John Liu Blog

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SQL 2025 Gotcha

SQL 2025 is GA and SQL 2016 is on it’s end of life on Jul 14, 2026. Some changes in SQL 2025 might break things working before. SQL 2025 uses MSOLEDBSQL 19, and its defaults are different from what we have been using, like with old SQL Native Client (SQLNCLI). In SQL 2025, encrypt is on by default, trust server certification is off by default, and it enforces strick certificate chain validation.

Posted by John Liu Monday, February 9, 2026

Fabric Capacity

When we use paid Fabric Capacity, we might need to auto pause and resume the capacity for cost saving. We can use Azure Automation Runbook to achieve this. We setp an Automation Account with a Managed Idenity. Step 1: Set Up Permissions Go to your Azure Automation Account. Under Account Settings, click Identity and ensure the “System assigned” toggle is On. Go to your Fabric Capacity resource in the Azure Portal.

Posted by John Liu Friday, January 23, 2026

Grant user access to Azure MSDN subscription

For old MSA-originated MSDN / Visual Studio subscriptions, we might not be able to grant user access to the subscription. The subscription is linked to your personal account, and there is a portal-side RBAC picker defect caused this issue. To grant access to the subscription to other users created in your directory, using following Azure CLI (Cloud Shell) and grant the user contributor role. az role assignment create \ --assignee-object-id <USER_OBJECT_ID> \ --assignee-principal-type User \ --role Contributor \ --scope /subscriptions/<SUBSCRIPTION_ID> Subsitute <USER_OBJECT_ID> with the Object ID for the user in Microsoft Entra ID, and <SUBSCRIPTION_ID> for the subscription in question.

Posted by John Liu Friday, January 23, 2026

Fabric Mirrored SQL Server Data Gateway Issue

When create mirrored SQL server in Fabric to on-premises SQL database, we will need to use On-Premises Data Gateway. We might encounter issue with Use Encrypted Connection option with self-signed certificate. To resolve issue with Use Encrypted Connection, try following solutions: Solution 1: Add your SQL Server to the “Trusted Servers” List: There is a “hidden” configuration in the On-premises Data Gateway that allows you to bypass certificate validation for specific servers.

Posted by John Liu Friday, January 9, 2026

Generate Self-signed Certificate

There are time we might need a certificate, for example, to set up Azure Service Principle without using secret. We can use PowerShell or OpenSSL to generate self-signed certificate. # 1. Config $certname = "SQLDataExportCert" # password for secure the private key file # use single quote to quote the string, to handle special character like $ $pwdstring = 'YourSecurePassword' # Define the expiration date (e.g., 5 years from today) $expiryDate = (Get-Date).

Posted by John Liu Tuesday, December 30, 2025