SSMS 22.6: Custom Copilot instructions

When you start using SSMS with GitHub Copilot, there is no default set of instructions in place. The agent will just sort of do what it thinks is best. But you can make sure the agent has more knowledge of your local environment (yes, it can be a cloud database as well), how it should … Continue reading SSMS 22.6: Custom Copilot instructions

T-SQL Tuesday #199: Back to on-prem?

This month, Koen Verbeeck invites the blogging community to write about their thoughts on returning to on-premises. What could be struggles, things we have to re-learn, etcetera. When I read the invite, it immediately sparked inspiration, because there are increasing rumours around cloud exits. People musing about 'what if'. Some clients reference these questions, but … Continue reading T-SQL Tuesday #199: Back to on-prem?

DP-800: First Microsoft Learn experiences

The DP-800 training is new and was released to GA a few weeks ago. It now sits in the same family as DP-600 (Data Analytics using Microsoft Fabric), 700 (Data Engineering using Microsoft Fabric) and 750 (Data Engineering using Databricks). The full name of this training is "Develop AI-Enabled Database Solutions". This one sparked my … Continue reading DP-800: First Microsoft Learn experiences

Mirroring SQL Server 2025 to Microsoft Fabric, a level deeper

Maybe you've read my blog post in the DP-700 certification series about mirroring data. You can find that one here. This blog will be longer and more technical. And involve SQL Server. To make reading a little easier, I've listed the Microsoft Learn pages at the end of this blog post. While writing the DP-700 … Continue reading Mirroring SQL Server 2025 to Microsoft Fabric, a level deeper

SQL Server 2025 and disk sector size

I got a new laptop this week, and one of my default steps is installing SQL Server. This has always gone without issue until yesterday. I ran into an error message when my Bing skills (for some reason, my company defaults to Bing instead of Google) failed me. The error message When I started installing … Continue reading SQL Server 2025 and disk sector size

SQL and MCP, the local edition

In the previous blog posts, I've written about installing MCP and how it works, followed by how to use it with an Azure SQL Database through an Azure Container Instance and Microsoft Foundry. But, you can also use your favourite local database (SQL Server ;)) and Visual Studio Code. The reason Visual Studio Code is … Continue reading SQL and MCP, the local edition

SQL and MCP, Azure SQL Edition

In part one, I covered the basics of your Data API Builder setup. Now, it's time to get into the real stuff :). For the demo, I'm using the Stack Overflow 2013 database on an Azure SQL General Purpose Serverless 8-core database. It's not a very large dataset (making it less expensive to host on … Continue reading SQL and MCP, Azure SQL Edition

SQL, Azure SQL and MCP, the Introduction

This three-part series of blog posts will take you along my first experiments, trials and errors using the MCP Service for SQL. This first blog will focus on the technology behind it; part 2 will focus on Azure SQL options; and the last part will dig a bit deeper into running this on your local … Continue reading SQL, Azure SQL and MCP, the Introduction

Ignite announced SQL Server 2025 and Fabric SQL GA

I'm guessing you've seen posts, blogs and social media activity in the last year on both Fabric SQL databases and rumours around SQL Server 2025. Today, Microsoft announced that both of these are Generally Available (GA). This means it's now fully supported by Microsoft. You can read all about this, and more, in the Ignite … Continue reading Ignite announced SQL Server 2025 and Fabric SQL GA

Microsoft Fabric Community Conference: announcements and experiences

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference (FabCon) in Vienna. Four days of learning, networking, meeting new people, speaking, announcements, Power Hour, volunteering and charity. I'll cover all these aspects in this post. The updates part won't cover all of them, as there are many. I'll pick my favourites … Continue reading Microsoft Fabric Community Conference: announcements and experiences