Tag: ads

Azure Data Studio Connections and SSMS Registered Servers

Azure Data Studio and SQL Server Management Studio share a great deal of functionality, especially if you add the functionality of the ADS extensions.  While they both are great tools, very little information is passed from one tool to the other. For example, when you make a connection to a SQL Server in either tool, it will query the sysdatabases table to get a list of databases.   You will see the same list of databases in both tools.  This is something that looks like the two tools share, but in reality do not.

Now, let’s take a look at something that does get passed from Azure Data Studio to SSMS. To see this you will first need to open the Registered Servers window.  This can be found under the View menu item. It is here that you will find something that is passed from Azure Data Studio to SQL Server Management Studio.

 

Registered servers in SQL Server Management Studio can be very useful, especially if you need to run the same block of code on multiple servers.  This window does not exist in Azure Data Studio.  When viewing the Registered Servers window in SQL Server Management Studio, you will see at least two groups, Local Server Groups and Azure Data Studio.

Notice in the above image, you see several folders under both Local Server Groups and Azure Data Studio.  The items under Local Server Groups were created using SSMS.  If you right clock on Local Server Groups, you will see a context menu pop up and you can then add another group or register a server.

However, if you right click on Azure Data Studio a context menu will NOT appear.  If you want to add a group here, you will need to do so using Azure Data Studio instead.

To do this in Azure Data Studio, you will need to create a new Server Group.  When in the Connections panel, use the button highlighted below to create a new Server Group.

You do not need to restart Azure Data Studio to see the new group in the Connections pane.  However, you will need to restart SQL Server Management Studio to see the new group in the Registered Servers window.

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How Can you Provide Feedback for Azure Data Studio

Azure Data Studio has a number of great features.  When including the extensions, it has even more functionality.  Azure Data Studio allows for the creation of extensions to add or build on to the native functionality of ADS.  The question my come up in your mind, “How do I provide Feedback?”.

Feedback is very important to the Azure Data Studio team.  While I personally do not know any member of the team, if have attended sessions presented by them and they are very open to community members providing feedback.  All in an effort to continuously improvethe tool!  Just another reason why the SQL Server community is a great one to be a part of.

If we look at ADS, there is the application itself and the extensions.  The extensions come from a number of different places.  Companies like Microsoft and RedGate are just a few.  A large number of the extensions are provided by the community. Providing feedback for the extensions can be done a number of different ways.  Most will let you report issues on their GitHub site.  Microsoft has built into ADS a place to provide feedback.  This can be found in the lower right corner of Azure Data Studio.  The smile face!!

If you have the latest version of Azure Data Studio, as of March 10, 2020, the smiley face is now a different icon. See below.

If you do not see the Smiley face, right click on the Status bar and you will see this menu.  Click the “Tweet Feedback” item.

 

Simply click it Smiley Face and you will see the form below.

As you can see there are a few pretty obvious items.  Starting with the faces, smiley and frown.  These can not only be used to help express your feelings about something, it can also dictate the number of charaters you can use.  A smiley face allows for 237 characters, while a frown face allows for 259 characters.  This will allow you to Tweet your thoughts.

However, if you don’t want to use Twitter, you have a few other options. The image below shows the two options, “Submit a bug” or “Request a missing feature”.

These will take you to different places.  Starting with “Request a missing feature”.  You will be taken to the GitHub location for Azure Data Studio.  You can then complete the following form.

If this is your first time submitting an item, you will see a few links to the right of the above form.  This is something you should read.  This gives you the guidelines for submitting an issue as well the Code of Conduct.

It is important to read both of these so you know what the rules and expectations are.

When you click “Submit a Bug” a new form will open up.  It will look like the image below.

With the first drop down box you will see three options.

      • Bug Report
      • Feature Request
      • Performance Issue

While the next drop down box, Select Source has a few options as well.  These options include the following:

      • Azure Data Studio
      • An Extension
      • I dont know

Sometimes you simply may not know what the source is.  This is where the “I don’t know” option comes into play.  When you chose ‘An Extension” an additional drop down box will appear.  This new box will list out all the extensions you have installed.

