
    It's All in the Name, Index Naming Conventions
  • Please Don’t Do This! Default Index Fill Factor
    Please Don’t Do This! Default Index Fill Factor
  • Ruh-Roh! SQL Server 2025 Finally Brings Us a Free Standard Developer Edition -  Scooby Dooing Episode 2
    Ruh-Roh! SQL Server 2025 Finally Brings Us a Free Standard Developer Edition - Scooby Dooing Episode 2
  • Initial SQL Server Configurations
    Initial SQL Server Configurations
  • The Mystery of the Locked-Up Database -Scooby Dooing Episode 6
    The Mystery of the Locked-Up Database -Scooby Dooing Episode 6
  • SSRS Report Won’t Render in VS Preview
    SSRS Report Won’t Render in VS Preview
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