Unlock the Power of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 - Global Knowledge

Expert Reference Series of White Papers

Unlock the Power of Microsoft SQL Server 2012

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Unlock the Power of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Brian D. Egler MCITP/MCSE/MCT 2012, Global Knowledge Course Director

Introduction Are you ready to unlock the power of Microsoft SQL Server 2012? In this whitepaper we will examine three key new features that show how SQL Server 2012 provides enterprise-level high-availability, powerful self-service business analytics and ETL for data in the cloud. Three underlying themes categorize the SQL Server 2012 release: • Mission-Critical Confidence • Breakthrough Insight • Cloud on your Terms Within this whitepaper, we will explore one selected new feature under each theme to give a feel for the capabilities of the new release. Other features, while too numerous to describe here, are documented on the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/sql. You can also download an evaluation copy of the software from the same location.

Mission-Critical Confidence

Selected Feature: AlwaysOn for High Availability and Disaster Recovery In previous SQL Server releases, we had four options for high availability (HA), namely, Server Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Replication. Each solution has its pros and cons. Clustering and mirroring provide automatic failover. Log shipping and P2P provide load balancing. Log shipping provides the ability to create multiple read-only secondaries dispersed over great geographical distances for disaster recovery) sites. A common solution is to define a server cluster for HA combined with log shipping for DR, known as HADR. Database mirroring only allows one mirror, and it is not available until after a failover. Log shipping and replication do not support automatic failover. Replication also can require complex administration. SQL Server 2012 effectively combines the pros of each of these solutions with its AlwaysOn functionality. There are two flavors of AlwaysOn in SQL Server 2012: • AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) • AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG)

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AlwaysOn FCI effectively is the SQL Server 2012 upgrade of server clustering for HA, using shared data storage. AlwaysOn FCI failover applies to a complete SQL Server instance, including all system and user databases on the instance. AlwaysOn AG has the automatic failover of mirroring at the database level but with the added ability to create multiple secondary replicas for read-only load balancing. An AG can contain multiple user databases that failover together without the need for shared storage. Some experts have described AlwaysOn AG as Database Mirroring++. Both AlwaysOn technologies can be combined to provide Automatic Failover and Load Balancing in one effective HADR solution. In order to setup an AlwaysOn AG, you can use the Availability Group Wizard within SQL Server Management Studio. This wizard will walk you through the steps to create an availability group. It should be noted that each SQL Server instance that hosts the AG must be on a separate node within a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) as the failover functionality uses the WSFC services. This is in contrast to Database Mirroring that uses a separate SQL Server instance as a “witness” for automatic failover.

Availability Group Wizard The wizard guides you through the following steps: • Specify an availability group name • Select one or more user databases on this instance of SQL Server • Specify one or more instances of SQL Server to host secondary availability replicas • Specify your availability group listener preference • Select your initial data synchronization preference • Check the validation results of availability group creation • Review your selections

Figure 1. AlwaysOn Availability Group Wizard

The user databases contained in the AlwaysOn AG must all use the Full Recovery Model as the synchronization of replicas is performed using the transaction log.


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Specify one or more instances of SQL Server to host secondary availability replicas.

Figure 2. AlwaysOn Primary and Secondary Replicas

Within an AlwaysOn AG, you are allowed one primary replica and up to 4 secondary replicas giving a maximum total of 5 replicas. Each instance has its own local data storage for its replica databases. The primary replica is allowed to automatically failover to only one of the secondary replicas. These two replicas are called the Automatic Failover Partners. However, you may manually failover to any of the secondary replicas using the Failover Wizard. You can choose between Synchronous and Asynchronous Commit. Synchronous Commit performs a distributed transaction that commits across the network on both the primary and the secondary replicas simultaneously. This is required for the Automatic Failover Partners so no data is lost during a failover but is optional on the other secondary replicas to assist with better performance. All the secondary replicas can be used for load balancing being setup as a readable secondary for instance, for reporting or backup jobs. If the primary replica is configured for asynchronous-commit mode, it does not wait for any secondary replica to write incoming transaction log records to disk (to harden the log). The AlwaysOn AG, has a public Listener IP address and DNS name for use by the clients to access the current primary replica, regardless of failover. The secondary replicas can be accessed directly for read-only access if they are configured as a readable secondary. Read-intent only means the ReadOnly switch needs to be provided in the connection string by the application. If Readable Secondary is set to Yes, an ordinary connection string can be used to read the secondary replica. If Readable Secondary is set to No, no access will be granted when operating as a secondary replica.