Then give the issue a title and any steps needed to reproduce the issue.  It is important to provide as much details as possible so the development team will have enough information to address the issue at hand.

Now that you have entered all the important information you are ready to click: Preview in GitHub.  When you do this, ADS gives you a pretty good description of what the issue is and how we need to proceed.

 

When you click OK, you will be asked to login to GitHub.  It is here you will need to paste what is on your clipboard or enter new comments.

Now you are ready to submit.  Hopefully your suggestion will now be used to improve the Azure Data Studio end user experience.

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ADS: TSQL Checker

Azure Data Studio has quite a few extensions that are very useful.  Over the past six to eight months I have completed a number of posts on quite a few of these extensions.  So far one of my favorite extension is the PoorSQL Formatter.  It provides great assistance in the formatting of Transaction SQL code. What it doesn’t do, is help identify code that is not in line with best practices.  This is where the TSQL Checker comes into play.

This extension was developed by Daniel Janick. Daniel is a Microsoft MVP from the Austin, TX area.  He can be found at @SQLSME on Twitter.

You might be wondering exactly what does this extension check.  According to the extension documentation this is what it checks:

“TSQL checks for hints, select * from options”

Of course “SELECT *” is a very well known problem in query design.  Hints and options can also create significant performance issues as well.   What exactly is a hint?  According to Microsoft’s documentation a hint is something that will over ride the execution plan that the query optimizer might select for a query. Here is a link to Microsoft’s documentation on hints.  Hints will act on the four DML statements, SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE.  Hints should only be used as a last resort and only by experienced developers or DBAs.

While this extension is still in preview mode, it can still be very useful.  To install it you will click the “Install” button, green button below.  This will appear when you are looking at the documentation of the extension.  When you do, you will be asked to open the GitHub sight for this extension.

When you click open, you will be taken to the GitHub site for this extension.  You will want to download the tsqlchecker-0.0.1.vsix file.  It is highlighted below.  When saving it, save it in a location where it will not be overwritten.

To install this extension, simply go to the File menu and then go to “Install extension from Vsix file”.  While some extensions require a restart of Azure Data Studio, this extension does not.

The purpose of this extension is to help you identify code that is not inline with best practices.  In order to do so, the extension needs to mark the offending code in some manner.  The extension will do this one of three ways.

    1.  Highlighting the code with a box:
    2.  Highlighting the code in yellow:
    3. Highlighting the code in red:

Let’s take a look at some of the code that the TSQL Checker will flag.

Note: This code was take from the Microsoft documentation.  This really isn’t a post on what these things do, just how TSQL Checker flags them.  Refer to the Microsoft documentation for more information on these.

SELECT *

MAXDOP

FORCESEEK

FORCESCAN

LOOP JOIN

MERGE JOIN

OPTIMIZE FOR

HASH JOIN

For all of these warnings, the developer has also added a popup that will provide additional information.  When you float the cursor over the warning you will see somethings similar as you is in the image below.

I really like this extension.  It reminds us of code that is less than ideal and should be reviewed.  Remember, few if any of these hints are recommended for production use.  If you run into a situation that you think these are part of the solution, just do your homework first.  Research and see if there is a better way to address the problem.

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ADS: DB Snapshot Creator

Like many Azure Data Studio extensions, DB Snapshot Creator is designed to bring functionality into ADS that is not present by default.  This extension was developed by Sean Price. As the name suggests, this extension can be used to easily create database snapshots.  Before going too deep into this extension, let’s take a quick moment to go over what a snapshot is.

First of all don’t think of it as a backup.  Think of it as a read-only copy of the database.  As pages are modified for the first time in the source database, SQL Server will move the original unmodified pages to the snapshot.  This process will allow users to see that snapshot that is a mirror of the database when the snapshot was created. You might be asking, why should I use a snapshot?  There are a number of reasons, but the biggest in my mind is the ability to use the snapshot for reporting purposes.

