Azure SQL Database – Automatic Index Tuning

Introduction: -

We live in an era of “Automation”.  Planes run on auto pilot mode, cars will soon be auto driven, so why not have auto indexed databases? This article will discuss the automatic index tuning feature available in Azure SQL Database.

Problem Statement:

Application development is moving at a rapid pace and its very common for application teams to develop a template database design and deliver it to multiple customers.  It is even more common in cloud where solutions are delivered as “software as a service” and it is way too challenging for application development team to analyze the workload of individual database, design specific indexes for them and tune them.

Automatic tuning in Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database, the cloud Platform as a service (PAAS) offering of SQL Server has attempted to address the above problem by introducing “Automatic tuning”. As of date, “automatic tuning” has the following features

·         Automatic plan correction – Plan regressions or sudden change in query plan resulting in performance degradation are tracked and last good plan available is forced. Automatic plan correction is already well explained over here

·         Automatic Index Tuning:  Automatic index tuning feature of Azure SQL Database will study the workload executed against the database, identify useful indexes and create them automatically. Automatic index tuning will also drop indexes that are unused over 93 days or any duplicate indexes present.

How to enable automatic index tuning

Once logged in to Azure Portal (portal.azure.com) one can enable the same by navigating to SQL Databases-> Click on the database -> Automatic tuning

·         Force plan -> Enables Automatic Plan Correction

        ·         Create / Drop Index -> enables automatic index tuning

Features can be enabled at server level and can be inherited at the database level as well.

TSQL Script for enabling automatic index tuning provided below

ALTER DATABASE DBName

          SET AUTOMATIC_TUNING (CREATE_INDEX = ON, 
      DROP_INDEX = ON)

Example:

To test how Auto Indexing works, following things were performed

·         A sample database with 5 tables with no indexes was created

·         10 to 15 select queries against the tables were executed repeatedly few thousand times over 3 to 4 hours

·         After one day, automatic indexing found the recommendations and rolled them out when there was less or no workload on the database.  Auto Indexing requires minimum one day of monitoring to identify recommendations

 This can be verified on Azure Portal by clicking on the “Database name” -> “Performance Recommendation”

The same can also be verified via the DMV sys.dm_db_tuning_recommendations, documented clearly over here

Key pointers of Automatic Index Tuning

·         Indexing recommendations are obtained using advanced artificial intelligence rules applied on the monitored workload. The recommendations are expected to be lot more accurate than earlier missing index recommendations from SSMS

·         The best part of the feature is it is non-blocking during the rollout of new indexes. 

·         Index changes wouldn’t be rolled out and will be postponed, if DTU usage was above 80% anytime in the last 20 minutes

·         Automatically created indexes don’t enforce any dependency on the columns. When the column with automatically created index is dropped, index is dropped as well

·         Auto created indexes can be tracked via sys.indexes – auto_created column

Learn – Adapt - Verify

One of the key features of Automatic Index tuning is the ability to monitor the impact of the changes done via automatic tuning. Azure SQL Database closely monitors the automatically created or dropped indexes and verifies if it has achieved the desired performance improvement. If it doesn’t then the change is automatically reverted to prevent any negative impact to the database. The reverted changes can be tracked from sys.dm_db_tuning_recommendations DMV as well.

Suggested enhancements

·         Automatic indexing is available only as an Azure SQL Database feature and is not available on SQL Server on premise. If would be wonderful if the feature could be extended to on premise SQL Server.

·         Automatic Index tuning should be extended to fixing fragmentation issues of the indexes as well.

Conclusion

 Automatic Index Tuning does simplify one of the major tasks of a database administrator and a developer. Automatic Index Tuning may not be 100% perfect to get the choices correct all the time but it is certainly a step in the right direction. Expect Microsoft to release more of such features in the days to come not just in indexing but also all areas of database maintenance

Configuration Manager Missing - Windows 10

SQL Server Configuration Manager is one of the fundamental tools for a DBA to do basic tasks like starting or stopping SQL Service, knowing how many instances and what components of SQL Server are been installed on the machine.

