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Bad Data Costs More Than You Think, Fortunately Solutions are Achievable

Do you know what duplicate, incorrect, missing, inconsistent, and otherwise ‘bad data’ is costing you? Most organizations don’t. The costs are surprisingly high. Fortunately, improvements are achievable.

Poor quality and inaccurate data (“bad data”) is a source of financial and brand losses for most organizations today. On average, organizations spend 3-5 times more than necessary due to bad data. Bad data results from outdated information, conflicting information, missing information, and data entry errors.

Data management best practices can significantly improve data quality. When developing data improvement tactics, consider accessibility and information security. To achieve the best results, follow proven program management to assess problems, define priorities, develop plans, implement, and evaluate & improve progress. Evaluate resource capabilities and experience when planning. Experts achieve the best results. Know your available resources, if needed, engage consultants to provide guidance, bandwidth, and expertise.

This whitepaper explores ‘bad data’ including:
• Costs and occurrence frequencies
• Causes & remediation strategies
• Data management best practices to consider
• Strategies to achieve ROI from data management projects

Loading Flat Files into a Database (Method Overview)

Here we feature a few methods for loading files into an Oracle or SQL Server database. There are many methods for accomplishing this, but over the past few projects, and after implementing most of the methods discussed, I documented some of my experiences.   Here I focus on developing an application or process to load data from files, or on demand, when a more sophisticated tool like SSIS or Informatica is not already in use.

Oracle External  Tables:  When working with Oracle, I have often used external tables to assist with file loading. They are easy to setup, provide good error handling, and allow querying the data prior to loading it for validations. This has always been a favorite method for Oracle. However, on my last few projects this was not a great option.  Without access to the database server it requires coordination to setup the directory and to get access to the files in that directory on the server.  It also requires a secondary process to stage, rename, archive, and log the files on the file server.  Additionally, on a project using Amazon RDS, using external tables was simply not available.

SQL Server Bulk Methods (BULK Insert / OpenRowset): Similar to Oracle external tables, these methods provide a fast and easy way to get the data into the database.  Again, however, these require special permissions and/or access to the database server.  After going down this path on a recent project the method worked fairly well, but without access to the database server it was difficult to coordinate getting the files to the server. When using a file share on a remote server, it was difficult getting the permissions necessary on both the remote server (file share) and the database server.  It is possible, but with sensitive data it requires extra coordination and permissions, some of which are not desirable.  I also find it difficult to do detailed error handling and logging if the file does not arrive in the format that is expected.  This also requires a secondary process to stage, rename, archive, and log the files on the file server.

SSIS and other tools:  If SSIS (or other tools) are available; I find it to be a great method for loading the files quickly into the database.  Most of my experience with the tools is SSIS to SQL Server, but I know others have similar capabilities.  Typically if a client is already working with SSIS and/or Informatica, the client has processes in place for handling the files. If not, there is often a lot of cost and overhead to setup this process from scratch.  For our purposes let’s assume the developer is not already working with one of these tools at the client site.

I have had success with loading data using each method described thus far. Other than SSIS (or other third party tools), they all require a separate application or scripting to handle the actual files. An application that reads the file, does validations, does logging, moves/renames files, and archives the files when complete. This is sometime done through scripting, but often requires a more in depth approach for logging and auditing the actions. Additionally, all of the methods discussed thus far require additional coordination, permissions, and/or access. There are other BULK methods I have seen or used that are not mentioned. Most of the other methods that I have used were for a one time load of large data, an initial migration, a large data transfer, or import/exports.

C# Application: This leads me to an application-based method. My preference in the last couple of projects has been to use a C# application to handle the file moving/renaming/logging, file parsing, and data loading. This method is easily scheduled, configured, and migrated.  It typical requires little to no additional coordination, software, or permissions.  One, fairly simple and self-contained application, can handle the processing.  Additionally, the application is very similar whether running against Oracle or SQL Server (Cloud or on-premises).  The data loading aspects are also easy converted to web applications that require user uploading of data to the database.