What if an 8-K page is modified twice?  SQL Server will only copy the page to the snapshot the first time it is modified.  After that, the page will not be copied again.

In Microsoft’s documentation, found here, right at the beginning of the document MS makes one very important point.

“Database snapshots are unrelated to snapshot backups, snapshot isolation of transactions, or snapshot replication.”

To find if there are any snapshots you can use the code below.  This code will not only tell you if snapshots exist, it will also return what database it is associated with and when it was created.

SELECT    a.name AS ‘Snapshot Name’
                , a.create_date AS ‘Snapshot Create Date’
                , b.name AS ‘Source Database’
                , b.create_date AS ‘Database Create Date’
FROM sys.databases a
     INNER JOIN sys.databases b
ON a.source_database_id = b.database_id

This is what the results will look like.

Microsoft has some good documentation on Snapshots.  Go here to read it.

How to Create the Snapshot in SSMS

This is pretty easy to do.  Many times if you want to do something with a database you can right click on the database and easily perform the desired task. This could be completing a backup, shrink the database and restore the database.  One task that is not present is Create Snapshot.  Given this, you will need to use TSQL to create the snapshot.  Note the file extension, it is not MDF or NDF.

CREATE DATABASE [AdventureWorks2014_Snapshot_02_27_2020_01] ON
(NAME = [AdventureWorks2014_Data],
FILENAME = ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL14.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\AdventureWorks2014_Snapshot_02_27_2020_01.ss’)
AS SNAPSHOT OF [AdventureWorks2014];
Below is a screenshot of the files in the file system.  As you can see, the file for the snapshot has a different extension and there is not a corresponding .ldf file.

How to Create the Snapshot in Azure Data Studio

The option to use TSQL is always present, even in Azure Data Studio.  And just as in SSMS, when you right click on the database, Create Snapshot is not an option.  This is where the DB Snapshot Creator extension can help.  Something to keep in mind as we go over this extension, it is still in preview mode.  Neither the documentation in Azure Data Studio nor the GitHub site have a great deal of documentation on this.  However, there is an FAQ that answers three questions.  These questions are below and were taken directly from the extension documentation.

To install the extension you will first need to download the .vsix file.  When viewing the extension the in the Extension Marketplace, you can click the green Install button. This will take you to the Github where you can download the file.

Make sure the place this file in a location where it will not be deleted.  Once downloaded, you can go to the File menu and to “Install Extension from VSIX package”.

Then simply find the file and it will install.  Now when you right click on a database you will see a new menu item to create the snapshot.

By default, when you click the above menu item Azure Data Studio will write the code to create the extension, but not actually create it.  The CREATE DATABASE statement earlier in this post was created by this extension.  This code is also below.

CREATE DATABASE [AdventureWorks2014_Snapshot_02_27_2020_01] ON
(NAME = [AdventureWorks2014_Data],
FILENAME = ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL14.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\AdventureWorks2014_Snapshot_02_27_2020_01.ss’)
AS SNAPSHOT OF [AdventureWorks2014];

However, if you would like to skip the step of having the code written, you can go to preferences and uncheck the box below.

While in SSMS, the snapshots are located in a folder as seen below.

In Azure Data Studio, the snapshots are located at the same level as the rest of the databases.

 

This extension makes the creation of a database snapshot very easy!  And like all other extensions, it has a great price. FREE!!

Thanks for visiting my blog!!

 

ADS: Demo Mode Extension

Through out the year I present a lot of sessions on SQL Server and related technologies. These take place at user groups(9 in 2019), SQL Saturdays(14 in 2019), training sessions at work and teaching the SQL Server certification courses from Microsoft.  With these many different presentations there are differences in the screen sizes and room sizes.

When presenting, setting the demos up in a way that will allow all attendees to easily see the code can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. To accomplish this presenters have several tools available to them.