Imagine this, suddenly you find your configuration manager missing. Pretty annoying and can be one of those things which can give that 15 minutes of extreme irritating moments. Not sure, why it happens ( Windows update perhaps ? ) but have seen this in couple of machines now. You can find it at "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\" directory

For SQL Server 2017 it is : C:\Windows\SysWOW64\SQLServerManager14.msc 
For SQL Server 2016/2014 it is : C:\Windows\SysWOW64\SQLServerManager13.msc / SQLServerManager12.msc

To add it back to the start menu, copy it from the original location provided above and paste it to

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft SQL Server 2017\Configuration Tools\

This would put back the configuration manager under start menu. Hope it helps!!!

Azure SQL Database - Backup

Most of you must be knowing that backup in Azure SQL Database fully automatic. After the database is created and the database is automatically backed up by Azure. One can restore to any point in time for a period of 7 days for the basic subscription and 35 days for standard and premium.

Most of the above are already known to you. But, what can be little surprising for someone learning Azure SQL Database is, one can never access backup files used for recovering the database. Meaning, you can only restore the database as another azure sql database but you can never download the automatic backup files like you would do when you configure backups on your on-premise database.

So, what do you do when you need the backup file of Azure SQL Database for reference?

Create a bacpac file backup (similar to your full back up on - premise database ) of Azure SQL Database

1) Connect to the Azure SQL Database via SSMS
2) Right click tasks-> Export -Data-Tier Application. Follow the screenshots below to manually take a backup of Azure SQL Database

So, if you need an older backup of the azure database (yesterday 8:00 am backup), then recover the older version of the database using the Azure portal to a different azure sql database and extract the bacpac file using the steps explained above.

Adaptive Query Processing and Automatic Tuning - Adaptive Joins - 2

Continuing from the introduction written over here, let’s look at one of the aspects of Adaptive Query Processing which is Adaptive Joins.

Before we start Adaptive Joins, SQL Server's Query optimizer internally has 3 join types.

Nested Loop Join - Usually picked by optimizer, when tables participating in the joins are small or when one of the table is big and indexed on joining column
Hash Join: One of the table is big but doesn't have an index
Merge Join: Both the tables are big, and the joining column is indexed

So, the size of the table or the rows participating in the join plays a major role SQL's Query optimizer picking the correct join type. Let’s say, SQL Server estimates few rows participating in the join at compile time and picks "nested join" but during runtime, the join extracts larger number of rows and thereby making the choice of plan ineffective. 

SQL Server 2017's adaptive join addresses this problem. With Adaptive Join, SQL Server comes with plan attribute called "Adaptive Row Threshold" which is a row count threshold estimated by SQL Server.  "Adaptive Row Threshold" will help SQL Server dynamically alter the plan choice at run time. Adaptive join in short will work in the following way

• If the number of rows participating in the join are greater than "Adaptive Row Threshold" rows, then "Hash Join" operator is used for join operation
• If the number of rows participating in the join are lesser than "Adaptive Row Threshold" rows, then "Nested loop Join" operator is used for join operation

Consider the following query:

SELECT  [fo].[Order Key], [si].[Lead Time Days], [fo].[Quantity]

FROM    [Fact].[Order] AS [fo]

INNER JOIN [Dimension].[Stock Item] AS [si]

       ON [fo].[Stock Item Key] = [si].[Stock Item Key]

WHERE   [fo].[Quantity] = 360;

Observe the picture below:

Query Optimizer fixes 68 rows as Adaptive join threshold.

Estimated number of rows for the outer table in the join was 213. As 213 is greater than 68, estimated join type is Hash Match Join. During runtime, 206 rows from outer table participated in the join and as it was greater than "Adaptive join threshold" of 68, Hash match join was selected.

Sharing another example where Adaptive Join switches the join type in runtime. Refer to pic below

In this case, threshold was 46 rows and estimate were 87 rows. However, runtime row count was just 36 rows hence switching the join type to Nested loop join from an estimate of "Hash Join"

 The ability to alter execution plan operator in runtime would make SQL Server's query optimizer weed out most of the incorrect plan choices during runtime.

