Microsoft SQL Server 2012: What to Expect

Transcription

1 ASPE RESOURCE SERIES Microsoft SQL Server 2012: What to Expect Prepared for ASPE by Global Knowledge's Brian D. Egler MCITP-DBA, MCT, Real Skills. Real Results. Real IT. in partnership with

2 Microsoft SQL Server 2012: What to Expect Brian D. Egler MCITP-DBA, MCT, Global Knowledge Course Director Introduction Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is coming Three underlying themes categorize the SQL Server 2012 release: Mission Critical Confidence Breakthrough Insight Cloud On Your Terms In this white paper, we will explore just some of the new features under each theme to give a feel for the capabilities of the upcoming release. Other features, while too numerous to describe here, are documented on the Microsoft web site at You can also download a pre-release version of the software or Community Technology Preview (CTP) from the same location. Mission Critical Confidence AlwaysOn for High Availability and Disaster Recovery Project Apollo provides column compression and performance gains Organizational compliance with enterprise-wide security controls AlwaysOn for High Availability and Disaster Recovery Before SQL Server 2012, we had four options for High Availability (HA), namely, Server Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping, and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Replication. Each solution had its pros and cons. Clustering and Mirroring provided automatic failover. Log Shipping and P2P provided load balancing. Log Shipping would provide the ability to create multiple read-only secondaries dispersed over great geographical distances for Disaster Recovery (DR) sites. A common solution was to define a Server Cluster for HA combined with Log Shipping for DR known as HADR. Database Mirroring would only allow one Mirror, and it would not be available until failover. Log Shipping and Replication did not have automatic failover. Replication also can require complex administration. SQL Server 2012 effectively combines the pros of each of these solutions with its AlwaysOn feature. With AlwaysOn, you will have the automatic failover of Mirroring at the Database level but with the added ability to create multiple secondaries for read-only load balancing. AlwaysOn will provide HADR and Load Balancing in one effective solution. Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 2

3 Figure 1: AlwaysOn Availability Group Project Apollo provides column compression and performance gains SQL Server 2008 introduced Data Compression at the Row and Page Levels to provide not only storage savings but also, surprisingly, performance gains based on less I/O. In SQL Server 2008 R2, the VertiPaq technology allowed massive Column-level compression in conjunction with the PowerPivot add-in. In SQL Server 2012, the new column-store index, as part of Project Apollo, will provide the same massive column-level compression within the Database Engine itself. Data Warehouse queries against Star or Snowflake schemas will be optimized to give potential performance gains and storage savings in the order of 100 times improvement. Figure 2: ColumnStore Index Organizational compliance with enterprise-wide security controls On the security front, new features in SQL Server 2012 include the ability to create user-defined server roles. This allows specific permissions to be applied to groups of logins instead of using the fixed server roles or having to give permissions directly to each login. Another interesting security feature is the Contained Database that allows a database to be moved or copied to a new instance without having the dependency on login objects. Users can connect to the database without authenticating a login at the Database Engine-level. Effectively, the database becomes self-contained and removes the normally tricky situation of orphaned users. However, the Contained Databases option has to be specifi- Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 3

4 cally enabled at the instance level, an existing database needs to be converted to be Contained, and the users need to be migrated to become Contained Database Users. There exist some specific security threats that relate uniquely to Contained Databases (documented in SQL Server 2012 Books Online), but if you need a database to be easily portable, the benefits may outweigh the drawbacks. Figure 3: Contained Database server option The SQL Audit feature, which was introduced in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, allows Server- and Database-level auditing without the need for DDL or DML Trigger, giving a more efficient method of auditing that is built in to the Database Engine. SQL Server 2012 allows new features such as filtering audit output and now supports Server level audits for all SQL Server editions. Breakthrough Insight SSAS 2012: VertiPaq, BI Semantic Model, and PowerPivot Consistent data via Data Quality Services Parallel Data Warehouse and Reference Architectures SSAS 2012: VertiPaq, BI Semantic Model and PowerPivot SQL Server 2008 R2 introduced support for PowerPivot through Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010 using its VertiPaq technology for massive column compression. This allowed advanced users to develop their own Business Intelligence solutions via Excel or Sharepoint. The Vertipaq technology allowed literally hundreds of millions of rows of data to be imported and analyzed efficiently on the client via Excel and on the Server via Sharepoint. Based on the popularity of the technology, SSAS 2012 enables Vertipaq on the server-side within Analysis Services itself in a new configuration option named Tabular Mode that supports the BI Semantic Model (BISM). Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 4

