Tag: how to

Quickest Way to Find Deprecated Features Still Being Used in a SQL Server Instance (T-SQL Example)

Posted on by Ian

In SQL Server, the sys.dm_os_performance_counters system dynamic management view returns the performance counters maintained by the server.

One of the many things you can do with sys.dm_os_performance_counters is return a list of deprecated features in the current instance of SQL Server. You can also use this list to see how many times a deprecated feature has been used since SQL Server was started.

This is quite possibly the quickest way to find out if you’re using a deprecated feature in SQL Server.

The view returns a row per performance counter maintained by the server. The SQLServer:Deprecated Features object provides a counter to monitor the features designated as deprecated. It has a cntr_value column, which provides a usage count that lists the number of times the deprecated feature was encountered since SQL Server last started.

Therefore, by running a query against this view, we can return all deprecated features along with a count of how many times each one was encountered since SQL Server last started.

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How to List the Deprecated Features in a SQL Server Instance using T-SQL

Posted on by Ian

In SQL Server, you can use the sys.dm_os_performance_counters system dynamic management view to return a list of the features designated as deprecated in the current instance of SQL Server.

To return just the deprecated features, filter the view to just the SQLServer:Deprecated Features object.

The view also includes a counter that lists the number of times each deprecated feature was encountered since SQL Server last started. This can be helpful for identifying whether or not your application is still using any deprecated features.

Running this on SQL Server requires VIEW SERVER STATE permission.

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How to Find the Optimal Unique Identifier in a Table in SQL Server: sp_special_columns

Posted on by Ian

In SQL Server, you can use the sp_special_columns system stored procedure to identify a unique identifier for the table. Specifically, it returns the optimal set of columns that uniquely identify a row in the table. It also returns columns automatically updated when any value in the row is updated by a transaction.

sp_special_columns is equivalent to SQLSpecialColumns in ODBC.

If there are no columns that can uniquely identify the table, the result set is empty.

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How to Fix “Server is not configured for DATA ACCESS” in SQL Server

Posted on by Ian

The “Server is not configured for DATA ACCESS” error in SQL Server is a common error when trying to run a distributed query against a server that has its data access setting disabled.

The error will have the name of the server that you’re trying to access. For example, if your server name is SQL01, the error will read something like this:

Msg 7411, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Server 'SQL01' is not configured for DATA ACCESS.

“Data access” is a setting that enables and disables a linked server for distributed query access.

A common cause of this error is when you try to run OPENQUERY() against the local server. If you really want to run OPENQUERY() against the server, you’ll need to ensure data access is enabled for that server – even if it’s your local server.

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2 Ways to Check if Data Access is Enabled in SQL Server (T-SQL Examples)

Posted on by Ian

In SQL Server, there’s a “data access” setting that enables and disables a linked server for distributed query access. If you ever get the “Server is not configured for DATA ACCESS” error, it’s probably because you’re trying to run a distributed query against a linked server that isn’t configured for data access. This can also happen when you try to run OPENQUERY() against your local server.

You can use sp_serveroption to enable or disable data access on a given server. However, you might want to check the existing settings before you start changing them. The following examples show how to do that.

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How to Enable/Disable Data Access in SQL Server (T-SQL Example)

Posted on by Ian

SQL Server has a “data access” configuration option that enables and disables a linked server for distributed query access.

If you ever get a “Server is not configured for DATA ACCESS” error, you’ll probably need to enable data access for the linked server you’re trying to run the distributed query against. Conversely, there may also be times where you need to disable data access.

To enable or disable data access, use the sp_serveroption system stored procedure. Execute it against the server that you intend to run distributed queries from. The following example demonstrates how to do this.

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How to Use the ‘sp_server_info’ Stored Procedure in SQL Server

Posted on by Ian

In SQL Server the sp_server_info system stored procedure returns a list of attribute names and matching values for SQL Server, the database gateway, or the underlying data source. It returns a subset of the information provided by SQLGetInfo in ODBC.

Basically, it allows you to see information about SQL Server.

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How to Fix Error Msg 7325 in SQL Server: “Objects exposing columns with CLR types are not allowed in distributed queries”

Posted on by Ian

If you’ve encountered error message 7325 in SQL Server “Objects exposing columns with CLR types are not allowed in distributed queries” it’s probably because you’re trying to run a distributed query against a table that contains one or more columns with CLR types.

For example, you could be querying a table that uses a geography or geometry data type in one or more of its columns. These data types are implemented as .NET common language runtime (CLR) data types in SQL Server. And as the error message says, “Objects exposing columns with CLR types are not allowed in distributed queries”.

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for this issue. And the answer is provided with the full error message.

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How to Run SQL Server 2017 & 2019 Simultaneously on a Mac

Posted on by Ian

As I write this, there are two releases of SQL Server that can be run on a Mac: SQL Server 2017 and SQL Server 2019 Preview. This article explains how to run both of these on a Mac so that they run simultaneously. No need to uninstall one before you install the other.

The key is to use a different TCP port number for each instance (the TCP port that the containers are mapped to on the host machine). If you don’t do this, you’ll get an error. SQL Server uses port 1433 by default, which is fine to use for one of your instances, but not both. Therefore you’ll need to change this for at least one of your installations.

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