Migrating from Azure Database for MariaDB to Azure Database for MySQL

Migrating from Azure Database for MariaDB to Azure Database for MySQL

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

MariaDB is the open-source relational database management system created by MySQL’s original developers. MariaDB is designed to be highly compatible with MySQL. It supports the same SQL syntax, data types, and connectors as MySQL, allowing for a seamless transition for applications or databases that previously used MySQL.


 


Recently we’ve had many customers asking for guidance on moving from MariaDB to MySQL. To address this request, this blog post focuses on moving from Azure Database for MariaDB version 10.3 to Azure Database for MySQL version 5.7 using the MySQL Shell (MySQLSh) client. However, the same process, with minor changes, can help migrate other compatible MariaDB-MySQL version pairs.


 


Preparation


Before beginning, it’s important to assess any application changes or workarounds that are required to ensure a smoother migration. In real-world scenarios there are often challenges, so testing an application with the target MySQL 5.7 becomes crucial before starting the migration. To understand the potential incompatibilities between MariaDB and MySQL, refer to the following documents.



 


Prerequisites


Before starting this process, ensure that that the following prerequisites are in place:



  • A source instance of Azure Database for MariaDB running version 10.3.

  • A target instance of Azure Database for MySQL running version 5.7.

  • Network connectivity established (either via private or public network) between the source and target so that they can communicate with each other.


 


Migration overview


The process of migrating from Azure Database for MariaDB to Azure Database for MySQL involves:



  1. Backing up your Azure Database for MariaDB instance using MySQLSh.

  2. Restoring the backup to your Azure Database for MySQL instances using MySQLSh.

  3. Configuring and starting replication on your Azure Database for MariaDB instance, sending data to your Azure Database for MySQL instance.

  4. Performing cutover when the replication lag reaches zero.


 


1_Dump_Restore.png


2_MariaDB_Replication_MySQL.png


3_Cutover.png


 


Note: For reference, the name and size of the initial database is shown in the following graphic.


 


4 - Initial DB size.png


 


Procedure


To back up your Azure Database for MariaDB instance using MySQLSh, perform the following steps.



  1. Connect to mysqlsh prompt by running the following command:

    Syntax

    mysqlsh –uri %40@:

    Example command

    mysqlsh –uri azureuser%40rahulsaha-mariadb@rahulsaha-mariadb.mariadb.database.azure.com:3306


 



  1. To take a full backup (which will also include the master binlog file number and position) of the source server, at the mysqlsh prompt, run the following command:

    Syntax

    util.dumpInstance(“, {threads: 16, showProgress: true, users:false})

    Example command


    util.dumpInstance(“/backup/mysqlsh/mariadb_backup”, {threads: 16, showProgress: true, users:false})

    Example output

    5 - Backup.png


     





  1. To restore the backup to Azure Database for MySQL using MySQLSh, run the following command.

    util.loadDump(“/backup/mysqlsh/mariadb_backup”, {threads: 16, showProgress: true})

    Example output

    6 - Restore.png


    Next, I need to set up replication from Azure Database for MariaDB to Azure Database for MySQL. However, before setting up replication, it’s important to ensure that the firewall of both Azure Database for MariaDB and Azure Database for MySQL servers are configured such that they are allowed to communicate with each other.




 



  1. To configure network settings on the source Azure Database for MariaDB server, ensure that the IP addresses of the VM used to perform the migration and the target Azure Database for MySQL server are whitelisted in the firewall on the source Azure Database for MariaDB server, as shown below.

    7 - MariaDB connectivity.png


 



  1. To configure network settings on the target Azure Database for MySQL server, ensure that the IP addresses of the VM used to perform the migration and the source Azure Database for MariaDB server are whitelisted in the firewall on the target Azure Database for MySQL server, as shown below.

    8 - Flex Networking.png


 



  1. To configure the replication, use the stored procedure mysql.az_replication_change_master, as shown below.


    CALL mysql.az_replication_change_master(‘rahulsaha-mariadb.mariadb.database.azure.com’, ‘replica_user@rahulsaha-mariadb’, ‘StrongPass’, 3306, ‘mysql-bin.000003’, 385, ”);



    Example output

    9 - Replication1.png




 



  1. To start the replication, use the stored procedure mysql.az_replication_start, as shown below.

    call mysql.az_replication_start;

    Example output

    10 - Replication2.png


 



  1. Monitor the replication by running the command below until the Second behind master value displays as 0.

    mysql> show slave statusG


    Example output

    11 - Replication.png



  2. Finally, point the application to the target Azure Database for MySQL server by updating the connections string(s) as necessary.



