Things to know about SQL Server 2016 Database Recovery
Summary: Check out the impressive feature set that SQL Server 2016 offers. Also, explore the best SQL recovery software to fix database corruption issues (if any) in SQL Server 2016.
If you’re an SQL server administrator, you would have liked SQL Server 2016 instantly. The database’s preview release by Microsoft is quite promising and stands apart from the other SQL server releases. The 2016 version won’t revolve around Azure features as much as the previous versions and the reason behind that approach is Microsoft’s plan to blend in a little bit of both worlds – the on-premise flavor of SQL server as well as the Azure SQL database. With the code base for both being common, product changes are expected to be adopted in a more Agile way.
The latest version of the database is bound to include a little for everyone. With an impressive feature set, SQL server 2016 is surely going to be worth the wait. Let’s check out some brilliant features of the forthcoming database version.
Exciting new features of SQL server 2016
- Polybase
Storing mammoth volumes of data is an area that has been dominated (well, almost) by Hadoop in the recent past. And with perks like scalability and cost-effectiveness, it seems right actually. Keeping the kind of market it captured, Microsoft had introduced Polybase in SQL Server 2014 which was meant to be a connector between Hadoop and Analytics Platform System (Microsoft’s data warehouse appliance). In SQL Server 2016 this feature is being incorporated full-fledged into the on-premise product with the aim that it will assist you in processing large amounts of bulky text files. Regardless of whether such files are stored in Azure Blob Storage or Hadoop, you’ll be able to query them as if they were database tables.
- Row-level security
Row-level security applies another layer of constraints on rows within tables. It basically restricts what data within a table can be viewed by which users through a function. This feature though lacked in earlier SQL Server versions will be introduced in the 2016 version. It will help you to limit views of the data based on customer ID; this feature will prove to be a boon for multi-tenant environments.
- Query Store
Changes to the query optimizer that occur from version to version often adversely impact the server’s performance. Identifying and resolving this issue has traditionally been quite hard to achieve, that too with extensive testing. In SQL Server 2016, the Query Store feature seeks to help out in the area by quickly identifying which queries have recently slowed down through the maintenance of a history of query execution plans with their performance data. Configured at the individual base level, this feature allows users to force the use of an older, better plan if needed.
- Stretch Database
Procuring additional external storage can often be pricy. But with the Stretch Database feature, Microsoft is all set to make sure that your SQL server database is one area that won’t need additional high-cost storage. Under this feature some part of your tables will be securely moved into an Azure SQL Database on the cloud. The query optimizer being aware of the location of tables on the server and Azure will divide the workload accordingly. Since you’ll only be charged for the SQL Database in Azure when it is used for queries, this plan will in effect be more reasonable than enterprise storage.
- Encryption
Data encryption is just a way to protect data that is worth millions. SQL server has been the database of choice owing to the extensive use of encryption (column-level, rest, and in transit) for quite some time. But since these had to configured independently, there were often quite a few mistakes made. With the “Always Encrypted” feature, an enhanced client library will be used to encrypt the data at all times, even when it is alive in the database.
- JSON Support
Happy news for JSON enthusiasts is that, SQL Server 2016 in addition to adding support for direct Hadoop querying is extending support for JSON providing the ability to quickly move JSON data into tables.
- In-Memory Enhancements
SQL Server 2016 will be bringing in a welcome improvement to the concept of in-memory tables introduced in SQL Server 2014. It will now support check constraints, foreign keys, unique constraints and parallelism. Supported table size has also been upped from 256 GB to 2TB. Plus, column store indexes (used in data warehouse workloads) that were introduced in 2012 have also been enhanced. SQL Server 2016 will bring enhancements with improved support (AlwaysOn Availability Groups) and sorting.
Get ready for SQL database recovery 2016
The launch of SQL Server 2016 will see a barrage of supporting applications and tools designed for this latest database version. An application sector to watch out for will be SQL database recovery 2016. While there are already many SQL recovery software available that work marvelously with the currently prevalent versions, 2016 will bring new flavors to them too.
One such product to keep an eye on will be Stellar Repair for MS SQL. The talented bunch of developers at Stellar data recovery are working ardently on the 2016 update release of the product that will be able to fully repair and recover failures (if they happen) in SQL Server 2016.
Wrapping it up
SQL Server 2016 will prove to be every bit as resourceful as the earlier versions of the database. While many promises are made before its release, what remains to be seen is if the actual product will live up to the expectations it has created.
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I tried to understand about the AlwaysOn Availability Groups but it is not clear to me. Please tell me about this in a brief way.
Hi Henry,
In SQL Server 2016, automatic page repair option is supported by the AlwaysOn Availability Groups. It is like the database mirroring. If a page got corrupted then it replaced by its copy especially the unreadable page is replaced by its readable copy.
The automatic page repair option does not work on:
File header page (Page ID is 0)
Page number 9 (database boot page)
Thank you, I was confused by this feature.
I like all the new features especially Query Store and Row-level security. The blog is well connected with the subject and nicely described by the writer.
When I need to recall the features of SQL Server 2016 then I read this blog. I make it bookmark on my browser. 🙂
I play with the SQL Server database on the daily basis and I think very fewer people are using MS SQL 2016. Your tool is supporting MS SQL 2016 and that is a great gift to SQL users. Thanks for this blog and the update.
All the points are very interesting especially the PolyBase and row-level security. PloyBase escapes the distance between user and Hadoop in SQL Server database using T-SQL statements.
After few months of SQL Server 2016 launching, your tool is able to repair SQL Server 2016 database. I think it is a very good step towards SQL database recovery. I like all the information that you have shared with the readers.
Thanks for appreciation Alisha!!
I didn’t use MS SQL 2016 yet, but its row level security level feature is very interesting. It is a hassle free step towards data security.
Integration service has lots of new features in SQL 2016 especially new custom logging level in the SSIS catalog. I like other points as well.
Thanks for writing!
Row level security is the feature that I was waiting for and a big thanks to Microsoft for introducing it in SQL server 2016.
Jyoti, this is great article. Thank you for sharing it. I have one question. What are the benefits of Stretch database?
Thank you for your comment Man. Regarding your question, stretch database is newly introduced feature in SQL server 2016. Using this, you can store some portion of your database on cloud. This is beneficial for those who want to keep transaction data for long periods of time and also looking to save money on storage devices.