u/erinstellato

Friday Feedback this week comes from somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean. I spent the first half of this week with our team in Serbia and it was wonderful. For me, a few days of working with folks in person moves projects forward faster than weeks of online meetings.

One of the topics of discussion was persisting Automatic Plan Correction and manual plan forcing information in Query Store. If that would be valuable to you, what is the most important data you need retained? Bonus if you share how you'd want to see that data in a report/visual.

Enjoy the weekend!

Fall is HERE!! Ok, in the northern hemisphere only but yay for fall colors and cozy clothes and apple picking and Halloween decorations 🍂 🍁 🍎 🎃

Enough about my love of fall, time for the first Friday Feedback of the season.

Today we're talking statistics. I have so many questions...this might take a few weeks. I put a poll below, again, because I think they are really easy for people to respond to. But I'll tell ya, the comments are always so insightful. So when it's relevant to you, and you take the time to respond, I really appreciate it.

Happy Friday!

View Poll

The Friday Feedback questions about Query Store continue 🪩

I've asked about keeping data long term (for how long, where), but I want to make sure we understand *why* you want that data, and...what kind of queries you plan to against that data. I have a poll below, but I suspect it won't cover all thoughts/ideas so please add your scenarios in a comment.

For those of you heading to SQLCon in Barcelona, it's coming up quick ⌛ Hope to see you there!

View Poll

In case the title didn't give it away, Friday Feedback this week is about... 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

Graph.

I know. We need to improve it. So please tell me what we need to improve.

Are you using Graph?  Do you want to use Graph?  Did you try using it and ran into limitations?  We would love to understand your scenario, what you need graph to do, what you find useful, etc.

We know it needs to evolve and we have some ideas, but as the users, we want your input.

Thanks, and hope everyone has a great weekend!

First Friday of September and you all know what that means...time for Friday Feedback!

But first, I hope that everyone took time over the summer (winter for those of you in the southern hemisphere!) for a break or vacation ⛱️ It may sound like I'm getting on my soapbox, but disconnecting from work is so important, and I really hope you've taken time to do that.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

Last time I posted I asked about storing more data in Query Store, and how much more data you'd want to store. Just over 90% of you wanted to keep 12 months or less, which aligns with what we were thinking.

My next question is, where do you want to store that long-term data? Specifically, Query Store uses memory hashes to store query info and runtime stats about what's been running. We don't want to try and store months of that data in those same memory hashes, which means we need to move older data somewhere else. Where should it go? Poll below, but as always, add a comment if the poll options don't include something you'd like to see. Thanks for voting and bring on fall! 🏈 🎃 🍂

View Poll

Hey folks - another Friday, another feedback question about Query Store. I will ask about other QP features, I promise!

If you could keep more Query Store data, without it creating any performance issues, would you? I have a poll below, but as always, feel free to add a comment if the available options don't match what you'd want to see, or if you want to provide more detail. And you'll note, I'm asking about it in terms of time, not size...the two are not linearly related, it's very workload dependent. Perhaps that's a topic for next week.

Thanks as always for your input, and happy back to school 🎒 for those who are in (or about to enter) that phase!

View Poll

Hey folks, happy Friday!

This is a feedback item that exists both on the SQL feedback site and on the SSMS feedback site.

On the feedback item on the SSMS site, I added a few images with example mockups for how the instance name could show up. Please visit the feedback item and comment with what you prefer, thanks!

p.s. I know, there are a lot of feedback items related to Query Store reports in SSMS. I'm starting simple...please grace me a bit here.

Hey folks! This week for a rather late Friday Feedback, I'm interested in your thoughts about Automatic Plan Correction. There are only a handful of feedback items on the site (aka.ms/sqlfeedback) but based on discussions with some customers, I think it's an area where we are due for some improvements. What are folks struggling with when it comes to using APRC?

First Friday Feedback about Query Store 🎉

This week I have a poll about whether you'd be interested in having the max size (MAX_STORAGE_SIZE_MB) of Query Store managed for you.

The default size for SQL 2019 and higher and the SQL dbs (Azure and Fabric) is 1GB.

The max size for SQL dbs is 10GB; there is no max for box (but remember, just because you can, doesn't mean you should...)

I used to tell customers start with something like 2GB or 4GB, and monitor from there. But maybe we should figure out the size and manage it for you? Bonus internet points if you add a comment with additional input or reasoning about your response.

