There was no subscription option, and the only servers listed were on the current subscription. I should point out that if you are copying from one Azure Managed Instance (MI) to another, then you have plenty of options, including selecting the subscription. Here, however, all I had was Server and Database Name.

So, next I tried Powershell and ended up trying the command New-AzSqlDatabaseCopy.

New-AzSqlDatabaseCopy -ResourceGroupName "<resourceGroup>" `
	-ServerName $sourceserver -DatabaseName "<databaseName>" `
	-CopyResourceGroupName "myResourceGroup" -CopyServerName $targetserver `
	-CopyDatabaseName "CopyOfMySampleDatabase"

And it also didn’t have an option to select a source subscription, and when I tried just putting in the source server, it couldn’t find it. Note: I could have been doing something wrong, but if so I couldn’t figure it out. Also, there is most likely another way to do this, probably something from DBATools, etc. So if you have other options, feel free to put them in the comments.

In the end, I found that the CREATE DATABASE command had options that would work perfectly.

-- Connect to Destination instance
CREATE DATABASE [NewDatabase] AS COPY OF [SourceServer].[SourceDatabase] 
	(SERVICE_OBJECTIVE = ELASTIC_POOL( name = [ElasticPoolName] ) );

Super easy, was as fast as I could have hoped for, and even had an option to dump it into the Elastic Pool we needed. Since it’s T-SQL I didn’t need to specify the subscription, it found the server without an issue. It was particularly nice since I was able to script out multiple moves and run them quickly. And let’s face it, I’m the most comfortable with T-SQL.

Show-Command Get-Help

Each tab (AllUsersView, DetailedView, Examples etc) is a different set of parameters and will not work together. So you have to pick a tab and stick with it. The first problem I’m running into is that I don’t know what the various parameters mean. I’m going to hit that help button on the top right.

Now I have the window version of the help screen. Which if you look closely at tab list you’ll see is an option for the help command. I can now scroll down and see what my various options are. I’m going to go to the Show-Window tab and pull up the help for the Show-Command cmdlet (inception anyone?).

And then if I hit the Copy button I get the command with the parameters (no abbreviations or aliases) put into the clipboard.

Get-Help -ShowWindow -Name Show-Command

-ShowWindow brings up that nice little window for the help.
-Name is the name of the command I want.

I can of course also just hit the Run button and run the command, but that kind of ruins the purpose of it in my opinion.

Last but not least if I want to see the list of possible Common Parameters I can hit the down arrow at the bottom and expand them. I’m going to check Verbose.

And now when I hit copy I get this:

Get-Help -ShowWindow -Name Show-Command -Verbose

Pretty cool right? This will probably be my most used command over the next few months.

A while back I talked about getting started with Azure. At the time you got a year of $25 a month credit. This is no longer the case but that’s all to the better. I mean look at that list of benefits! Michael wasn’t kidding. It’s -A LOT-.

For 1 month

• $200 credit

For 12 months

• 750 hours each of Windows and Linux virtual machines.
• Two 64gb managed disks.
• 5gb blog storage.
• 5gb file storage.
• 250gb SQL Database.
• 5gb Azure Cosmos DB.
• 15gb bandwidth

Always free

• 10 Web, mobile, or API apps.
• Functions: 1,000,000 requests per month.
• Event Grid: 100,000 operations per month.
• Azure Kubernetes Service: Free
• Face API: 30,000 transactions per month.
• DevTest Labs: Free
• Active Directory B2C: 50,000 monthly stored users.
• Service Fabric: Free
• Azure DevOps: 5 users with unlimited private Git repos.
• Wow this is a long list
• If you want to read
• the rest of it you
• should follow this link
• to create your free Azure account.
• Oh, SQL Server Development edition is on the list too.
• No idea why since it’s not an Azure product.
• But hey, free!

