Category Archives: Art of BI
What is Percona MongoDB?
Percona MongoDB is a free and open-source replacement for MongoDB Community edition. This version of MongoDB is offered by a third-party developer, not MongoDB directly. The primary focus of Percona is bringing enterprise-grade features to a free database. Organizations and developers unable to afford the high costs associated with MongoDB Enterprise licensing can leverage Percona for important benefits and features.
Benefits of Percona MongoDB
- Easily replace MongoDB Community edition: You set up Percona MongoDB as a drop-in replacement, so you don’t have to go through a complicated deployment process. Quickly get started with this interesting alternative to first-party MongoDB versions.
- Optimize your database performance: Percona has a strong focus on performance optimization, so you’re able to tune your databases so they can better support your applications.
- Improve database reliability: MongoDB is already designed for high availability, and Percona adds hot backups and refinable shard keys into the mix. You can also leverage Percona-specific tools to achieve very low latency, query performance analytics, real-time monitoring, and robust management.
- Encrypt your sensitive data and data at rest: As an enterprise-grade edition, Percona gives you many ways to protect your data. An encrypted storage engine, key vault, authentication plugin, and other security measures improve your application security.
- Gain visibility into user activities and database operations: An auditing tool allows you to keep a close eye on what users are doing when they’re accessing data, in case you run into a data breach, loss, or another issue.
- Remove sensitive data from your logs: Avoid accidentally breaching sensitive data by proactively redacting it from your database logs.
- Enjoy familiar MongoDB architecture and capabilities: Since Percona uses MongoDB Community edition as its base, you get to leverage all of the capabilities that you’re already familiar with. Adopting a well-known solution takes much less time than trying to switch your development team to a new-to-them database.
Major Features of Percona MongoDB
- Supports OpenLDAP and Active Directory
- HashiCorp Vault integration
- Hot backups
- Flexible data schemas
- Percona Kubernetes Operator
- Percona Toolkit
- Percona Monitoring and Management
- WiredTiger storage engine
- Commercial support available
- Distributed transactions
Should You Use Percona MongoDB?
Percona MongoDB offers a third-party MongoDB alternative that sits between Community and Enterprise edition. If you find yourself constrained by the Community edition or have data security and compliance requirements that exceed its capabilities, then Percona offers a step-up without incurring the licensing costs associated with Enterprise edition or the subscription and storage fees of MongoDB Atlas.
Many workloads may not need all of the features offered by Enterprise, but do need one or two critical options. Percona can help you explore these functionalities and choose the ones that work best for your application requirements. If you don’t think that any of these features are compelling, then the Community edition may be the better choice.
Looking for information on other versions of MongoDB: check out my blogs on Enterprise Edition, Community Edition and MongoDB Atlas.
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MongoDB: Which Version is Right for You?
This paper will give a brief history on MongoDB and why organizations are gravitating toward this open source database system. We’ll then go into the four different versions: MongoDB Enterprise, MongoDB Community, MongoDB Atlas and Percona MongoDB to uncover the pros, cons and different features to give you the big picture of which edition provides the support and functionality you need.
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Database Monitoring: Why Bother?
There are still some data professionals out there who don’t yet recognize the significance of how database performance monitoring ensures optimal corporate performance. That’s why other database professionals elect to engage a remote database monitoring service: to assure them that their databases are protected and optimized while they, themselves, are working elsewhere to reach the full potential of their organization.
There’s A Lot to Lose Without a Database Monitoring System
Many DBA’s rightly focus their effort on more valuable activities than database monitoring. While the intention is laudable, it doesn’t mean that database performance monitoring isn’t also a critical element of overall corporate computing health. In fact, not maintaining a regular database monitoring practice can open the company up to a variety of unnecessary risks that will almost certainly escalate over time:
- In 2013, hackers made off with $45 million from unmonitored ATM’s, and two-thirds of those breaches were of ‘data at rest’ in an unprotected database.
- In 2017, Equifax suffered a database breach that exposed the private information of over 140 million people.
- In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven up both the risk level and the number of breach incidentspast all previous tiers, with network infiltrations, identity thefts, and ransomware outbreaks exploiting the new ‘work-from-home’ normal.
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An expert database monitoring service is the first line of defense against all these threats. Accessing one allows the DBA to spend their time pursuing the new opportunities that are emerging alongside the latest threats.