Tools commonly used

      • ZoomIt – This is a free third party tool that I have been using for a few years
      • Windows 10 Zoom feature
      • Increase the font of the code window in SQL Server Management Studio or Azure Data Studio
      • Use the Demo Mode extension in Azure Data Studio
      • A number of other tools

While I would love to list the pros and cons of each, that really isn’t the focus of this blog post.  Recently an extension for Azure Data Studio was released by Drew Skwiers-Koballa that I think is a great addition to the list of available tools.

The first thing to do is to install the extension.  To do this, you will need to download the .vsix file.  In order to find the extension, you can type the word “Demo” in the extension search box.  Taking a small step back, if you are not sure how to get to the extensions, you can open the extensions by using the menu item under the View menu.

To download the file you will need to click the install button in Azure Data Studio when looking at the documentation of the extension.

When you download the file, place it in a location that will be secure and the file will not be overwritten.  Once saved, to install it, go to the “Install Extension .VSIX package” menu item under the file menu.  You will need to restart Azure Data Studio when the install is complete.  Please remember, this is extension is still marked as being a Preview.  Given that, things could change with the next release.

Now that it is installed, let’s go over what it does.  This part is pretty simple, when enabled, the font in the query window will be come larger and when disabled the font will become the original size.

The two images below show the font with Demo Mode enabled and disabled.  The first image is disabled, while the second has Demo Mode enabled. Notice that the only thing that changed is the font size of the query.

When Demo Mode is enabled the only thing on the screen that will change is the font size of the query.  Everything else will remain the same size.

To enable\disable the extension you will need to do one of two things.  First, you can use the Command Pallett.  Type “Demo Mode” into the search box.  Two options will be returned, Enable and Disable Demo Mode.  This can be seen in the image below.

The second option is to click the Enable\Disable Demo Mode button that is located in the lower left corner of Azure Data Studio.  I personally like this option because it is very easy to use.  By default neither of these options has a keyboard short cut assigned to it.  However, under File–>Preferences–>Keyboard Shortcuts, you can add the short cut key or key combination that will work for you.

You may be asking yourself where does the extension get the font sizes to use.  When the Demo Mode extension is installed, three settings are added.  Two of these settings identify the font size to use when the extension is enabled or disabled.  See the image below.

The Demomode: Demo Font Size setting is what font size ADS will use when the Demo Mode extension is enabled.  As expected, you would want this to be bigger than the Original Font Size, which is just below it.  This represents the font size with the extension is disabled.

The third option will allow Azure Data Studio to send confidential about the usage of the extension.  As you can see with the presence of a checkbox, this is something you can option out of if you like.  The documentation can be found here. This is what the documentation actually states:

“enables anonymous usage data to be sent to an online service”

The documentation also goes on to state the following:

“The extension telemetry sends usage data anonymously to an Application Insights instance. Machine information, such as operating system or general location, may be shared with the general public in aggregate. Your information will not be sold to any third parties. For more on the collection of telemetry in this extension, read more here or ask questions here”

Please read through these very carefully to determine of this is something you would like to opt out of.

Under the hood, when this extension is enabled, it changes the Editor: Font Size to be the same as the Demo: Font Size setting for the extension.  If you close Azure Data Studio while the extension is enabled, the font setting will persist.

What happens if there are more than one query window open?  Well, the extension will apply the font setting to all query windows that are open.  I also noticed that if the extension is enabled and you close settings, the current font size will also persist.

Another question that comes to mind is will this setting only apply to queries?  The answer is no. This extension will also have an impact on the font in Notebooks.  If you look at the image below you will see what the text will look like with the extension enabled and disabled.  Notice the difference in size of the box the text will be entered into.  Of course this assumes that the two font settings for the extension are different sizes.  In a notebook, this font change only applies to when text is being entered, it will not have an impact on the look of the text that will be displayed.  I checked the Terminal that will be used for PowerShell and the use of the extension does not have any effect on the size of the font.

If you open Settings and you only get json, earlier I completed a blog post on how to open the Settings in json rather than the UI.  Here is the link to that blog post.  In the settings.json file, the Demo Mode extension will look like below.