This gives you 12 months to really dig into Azure without having to spend much if anything. This is a huge, if temporary, boost to your home lab. Just the free VMs alone means you can create a cluster and start playing with availability groups. Or a single VM and practice installing SQL. Or create an Azure SQL DB. Or, well, really almost anything.

Given how quickly things are changing I’d get started!

 
You’ll hear a lot of rules and best practices from senior IT people (not just data folks, all of them). You’ll also then see those same people do what they told you not to.

That doesn’t seem fair, does it?

It is and it isn’t. Take NOLOCK as an example. I tell people “Don’t use NOLOCK”. In fact, I’ve done a number of rants about it. But I do use it every now and again. Want to know the difference? I know when NOLOCK is appropriate.

Tools are just that, tools. They can be useful or they can cause damage if you don’t know how to use them. Some tools get misused so frequently that senior IT people start telling everyone “do not use” because the chances of them being used correctly are slim, and conversely the chances of them being misused are great.

The simple answer is to just explain how to use the tools correctly right? In a perfect world, yes; that would be the correct thing to do. Unfortunately, not everyone understands what you are teaching. And certainly not everyone understands it the first time, or the second, or the third etc. Not because they aren’t smart enough, or not paying enough attention, but because it’s the nature of learning.

Let’s say I explain to someone how to use a cursor, because hey, even in a batch environment we do need loops sometimes. Then a few weeks later I realize they have started using cursors all over the place, performance is tanking, and they are now getting in trouble. Now I feel terrible. And in some cases, I (and cursors) get blamed for things not going well. It would have been easier in the long run, and safer, if I’d never shown them the tool in the first place.

So when you hear “Do not use this tool” from someone who really understands it, it’s probably because it’s a tool that gets misused far too often for the comfort of the person talking. In my opinion, at this point, you want to find out why using this tool is a bad idea. Find out what it’s used for and when it’s appropriate to use it. Once you are sure you have all that down, then, under the right circumstances, you can use the tool.

On the other hand, if you hear “Do not use this tool” from someone who doesn’t understand it, it may very well be that they have tried to use it incorrectly and run into problems. At this point you want to find out why (and/or if) using this tool is a bad idea. Find out what it’s used for and when it’s appropriate to use it. Once you are sure you have all that down, then, under the right circumstances, you can use the tool.

Ok, all of that said, there are things you shouldn’t ever do. The trick here is again, learning. Granting everyone sysadmin on a SQL instance really is a bad idea. Don’t do it. Learn why, when, and where sysadmin should be granted. And then when you have you’ll realize you still shouldn’t be granting it more than absolutely necessary.

Why

So let’s start with why create a connect entry. If you have a suggestion for an improvement or you find a bug then the connect site is a great way to let Microsoft know. And this isn’t just for SQL Server. You can get a list of the products accepting suggestions or bugs from the main connect site.

How

Step one is to go to connect.microsoft.com and search for your suggestion/bug to see if it already exists. I’m going to ask for a create date and a modified date for indexes.

1. Enter the product in the search bar and hit Search.
   
2. Find the product you want in the list and hit View. Note that in this case we want the Public entry for SQL Server.
   
3. This takes us to the SQL Server & Azure SQL Database connect area. Hit the Product Feedback link to enter.
   
4. We now get to the Feedback Center for SQL Server and Windows Azure SQL Database.
   
5. Enter keywords for your bug or suggestion and the page will automatically search for similar entries. Of course, there are plenty of ways to refine the search.
   

 
Now that we know that our suggestion doesn’t already exist, or at least that we didn’t see it, we can go ahead and create one.

1. Hit SUBMIT FEEDBACK
   
2. Hit the dropdown and select the bug or suggestion form.
   
3. Then you just need to fill in the form and hit submit
   Suggestion
   
   
   Bug
   
   

 
Now that I’ve entered my item it takes us directly to it.

Oh and along the same train of thought, you can follow @ClosedAsFixed. It’s a twitter bot created by Chrissy LeMaire (b/t) that shows connect entries that have been marked Resolved or Closed as Fixed.