Tricks - Copy T SQL Result to Excel

Sometimes, some of the silliest of tricks save so much of time and effort. Very common scenario is to copy a query result to excel. Most take either of the 2 approaches

* Copy the result from result grid of management studio and paste to Excel as shown below

The problem with above approach is sometimes, when one pastes the result to excel, the formatting can go haywire, especially if the result contains carriage return (new line) and commas as shown below.

* Export to excel via export wizard

Little tedious and sometimes getting the mapping right can be a pain.

Over the years, the simplest and effective technique, I have used is running T SQL query directly from excel (Yes, you can do that :)). Not just that, it gives a cleanly formatted result all the time!!! Step by step instructions provided below

How to run TSQL Query from Excel:

Open Excel and move to data tab and click on the icon "Other Data Sources" and select "SQL Server" as shown below.

Enter the server to connect to and the credentials

Select the database against which you want to run the query. Pick a random table (doesn't matter if you are not going to query it. Any table is fine)

Click next and finish (we are not done yet :))

Click on properties

Uncheck background refresh check box

Click on the "Definition" tab and change the command type to "SQL" from "Table"

Paste the query you want to run on the "Command Text" box as shown below

Result would be a nice formatted excel sheet as shown below

From excel once can not only get select query results but stored procedures as well. Excel also servers as an excellent tool to query database when one needs to access the database on a machine that doesn't have SQL Server Management Studio. Hope the tip was useful!!!

Adaptive Query Processing and Automatic Tuning - Introduction - 1

SQL Server 2017 and Azure SQL Database are being touted as the self learning, artificial intelligent database. One of the main reasons for the same is due to release of the following features

 1) Adaptive Query Processing

2) Automatic Tuning

Adaptive Query Processing is SQL Server's first attempt using artificial intelligence to fix poor performing queries due to incorrect cardinality estimates. Query optimizer produces better plans using "Adaptive Query Processing" which is enabled by default when one is on SQL 2017's compatibility mode (CE 140). Queries can benefit via Adaptive Query Processing in the following scenarios.

1) Adaptive Join -> Query optimizer makes a intelligent choice between Nested Loop and Hash Join in runtime

2) Memory Grant Feedback -> Query optimizer adjusts the memory granted to a query depending upon the previous run's execution results

3) Interleaved Execution -> Portion of the query is executed while generating the query plan to come with the estimates. Applies currently for Multi Statement Table Valued Functions alone

 The above scenarios and operators are likely to expand in upcoming releases or patches

 Other aspect of auto driven query tuning is "Automatic Tuning" feature. Automatic Query tuning helps in the following scenarios

 Automatic Tuning:

1) Force Last Good Plan: Attempts to fix query regression by detecting any sudden change in query performance due to plan change and forcing the last good performing plan. one can turn it on using the command below

ALTER DATABASE DBName SET AUTOMATIC_TUNING ( FORCE_LAST_GOOD_PLAN = ON );

2) Automatic Index creation and deletion: Feature available only in Azure SQL Database. By studying the workload, the database engine automatically deletes and creates indexes!!!

This is just a introduction post. As usual,will be writing a series of posts to cover the individual sections in detail.

SQL Azure Databases - Active Secondary - Failover Groups - Part 4

150th Blog Post . So, the post involves video demo :)

Previous posts on this series was about using "Geo Replication" to configure active secondary. However, it comes with few limitations like

* No transparent failover capabilities like Always on Listener

* No availability groups and group failover possible

So, Azure Failover Groups provides "Read Only" / "Read Write" connection URLs which allows applications transparent failovers. Read only and Read write workloads get different connection strings and upon failover, applications connect to the appropriate node automatically

Also, one can combine group of databases as a unit of failover and make them failover together as well, as done in Always on availability groups. 