I like this new extension and plan on utilizing it for all my sessions that use Azure Data Studio.  For additional information you can go to the documentation. I would like to point out that while this extension has a target audience of people who do presentations, it also has another audience.  Sometimes, I just need the font to be slightly bigger for a temporary reason, like I am tired and the eyes just can’t focus as well as normal.  I can use this extension to make that much easier.

For more information about  Drew, the developer of this extension, you can go to his blog, https://www.drewsk.tech/.  Also he has a nice presentation on developing extensions.  If you get a chance to hear this at your local user group or SQL Saturday, make sure you go, it is a very nice session!

Thanks for visiting my blog!!!

 

Azure Data Studio – Schema Compare Extension

From time to time we are asked to help identify the differences between two databases.  For example, the differences between a database in QA and the same database in production.  Over the years I have become accustomed to using a very nice tool by Red-Gate, SQL Compare.  With the release of Azure Data Studio and the SQL Server Schema Compare extension, I now have another option.  As with many of the extensions, this one is also in preview.

In order to install the extension, after opening the extensions in Azure Data Studio, you will want search for Schema Compare, similar to the image below.  Notice the white star in the upper left corner, this means that this extension is recommended by Azure Data Studio.

Installation is very easy, once you have found the Schema Compare extension, click the Install button.  This is a pretty quick install and does not require a restart of Azure Data Studio.

Once installed you can launch the Schema Compare extension in one of two ways.  The first way is to right click on one of the databases you wish to compare and go to Schema Compare in the context menu.

The second method is to use the Command Palette.  You can reach this from the View menu.

The difference between the two is that if you use the Command Palette, both the source and target locations will be empty.  If you right click on a database to compare, that database will be the source and the target will be empty.

Using the Command Palette – notice both the source and destination are blank.

Right clicking on a database – the source is already populated with the database you right clicked on.

Setting up the Source and Destination

When setting up the source and destination, you will have a choice to make.  Will you compare a database or will you use a DACPAC to complete the compare?  You don’t have to just compare two databases, you can compare a database and a DACPAC if you have a need to do so. When you click the ellipsis to the right of either the source or destination, you will be taken to the location that will let you set up the comparison.

What I like is that I don’t have to do a database to database compare or a DACPAC to DACPAC compare.  Schema Compare allows for a database to DACPAC compare as well.  Once set up your screen will something like what you see below.

Since I am comparing two DACPACs, there is a path, however if either the source or target is a database, it will look similar to below.  The format is ServerName.databasename.  In this case since I am using a named instance it is slightly different, ServerName\InstanceName.DatabaseName.

Menu Options

Once you have set up the source and target, the menu bar will appear across the top.

Let’s take a moment to go over each of these.

Compare and Stop – these are pretty simple and are used to start the compare or stop it.

Generate Script – Once the compare is done, we can use this to generate the script we can use to make the changes.  Notice in the image above this is not active. It will become active after you have completed the compare AND you are comparing two databases.  You will not be able to use this option when comparing two DACPACs.

Apply – Will apply the discovered changes to the target

Options – There are a number of options that include rules to follow, like “Block on Possible Data Loss” and what to include in the compare.  “Ignore Permissions” is an example.

Switch Direction – This will take the source and make it the target…and of course take the target and make it the source.  When you click this, the arrow between the two will stay pointing to the right, the items to compare will move.

Open .scmp\Save .scmp – Schema Compare allows you to save the configuration to run the compare again at a later date if you like.  If you save it after the compare is completed, this will NOT save the results of that compare.  These files are XML based and will look similar to below.  The format is pretty simple, the XML will contain the version, source, target and the current state of all the options.

 

Changing Target or Source

Once the target and source are set up, you can easily change one or both of them.  Simply click the ellipsis again, make the changes you want and click “OK”.

When you do make a change and click “OK” the following will appear in the lower right corner of Azure Data Studio.   It is just asking if you want to complete the compare now.  If you click no, you will still be able to complete the compare by clicking “Compare” when you are ready.

Generate Script

This does exactly as you would expect it to. It generates the script.  Once the compare is complete, as in the image below, the Generate Script option becomes active.  Just a reminder, if both the source and the target are DACPACs, generating the script is not an option.