Once an application template is designed for logging, and error handling, it is fairly simple to expand the application to handle numerous formats in the same manner.  This method has been efficient, easy to implement, and easy to use between various projects. Within the C# application I have used various options to load the data, and found that some are much more efficient than others.  Click Here to read more about the methods we have used within our C# applications.

Loading Flat Files into a Database with C#

This article features some methods that I have used to load data within a C# application.  The methods discussed are an Insert Loop (with bind parameters), the DataAdapter.Update() method, and a custom method of passing the table to a stored procedure. For this article, a simple website demo was setup that accepted a 6-column CSV file upload, and parsed it into a Data Table (int, string, string, string, string, string). Every X records, that Data Table was inserted into a cloud hosted remote database.

For the purpose of comparison, the SQL Server BULK INSERT method was also used (NOTE: The time for the BULK INSERT method below is AFTER moving the files to the database server). The SQL Server portion of this demo was done on an Amazon EC2 instance, so BULK INSERT was an option. It does take a small amount of time to get the file to the remote server, but this time is negligible for the purpose of the comparison. If access and permissions to the database server are not an issue, this certainly highlights that the bulk method(s) are typically much faster than the methods being discussed in this article.  If processing very large files; if processing them very often; if access to the database server is an option; if a repeatable process can be written to move the files to the database server; this simple demo illustrates that the bulk methods are much more efficient.  However, there are a lot of IF’s in that statement.

For fairly large files, repeatable processes, and simple C# solutions, this comparison also highlights that the custom table to stored procedure method is a pretty decent and cost-effective solution in many scenarios.

The timings from my demonstration, for each of the methods, are shown in the table below:

Method Record Counts Estimated Time
Insert Loop 20K Records – 5K Batches 9 minutes
DataAdapter.Update() 20K Records – 5K Batches 35 seconds
DataAdapter.Update() 100K Records – 5K Batches 3 minutes
Stored Procedure (Input Table) 20K Records – 5K Batches 7 seconds
Stored Procedure (Input Table) 100K Records – 5K Batches 35 seconds
Stored Procedure (Input Table) 500K Records – 5K Batches 3 Minutes
Stored Procedure (Input Table) 1 Million Records – 5K Batches 6 Minutes
BULK INSERT 20K Records < 1 Second
BULK INSERT 100K Records 2 Seconds
BULK INSERT 500K Records 8 Seconds
BULK INSERT 1 Million Records 15 Seconds

Insert Loop: A very common method that I have seen and used is simple insert loops with bind variables.  It provides easy control over the data, and easy error handling.  It is also very slow if the database is remote.  I have seen many developers (including myself) use this method in a local development environment, only to have the process grind to a halt in another environment where the database is remote or cloud based.  I have successfully used this method to load hundreds, and even thousands of rows.  However, this method does not scale well when dealing with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of rows to a remote database. For small files, and/or local database, this method is easy to implement and provides good control over the data.


string mySql = @"
INSERT INTO DemoFileUpload(RecID, Col1, Col2, Col3, Col4, Col5)
VALUES (@RecID, @Col1, @Col2, @Col3, @Col4, @Col5)
";
using (SqlConnection myConn = new SqlConnection())
using (SqlCommand myCmd = new SqlCommand())
{
myConn.ConnectionString = db.GetDBConn1();
myCmd.CommandText = mySql;
myCmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
myCmd.Connection = myConn;
myConn.Open();

// Add the command parameters
myCmd.Parameters.Add(“@RecID”, SqlDbType.Int);
myCmd.Parameters.Add(“@Col1”, SqlDbType.NVarChar, 32);
myCmd.Parameters.Add(“@Col2”, SqlDbType.NVarChar, 32);
myCmd.Parameters.Add(“@Col3”, SqlDbType.NVarChar, 32);
myCmd.Parameters.Add(“@Col4”, SqlDbType.NVarChar, 32);
myCmd.Parameters.Add(“@Col5”, SqlDbType.NVarChar, 32);

foreach (DataRow myRow in p_DT.Rows)
{
// Set the params
myCmd.Parameters[“@RecID”].Value = Convert.ToInt32(myRow[“RecID”]);
myCmd.Parameters[“@Col1”].Value = myRow[“Col1”].ToString();
myCmd.Parameters[“@Col2”].Value = myRow[“Col2”].ToString();
myCmd.Parameters[“@Col3”].Value = myRow[“Col3”].ToString();
myCmd.Parameters[“@Col4”].Value = myRow[“Col4”].ToString();
myCmd.Parameters[“@Col5”].Value = myRow[“Col5”].ToString();

