April 1, 2026: Big news for everyone who has to manage Microsoft SQL Server, whether they're DBAs, sysadmins, or developers.
Seven years ago, Microsoft announced automatic, downtime-free hot patching of the SQL Server engine in Azure SQL DB. The tail end of that post had a teaser in it:
Ever just need a quick visualization of some numbers to get a rough idea of the trend, like this:
Option 1: ask Copilot to write the query for you.
Well, maybe mountain is a bit of a strong word, but it's one of the highest elevation home sites in Las Vegas, with beautiful views over the valley, the Strip, the airport, and the surrounding mountains. Let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento while taking in the view - and you can move the camera around, since this is an Insta360 video.
PasteThePlan has a new AI Suggestions tab, and it's been really fun to watch the query plans come in and the advice go out. Here are some examples: Date "tables" - when I looked at the query, I glossed over the real problem. I thought arc_Calendar was a real date table, but AI figured out…
There are a lot of shopping days left before Christmas, and even more before the next version of SQL Server ships, so might as well get my wish list over to Santa now so the elves can start working on ignoring them.
My work focuses on performance tuning, so that's what my wish list focuses on, too. They really are wishes, like I-want-a-pony, because I know I'm discussing some stuff that's easy to describe, but really challenging to implement.
Copilot in SSMS has two parts. Usually people focus on the pop-out Copilot chat window, and that's useful for sure, but honestly I think you're going to get way more mileage out of the code completions feature, right away, because it blends in with your existing workflows. Let's say that I'm working with the Stack…
I'm up in North Bay, Ontario, Canada for the 2026 Can-Am Curling Cup run by Aaron Bertrand - and my team actually won!
Let's bask in the warmth (cough) of our glory as we go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
For the last few years, I've slowed the First Responder Kit release down to once per quarter. It felt pretty feature-complete, and I didn't want to make y'all upgrade any more than you have to. You're busy, and I don't want to take up your time unless there's something really big to gain from doing an upgrade.
At PasteThePlan.com, you can paste execution plans into your browser, then send a link to someone else to get query advice. It's useful for online forums, Stack Exchange, and the like.
After you paste the plan, you've got a new AI Suggestions tab. It sends your query plan (and my custom prompt) up to ChatGPT 5.3, and in 30 seconds or less, you get a second opinion on ways to make it go faster:
My tripod is probably never gonna recover from the salt water, but the water was so nice that I couldn't resist. This is a 360 video, so you can grab the screen and move it around to see Magens Bay in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, as I go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
Let's start with a 7-minute demo video - I didn't edit this down because I want you to be able to see what happens in real time. In this video, I point the desktop version of Claude Code at a Github issue for the First Responder Kit and tell it to do the needful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0EscPWYKs
The official Azure SQL Dev's Corner blog recently wrote about how to enable soft deletes in Azure SQL using row-level security, and it's a nice, clean, short tutorial. I like posts like that because the feature is pretty cool and accomplishes a real business goal. It's always tough deciding where to draw the line on how much to include in a blog post, so I forgive them for not including one vital caveat with this feature.
Sometimes I really hate my job. Forever now, FOREVER, it's been a standard thing where I can say, "When you're measuring storage performance during index and query tuning, you should always use logical reads, not physical reads, because logical reads are repeatable, and physical reads aren't. Physical reads can change based on what's in cache,…
LinkedIn is full of absolute trash these days. Just flat out bullshit garbage. (Oh yeah, that - this post should probably come with a language disclaimer, because this stuff makes me mad.)
People wanna look impressive without actually putting in the work to gain real knowledge. They're asking ChatGPT to write viral "expertise" knowledge posts for them, and they're publishing this slop without so much as testing it.
Yes, I'm back on a cruise ship with another 360 degree video. Lest you think I'm being wildly irresponsible (or responsible perhaps?) with your consulting and training money, be aware that this particular cruise was free thanks to the fine folks in the casino department at Norwegian Cruise Lines. In between beaches and blackjack, let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
Is your company hiring for a database position as of March 2026? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let's make a love connection.
If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules:
tl;dr - It's easier because I've always chosen to run SQL Server VMs, so it was easier for me to switch than you might expect - but if you're a Microsoft IT pro, I don't recommend switching.
Now for the long version.
After hearing the same dire news from several of my consulting friends, I put a poll up on LinkedIn:
About half of the consultants out there are having a tougher time bringing in new clients than they have in the past.
Let's hang out in my home office in Vegas and go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. The audio's a little echo-y in this one because I just moved my office down to a small first floor guest bedroom with hardwood floors instead of carpet, and I haven't treated the room for noise yet.
When I first started teaching database sessions at conferences, I noticed a pattern.
When I finished the session, closed PowerPoint, and thanked everyone for attending, a big queue of attendees would instantly start forming at the podium. People would line up to ask private questions, one at a time.