View Poll

Hey folks - Friday Feedback this week is going to cast a wide net...

Many years ago I took a leadership course, and a bit of wisdom I've always retained from it is, "You should always be trying to work yourself out of your current position."

From a leadership perspective, this makes sense; a lot of the time people are trying to work their way up the ladder.

But I think it applies to any position, and while I hate being bored and know I'm committed to my own growth, change can be scary. But here we go...

I've moved teams within the SQL org, joining Derek Wilson to work on the QP side of things. This includes Query Store and Automatic Plan Correction - definitely getting back to my roots 😊 I'll pick up a couple other things as well, but to start, I thought I'd get a pulse on what's been most challenging in that space, and what you'd like to see improved.

Am I going to ask if you have a feedback item? Yes, of course 😉 Feel free to include it proactively (aka.ms/sqlfeedback).

As for SSMS, it remains safely in the hands of the fabulous Makena Barickman, who's been running the show for well over a year while I worked on GitHub Copilot, with u/dzsquared driving SQL Projects and the new Formatter capabilities. SSMS will continue to improve thanks to the support and input from all of you. 👏 It matters. 👏 Please keep filing feedback items and sharing what works and what doesn't 💙

Hey folks! Friday Feedback this week, but one that's less about product and more personal (dangerous space, I know 😉 ).

I started as PM (Product Manager) at Microsoft over 4 years ago...and at that time, we were about to release SSMS 18.11 (the first one I helped with), and we were working on adding execution plans and table designer to Azure Data Studio 🫠

A lot has changed, and happened, in those four years. I handed over ADS in late 2023, did work on the Fabric Perf dashboard for a bit, and then picked up copilot capabilities in SSMS in early 2024. During that time we released SSMS 19, 20, 21, and 22...as well as the OG Copilot in SSMS, and then GitHub Copilot in SSMS.

So...my feedback request is...what do you think went well, and what could I have done better as the PM in those spaces? Yes, this is a vulnerable post and I'm open to constructive feedback - this is not a solicitation for kudos. Not only do our products iterate and improve, but so do we. It's important for me to regularly take time to reflect and set new goals.

And thanks for your support along the way - I know I still have a lot more to learn!

Hi folks! For this week’s Friday Feedback we’re talking about extensions. Poll below, and feel free to comment to share what features you’re leveraging in extensions, or why you don’t use them. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Q: How important is the functionality provided by third-party extensions in your daily workflow in SSMS?

View Poll

Hey folks! As we are working toward Agent mode for GitHub Copilot in SSMS, we have been working with several amazing folks internally to develop skills for the agent. Examples include*:

• check-live-blocking
• plan-cache-analysis
• investigate-sql-cpu-pressure
• resource-usage-azuresql

(*this is not a complete list!)

What other skills would you like to see for Agent mode?

Friday Feedback this week is about a new option we're adding for GitHub Copilot in SSMS related to security. Buckle up, this is a lot of info... 💺

There have been several feedback items asking for more control over what queries can be run by GitHub Copilot. By default, GitHub Copilot in SSMS executes queries under the context of the user connected to the database.

While I believe that any user, regardless of whether they use GitHub Copilot or not, should have their permissions configured based on the principle of least privilege, there is still a case for a separate user or login for GitHub Copilot.

Our engineers came up with a creative solution that uses existing security capabilities in SQL: EXECUTE AS and IMPERSONATE.

• This will be configured per database.
• You (or your DBA) will assign the appropriate permissions to the database user or the server login.
• You (or your DBA) will create a database constitution (CONSTITUTION.md in the database extended property) and specify the user or login in the frontmatter.
• Any user of GitHub Copilot in SSMS must have IMPERSONATE permissions in order to use GHCP in SSMS for a database with a user or login specified in its CONSTITUTION.md.
• Queries from GitHub Copilot will then execute under the security context of the user or login.

Thoughts? Concerns? Who wants to see a blog post with examples?

We've been making incremental changes to the settings in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) thanks to Visual Studio ☑️ Have you noticed the new Unified Settings pane? Do you have a favorite new option (added in SSMS 21 or 22) that you think everyone should know about?

(I admit, I thought I would love vertical tabs, but I keep going back to my old school ways)

You can learn more about settings from Makena and Anna in a new Data Exposed video 🤗

Make SSMS 22 Work For You: How to Customize Your Environment | Data Exposed