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Amine Haloui

26 posts since April 2024

SQLDay 2026 Workshops Overview

SQLDay 2026 offers a full-day workshop program on 11 May 2026, before the main conference scheduled for 12–13 May 2026 in Wrocław, with onsite and online participation options depending on the session. The workshops cover several areas of the modern data platform: advanced BI, AI and MLOps, SQL performance tuning, PostgreSQL adoption, and Microsoft Fabric automation. DAX – Beyond the… 

SQL Server 2025 release

Microsoft has announced the release of SQL Server 2025. The solution can be downloaded using the following link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/ Among the new features available, we have: We also note the release of SQL Server Management Studio 22. References : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/what-s-new-in-sql-server-2025?view=sql-server-ver17https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/sqlserver/sql-server-2025-is-now-generally-available/4470570https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ssms/release-notes-22 Thank you. Amine Haloui

Customer case study – Partition switching and transactional replication

The client’s environment includes two SQL Server instances (I1 and I2). One of the databases, D1 (on I1), is replicated to I2 via transactional replication. Additionally, the tables in this database are partitioned. The largest table (which is the one of interest) is approximately 350 GB in size and contains around 800 million rows. This table represents transactions. The client… 

SQL Server 2025 – Retirement of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

Microsoft has announced the end of the SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) service. In other words, Microsoft will no longer provide new versions of SSRS. Currently, the latest available version is the 2022 version (https://www.microsoft.com/fr-FR/download/details.aspx?id=104502). However, it is important to note that this service will be supported until January 11, 2033. Moreover, it will still be possible to use SSRS… 

SQL Server 2025 – ZSTD – A new compression algorithm for backups

Introduction SQL Server 2025 introduces a new algorithm for backup compression: ZSTD. As a result, SQL Server 2025 now offers three solutions for backup compression: In this blog, we will compare MS_XPRESS and ZSTD. Environment To perform these tests, the following virtual machine was used: Additionally, I used the StackOverflow database to run the backup tests (reference: https://www.brentozar.com/archive/2015/10/how-to-download-the-stack-overflow-database-via-bittorrent/). ZSTD usage… 

SQL Server 2025 – Standard Developer edition

Introduction The arrival of SQL Server 2025 introduces the Standard Developer edition, allowing companies to deploy across all development, quality and testing environments using an edition equivalent to the Standard Edition without having to pay the associated licensing fees. Here are the different editions available in SQL Server 2025: What problem does this solve? Some companies deploy the Developer edition… 

SQLDay 2025 – Wrocław – Sessions

After a packed workshop day, the SQLDay conference officially kicked off on Tuesday with a series of sessions covering cloud, DevOps, Microsoft Fabric, AI, and more. Here is a short overview of the sessions I attended on the first day of the main conference. Morning Kick-Off: Sponsors and Opening The day started with a short introduction and a presentation of… 

SQLDay 2025 – Wrocław – Workshops

I had the chance to attend SQLDay 2025 in Wrocław, one of the largest Microsoft Data Platform conferences in Central Europe. The event gathers a wide range of professionals, from database administrators to data engineers and Power BI developers. The first day was fully dedicated to pre-conference workshops. The general sessions are scheduled for the following two days. In this… 

An introduction to Azure Database watcher

Azure Database watcher is a managed monitoring service designed to provide insights and diagnostics for Azure databases and Azure Managed Instance. It helps database administrators and developers track performance, detect anomalies and troubleshoot issues efficiently. By collecting telemetry data, logs and metrics, Azure Database watcher enables proactive monitoring and alerting, ensuring database health and optimal performance. Moreover, Database watcher is… 

Customer case study – SQL Server table partitioning

A client submitted the following issues : During an audit of their environment, we also noticed that the database data files were hosted on a volume using an MBR partition type (which is limited to 2 TB). 2 tables were involved (but only one needed to be partitioned, the “Data” table) because we had a foreign key constraint between the… 

Future Data Driven 2024 – introduction to vector databases

I had the opportunity to participate in the Future Data Driven 2024 event (https://datadrivencommunity.com/FutureDataDriven2024.html) with my colleague Stéphane Haby. Many speakers were present, and I was able to attend several sessions covering the following topics: Azure, AI, CosmosDB, Co-Pilot, Database Watcher. In several sessions, when AI was discussed, we talked about vector databases. These were terms I had heard before… 

Power BI – Scheduled refresh stuck

Introduction When creating reports, there are several modes through which we can import data. In our case, reports had been created using the “import mode.” In this mode, the data is imported or copied into our reports to be included. This then allows us to build (for example) dashboards. Once the report is published, the data presented by the report…