Limitations



  • MySQLShell doesn’t support backing up users. While creating the backup, be sure not to include users by using the following command:

    MySQL  rahulsaha-mariadb.mariadb.database.azure.com:3306 ssl  JS > util.dumpInstance(“/backup/mysqlsh/mariadb_backup”, {threads: 16, showProgress: true, users:false})

    Example output

    12 - Error 1 backup.png


  • Restore error – Lock wait timeout exceeded. Locking can happen between transactions when loading data to MySQL, which may result in throwing the following error:

    MySQL Error 1205 (HY000): Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction:…

    Example output

    13 - Error 2 Restore.png

    If you get this error, you can work around it by increasing the value of the “innodb_lock_wait_timeout” parameter in the Azure portal (as shown below), and then continuing the migration.

    14 - Error Fix.png

    Then, verify the change from the MySQL client by running the following command:

    SHOW VARIABLES LIKE ‘innodb_lock_wait_timeout’;

    Example output

    15.png



Conclusion


Migrating from Azure Database for MariaDB to Azure Database for MySQL using dump and restore tools, together with replication to minimize the downtime needed for cutover, is not a difficult process. However, be sure to thoroughly test and benchmark things to help minimize the potential for encountering issues during and post migration, as every database, application architecture can be incredibly unique.


If you have any feedback or questions about the information supplied above, please leave a comment below or email us at AskAzureDBforMariaDB@service.microsoft.com. Thank you!

Tips and tricks on how to search for organizational content more effectively

Tips and tricks on how to search for organizational content more effectively

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Across Microsoft solutions, it is possible to search for work/organizational content in many different entry points, such as Office.com, Sharepoint.com and Microsoft Bing – Work tab.


 


Office.com and Sharepoint.com are great places to start a search across all your personal and content accessible to you within your organization, including shared documents, offering capabilities that can help you navigate content in a way that suits you the best.


 


This post will guide you through some of the most frequent work search tasks and demonstrate how you can achieve them with different methods. You will learn how to optimize your search experience and access the information you need efficiently.


 


It all starts with the Search box.


The Search box can help you find your recent content quickly and easily. It shows you suggestions of Files, People, and Apps that you interact with frequently.


 


BillBaer_22-1685726464714.png


 


How does starting your search in Office.com or Sharepoint.com looks like


 


You can also use keywords like “ppt” or “doc” to refine the results you are seeing in the Search box suggestions.


 


BillBaer_23-1685726464723.png


 


BillBaer_24-1685726464729.png


 


Retrieve Word documents by using ‘doc’ keyword.


BillBaer_25-1685726464738.png


 


Retrieve PowerPoint documents by using ‘ppt’ keyword.


 


You can also get People results in Search box suggestions based on their phone number or department.


 


BillBaer_26-1685726464778.png


 


People search suggestions based on phone number.


 


BillBaer_27-1685726464780.png


 


People search suggestions based on department name.


 


Navigating to Search Results Page


If you don’t see what you are looking for in Search box suggestions, press enter or click ‘Show more results’ to go to the results page to explore more content. You can use different tabs or filters to refine the results you are seeing.


 


BillBaer_28-1685726464791.png


 


 


As an example, you can use People tab and different keywords to search for people based on their department or job title.


 


BillBaer_29-1685726464803.png


 


Search for People based on department name.


BillBaer_30-1685726464811.png


 


Search for People based on job title.


 


Or go to Messages tab to find an Email or a Teams message with specific keywords.


 


BillBaer_31-1685726464822.png


 


Email and Teams messages search.


 


Easily navigate through your own content


Navigating through your own content daily can be challenging. Sometimes you may want to search for a specific document you created or edited, or a message/email you sent. This can be easily done by typing your name in the Search box and clicking on the Search box suggestion. This opens up a Person Centric Search view shown below.


 


It is worth noting that Messages tab is currently available in Office.com and is yet to come to Sharepoint.com


BillBaer_32-1685726465200.png


 


Navigating to People Centric Search view by clicking on suggestions in the Search Box


You can further narrow down your own content by typing additional keywords in the search box next to the name pill or using filter and tab refiners.


 


BillBaer_33-1685726465219.png


 


BillBaer_34-1685726465233.png


 


Using keyword + File Type filter to further refine your search


 


Search for people and content they shared.