5 Figure 4: Tabular Project template Support for rowsets in excess of 2 billion rows is now available using this technology with rapid ad-hoc analysis, search, and sort. Business Intelligence Development Studio is now integrated with Visual Studio 2010 and includes the Tabular Model Designer, which is the developer equivalent of PowerPivot, with support for Data Analysis Expression (DAX) queries. Classic Multi-Dimensional solutions using MDX queries continue to be supported with increased support for tables in excess of 2 billion rows. Figure 5: Tabular Project - VertiPaq query mode Consistent data via Data Quality Services SQL Server Data Quality Services (DQS) is new in SQL Server 2012 and provides a knowledge-based platform for data cleansing, including data correction and deduplication. The DQS Client application is intended for the end user to automate data correction in addition to an interactive mode. The DQS server is implemented by two SQL Server databases, DQS_MAIN and DQS_PROJECTS, for storing the knowledge-based rules. Cloud-based Reference Data Services can be used to bring in third-party rules for data cleansing. DQS is integrated with both SQL Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 5

6 Server Integration Services (SSIS) and Master Data Services (MDS) to give a full data quality platform. The new SSIS Data Correction transform is based on DQS as is the MDS data quality functionality. Figure 6: DQS Client - Data Quality Project Parallel Data Warehouse and Reference Architectures When Microsoft acquired DATAllegro, its stated direction was to support Very Large Databases (VLDB) through a scalable appliance architecture using the combination of hardware and software to support databases in excess of 100TB. Now with SQL Server 2012, that vision is closer to reality with many hardware vendors supporting the Fast Track configurations and reference architectures. The Parallel Data Warehouse edition supports features such as Remote BLOB Storage and large-scale data partitioning while using up to 256 logical CPUs for high performance in the VLDB arena. Cloud on Your Terms Scale on demand from devices to datacenter to cloud Write applications once; run most anywhere with Project Juneau Extend any data, anywhere with DataSync and OData SQL Azure is an exciting new SQL Server edition that introduces the cloud as a data platform for the future. SQL Azure now supports Open Data (OData) protocol for querying and updating data in the cloud. The DataSync feature also allows bi-directional data synchronization across the cloud supporting synchronization of disparate data sources. Project Juneau extends the Visual Studio 2010 shell to support SQL Azure and SQL Server applications using the.net framework through standard data APIs such as ADO.NET, ODBC, JDBC, etc. Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 6

7 Figure 7: SQL Azure DataSync Conclusion Microsoft SQL Server 2012 has many great new features that will allow you to develop higher performing, more scalable next-generation applications using more than just relational data. Although this release will be a little early for many customers, the fact that the features are largely incremental in nature should reassure users that Microsoft is building on the established foundation of SQL Server Using the same architecture and management tools, customers will be able to smoothly upgrade their systems and skills based on the need for the new features and according to their own schedule. Learn More Learn more about how you can improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and sharpen your competitive edge through training. Beta: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases (M10775) Beta: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M10774) Beta: Developing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases (M10776) Beta: Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M10777) Implementing Data Models and Reports with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M10778) Visit or call COURSES ( ) to speak with a Global Knowledge training advisor. About the Author Brian Egler is a Global Knowledge instructor and Course Director specializing in Microsoft SQL Server technologies. He currently resides in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 7