Data

Using Return Variables in Microsoft Fabric Child Pipelines

• data

• microsoft fabric, data factory

• 2025-07-20
• 3 minutes to read

A step-by-step guide to configuring and using return variables from a Microsoft Fabric Data Factory child pipeline to pass output values back to a parent pipeline.

Installing SqlPackage on macOS Using the dotnet CLI Tool

• data, mac

• sqlpackage, dotnet, macos, homebrew

• 2024-11-15
• 1 minute to read

Installing SqlPackage on macOS has historically been tricky, but using the dotnet SDK alongside Homebrew makes the process much simpler. Here is how to get it done quickly.

Retrieving Microsoft Fabric Tenant Settings via PowerShell

• data

• admin, fabric, powershell

• 2024-08-02
• 4 minutes to read

How to use standard Azure PowerShell cmdlets to retrieve all Microsoft Fabric tenant settings, useful for auditing and evaluating the configuration of your Fabric environment.

Installing Apache Spark on macOS Quickly Using Homebrew

• data, mac

• spark, homebrew

• 2024-06-05
• 3 minutes to read

Installing Apache Spark on macOS using Homebrew is quick and easy, allowing you to start loading and processing data within just a few minutes of beginning the installation.

Connecting to a Postgres database with Azure Data Studio

• data

• postgres, azure data studio, docker

• 2024-05-09
• 2 minutes to read

How to connect to a PostgreSQL database using Azure Data Studio by installing and configuring the Postgres extension, useful when running Postgres locally in Docker.

Creating a Postgres docker container and connecting dbt

• data

• dbt, postgres

• 2024-05-09
• 5 minutes to read

This post covers how to create a Postgres database in a Docker container and connect dbt to it, providing a local development environment for data transformation workflows.

Steps required to set up the dbt SQL Server Adapter

• data

• dbt, sql server

• 2024-05-09
• 6 minutes to read

This post explains how to get started with dbt and the SQL Server adapter. Also covers resolving some of the issues encountered on macOS.

Running SQL Server natively on macOS using SQLCMD CLI

• data, mac

• sql server, sqlcmd, docker

• 2024-05-08
• 7 minutes to read

How to run SQL Server on macOS using the SQLCMD CLI tool, covering installation, configuration, and connecting to a local or remote SQL Server instance.

Running SQL Server on macOS Silicon natively using Docker

• data, mac

• sql server, docker

• 2024-03-01
• 3 minutes to read

Running the SQL Server database engine natively on macOS Silicon using Docker is straightforward and enables local SQL development without needing a Windows machine.

Set up Microsoft Fabric with Microsoft 365 Developer Account

• data

• fabric

• 2024-02-09
• 2 minutes to read

If you do not have access to a Microsoft Fabric development environment, a free Microsoft 365 Developer Account lets you provision your own trial tenant to get started.

Running SQL Server natively on macOS using Azure SQL Edge

• data, mac

• sql server, sql edge, docker

• 2023-06-30
• 2 minutes to read

How to run the SQL Server database engine on macOS with ARM architecture using Azure SQL Edge and Docker, enabling local SQL Server development on Apple Silicon Macs.

Setting Up an RSS Feed for the Microsoft Fabric Blog

• data

• fabric

• 2023-06-16
• 3 minutes to read

The new Microsoft Fabric blog had no RSS feed, so I built my own using open-source tools. This post covers the approach taken and notes the official feed Microsoft later released.

How to Install and Code-Sign SqlPackage on macOS Silicon

• data, mac

• sqlpackage

• 2023-06-01
• 5 minutes to read

How to install SqlPackage on macOS and work around the security warnings that occur because Microsoft does not code-sign their packages correctly for macOS Gatekeeper.

Azure Data Studio NU1101 error Unable to Find Package

• data

• azure data studio

• 2021-06-03
• 1 minute to read

A guide to resolving error NU1101 'Unable to find package Microsoft.NETFramework.ReferenceAssemblies' raised when building database projects in Azure Data Studio.

Redgate SQL Provision, SQL Clone, Data Masker Part2

• data

• redgate

• 2019-10-02
• 7 minutes to read

Following on from part 1, this second look at Redgate SQL Provision, SQL Clone and Data Masker puts the product through its paces against a much larger database.

Redgate SQL Provision, SQL Clone, Data Masker Part1

• data

• redgate

• 2019-10-01
• 10 minutes to read

I spent some time with the Redgate team at SQLBits XVIII for a demo of SQL Provision, SQL Clone and Data Masker. I was really impressed! This is part 1 of my review.