Database Performance Monitoring Keeps Your Organization Safe
The reality is that your database doesn’t just drive your computing capacities; it also records your organization’s activities. Database monitoring services scan the elements of your foundational IT environment, its logs, agents, APIs, and other communication protocols to reveal data-based trends across the organization. Additionally, it can generate alarms for system failures, intrusions, etc., and collect aggregated data into easy-to-read dashboards. A simple list of systems monitored by the services can include:
- Identity and access activities,
- Network flows and traffic,
- Network performance,
- Compliance activities, and
- User behaviors, to name just a few.
Keeping an eye on these functions also keeps your organization safe – from errors, intrusions, and other unexpected risks.
Match Database Monitoring Solutions to Meet Your Needs
There are two methods for monitoring a database, using on-site software, or accessing remote services. Each offers benefits and limitations so that one may work better than the other, depending on the user’s requirements.
On-Site Software:
- On-site software installs on local servers, so control over everything remains in the user’s hands.
- A single purchase price facilitates simple budgeting.
- Several versions are available, so users can choose the one that best fits their needs.
- However, the pre-packaged options are fixed, so the programming may not address all issues or may require purchasing wasted monitoring assets that aren’t relevant to the company’s systems.
Remote Database Monitoring Services:
- Cloud-based, these services draw resources from the provider’s extensive cloud-based assets that flex to meet the user’s needs.
- Accompanying support services facilitate changing monitoring capacities as systems evolve, so customers always get precisely the supports and services their databases require.
- Accessed through a service model shifts the budget item from the capital account to the expense account, facilitating accurate and reliable budgeting.
The size of the organization may play a part in the ‘on-site versus remote’ decision. Smaller enterprises may be comfortable with the fixed monitoring program, while larger companies may be better served by the remote database monitoring services’ flexibility.
Outsource or Augment Your Monitoring Needs with Datavail
Datavail built its business ensuring that its customers enjoy flawless and secure computing capacities, regardless of their specific industry or the size of their organization. We work with our customers to provide the exact support they need, whether that’s to work alongside their on-staff IT professionals or to assume full responsibility for enterprise-wide database monitoring services. Our 24/7/365 monitoring team maintains expert vigilance on all customer assets, and our customized reports, notifications, and tracking systems keep customers informed of every action within their network.
Datavail has also developed a cloud-based automation platform tool for databases, Datavail TechBoostTM that currently monitors 500+ customizable server and database metrics, sends out real-time notifications, supports major database technologies, has root cause engine (RCE) automation, has a lightweight footprint, 24x7x365 monitoring and more. We have 400 customers who rely on Datavail TechBoostTM to process two million incidents and monitor 400,000 databases.
If your company might benefit from database monitoring services, contact Datavail to learn how our dedicated experts can help meet your needs.
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Data Availability & Reliability Optimized with Datavail TechBoost Cloud-based Automation Platform
Learn how TechBoost software fits into our clients’ existing database service provider experience while at the same time offering a world-class cloud-based automation platform solution.
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Exploring SQL Server 2019’s New Features: Part 2
Every company wants its database operations to be secure, available, resilient, and hassle-free. Microsoft SQL Server 2019’s release has implemented many new features and changes that build upon these areas. Here are four significant improvements offered in this release.
SQL Server 2019 Availability Groups
You no longer need an Availability Group listener to use secondary to primary replica connection redirection. When client applications connect to an Availability Group replica, these connections are redirected to the primary replica. You’re also able to use five replicas, which are set up as one primary and four secondaries. These replicas have automatic failover to improve availability.
If you’re a Software Assurance SQL Server user, then you also get access to three High Availability Disaster Recovery enhanced benefits. These include:
- On-premises passive SQL Server instances installed in a separate server or operating system environment, or OSE, to support high availability operations
- On-premises passive SQL Server instances on a separate server or OSE, intended for disaster recovery
- Azure-based passive SQL Server instances for disaster recovery
- These enhanced benefits provide you with comprehensive options for dealing with disasters and maintaining the high availability of your databases. You never know precisely what might happen in the future, but SQL Server 2019 helps you prepare for many possibilities.
