DBA Fundamentals Group

Hear the latest updates directly from the SQL engineering team, with two expert‑led sessions spotlighting new capabilities and practical guidance for Azure Data Community members.

During this session we will cover:
SSMS improvement - Copilot
SQL in hybrid cloud environment - Azure Arc

Embark on a journey through the realm of Microsoft Fabric Administration. In this session you will get an understanding of Fabric, exploring the fundamental concepts across it’s diverse components, and gain insights into how Fabric fits into a DBAs world. From OneLake to all of the components of this End-to-End Analytics platform, understanding where they fit into your day-to-day role is essential. This session aims to empower you with the knowledge and tools necessary to prepare for Microsoft Fabric coming to your organization.

Security is paramount in database management. If you are an SQL Server expert looking to learn PostgreSQL, it is essential to understand how PostgreSQL's security model differs from that of SQL Server. This talk will compare the security models of both database systems. Aimed at database administrators and developers, the presentation will highlight the key differences in how these systems handle user authentication, roles, and permissions.
For example, did you know that:
-SQL Server distinguishes between logins and users, whereas PostgreSQL uses a unified role-based system for authentication and authorization.
-SQL Server offers predefined server and database roles, such as sysadmin, which provides a range of out-of-the-box permissions. Conversely, PostgreSQL includes default roles like pg_read_all_data, designed to simplify standard permission sets.
-SQL Server allows the creation of custom roles with flexible permission assignments. PostgreSQL's roles enable inheriting permissions from other roles and support complex role hierarchies.
Understanding these differences and others discussed during the session will enhance your grasp of the security model distinctions between SQL Server and PostgreSQL, enabling you to implement security best practices effectively in either environment.
Session Goals:
1. Develop a strong understanding of PostgreSQL's role-based authentication and authorization system.
2. Compare SQL Server's security structure with PostgreSQL's to improve database security management and to ensure secure migrations.
Session Prerequisites:
1. Basic Understanding of SQL Server Security Concepts.
2. Fundamental PostgreSQL Knowledge (Optional but Helpful).
3. General Database Administration & Security Awareness.

SQL Server 2025 introduces major enhancements to the locking engine, including Optimized Locking and the new Lock After Qualification strategy. These improvements fundamentally change how the engine acquires and holds locks, reducing contention and improving throughput under concurrent workloads.

In this deep dive, we will examine the internals of SQL Server’s locking behavior and how the 2025 improvements minimize unnecessary locks during query execution. We will analyze common contention scenarios—such as large updates, high‑concurrency workloads, and lock escalation—and demonstrate how Lock After Qualification defers lock acquisition until rows are fully qualified, thereby reducing blocking and deadlocks.

Through detailed demos using Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and Extended Events (XEvents), you will learn how to inspect lock footprints, compare behaviors across access patterns, and evaluate strategies such as partitioning, index design, and transaction scoping. We will also discuss how these changes interact with features like RCSI, READPAST/skip locked, and explicit lock hints (UPDLOCK, HOLDLOCK, ROWLOCK) in the context of SQL Server 2025.

By the end of this session, you will have a clear understanding of SQL Server 2025’s optimized locking engine, know how to monitor and troubleshoot blocking scenarios, and be equipped to design queries and indexes that fully leverage these engine enhancements for maximum concurrency and stability.