By Argenis Fernandez

This post is archived here. Pleae reach out to me, Anthony Nocentino if you have any questions.

I gotta admit, some of you are really hard to convince. I’ve been saying for years that given a large enough database size (or a really small RTO storage based snapshots should be Plan A for recovering the database in the event of a disaster. Yes, you will have a Plan B, likely native backups. And Plan C. Maybe you’ll run out of letters because you’re so paranoid.

My updated course “Managing Kubernetes Controllers and Deployments” is now available on Pluralsight here! If you want to learn about the course, check out the trailer here or if you want to dive right in check it out here! 

Learn how to deploy and maintain applications using Kubernetes Controllers. In this course you’ll learn how to select a Controller for your workload, deploy it, and maintain your container-based applications in your Kubernetes cluster.

In this blog post, we will walk through a few examples of configuring SQL Server in Kubernetes. First, we will create a Deployment for SQL Server, override the container’s command, and specify a Database Engine Service Startup Option. Second, we will create a Deployment for SQL Server using a ConfigMap to inject an mssql.conf configuration file.

Creating a SQL Server Deployment and Overriding the Container’s Command and Arguments

First up, let’s create a Deployment for SQL Server and override the container’s command specify a Database Engine Service Startup Option.

In this blog post, we will walk through a few examples of how to configure SQL Server in Docker Containers. First, we will configure a container at runtime by overriding the default docker command for the container and setting Database Engine Service Startup Options. Second, we’re going to inject a configuration file into our container to configure SQL Server. Let’s go!

Starting a Container with a Trace Flag

First up, let’s configure a container at runtime using Database Engine Service Startup Options. In Docker you can override the command of a container at the command line so we can start up a container with the correct executable and parameters. I’m configuring a trace flag by setting the correct parameters for the sqlservr executable. So when this container starts up it will start the sqlservr executable with the -T 3226 parameter. Let’s check out the code for this…

I’m super proud to announce that Ben E. Weissman and I have published SQL Server on Kubernetes – Designing and Building a Modern Data Platform available now at Apress and your favorite online book sellers! Buy the book now…or keep reading below if you need to be more convinced :)

A couple of notes about the book, I saw Kubernetes showcased at a Microsoft event a few years back. I immediately saw the value and dedicated time to learning how Kubernetes and SQL Server on Kubernetes works. (Literally on the flight home I started watching training videos and researching books to read :) Since then, I have been sharing those learnings with the data and Kubernetes communities. This book is the intersection of all of that content. I genuinely believe that this will be how you will be building systems in the near future (or right now)! SQL Server on Kubernetes is the foundation for Big Data Clusters and now Azure Arc-enabled Data Services. I also want to call out my co-author and friend, Ben; you are an incredible writer and thank you for driving this book to completion!

Limits in Containers

Docker gives you the ability to control a container’s access to CPU, Memory, and network and disk IO using resource constraints, sometimes called Limits. You define limits as parameters when creating containers. In its default configuration, a container will have no resource constraints for accessing resources of the host operating system. This post will look at how to configure resource constraints in Docker and look at how SQL Server sees the resources when CPU and Memory resource constraints are in place.

I want to start by saying thank you to all who submitted, and an amazing collection of people submitted some fantastic content. Also, thanks to Steve for asking me to host and being patient with me for mixing up the dates and the hashtag. It’s #tsql2sday and it’s on Tuesday not Wednesday :P

Now, onto the posts in submission order.

Rob Farley – On containers

In recent years containers have come into the data platform world, exposing new technologies to data professionals. Microsoft put SQL Server in Linux, and shortly after that, SQL Server made its way into containers. SQL Server in Containers has become the foundation for things like Big Data Clusters and Azure Arc-enabled Data Services

My invitation to you for this month’s #tsql2sday is…

I want to invite you to share your experiences using containers and not just SQL Server in containers…

Where I’ve Been

Since January 1, 2012 I’ve been the principal consultant at Centino Systems. Jokingly, I refer to myself as The Centino of Systems. I learned a lot of lessons running my own business. Such as how to be a consultant and also how to scale the business even as the only employee/consultant. There’s been ups and downs, successes and failures and I couldn’t be more happy with how things went. The first phase of Centino Systems I learned how to build a consulting practice. Then in the second phase I learned how to scale Centino Systems by focusing on training. I blogged a bunch, produced 21 courses at Pluralsight, co-authored three books (with one more on the way), and numerous corporate and conference sessions and workshops focusing on Linux, SQL Server and of course Kubernetes.

Ever need to set your web server a specific protocol version of TLS for web servers and need a quick way to test that out to confirm? Let’s check out how to use curl to go just that.

This code here uses curl with the parameters --tlsv1.1 --tls-max 1.1, which will force the max TLS protocol version to 1.1. Using the --verbose parameter gives you the ability to see the TLS handshake and get the output sent to standard out.