You can search for your colleagues’ content or understand their position in the organizational chart by looking them up and clicking on their name from the search box suggestion.


 


BillBaer_35-1685726465246.png


 


Browse through content your colleagues have shared with you.


BillBaer_36-1685726465258.png


 


Understand your company organization and who your colleagues report to.


This feature only shows public content and content that has been explicitly shared with you by the person you are looking up. Hence in some cases, you may not get any results.


 


BillBaer_37-1685726465275.png


 


You can only browse through content explicitly shared with you.


 


Getting to work search results in Microsoft Bing


We are currently working to bring the same set of search capabilities across Office.com, Sharepoint.com and Bing.com/work.


 


To access work search in Bing.com, you need to be signed into Bing with your organizational account. This will enable you to see top work search results in the All-Tab. You can further explore work content by clicking some of the work result suggestions or going straight to Work tab.


 


BillBaer_38-1685726465299.png


 


Work result suggestions in All-Tab


 


BillBaer_39-1685726465324.png


 


Work search results in Work-Tab


 


On images below, we are showing how some of the searches mentioned in this article may look like in Bing.com/work.


 


BillBaer_40-1685726465347.png


 


Email and Teams messages search


 


BillBaer_41-1685726465377.png


 


People search by name.


BillBaer_42-1685726465401.png


 


Understand your company organization and who your colleagues report to.


 


BillBaer_43-1685726465409.png


 


You can only browse through content explicitly shared with you.


 


 


 


 


 

Download live PDF release plans on demand

Download live PDF release plans on demand

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Thanks to a recent upgrade of Microsoft Learn, you can now get an up-to-the-minute PDF version of release plans for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Cloud for Industry anytime you like, in any language we publish. Previously, you had to wait for us to create PDF files to share the release plans with your team, clients, or partners. And since we created PDFs just once a month, they were often out of sync with the published release plans. Our localized PDFs were even more tardy.

Custom PDFs will be retired

In the next two weeks, we’ll retire the custom PDF files we’ve been creating every month. After that, any links to PDFs on the release wave landing pages will redirect to the automated PDF option so that you have the most up-to-date information available.

How to get live PDF release plans on demand

How do you get the new experience? At the bottom of the table of contents on any release plan page, select Download PDF. A PDF version of the entire release plan opens in a new browser tab. Select the Contents icon to expand the table of contents and easily navigate to sections that interest you.

Legend:

  1. Contents icon
  2. Annotation tools (highlighter, pen, eraser, text)
  3. View tools (zoom out, zoom in, fit to width, go to page, rotate page, switch between viewing one or two pages)
  4. Page tools (search, print, save, view full-screen, settings)

Watch a brief video:

You can print, save, or share the PDF file, too.

You can use the same technique to get a PDF of any documentation section of the Learn site.

Tell us what you think

We’re excited about this upgrade, but we want to know what you think! We’re always working to make the release plans more useful for you. Give it a try and let us know. And feel free to suggest features you’d like to see in the PDF version.

Tell us about your download PDF experience.

Learn more

Read our post highlighting some of the exciting updates coming your way: 2023 release wave 1 plans now available | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog

Not yet a Dynamics 365, Power Platform, or Cloud for Industry customer or want to know more? Take a tour:

The post Download live PDF release plans on demand appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

5 ways Copilot in Viva Sales takes seller productivity to the next level

5 ways Copilot in Viva Sales takes seller productivity to the next level

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

AI-powered experiences are changing the game of what’s possible for sellers, and generative AI with Copilot is here to assist sellers do their best work. Copilot in Viva Sales is quickly evolving and adding new features and experiences to make sellers’ lives better. The tools are there to help offload and automate those mundane sales activities, allowing a seller to spend more time with prospects and engaging customers at the right moment in the sales cycle.

With email remaining a key channel in day-to-day interactions the recently announced General Availability of email features have received great feedback from salespeople helping them save time when connecting with customers. Let’s look at 5 ways Copilot in Viva Sales takes seller productivity to the next level:

Use Copilot in Viva Sales to generate email content suggestions

Responding to emails can take time and is often the activity sellers leave until the end of the day or week. It can be overwhelming and might even cause sellers to miss important deals. With AI-generated email content suggestions, we’re here to help your sellers balance their time and effort!

Sellers can use this feature to

  • Generate email replies. These replies will be in context of the e-mail thread and surface data from the relevant CRM opportunity.
  • Generate new emails based on a user defined prompt.