SQL Server 2019 Resumable Operations
Nothing is more frustrating than having rebuilding operations get interrupted because the database maintenance window ended. You can now pause index rewrites and resume them at the next opportunity, rather than losing all of your progress. The operations you can resume with this feature include building and rebuilding online clustered columnstore indexes, building online rowstore indexes, and scanning for Transparent Data Encryption.
SQL Server 2019 Accelerated Database Recovery
Every second counts when you’re recovering databases. Your user experience, productivity, and revenue are just a few of the things that get impacted by databases that are slow to recover. SQL Server 2019 adds Accelerated Database Recovery, which uses a redesigned SQL Server Database Engine recovery process. When you need to rollback long-running transactions, restart after a failover, or deal with another non-clean shut down, this feature speeds up the process.
SQL Server 2019 Secure Enclaves
SQL Server 2019 builds upon the Always Encrypted functionality from 2016 to address some of its limitations. This security improvement allows you to create a protected region of memory in the SQL Server process called Secure Enclaves. The plaintext data in these encrypted columns can be processed without exposing this data. Since this is a trusted execution environment, it works well when you need to handle sensitive data or data that falls under certain regulations.
SQL Server 2019 is an exciting addition to your organization’s database toolkit. If you’re still on the fence about upgrading to this version, get our white paper, 7 New Features Strengthen SQL Server 2019 and explore more features added to this release.
Read part 1 of this blog here: Exploring SQL Server 2019’s New Features: Part 1.
The post Exploring SQL Server 2019’s New Features: Part 2 appeared first on Datavail.
Exploring MongoDB: MongoDB Atlas
MongoDB Atlas is the cloud-based, managed database service offered directly by the MongoDB developers. This Platform as a Service offering makes it easy to get started with MongoDB without worrying about configuring and managing the underlying infrastructure. Your development team can focus on making applications rather than administering technology.
You can get Atlas for free if you use the Shared Clusters tier, making it an excellent choice if you want to explore what this platform has to offer. Paid plans start at $57 for Dedicated Clusters and $95 for Dedicated Multi-region Clusters.
Benefits of MongoDB Atlas Edition
- Substantial cost savings: Whether you’re comparing the cost with implementing MongoDB Enterprise edition or another enterprise-grade database technology, MongoDB Atlas typically comes out on top. You’re also shifting your expenses from Capex to Opex, which may be more friendly to your IT budget constraints.
- Leveraging MongoDB’s cloud-optimized architecture: MongoDB is a cloud-focused database technology, so using it on a managed database platform allows you to maximize its potential.
- Quickly and easily scale your databases: Since your MongoDB databases are set up on a distributed cloud infrastructure, it’s a simple process for scaling horizontally and vertically.
- Robust security measures: Atlas includes security functionality and encryption that allows you to maintain compliance and improve data privacy. Since you’re using infrastructure that’s maintained by MongoDB, you may also end up with access to better security infrastructure than if you implemented this database on-premise.
- Automating many IT tasks: The more time your development team has to worry about managing the database, the less time they spend on their own work. Atlas handles configuration, upgrades, provisioning, maintenance, and all the other tasks that it takes to keep databases running properly.
- Streamline your migration processes: MongoDB Atlas is easy to migrate to. If you run into any issues, you can get help from the platform or reach out to one of the many specialists in the third-party development and service provider community.
- Snapshots on-demand: Take snapshots of your MongoDB databases whenever you need them.
- Protect your most important workloads: You don’t want an important database going down on mission-critical workloads. Unexpected downtime kills productivity and can lead to all sorts of issues. This highly available database platform offers fully managed backup and recovery, along with an infrastructure that uses distributed fault tolerance and point-in-time recovery.
- Implement developer-friendly tools: Atlas offers an incredible toolset for developers, including native tools and drivers that streamline data manipulation, visualization, and analysis.
Major Features of MongoDB Atlas Edition
- Multi-cloud data distribution
- BI connector
- Live data visualization
- MongoDB Compass
- Real-time triggers
- Customizable alerts
- Resource optimization tools
Should You Use MongoDB Atlas Edition?
MongoDB Atlas edition provides a fully managed experience for organizations that want to focus on creating the best applications possible without getting caught up on the underlying details. You avoid technical debt and can best allocate your development resources, plus you’re working directly with the people who created MongoDB.