AlwaysOn Availability Group Dashboard The AlwaysOn Availability Group dashboard is provided within SQL Server Management Studio and shows status and health information in addition to the Failover Wizard for manual failover.


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Figure 3. AlwaysOn Availability Group Dashboard in SSMS

Breakthrough Insight

Selected Feature: PowerView for Self-Service BI within SSRS 2012 and SharepPoint SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2005 introduced ReportBuilder, which was originally intended as an enduser tool to build reports within a web browser. ReportBuilder has since evolved into a web-based developer tool matching the functionality of the Visual Studio Report Designer. In SSRS 2012, Microsoft introduces PowerView, which delivers a true self-service reporting tool within the SharePoint PowerPivot Gallery, supporting dragand-drop authoring and animated delivery. PowerView is ideally placed as an effective end-user reporting tool.


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Figure 4. PowerView within SharePoint PowerPivot Gallery

The PowerPivot Gallery can be used within SharePoint to develop PowerPivot solutions for self-service business intelligence as well as PowerView reports. Both are user-friendly, supporting drag-and-drop and animated reports using a Silverlight plugin. Users can select between chart types, sorting, grouping, and filtering criteria using point-and-click. Resulting reports can be saved and then executed by other users as necessary directly from the PowerPivot Gallery.

Animated Reports Using PowerView Play Axis Many different types of reports are provided by PowerView, but one of the most interesting features is the animated report supported by the SilverLight plugin within SharePoint. Complex reports needing multiple axes can be simplified by providing a Play axis, giving another dimension of analysis showing animated movement of the data over time. The example below (Figure 5) shows a bubble report of reseller profit over time. The vertical and horizontal axes show cost and revenue, the bubbles represent sub-categories of products, the size of the bubble showing profit size, and the animated movement shows the changes year over year by clicking the Play Axis button. This is a particularly effective way of portraying business trends over time.


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Figure 5. PowerView animated reports

PowerView requires SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services running in SharePoint Integrated Mode.

Cloud on Your Terms

Selected Feature: SSIS 2012 for ETL processing with Cloud-based data Cloud-based data provides increased flexibility and elastic scalability, ideal for rapidly growing organizations. There are still many unanswered security-based questions, but some databases may be appropriate to host in the cloud and synchronize with sensitive on-premises databases. This distributed approach to our data is a growing trend in the industry. Microsoft is at the forefront of this technology with its Windows Azure platform, supporting SQL Azure for databases in the cloud. Once again, ease of use and lower costs are Microsoft’s value propositions. SQL Azure is synchronized with SQL Server 2012 functionality.


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Figure 6. SQL Azure on the Windows Azure platform in the Cloud

Windows Azure and SQL Azure can be accessed directly using http://windows.azure.com . A 90-day free trial is available. After that, a there is a monthly fee, based on storage requirements. You can create and populate SQL Server databases using the web interface (Figure 6) or using SQL Server Management Studio remotely, accessing the database server using the fully qualified DNS name (FQDN) provided by the Windows Azure platform. SSIS packages can also extract information from SQL Azure databases using the same FQDN in the Connection Manager properties (shown in Figure 7). SQL Azure databases must use SQL Server authentication but can be accessed using any of the SSIS Tasks provided in the SSIS Toolbox. In this way, accessing data in the cloud is essentially the same as any other data source.


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Figure 7. SSIS shared Connection Manager for SQL Azure

Figure 8. DataSync feature for SQL Azure

The Data Sync feature also allows bi-directional data synchronization across the cloud, supporting synchronization of disparate data sources across the enterprise: In this way, the cloud can be used as another potential data source for extracting, transforming, and loading of data into a Data Warehouse. Copyright ©2013 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved.

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Conclusion Microsoft SQL Server 2012 has many great new features that allow you to develop higher performing, more scalable, next-generation applications using more than just relational data. The fact that the features are largely incremental in nature should reassure users that Microsoft is building on the established foundation of SQL Server 2008 R2. 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 To learn more about how you can improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and sharpen your competitive edge, Global Knowledge suggests the following courses: Updating your Database and Business Intelligence Skills to Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M40008, M40009) Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M10777) Implementing Data Models and Reports with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M10778) MCSA: SQL Server 2012 Boot Camp: 9 day class (NEW)

This course is composed of:

• Three official Microsoft courses:

- Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M10774)

- Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases (M10775)

- Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (M10777)

• Training Kits, Reference Books, Practice Tests

• Intense immersion training including all 50+ labs for 6 months

• Exam Vouchers for future use

• Physical or Virtual Classroom

Visit www.globalknowledge.com or call 1-800-COURSES (1-800-268-7737) 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.


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