// Execute the insert
myCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

myConn.Close();
}

Data Adapter:  DataAdapter.Update() method is a very simple method to transfer data from the data table to the database.  However, on more complex scenarios or for larger datasets, I often spend a lot of time researching the various options to tune it correctly so that it works more efficiently. I also typically spend a lot of time reviewing the magic of this method, and prefer to have greater control.  While I have had success using this method, as the data grows larger, I find that I must customize the process, where the next methods work for larger and smaller sets.  I find the DataAdapter.Update() method greatly out-performs the insert loop, and greatly under-performs the next methods described.

using (SqlConnection myConn = new SqlConnection())
{
myConn.ConnectionString = db.GetDBConn1();
// Initialize with an empty set structure: All inserts
SqlDataAdapter myDA = new SqlDataAdapter(“SELECT * FROM DemoFileUpload WHERE 1=2”, myConn);
SqlCommandBuilder myCB = new SqlCommandBuilder(myDA);
myDA.MissingSchemaAction = MissingSchemaAction.Add;
myDA.UpdateBatchSize = myUpdateBatchSize;
myDA.Update(p_DT);
}

 

Datatable to Stored Procedure: The methods I have used on the last couple of projects pass larger amounts of data to the database, while giving control over how much data, and logging those actions.  I find these methods perform somewhat comparable to the bulk methods for reasonable amounts of data (albeit quite slower), but are easier to integrate into a self-contained application.  While these methods certainly aren’t as fast as most of the bulk methods I have used, they are fairly efficient, especially for the simplicity of setup and migration.  I also find them simple to understand, setup, implement, and replicate across multiple projects.

First, the input file is parsed, line by line into a data table. This is pretty typical of every method I use.  Every X rows [as set by configuration] the data table is sent to the database and processed as a set.

If working with SQL Server, I maintain a user-defined table type in the database with that same structure, and a stored procedure that takes in that table type, and insert/selects from that input table into the database. I then pass the data table from the C# application to the stored procedure to insert the data.

string mySql = “[dbo].[spDemoFileUploadInsert]”;
using (SqlConnection myConn = new SqlConnection())
using (SqlCommand myCmd = new SqlCommand())
{
myConn.ConnectionString = db.GetDBConn1();
myCmd.CommandText = mySql;
myCmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
myCmd.Connection = myConn;
myConn.Open();

// Add the command parameters
myCmd.Parameters.Add(“@tblInput”, SqlDbType.Structured).Value = p_DT;
myCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
myConn.Close();
}

 

If working with Oracle the process is similar.  Rather than taking in a table type parameter, I create a stored procedure that accepts a CLOB.  In the C# application, I convert the data table to an XML string, and pass that string as a CLOB into the stored procedure. In the stored procedure, I again do a simple insert/select from the input CLOB using Oracle XMLTYPE.

string myXMLRec;
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
{
p_DT.WriteXml(sw);
myXMLRec = sw.ToString();
}

myConn.ConnectionString = db.GetDBConn1();

myCmd.Connection = myConn;
myCmd.CommandText = “MyPackage.MyProcedure”;
myCmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

myCmd.Parameters.Add(“p_XmlRec”, OracleDbType.Clob).Value = myXMLRec;

myConn.Open();
myCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
myConn.Close();

 

While these methods are slower than the built-in bulk methods, I have found them to be simple, repeatable, and fairly efficient, while supporting the logging and control that is required in most of my projects. They are also easily configurable with respect to the batch size of records.  The batch can be easily increased or decreased from an application configuration based on the performance in a specific environment.  While these methods have the dependency of the stored procedure, I typically have stored procedures that do the subsequent processing of the staged data in the database. Therefore, these methods integrate nicely with the overall process.