Step by step instructions on configuring availability groups provided below

* Configure Primary Server, Secondary Server and Geo Replication as explained in http://strictlysql.blogspot.sg/2017/05/sql-azure-databases-active-secondary.html

* Click on the primary server ( not database ) and select failover groups

* Click on the add group and

          * Provide the failover group a name
          * Pick the existing database "db1" to be added to the failover group
          * Pick the existing secondary server
          * Click on create

* Once done, failover group is listed as shown below

* Click on the failover group, Read only and Read Write URLs can be seen as shown below

* To perform failover click on the failover icon. Post failover, failover group looks like the picture below

To make the understanding easier, I have recorded the video of the demo. Please take a look. Happy learning

DBCC CloneDatabase for SQL Server 2012

Dear All,

In case you are wondering, title of the post is not a typo :) DBCC CloneDatabase is going to be available for SQL Server 2012 :)

For folks who don't know, DBCC CloneDatabase is a feature introduced in SQL Server 2014 SP2 for creating a skeleton copy of the database. When I mean skeleton copy, I mean without the data but the exact schema, table structure, index, constraints, file and file groups and the best of all - table and index statistics. Using DBCC CloneDatabase, one can actually get a exact copy of the database ( including actual statistics ) but without the data. This is extremely useful in performance troubleshooting as one can clone a production database using DBCC CloneDatabase and backup the cloned database and restore to DEV / UAT to get estimated plans. SQL Server 2016 onwards Querystore's data and reports are also included to the cloned database. One can read more about DBCC CloneDatabase over here

Coming back to the title of the post, Microsoft product team will be extending DBCC CloneDatabase to SQL Server 2012 as a part of SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 4. SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 4 ( SP4 ) is due to be released in September 2017. A excellent move by product team to extend cloned database SQL Server 2012. Check out the official announcement of SP4 over here. More importantly, observe the comments section :) 

SQL Azure Databases - Active Secondary - Failover - Part 3

Continuing on the series on SQL Azure Databases - Active Secondary, this post will explore the task of failing over to secondary.

Fairly straightforward task, just one needs to take care of few items.

Step 1: Login into portal.azure.com and click on Databases. The primary and secondary databases are listed

Step 2: Click on the primary and then click on "Geo Replication"

Step 3: Scroll down and click on the secondary as shown below

Step 4: Click on Failover as shown below

Step 5: Click "Ok" to confirm Failover

Step 6: The dotted lines between primary and secondary, showing the failover progress, turn to solid line upon completion of failover

Step 7: After failover, the replication role changes confirming the successful failover as shown below

Step 8: Secondary server accepts write operations as shown below

Few important things to know

This failover is like a DB Mirroring failover. This means application will need to change their connection strings to secondary server upon failover. Unlike, Always on Availability groups, azure geo replication explained above, doesn't support transparent application failover.

However, Azure Failover Groups (right now in preview) allows transparent failover for applications. More about that on next post :)

SQL Azure Databases - Active Secondary - How to connect? - Part 2

As a continuation of "SQL Azure Databases - Active Secondary" series started earlier, this post will cover how to connect to a azure SQL Database primary and secondary after configuring "Geo Replication".

To some, it may sound like "what is the big deal in connecting to, after configuring it". If you are new to azure, it can take a while for you figure out how to connect and at sometimes it can turn out to be one of those annoying simple things, which refuse come off in easily :)

As described in the earlier post, we have configured the following

* Database called "rajprimary" on "rajprimarysvr" server
* Geo replicated database copy of "rajprimary" on "rajsecondary" server  

To connect to the primary or the secondary server, follow the steps provided below

Configure the firewall:

* Login to your portal.azure.com

* Click on SQL Databases on the left 

* Click on the primary / secondary databases ( as shown under replication role), depending upon the one you would like to connect to

* Click on set firewall as shown below

 

* Firewall settings are turned on and IP Addresses that are listed alone are allowed to access. Click on "add client IP" for allowing the machine that you are using, to connect to the azure database. 

* You may add other client IP Addresses to, if they are to connect to the database. Click on save after adding.

Connect to the database

* Start sql server management studio on the machine you are logged on, and connect to ".database.windows.net". In this case it would be rajprimarysvr.database.windows.net

 if you are not sure of your database servername, you may look at by clicking on "sql databases" -> "databasename" -> "Properties"

 * Provide the user account and password used while setting up the server

Upon connecting, one would notice that only database related components are visible. Server related components like SqlAgent, Server Error logs are not seen as we are using "Sql database" service on azure.

Same steps can be repeated for secondary server too. More on Azure - Geo replication in upcoming posts.