SQL Server

SQL Server 2025 – Backups to secondary replicas of an availability group

Backup operations can increase significantly I/O and even CPU utilization when we use backup compression. To avoid using resources on primary replica, offloading backups to a synchronized or synchronizing replicas seems to be the good solution even if we have(…)

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: MS_XPRESS QAT ZSTD In this blog, we will compare MS_XPRESS and ZSTD. Environment To perform(…)

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(…)

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(…)

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(…)

SQL Server 2025 Public Preview and SSMS 21 now available

This is a short blog post to share that the SQL Server 2025 public preview is now available for download. At the same time, SSMS 21 has also been released and is now generally available. The LinkedIn post by Bob(…)

Set SQL Server Trace Flags Automatically and Smoothly

Managing SQL Server trace flags effectively is a common task for DBAs and system engineers, especially when tuning the SQL Server behavior for specific use cases or performance optimizations. While trace flags can be enabled programmatically using T-SQL commands such(…)

Starting with PowerShell 7 and parallelization

For the time being Windows PowerShell 5.1 is installed with Windows Server. It means that if you want to use or even test PowerShell 7 you need to install it by your own.To be honest, even if I’m using PowerShell(…)

Delphix Data Virtualization and Masking

After successfully completing several customer projects involving Delphix products, Data Virtualization and Data Masking, I decided to set up a complete infrastructure internally to test the combination of both products. Delphix Data Virtualization Creates only a virtual copy of(…)

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(…)