Prototype Review of Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Data Warehouse Consultants is constantly investing in our staff to learn new technologies and offerings.  The summary below was published by our analyst Mukesh Thangadurai regarding the use of the Azure SQL Data Warehouse, which is Microsoft’s current cloud offering focusing on the data warehousing space.  For more information on this prototype or similar work we can do for your company, please use our Contact Form.

Environment

  • Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse
  • Microsoft SQL server 2016
  • Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services

Performance / Costs

  1. DWU 100 – costs 1.51 USD/Hour (Minimum)
  2. DWU 400 – costs 6.05 USD/Hour (Default)

Implementation 1: Transportation Data

  1. Data Set details
  • 20 Dimension Tables
  • 8 Fact Tables (200+ million records)
  1. The flat files for this implementation were obtained by connecting to a source SQL Server database and converting tabular data to flat files.
  2. These flat files are then loaded to the Azure blob using SSIS.
  3. Polybase scripts were written, which converts these flat files into relational tabular format.
  4. TSQL procedures were then written to complete the ETL part and converting this data into a format as required by the target tables
  5. These TSQL procedures can also be triggered using SSIS.
  6. We were also able to test scenarios for incremental loading, where there are specific cases of new files coming in and old files being archived out.
  7. The entire process including the above step was completed using SSIS.

Implementation 2: Consumer Data

  1. Data Set details
  • 8 Dimension Tables
  • 1 Fact Table (168 million records)
  1. The flat files for dimension and fact data are already in a structured, delimited format.
  2. Since no data cleansing or transformation was required, dimension data was uploaded straight to the data warehouse, using the function AzureDWUploadTask in SSIS.
  3. This function auto-creates a temporary external table and deletes them the actual tables are loaded.
  4. The data in fact table was uploaded in phases using regular data upload.
  5. To upload 168 million records, the time taken was 45 minutes and the procedure to move all the data to the fact table using the procedure took another 35 minutes.
  6. The entire data upload was taken care using SSIS.

 

Observations

Detailed benchmark data captured with various queries tested on this system with both DWU100 and DWU400

  1. Query performance for intensive queries improved by at least 40% when scaled up from DWU100 to DWU400.
  2. Scaling was effective and took less than 10 minutes to scale up or down.
  3. Azure SQL DWH has some limitations in DDL and doesn’t support primary keys.
  4. The compatibility with SSIS is very tight and the entire process can be orchestrated using SSIS.
  5. Though there are some limitations like lack of primary keys, unavailability of certain functions such as @@rowcount.  A separate limitations document has been created to capture these.  This still seems like a strong solution which is an upgrade to the conventional databases but not quite as complicated/drifting away from traditional databases.
  6. The data warehouse provides an option to pause the system when not in use, drastically minimizing operations costs.
  7. Azure SQL DWH enjoys great compatibility with SSIS and the entire implementation above was completed using SSIS.
  8. Polybase does not support DML and has dependency with PDW external table.  It also doesn’t skip header rows.
  9. In External Tables default values and constraints are not allowed
  10. In Regular tables default values in column definitions are limited to literals and constants only.
  11. Non deterministic expressions or functions like GETDATE() and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP are not supported
  12. There is significant caching, and re-running the queries back-to-back shows improved performance.
  13. The following T-SQL operations are limited or not supported.  This can require substantial TSQL code changes including Temp Tables or CTAS statements.
  • ANSI JOINS on UPDATEs
  • ANSI JOINs on DELETEs
  • ANSI JOINs on DELETEs
  • ANSI JOINs on DELETEs
  • WITH clauses / Common table expressions followed by INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE or MERGE
  1. Identity / sequence fields on tables are not supported in REPLICATED tables

Recommendations

Azure SQL DWH was a perfect solution for the above requirement and scaling helped maintaining the expenses by setting it at DWU100 for data upload and when querying dimensions and to scale up to DWU400 when running large queries.  This would be a perfect solution for organizations who want to test moving to cloud and still have a backup option for recovery scenarios.