Prior to generating the script, you will want to review what was found, specifically the Include and Action columns to make sure those are indeed the changes you would like to make.  If there is a difference you do not want to be part of the script make sure to clear the check box in the include column.  Once Azure Data Studio is completed with the generation of the script a new table will open up.  This tab will not be connected to a data source.  If you want to run it, you will need to connect to the desired data source.

Notice in the bottom left corner of the above image you see “Problems” with the number 7 to the right of it.  Initially you might think that Azure Data Studio created bad code, that is not the case.  When you click on “Problems” you will see a list of the problems as well as the line number and the location of the first character of the problem.  If you click on one of the problems, you will be taken to that location.

You still might be thinking ADS created bad code.  Now I will show that the code is just fine.  If you look at the code and scroll down just a bit you will see this.

“Detect SQLCMD mode and disable script execution if SQLCMD mode is 
not supported.“

 

The code that is generated requires that SQLCMD be active. Once SQLCMD is active, the problems disappear.

Now you are able to run the script when you are ready.  Of course, the script can be saved as a .sql file if you want to run it later.

I think this is a very useful warning that can be found near the top of the generated script.

“This code was generated by a tool.
Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
the code is regenerated.”
Just something to think about before making any changes.

Options

The final item I would like to cover is the Options button.  Of course this is exactly what you might think it is, a location to set options.

When you do click this, a panel will open up on the right side of Azure Data Studio.  At the top of this panel you will see two options.

The first options is “General Options”.  This is where you can identify what you actually want to capture in the compare. While the second option will identify the object types you want to be looked at, for example tables, views or stored procedures.

Under the General Options there is one in particular I would like to point out, Verify Deployment. Having this checked, the deployment will not be allowed to proceed if the validation detects a problem.  The image below is the actual description you will see.

As time goes on we will use this extension more and more, we will then have a better understanding of some of the additional options we might want to include.  You should really check this extension out!

Thanks for visiting my blog!!

ADS – Did I Save My Changes?

After working on a query for a long time, we want to make sure that we save the changes we have made.  I have lost hours of work over the years because I didn’t save the changes.  Azure Data Studio has a few features that can help prevent this from happening.

The first feature is that ADS can “save” your changes if ADS is restarted.  This can be turned off in Preferences.  I completed a blog post on this feature.  Here is the link.  This feature allows Azure Data Studio to remember what changes you made and will open the file when you restart ADS.

In SQL Server Management Studio an asterisk is placed on the tab the code is on.  Once you save the file, the asterisk will disappear.

Azure Data Studio is similar but instead of an asterisk, ADS uses a dot.

Once the file has been saved, the dot changes to an X.

What is interesting is that if the file has not been saved when ADS is closed, the unsaved state will be retained.  The next time you open ADS, the file will be opened, the changes will still be there and the file will be marked as not saved.

This is a short and simple blog post.  Thanks for visiting my blog!!!

ADS – Outdated Extensions

As you add more and more extensions to Azure Data Studio,  keeping them up to date could present a challenge.  Of course we will want to install all the extensions that we think might be helpful to us.  Luckily Azure Data Studio has a nice way to let us know if there is an extension that is out of date.

If you look at the extensions in the left vertical bar you will see a number over the extensions, the blue circle. That number represents the number of extensions that have updates available. In the image above, you can see that there is one extension that is out of date.

Now we need to find that particular extension.  You can do this by scrolling through you active extensions and look for the green box as in the above image.  This will take you to the proper location for the update.  In the case above, I needed to update the Redgate SQL Search extension.

This is an update to the VISX file.  Once you download it, you will then need to click on the “Install extension VISX package” item under the File menu.  Prior to installing the new version, I would suggest that you review exactly what the new version brings.

As with the initial install of the extension, it is possible that you may need to restart Azure Data Studio to complete the installation.  In this case, there was a nice reminder to do so.

Thanks for visiting my blog!!!