You also avoid the high upfront costs associated with the Enterprise edition without compromising on the features. If you have workloads that need elastic scaling, multi-region availability, and fully automated infrastructure management, then Atlas is an excellent choice. However, you do want to keep in mind that your costs go beyond the monthly subscription payment. If you have many backups, you need to account for the cost of storing and managing those.
Another drawback is losing out on the background visibility with the platform. Since MongoDB Atlas manages provisioning, maintenance, upgrades, and other operations, they also set the maintenance windows. If you need more visibility and control in these areas, while keeping many of the same features, Enterprise edition may work better.
Looking for information on MongoDB: Enterprise Edition? Check out my blog on that version here.
Looking for information on MongoDB: Community Edition? Check out my blog on that version here.
Read This Next
MongoDB: Which Version is Right for You?
This paper will give a brief history on MongoDB and why organizations are gravitating toward this open source database system. We’ll then go into the four different versions: MongoDB Enterprise, MongoDB Community, MongoDB Atlas and Percona MongoDB to uncover the pros, cons and different features to give you the big picture of which edition provides the support and functionality you need.
The post Exploring MongoDB: MongoDB Atlas appeared first on Datavail.
Exploring SQL Server 2019’s New Features: Part 1
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 introduced many new features and options that improve performance and add flexibility. In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at the setup options, processing options, and changes to TempDB. Next week we’ll take on more. Let’s go!
SQL Server 2019 Setup Options
Streamline your installation process by starting with the right parameters for every project. For example, you can set the minimum and maximum memory configurations during setup, which allows you to match it to your existing SQL instances and applications. You can also use this feature to control CPU allocations. Set the maximum degree of parallelism per query to accomplish this. Standardization between instances creates more consistency in your SQL Server 2019 deployments. It also creates an environment that’s easier to manage, tweak, and troubleshoot.
For Enterprise Server or CAL users, you now receive a warning if the server uses more than 20 physical cores. If you have Hyper-Threading enabled, this warning instead shows when more than 40 logical cores are found. You can switch the product key at this point in the installation or accept the limitations that are in-place.
SQL Server 2019 Processing Options
Intelligent Query Processing, also known as IQP, enhances the Query Optimizer in several ways. When you use this feature, you have higher quality queries along with a streamlined workload. Here are several ways this SQL Server 2019 feature helps your query processing:
- Adjust your grant sizes in batch and row mode operators to fix excessive grants. You can also use this feature to address insufficient memory problems.
- Expands batch mode execution to rowstore, when it previously only supported columnstore. This flexibility allows you to expand the workloads that you can use batch processing on, especially if you have a mix of rowstore and columnstore in use in your organization.
- Embed your scalar UDFs into SQL queries through an automatic transformation.
- Optimize your queries that use reference table variables through a compilation process.
- Reduce resources, boost concurrency, and improve the speed of queries that don’t need exact counts through Approximate query processing. When you avoid using Count for very large data sets, you can see significant improvements in the processing speed.
SQL Server 2019 TempDB Improvements
Heavy workloads create many bottlenecks that get in the way of productivity. SQL Server 2019 offers several features that enhance TempDB and related functions. The most significant improvement comes from the ability to move TempDB system tables into memory-optimized tables for an in-memory database. Instead of relying on disks that are struggling with the workload, you can easily use the TempDB transfer option to leverage memory. It’s a relatively simple process to set up, although it does require a server restart, so you’ll want to plan for that.
Microsoft got rid of Database Mirroring in 2012, but in 2019 you can now create database snapshots that include memory objects. You’re able to query these snapshots the same way you would your other databases.
Finally, a Hybrid Buffer Pool enables you to use clean data pages on persistent memory devices, rather than using the DRAM. You set this up through a memory-mapped I/O so the page isn’t saved to the DRAM. When you leverage this option, you can make better use of the infrastructure resources you have available.
These features are only a handful of the powerful options introduced in SQL Server 2019. Download our white paper, 7 New Features Strengthen SQL Server 2019 to learn more about the capabilities that Microsoft added to this system. If you looking to upgrade to 2019, contact us.
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7 New Features Strengthen SQL Server 2019
Download our paper to learn more about SQL Server and its database capabilities, 7 new features worth mentioning for SQL Server 2019, and why you should make the upgrade.
The post Exploring SQL Server 2019’s New Features: Part 1 appeared first on Datavail.