Our Experience with Azure HD Insight

Data Warehouse Consultants is constantly investing in our staff to learn new technologies and offerings.  The summary below was published by our analyst Mukesh Thangadurai regarding the use of the Azure HD Insight product, which is Microsoft’s current Hadoop offering.  For more information on this prototype or similar work we can do for your company, please use our Contact Form.

Environment

  • Microsoft Azure HDInsight
  • Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services

Data Set details:

  • 8 Dimension Tables
  • 1 Fact Table (168 million records)

Pricing

Excluding data storage costs

2 master, 2 slave architecture: 4.01$/hour

2 master, 4 slave architecture: 6.59$/hour

Implementation Notes

  1. The flat files for dimension and fact data were already in a structured, delimited format.
  2. Azure HDInsight Cluster gives the advantage of accessing files straight from Azure blob, without requiring any actual loading to the servers in the cluster.  This saves a ton of time as loading Terabytes of data to the cluster would be a time-consuming task.
  3. The data for fact tables and dimension tables were already uploaded using SSIS
  4. To upload 168 million records to the blob, it took 45 minutes.
  5. The entire data upload was done using SSIS.
  6. Now, HDinsight Cluster can be created in two ways.
    1. Option 1: Create it from the azure portal using the UI.
    2. Option 2: Create it using SSIS using Create HDInsight cluster function.
  7. We tried both these methods and they took almost same time in creating the cluster.
  8. Microsoft sets the default Master nodes as 2 and gives the flexibility of choosing the number of slave nodes.  In our implementation, we trialed with 2 slave nodes and 4 slave nodes in separate implementations.
  9. Once the clusters were created, the DDL for creating the hive tables were run.  These DDLs, specify the location of the files in the Azure blob.
  10. We also had options of creating user defined partitions. User defined partitions can be established by marking each folder of data as a separate partition.
  11. We implemented the prototype using both these styles, however predominant testing happened with unpartitioned data.
  12. Once the dataset is created, we used HiveQL to query the data.
  13. We can either use SQL server or the cluster dashboard to query this data

Key Observations:

  1. Query performance significantly improved when upgraded from 2 slave nodes to 4 slave nodes.
  2. Unlike the conventional Hadoop architecture, Azure defaults the number of master nodes to 2 instead of 1.
  3. Azure does offer two options to store metadata.
    1. Option 1: In a separate database of choice
    2. Option 2: In the same location the cluster is being built.
  4. The second option is the default option and the drawback is that the metadata gets purged when the cluster gets deleted.
  5. Unlike Azure Data Warehouse, we do not have the option of pausing the cluster when not in use and we are charged for every hour the cluster exists.
  6. Hence, the best way to make use of the cluster is to have all the required data already uploaded to the blob, have the DDL scripts and queries for reports or analysis complete, then create the cluster, run the DDL and analysis scripts and delete the cluster.
  7. The entire task of uploading data to blob, creating cluster, running the required DDLs, deleting the cluster can be orchestrated using SSIS.
  8. There were some expected restrictions like no DML authorization and some unexpected limitations like inability to use subqueries for comparison in the where clause.

Recommendations

Azure HDInsight feels like a true big data solution more suited for high end analytics than for a traditional data warehouse. Theclusters cost a minimum of $4 for the 2 slave node and $6 for the more efficient 4 slave nodes.  This cost structure seems more suited for high end temporary data analytics, rather than a traditional frequently queried data warehouse.

Moving Your Data Warehouse to the Cloud

The Cloud offers many advantages and many organizations are looking to utilize Cloud solutions.  But how easy is it to move an existing Data Warehouse to Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services?  To gain insight and better advise our clients, Data Warehouse Consultants has begun two research projects to identify the benefits and pitfalls of a move to the Cloud.

One project migrates an existing operational data warehouse to Microsoft Azure utilizing Azure SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and T-SQL in a cloud hosted server environment.  The other project migrates the same operational data warehouse to AWS Redshift using Python in the AWS Lambda serverless environment.

