Ronald Dameron - IT beats loading bombs

I've noticed on several occasions that my first attempt to connect to an Azure Sql Server using SQL Server Management Studio 2016 doesn't always succeed. First attempt The fix? Press OK and try again.  I have no explanation but it  always seems to connect the second time. I'm assuming you have your security and firewall rules setup correctly.

My current duties involve production support for an Azure PaaS application, therefore, I must know when Microsoft Azure services are experiencing issues. I do have alerts set up on the Azure portal and in Application Insights to notify me when availability or performance thresholds are violated but I also need to know if there is a global or regional issue that might affect our app so that I can respond and notify the staff when appropriate. Azure status changes are reported on the Azure Status web page . The following will describe how to use the Azure Status page RSS feeds and Outlook rules for notification if things go sideways in Microsoft Azure. The Azure Status page has RSS feeds for nearly all of its services.  First,  You'll need to add relevant feeds to the RSS Feeds folder in Outlook. I am using Outlook 2016.  Click on the orange RSS feed icon for each service you are interested in to show the feed URL, copy the URL, and add to yo

February was very busy because I had to prepare for my 18th SQL Saturday, prepare abstracts for the 2016 PASS Summit Call for Speakers and keep up with big things happening at work. < Cue sad violin music... > I submitted two sessions for SQL Saturday Tampa and ended up giving both of them. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.  My morning session on Monitoring and Alerting for an Azure PaaS Application earned me Speaker of the Month from The Scary DBA and PASS EVP Grant Fritchey.  I truly appreciate his recognition and feedback. I WILL incorporate it in future sessions. In the afternoon, I did a session on how to lock down SQL Server so that DBAs don't have unfettered access to business data. This makes your Compliance staff smile, trust me.  After SQL Saturday was the final push to get my abstracts done for the 2016 PASS Summit Call for Speakers. They were due the Wednesday after the Tampa SQL Saturday. Do you now understand why February was busy?  I submi

Hi. I wanted to wait on my recap of this event until I had seen the video of my Speaker Idol session at PASS Summit 2015. I come on around 14:30. Speaker Idol is purely a test of your presentation skills. Probably one of the most grueling tests because it is very difficult to cover a topic effectively in FIVE minutes. I also try to tell a story when I speak. So, in five minutes it has to be really concise. My topic was SQL Injection. Could you imagine what a disgruntled speaker could do with SQL Injection? Of course, this is all hypothetical.  I thought beforehand that the eventual winner would have to do what a speaker does typically during a PASS Summit session. Talk, do a demo and wrap up. I also like speakers who throw in a few laughs along the way so I was hoping someone like that would win. No time for Q&A in this format so you are spared that part of the test.  I used Office Remote for Android to control my PowerPoint 2016 deck. This is a very new phone app and