In our suggested replies, users can choose between several pre-defined categories or suggest their own prompt. The AI-generated replies intelligently create drafts that directly address the email thread users are replying to. In addition, the suggestions use CRM data to enrich the text and make it relevant to the specific situation. The response includes opportunity data based upon a contact match and allows the individual to adjust and switch opportunities with a simple click. It can even include the seller’s Outlook calendar availability to suggest meeting times.

AI-generated email content

With AI generated new emails and replies, users can refine the suggested text to add more content or context. For example, if a seller prefers to adjust the auto-suggested meeting day, they could simply add a free-text prompt asking Copilot to offer a time next week. The generated text will then update with the new timeslot.

Making sure the data is correct is critical to adoption. If the seller wants to understand the source of information in the generated reply, simply click the blue highlighted data point to see a window into the data source. Not only does this help build trust that the data is accurate, it also ensures they can validate without having to context-switch across multiple applications saving time and focus.

Forget “Admin Day” – quickly catch up on emails and update the CRM in the moment

With Copilot in Viva Sales, we are looking to reduce those admin days and instead help sellers get up to speed on customer communications quickly. Help them make those critical updates that improve data quality back into CRM and generate responses faster, so sellers can execute them in the moment rather than save up for an end of week activity.

AI-generated email thread summary

Viva Sales uses Copilot to summarize email conversation threads and provide your sellers with options to:

  1. Copy the summary.
  2. Save the summary to the CRM system as a note on the record’s timeline.
  3. Provide feedback on the quality and relevancy of the summary output.

When logging into your inbox it can be daunting to work through all the unread mail. As a typical pattern long emails are often reviewed briefly by skim reading the first few paragraphs. This can provide a huge risk to sellers missing key points that could be placed later in the thread. This is where the summarization capability with Copilot can help.

  • Email summaries are generated for emails or email threads with more than 1000 characters, which is about 180 words.
  • The email summary contains the key insight broken down into digestible bullet points so sellers can quickly catch up in seconds.
  • After adding the summary to the CRM system, sellers can edit it as needed in the timeline of the record.
  • The summary generated is designed to help sellers see key insights immediately and assist in the decision making on whether they need to take a deeper look. Copilot capabilities are never a replacement for a human review, but we designed them to help sellers decide to jump in faster with better context.

Effectively prepare for sales meetings

Copilot in Viva Sales helps sellers prepare for meetings in advance. It saves precious time by offering relevant customer information within Outlook, without making the seller switch screens to their CRM.

When opening a customer meeting in Outlook, in the Viva Sales pane, sellers get a view to help them get ramped up on the situation with the customer. The view includes:

  • CRM information on the opportunity that is the discussion topic of in the meeting.
  • Summary of recent notes that were captured on the opportunity level.
  • Any issues or concerns addressed within the notes.
  • Summary of previous opportunity activities (like emails and meetings).

Sellers can drill into the data source to get more context if necessary and be readier to engage knowing the top items that need to be addressed.

AI-generated opportunity summary

Boost seller productivity with AI-generated meeting summaries

Delivering a professional engagement with a customer can be the difference between winning and losing a deal. This applies to seller communications. When finishing an important meeting with a client a common task is to send a follow-up recap. Not only does this show that the seller has listened throughout the call but also ensures that there is a clear understanding of the next steps. Sellers capture their notes in a variety of places, but if they use the conversation intelligence capability in Viva Sales – creating the recap is easy.

With Copilot in Viva Sales, we’re here to help sellers cross this task off their list quickly and easily. We’re combining our conversation intelligence technology with the magic of Viva Sales and GPT, to boost seller productivity and help sellers focus on their customer relationships.

With just a few easy steps, Viva Sales flags that a new meeting summary is available for the previous communication. The seller can select and use the generated recap as a solid starting point for the response. Simple!

Steps to get started:

AI-generated meeting summaries

The generated meeting summary will cover topics that sellers discussed in their calls and action items that were mentioned, all captured by our conversation intelligence. The GPT technology will format the information into an email, and leverage CRM data to enrich the content.

Immediately engage with Viva Sales Copilot experiences, then sign in to connect with your CRM

Users who are not initially connected to CRM are still able to get instant value with Copilot in Viva Sales. We’ve made some capabilities available immediately upon opening the Viva Sales pane to showcase the productivity experience. Sellers who would like to take further advantage can then connect to CRM for access to the full capabilities.

When opening the Viva Sales pane without being connected to CRM, users can:

  • Provide a prompt to draft AI-generated email content.
  • Catch up on emails with email summaries at a glance.