Through these two parallel development efforts, Data Warehouse Consultants will be better positioned to help clients evaluate the different Cloud based solutions and assist an organization as it migrates existing systems or implements new solutions in a Cloud based environment.

Excel External Content Blocked

We have been encountering a new issue with Microsoft Excel and one of our clients had it today.  It took a little while to figure out, so we want to help out others in this situation.

 

Issue – Excel External/Web Content is Blocked: In most of our interactive applications, we allow for exporting data (either to csv or to xls extensions). By default, these downloads will open in Excel.  A recent update did something to Excel to prevent these files from opening.  It happened to my PC at home (just figured I did something). But then today, it happened at one of the client sites. Everything looks OK with the file when you download it, but either the file doesn’t open, or excel opens and there is no file there.  There is no error message or anything – the file just doesn’t open.

 

Resolution: When the file downloads, instead of opening the file, open the folder location to view the file. Right click the file, and click properties.  At the bottom of the window, there is an “Unblock” button. If you click unblock you can open the file. This shows that the file content is getting blocked because it came from the internet (external).  Unblocking it allows for opening the file (but you’d have to do that every time you download/open a file).  To not have to do it every time, you have to change excel settings.

 

Steps:
1. Open excel -> options -> trust center. Click “Trust Center Settings”.
2. Options -> Trust Center -> Click “Trust Center Settings”
3. Go to Protected View: Uncheck “Enable Protected View for files originating from the internet”.

 

After doing some research, it seems we are not the only ones experiencing this issue.  Here is a link to news article about it:

 

8/26/2016 Update – It seems like Microsoft has now resolved the issue.

UNIX Quick Start Guides

Unix (all-caps UNIX for the trademark) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, developed in the 1970s at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others.
From the power user’s or programmer’s perspective, Unix systems are characterized by a modular design that is sometimes called the “Unix philosophy”, meaning that the operating system provides a set of simple tools that each perform a limited, well-defined function, with a unified filesystem as the main means of communication and a shell scripting and command language to combine the tools to perform complex workflows. Aside from the modular design, Unix also distinguishes itself from its predecessors as the first portable operating system: almost the entire operating system is written in the C programming language that allowed Unix to reach numerous platforms. Read more.

 

There following are some resources to learn about UNIX:

Unix Operating System
Unix Commands Tutorial 1
— TutorialPoints Unix_Tutorial
— UNIX CheatSheets Unix_CheatSheet_1 Unix_CheatSheet_2

Getting Started with ASP.NET Web Forms and MS Visual Studio

The .NET Framework (pronounced dot net) is a software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large class library known as Framework Class Library (FCL) and provides language interoperability (each language can use code written in other languages) across several programming languages. Programs written for .NET Framework execute in a software environment (as contrasted to hardware environment), known as Common Language Runtime (CLR), an application virtual machine that provides services such as security, memory management, and exception handling. FCL and CLR together constitute .NET Framework. Read more.

 

The following are some resources to learn about ASP.NET, Visual Studio and other Microsoft products:

W3Schools ASP.NET 4 Tutorial
Tutorial Points ASP.NET Tutorial
MS Introduction to ASP.NET Web Forms
— ASP.NET Hands On Project ASP.NET Project
Free Microsoft Training Delivered by Experts

 

Using Google Apps

Google Apps for Work (formerly Google Apps for Business) is a suite of cloud computing productivity and collaboration software tools and software offered on a subscription basis by Google.

It includes Google’s popular web applications including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. While these products are available to consumers free of charge, Google Apps for Work adds business-specific features such as custom email addresses at your domain (@yourcompany.com), at least 30 GB of storage for documents and email, and 24/7 phone and email support. As a cloud computing solution, it takes a different approach from off-the-shelf office productivity software by hosting customer information in Google’s network of secure data centers, rather than on traditional in-house servers that are located within companies. Read more.

 

The following are some resources to learn about Google Apps:

Using Google Apps at Work or School