Posts

Update (February 2026): This post has been updated to reflect the current best practices for monitoring FlashArray using OpenMetrics. Starting with Purity//FA 6.7.x, FlashArray includes a native OpenMetrics exporter, eliminating the need for a separate exporter service/container. The configuration examples below now demonstrate direct-to-array scraping.

This post introduces you to monitoring your Pure Storage FlashArray using OpenMetrics. It shows you how to get started quickly using Docker Compose to monitor your Pure Storage FlashArray environment.

In this post, the fourth in our series, I want to share an example demonstrating SQL Server 2022’s T-SQL Snapshot Backup feature in a scenario where a database spans multiple storage arrays. If you’re dealing with multi-array environments, you’ll appreciate how this technique freezes database write I/O to take coordinated snapshots across volumes on two FlashArrays. In this post, I’ll walk you through the process, point out some of the script’s key elements, and show you how long the write I/O pause takes.

SQL Server 2025 is an upcoming release focused on AI, analytics, and modern database development, backed by innovations in mission-critical engine features for security, performance, and high availability.

Let’s dive into what this means for your AI and data-driven applications. We’ll walk through some of the new features announced by Azure Data Principal Architect Bob Ward in his post Announcing SQL Server 2025, and I’ll give some thoughts on these innovations and where they will fit in the enterprise.

In this post, the third in our series on using T-SQL Snapshot Backup, I will guide you through using the new T-SQL Snapshot Backup feature in SQL Server 2022 to take a snapshot backup and then perform point-in-time database restores using that snapshot backup as the base, but this time using an Azure Virtual Machine. We will explore how to manage Azure storage-level operations, such as taking snapshots, cloning snapshots, and executing an instantaneous point-in-time database restore from the snapshot with minimal impact on your infrastructure. Additionally, I will demonstrate a PowerShell script that utilizes dbatools and Azure Az modules to automate the process.

In this post, the second in our series, I will guide you through using the new T-SQL Snapshot Backup feature in SQL Server 2022 to take a snapshot backup and perform point-in-time database restores using a snapshot backup as the base of the restore. We will explore how to manage storage-level operations, such as cloning snapshots and executing an instantaneous point-in-time restore of a database from the snapshot with minimal impact on your infrastructure. Additionally, I will demonstrate a PowerShell script that utilizes dbatools and the PureStoragePowerShellSDK2 modules to automate the process.

Traditional SQL Server backups can struggle with large databases, resulting in longer backup times and resource contention. T-SQL Snapshot Backup, a new feature in SQL Server 2022, addresses these challenges by allowing storage-based snapshots to be coordinated through T-SQL. This feature delivers faster, more efficient backups, especially for large-scale environments with the most aggressive of recovery objectives.

Anatomy of a Full Backup

Before we start learning about T-SQL Snapshot backup, let’s establish what a backup in SQL Server is. When a backup is initiated in SQL Server, several things occur. Follow along in Figure 1 below; here, you see a database with database files on Disk A and a transaction log file on Disk B.

Welcome back to the fifth installment of our blog series on using the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK2. In this post, we’re diving into a hands-on demonstration of using the Pure Storage FlashArray API to track replication performance between two arrays. This is especially useful for DBAs and storage admins, who must ensure their data replication processes run smoothly and efficiently. A typical scenario here is ensuring a snapshot is entirely replicated between sites before kicking off some other process. Following this demo, you’ll learn how to monitor replication status and verify the completion of snapshot transfers between arrays.

We’re working through the major refresh of my Certified Kubernetes Administrator series at Pluralsight!

The next course “Certified Kubernetes Administrator: Performing Cluster Version Upgrades” in the updated series is now available on Pluralsight here! If you want to learn about the course, check out the trailer here, or if you’re going to dive right in, check it out here! This course will teach you the how to perform worker node maintenance and upgrading a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm.

This post shows you how to install containerd as the container runtime in a Kubernetes cluster. I will also cover setting the cgroup driver for containerd to systemd, which is the preferred cgroup driver for Kubernetes.

In Kubernetes version 1.20 Docker was deprecated as a container runtime in a Kubernetes cluster and support was removed in 1.22. Kubernetes 1.26 requires that you use a runtime that conforms with the Container Runtime Interface (CRI). containerd is a CRI-compatible container runtime and is one of the supported options you have as a container runtime in this post-Docker/Kubernetes world. To be clear, you use container images created with Docker in containerd. containerd will start and run the container in your Kubernetes cluster. This post was previously published in February 2021. This is an updated version with the latest installation and configuration steps.

We’re working through the major refresh of my Certified Kubernetes Administrator series at Pluralsight!

The next course “Certified Kubernetes Administrator: Working With Your Cluster” in the updated series is now available on Pluralsight here! If you want to learn about the course, check out the trailer here, or if you’re going to dive right in, check it out here! This course will teach you the first steps in interacting with a Kubernetes cluster using kubectl.