ADS – Query History Extension

I just downloaded the latest release of Azure Data Studio.  A new extension came with it that I really like, Query History.  According to the documentation, the Query History extension does this: “Adds a Query History panel for viewing and running past executed queries”.

This installation of this extension is pretty simple and does not require a restart of Azure Data Studio.  However, if you disable or uninstall the extension, you will need to restart ADS.

If you look at the View menu, you will notice that there is not a menu item for “Query History”.

This will change once the extension is installed.  You will find the Query History item just under Output.

Once you install the extension, you will now begin to see query history.  If you run a query, you will see the history as seen below.  If you to not see this at the bottom of the screen, go to the menu item mentioned above.

When you run a query, it takes a very short period of time for it to appear in the history.  In the above image,  I ran three queries, two of which were the same query.  This window is not part of the query window.  Since it is a separate window, it will collect queries from all tabs that are open.  Each row in the history will return three things, the query, the server and database uses as well as the times stamp of when the query was ran.  The server can be seen in the green box below.  Sometimes a forth item is included in the list of items returned, the icon that is at the far left of each row.

Now that we have history, let’s take a moment to see what we can do.  First of all, if you float your cursor over one of the queries, you will see a pop up.  This pop up will display the query.

You will see a lot more options if you right click on one of the queries.

All the options are pretty straight forward and really don’t need a great deal of explanation.  The bottom option, Pause Query History Capture I can see being useful if you are running query that you don’t want to be part of the history or just running too many queries at the moment.

Since these options are pretty straight forward, let’s take a look at a few questions.

What happens to the history when Azure Data Studio is closed?

The history is no longer available

What if I execute a batch, will each query in the batch be a separate line?

All the queries for the batch will be on the same line. The query in the green box is actually two select statements.

To the left of the query, I see a green check mark.  What are other icons I might see? 

There is currently only one other icon you might see. The red X when there is an error.

When there is a error, you will see a small number next to the “Problem” tab.  When you clock to this tab, you can now see details on what the error was.

What’s the difference between “Run Query” and “Open Query”?

Open query will do just that. Open the query so you can review the TSQL.  Run query will simply run the query and you will see any results if there are any.

Over all I really like this extension and can really see the practical use of it.  Just remember, this extension does not stored the queries beyond the Azure Data Studio session.

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Azure Data Studio – Process Explorer

Looking at processes in Windows Task Manager is something that most DBAs have done many times.  The need to do this hasn’t changed, however what has changed is how we can get information on the processes.

Prior to Azure Data Studio we would go to Task Manager in Windows.  Task Manager will look something like this.  You can see the name of the process, user name, PID number as well as CPU and memory utilization.

Azure Data Studio offers the ability to view these same processes, however the processes returned focus on Azure Data Studio related processes.

To open Process Explorer, go to the Help menu item and it is in that menu.  Just as in the image below.

Once open you will see familiar columns.  These columns include, CPU%, Memory(MB), pid and Name.  These are all Azure Data Studio related processes.

When you right click on one of the processes, you will see a somewhat familiar pop up menu.  The menu item will allow us to terminate the process, just as we have done many times in Task Manager.

This pop up menu is significantly smaller.  The task manager pop up has a ton more options including change priority and affinity. Below is what you will see in the pop up menu in Task Manager.

Looking at the image below, the left side is Azure Data Studio and the right is Windows Task Manager.  The important thing to note here is that in order to map the process to a process in Task Manager, the match will happen on the Pid column, as seen below.

Notice that the pids all point to the azuredatestudio.exe processes.  Azure Data Studio provides just a bit more information than Task Manager.  Please be careful changing the state of a service.  In other words, be careful stopping a process unless it is a last restore approach to fixing an issue.

In Task Manager the sort order for a column can easily be change.  You will need to put in just a bit of effort into determining what the proper sort order is.  When looking at the data in Process Explorer, the data cannot be sorted in any way.  It looks like it is sorted by CPU in descending order.

This is a pretty short blog, but I think it is a good idea to know thqt Process Explorer exists.  I really like that I can stay in the same tool and review related processes.

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