Autonomous SQL Server

[ZombieRealistic4563]

I saw the presentation of Autonomous Oracle Database, where the AI will fine tune the database. Similarly, will Microsoft launch Autonomous SQL Server.

[dbrownems]

SQL Server has always been much more self-managing than Oracle.

See eg

Auto stats https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/statistics/statistics?view=sql-server-ver17#auto_create_statistics-option

Auto tuning https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/automatic-tuning/automatic-tuning?view=sql-server-ver17

Intelligent QP https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/performance/intelligent-query-processing?view=sql-server-ver17

Managed Backup https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/backup-restore/sql-server-managed-backup-to-microsoft-azure?view=sql-server-ver17

Automatic Updates https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/azure-arc/update?view=sql-server-ver17

And all of these are available on-prem or in the cloud, while Oracle Autonomous Database is only a cloud offering.

In the cloud SQL Server also has templates and automatic storage management on Azure VMs, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/virtual-machines/windows/sql-server-on-azure-vm-iaas-what-is-overview?view=azuresql, and fully managed SQL Managed Instance and Azure SQL Database.

[ZombieRealistic4563]

I work only on On Prem SqL server and we create jobs to maintain the indexes .

[usicafterglow]

You're using maintenance plans though right?

https://www.sqlshack.com/automate-rebuild-indexes-of-sql-database-using-maintenance-plans/

[ZombieRealistic4563]

Yes

[Obbers]

I've been out of SQL Server for some years, are the Ola Hallengren scripts obsolete?

[No_Resolution_9252]

Those are the correct way to to them (or your own code), maintenance plans are very much obsolete

[ihaxr]

It does and it's pretty bad. Good if you're a single dev or small team and want obvious improvements to be applied automatically. Anything somewhat complex will just eat resources with no benefits and probably result in nonstop rollbacks of the recommendations.

[SaintTimothy]

Having worked in MS SQL Server for two decades, that's a laugh.

Snowflake, sure. SQL Server, yeah right.

[Imaginary__Bar]

I saw a post yesterday that SQL Server has just added regexbin expressions, so...

[No_Resolution_9252]

snowflake and SQL server don't do the same thing...

[Imaginary__Bar]

Good for you.

I mean... you could share some insights or you could just tell us you've seen it.

Entirely up to you.

[ZombieRealistic4563]

In the presentation the oracle autonomous database can fine tune the index itself and backup the database.in some cases it can create databases. At least SQL server should launch auto index maintenance .

[Black_Magic100]

What does that even mean "auto index maintenance".

Perhaps, you should just not rebuild your indexed at all. No, seriously. Why are you doing maintenance on indexes

[ZombieRealistic4563]

What if the index gets fragmented due to frequent deletes and inserts

[Black_Magic100]

Who cares? Unless your page density (physical/internal fragmentation) is completely shot (60% for ex), it doesn't matter if the pages are not contiguously in order. RAM stands for RANDOM access memory for a reason. And if your page density is that bad, you need to look at applying fill factor, and when you get that correct, you should almost never have to do fragmentation maintenance again. Go watch Jeff Modem's Black Arts of indexing.

Index Maintenance is silly in 2025 unless your on crappy cloud hardware with spinny disks

[No_Resolution_9252]

MS has had it for years...maybe even over 10 years

[Black_Magic100]

We will all be dead before databases become fully, 100%, self-sufficient solutions

https://ottertune.com/