SQL Saturday Exeter 2014 (22 March 2014) Speaker Answers

Questions from my presentation at SQL Saturday Exeter 2014:

1. Backup to Azure – Backup to URL https or http?

As per http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn435916%28v=sql.120%29.aspx

“Here is a sample URL value: http[s]://ACCOUNTNAME.Blob.core.windows.net/<CONTAINER>/<FILENAME.bak>. HTTPS is not required, but is recommended.”

2. What happens if you turn on 2014 trace flags 2312 (force new cardinality estimator) and 9481 (force old cardinality estimator) at the same time do you get an error?

No, niether is used and the database compatability level determines the cardinality estimator that is used. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2014/04/01/sql-server-2014-s-new-cardinality-estimator-part-1.aspx

Is the showplan really changes for columnstore indexes in 2014? ” The EstimatedExecutionMode and ActualExecutionMode properties have two possible values: Batch or Row. The Storage property has two possible values: RowStore and ColumnStore.” Surely that was in 2012?

Books online still says that both EstimatedExecutionMode/ActualExecution Mode and Storage properties are new in 2014 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510411(v=sql.120).aspx#CCI. Actually only the Storage Propery is new http://www.smooth1.co.uk/sqlserver2014/csi.html