Looks like it's that time of the year again, to face the impending death of the DBA role!

Or... Is it?

Guy and Eitan discuss the topic and raise several interesting points you should listen to.

Relevant links:

• sqlfingers.com: Death of the DBA (Again) (Reddit thread)

In this year's first episode of the new year, Guy and Eitan discuss the new Next-gen General Purpose tier of Azure SQL Managed Instance, which is now GA. They also discuss a few interesting customer stories, how they were resolved, and how they're not actually SQL Server's fault.

Relevant links:

• Generally Available: Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-gen General Purpose | Microsoft Community Hub
• The Bitmap Index query plan operator
• SQL Server on VMware best practices guide
• How to Save Money on Your SQL Server Hardware

Matan Yungman is our special host for today, who came especially to talk about his special project called "Rapido", which is capable of automatically tuning SQL queries at scale.

Perhaps there is some inspiration in it for us?

Relevant links:

• Matan Yungman | LinkedIn
• Matan Yungman (@MatanYungman) / X
• SQL Server 2025 is Now Generally Available | Microsoft Community Hub
• Intelligent Query Processing - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn

Guy and Eitan talk about the new preview version of SSMS, application locks, and stupid troubles with TempDB shrinkage.

Relevant links:

• Announcing the Release of SQL Server Management Studio 22 Preview 3 | Microsoft Community Hub
• Release Notes for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 22 Preview 3
• Get Started - GitHub Copilot in SQL Server Management Studio (Preview) | Microsoft Learn
• Overview of the Query Hint Recommendation Tool (Preview) - SQL Server Management Studio | Microsoft Learn
• Announcing the Release of SSMS 22 Preview 4 | Microsoft Community Hub
• sp_getapplock (Transact-SQL) - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• microsoft-dbas-club/Utility Scripts/Shrink_Database_File_in_Specified_Increments.sql
• microsoft-dbas-club/TempDB/TempDB_Sizing_Check_and_Remediation.sql
• microsoft-dbas-club/TempDB/TempDB Space Utilization Check.sql

We let a dice roll decide today's topic, and the winner ended up being: Computed Columns with PERSISTED and Indexed Expressions. We give our thoughts about it, best practices, pit falls, and tips.

Relevant links:

• SQL Server 2025 Preview RC1: Now Supporting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10 | Microsoft Community Hub
• Specify computed columns in a table - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Indexes on computed columns - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn

Guy and Eitan discuss several interesting announcements and updates from Microsoft related to SQL Server and VS Code. And also Eitan talks about a weird issue he encountered involving page latch time-outs during DBCC CHECK command.

Please fill out the SQL Server on Linux adoption survey here! Thank you!

Relevant links:

• Higher log rate for business critical service tier in Azure SQL MI | Microsoft Community Hub
• What's New in MSSQL Extension for VS Code v1.35
• Accelerating SQL Server 2025 momentum: Announcing the first release candidate - Microsoft SQL Server Blog
• Error 845 Time-out occurred while waiting for buffer latch type 4 during DBCC CHECK - Eitan Blumin's blog

Guy and Eitan discuss security-related best practice scripts, and several interesting AI topics.

Relevant links:

• microsoft-dbas-club/Security and Compliance/Check_Passwords_SQL_Server_Generated.sql
• microsoft-dbas-club/Security and Compliance/Best Practice Checks/Invalid_owner_for_system_schema_role_or_database.sql
• microsoft-dbas-club/Security and Compliance/Windows Group Members.sql
• Microsoft Introduced AI Integrations for SQL Server. - Brent Ozar Unlimited®
• What's New in MSSQL Extension for VS Code v1.34
• AI coding platform goes rogue during code freeze and deletes entire company database
• EitanBlumin/sqlcmd-gui: a simple graphical user interface based on SQLCMD for executing parameterized TSQL scripts

Guy and Eitan discuss Stephen Planck's blog post "Five SQL Server 2025 Enhancements DBAs Will Notice", and add some of their own insights.

Relevant links:

• Five SQL Server 2025 Enhancements DBAs Will Notice - SQL Table Talk
• Configure a flexible automatic failover policy for an availability group - SQL Server Always On | Microsoft Learn
• Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR) in TempDB | Microsoft Learn
• Enable and Run tempdb on tmpfs for SQL Server 2025 Preview on Linux - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Optimized Locking - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
• Standard Developer edition in SQL Server 2025 | Microsoft Learn
• ABORT_QUERY_EXECUTION query hint - public preview | Microsoft Community Hub