Users can easily sign into their CRM to save those thread summaries or get additional Copilot in Viva Sales value.

Copilot in Viva Sales without CRM

Next steps

As organizations embark on their AI defined vision and strategy, Copilot in Viva Sales is a great way to see immediate value for sellers. The solution is designed to help sellers see real tangible results from the moment they switch it on without lengthy consultancy effort or technical training. If you are a Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and above customer Copilot in Viva Sales is included within your license plan and it is easily available for Salesforce customers to purchase.

Get started with Viva Sales: Microsoft Viva Sales | Microsoft Viva

Installation and Admin guides and FAQ: Get Started with Microsoft Viva Sales | Microsoft Learn

Copilot in e-mail documentation: Copilot in Viva Sales E-mail Messages Overview

The post 5 ways Copilot in Viva Sales takes seller productivity to the next level appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

What’s new in Microsoft Teams (free) | May 2023

What’s new in Microsoft Teams (free) | May 2023

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

As you might have seen, many new features have become available in Communities (beta) in Teams free on Windows 11, bringing it close to parity with mobile. You can now create and join communities on Windows 11, and invite others to your communities, too.


 


There’s also a significant change in Teams free meetings where previously all meeting participants joined meetings through lobby. We have now added a new option for invited participants to get directly to the meeting, in other words bypassing the lobby. This will be the default setting for all new Teams free meetings, making meeting joins more seamless for the invited participants, and keeping your meetings safe by having everybody else still joining through the lobby.


 


New features in Teams (free) on desktop and web


 


Create a community (Windows 11)


You can now conveniently create a new community from scratch in Teams free on Windows 11, very similarly as on mobile. You just need to fill in the community details like name, description, and community picture, and adjust community guidelines as needed. After community creation you can then invite new members or change further community details using mobile.


MiikkaOksanen_1-1685633683071.png


 


Invite members to your community (Windows 11)


It’s easy to invite others to your communities in Teams free on Windows 11 now. You can invite contacts already using Teams free or even those who have not yet got started using their email address or phone number. Learn how to invite and remove community members


MiikkaOksanen_2-1685633719688.png


 


Create community events and view community calendars (Windows 11)


Community events are a core feature in communities and now it’s possible to create those and view community calendars in Teams free on Windows 11, too. Communities created on Windows 11 are visible on mobile and vice versa making it easy to join the meeting when it’s time. Learn more about community calendars and events


 


Notify community members about new content via email (Windows 11)


When creating a new community post, you can now notify community members about the new post via email. This new option available when posting in a community helps you to reach your community members quickly even when they are not in Teams. These emails link back to the original post making it convenient to read the new content. Learn how to post to a community


MiikkaOksanen_3-1685633740841.png


 


Use Microsoft Designer for community announcements (Windows 11)


Community announcements stand out from other community content and when posting a community announcement on Windows 11, you can now use Microsoft Designer to quickly create a gorgeous banner image for the announcement. Learn how to use Designer for announcement banners


 


New features in Teams (free) on mobile


 


Notify community members about new content via email


When creating a new community post, you can now notify community members about the new post via email. This new option available when posting in a community helps you to reach your community members quickly even when they are not in Teams. These emails link back to the original post making it convenient to read the new content. Learn how to post to a community


MiikkaOksanen_4-1685633774783.png


 


Block users from your community


In the event of a bad actor going rogue in your community, as the community owner you can now block them from the community. The same user will not be able to join the community again. We hope you won’t be needing this feature, but it’s now available should it be needed. You can remove a community member and block them from joining the community again by selecting them from the member list and selecting ‘Remove from community’. This will give you options to ‘Remove’ and ‘Remove & Block’. Learn how to remove and block users from your community


MiikkaOksanen_6-1685633830186.png


 


Bulk invite community members using mobile camera (iOS)


It’s now very easy to quickly get your community growing with the new bulk invite option on iOS. With this feature you can use your mobile camera on iOS to grab a picture of a list of email addresses and phone numbers which then will be validated and matched against the current member list of the community. You can update the list as needed and when ready, send invites to up to 50 persons in one go. Learn how to bulk invite community members on iOS


MiikkaOksanen_5-1685633809375.png


 


How to send feedback and suggestions?


We are always happy to receive feedback and suggestions to make our product even better. To participate in our feedback program and help us in our endeavor, please follow the steps below:



You can also sign up for a user panel, to get opportunities to connect directly with the product team, and help make Teams (free) better. Learn more