We moved this blog … click on www.ilikesql.com instead

If you were a follower of this blog and entered through http://www.ilikesql.com you probably wouldn’t get to read this page. If you landed here on a search engine though, it might be possible you’ll still ended up here.

When we created this blog on wordpress.com, our initial understanding was that some of the basic functionality we wanted to get out of this blog would be available. And wow, we were wrong.

Some of that functionality, such as embedding a Tableau workbook, or a Power BI workbook were simply impossible through WordPress.com and because of that we moved this over to a traditionally hosted wordpress.org blog on GoDaddy.

The service we received from GoDaddy facilitating this move was just incredible…

To find out some of the new functionality we were looking for … click www.ilikesql.com

Quickblog: Is my Excel 2013 32bit or 64-bit? #powerbi

If you get close to Power BI or having to install Power Query, you probably have asked yourself the question: “Is my Excel 2013 32bit or 64bit?”

Here is a very quick way to find out:

• Open a blank or existing workbook in Excel
• Click on File | Account
• When the following screen displays click on About Excel

And there it shows, if you have 64bit, it will show exactly where marked.

Now the tricky part is, you thought Office Pro Plus would automatically install in 64bit if you had a 64 bit OS right?
Well it doesn’t, in order to get the 64bit version you need to click Advanced to download it specifically from the download URL or portal.office.com  if you have an O365 subscription.

 

Quickblog: unattended install of Power Query #powerbi

PowerQuery_2.20.3945.242 (64-bit) [en-us].msi, was announced by the Excel Team on 03/05/2015, if you have an older version installed, the above command will uninstall the older version as part of the upgrade process. It might be good to follow both the Excel team blog as well as the Power BI blog to stay up to date on the latest.

How many times have you installed the latest version of Power BI?
How about we make your life a bit easier and install it from the command line?

Install Power Query unattended in 3 steps:

1. Download the lastest version of Power Query here

2. Open an administrative command prompt

3. Type the following command line to install unattended with no user interaction

msiexec /i “PowerQuery_2.20.3945.242 (64-bit) [en-us].msi” ACCEPT_EULA=1 /quiet

To provide logging you can add the /lv logfile.txt and review if installation was successful.

 

Reblog: SQLServer Firewall Configuration using command line

REBLOG from old ILIKESQL BLOG

SQL Server Firewall Configuration using command line

I’ve been asked the question many times, and you probably have seen it before …
The “warning” message that displays during a SQL Server installation and warns you about “Firewall” configurations.

To optimize for a minimal footprint and maximum security, configuring the right firewall settings might be a bit hard for some of us, or even more might take some “time” to configure manually using Windows Advanced Firewall on Windows Server, or in a command line on a Windows Server Core installation.

While there is quite detailed descriptive information in the Configuring the Windows Firewall for SQL Server Access Article,sometimes it might be as simple as “get me a script that I can modify and does it for me”.

Well here it is .. create a .CMD file with good old notepad and add the following batch to it, and while you can do this with Powershell it’s much more straight forward to do this with the netsh command in the command line
Note that when executing the script you need to run it under administrative privileges.

@echo off
echo This scripts sets the default firewall configurations for SQL Server components
echo.
echo Setting the core components for a database instance
echo Default Instance –rename the instance
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”SQLServer” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433 profile=DOMAIN
echo Dedicated Admin Connection
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”SQL DAC” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1434 profile=DOMAIN
echo SQL Browser Service
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”SQL Browser” dir=in action=allow protocol=UDP localport=1434 profile=DOMAIN
echo Setting the core firewall rules for database mirroring, service broker, TSQL Debugger, Analysis services, Reporting Services
echo Mirroring EndPoint – CHANGE PORT NUMBER AS NEEDED
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”Mirroring EndPoint” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=5022 profile=DOMAIN
echo Service Broker
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”SQL Service Broker” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022 profile=DOMAIN
echo Enable TSQL Debugger (uses RPC)
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”T-SQL Debugger” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=135 profile=DOMAIN
echo Browser service for Analysis Services
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”SQL Browser for Analysis Services” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=2382 profile=DOMAIN
echo Analysis services Default Instance
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”Analysis Services” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=2383 profile=DOMAIN
echo HTTP/HTTPS for reporting services
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”HTTP Reporting Services” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=80 profile=DOMAIN
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”HTTPS Reporting Services” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=443 profile=DOMAIN

Enjoy!

Migrating from #sqlserver to #Azure SQL Database – Cookbook

The Azure SQL Server Migration Cookbook for Azure SQL Database describes how you can migrate an on-premises SQL Server Database to Azure and can be downloaded here.

The cookbook describes engine compatibility, tools to use and how to approach migration to Azure SQL Database.

In order to use the “recipes” in the migration cookbook, please make sure you’ve downloaded and installed the latest tools updates

SQL Server Management Studio 2014 Cumulative Update 5

SQL Server Database Tooling Preview for the latest Azure SQL Database Update V12

SQL Database Migration Wizard

returning to the community I love the most #sqlfamily

After I left Microsoft the beginning of last year, to join Nordstrom and take a huge advantage of getting to learn other technologies and database / BI platforms such as Teradata, Tableau, MicroStrategy and many of the others, it didn’t really take me long to reflect on how I missed some of the things I’ve been doing in the past.

So I started listing some of them, and certainly look forward to the road ahead, and contributions DB Best Technologies will bring to the SQL Server community.

Here’s a recap…

Data Platform Hands-on-Labs on Technet Virtual Labs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/bb467605.aspx

What’s new in SQL Server codename “Denali” – TechDays Belgium 2011
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/tdbe11-what-s-new-in-sql-server-denali

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server codename “Denali” – TechDays Belgium 2011
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/tdbe11-upgrading-to-sql-server-2008-r2-and-sql-server-denali

12 reasons to love SQL Server 2012 – TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/tdbe12-12reasons-to-love-sql-server-2012.aspx

SQL Server Days 2012 – Keynote – Dandy Weyn
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/sql-server-days-2012-opening-keynote-by-dandy-weyn.aspx

SQL Server 2012 Special Ops Tour
http://specialops.sqlpass.org

Microsoft Job Blog – Certification
http://microsoftjobsblog.com/1-in-4-it-positions-worldwide-is-currently-unfilled/

Microsoft Certified Career Day
http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/CertifiedCareerDay/

Be the next Microsoft Employee
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/episode-4-be-the-next-microsoft-employee/qmr8zofq

Techtalk – TechED New Zealand 2013
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NewZealand/2013/TLK109

Faster Data Insights with Power BI
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/faster-insights-to-data-with-power-bi-jump-start

Channel 9 recordings (Multiple events)
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Speakers/Dandy-Weyn

I just moved my blog – www.ilikesql.com

I just moved my blog to this WordPress blog, literally because it was the fastest option after I came to the discovery that the MSDN blog I had for quite a couple of years still exists, but I am no longer to able to edit and write new articles.

Why am I unable to access my old blog?

I totally forgot about the fact that MSDN blogs are only intended for Microsoft Employees, and so after having left Microsoft in 2014, I didn’t really pay attention to it, since I was so busy in the new job. Now that I moved to DB Best it’s only fair that the MSDN blog gets moved. However, it would have been nice to have a little heads-up about it, so I would be able to delete the blog posts, move some the more popular blogs over, or simply redirect the old blog to the new one.

The good news…

The good news in all of this …. I will be able to take some of the older blogs and update them to the latest version, such for example blogging around the BareMetal framework, unattended installations of SQL Server etc.

Self-Service BI – the players are ready – GAME ON!

How likely would you attend the following session if it would be available for presentation at an event near you or online?
That’s right, I am trying to see how interested you would be attending.

Please comment!

Self-Service BI – the players are ready – GAME ON!

With so many self-service BI offerings available, it is really hard to figure out which one you can take most advantage from within your business. Is it really possible to just go for one as your enterprise standard, or do you need to support multiple? Which one is going to win the battle? Do you go for Microstrategy, Tableau, Information Builders, Microsoft Power BI, IBM, Birst, Tibco, SAS or Qlik? Or is your environment struggling with the implementation of many?

In this session we’ll have a detailed drilldown into the more significant players in the world of Self-service BI.  Using a demo-centric approach we’ll dive into features, comparisons and most of all … results that lead into visualizations including mobile devices.

At the end of the session you’ll have a good understanding of the self-service BI offerings from multiple software vendors, with a clear understanding of its current capabilities and features. Which one you’ll use is up for you decide, do you go for beauty queen or data centric work horse?

This session is NOT pushing you towards any software vendor, it’s providing you with an overview of capabilities/features, likes and dislikes.