Getting the current version of Datamodel Core data - core-data

Is method to get the version number of data model from the application. In my application already version 2-3 migration is done and I am adding a new version to the data model. So I need to handle the migration, I need to do the 2-3 first and then 3-4 and if the existing application is running on data model version 3, then need to execute only 3-4 migration.

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Syncing mongodb with multiple APIs

I have a project that has 2 Rest APIs to get a) stock and b) item price & status. Now, I am trying to sync that data with mongodb using cron jobs on node with incremental updates using timestamps (every 5 minutes). I am then taking this data and updating it on the master data in my database. This is again done using a cron job that sifts through all the data looking for changes. The data is not static with activation status, pricing and stock that keep changing.
I have heard of mongodb database triggers, but it is not supported by serverless instances of Atlas. Is there a better way of doing this? I do not have access to the sql database of the APIs themselves so hence I have to schedule crons to get the data synced. This process is also causing a huge increase in reads and writes.

How can I change the version of my model in Azure Machine Learning service?

When registering a model into Azure Machine Learning, it keeps increments the version number. Can i set the version number to a specific number? Or even stop it from increments every time?
The version number is controlled by the system and automatically increments.
You can use tags to have custom tracking, for example
model.add_tags({"user-version":"alpha-0.1"})

Azure Geo-replication a good fit to reduce downtime during updates

We currently have an Azure SQL database that supports a web application. It is read only from a user perspective. The problem is we have to drop the tables and reload them with new data each hour, this makes the application unavailable for 5 minutes each hour which is unacceptable.
Reading the information for Azure active geo-replication seems a little vague. I thought I might be able to use active geo-replication to fail over to a secondary database and take the primary offline to do the update and then when the update is complete switch back to the original primary to allow the secondary to auto-sync. However, it is not clear from what I have read about active geo-replication if that scenario is possible.
Could someone provide some help on this problem or direct me toward another possible solution.
Thanks
You can give it a try to Azure Data Factory since it allows you to append data to a destination table or invoke a stored procedure with custom logic during copy when SQL Server/SQL Azure is used as a "sink". You can learn more here.
Azure Data Factory allows you to incrementally load data (delta) after an initial full data load by using a watermark column that has the last updated time stamp or an incrementing key. The delta loading solution loads the changed data between an old watermark and a new watermark. You can learn more how to do that with Azure Data Factory on this article.
If the setup takes 5 mins, and the the data is read only, then I would make a new empty DB in every hour, using some C# code or PowerShell script, and run the data import on this new empty DB, and once it is done, I'd change the connection string in the running production application to point to the new updated version of the DB, and then drop the old DB. This way you won't have any downtime, because till the import is running, the application will connect to the old DB, and when the import is done, it will connect to the new DB.

Firebird DB - monitoring table

I have recently just started working with firebird DB v2.1 on a Linux Redhawk 5.4.11 system. I am trying to create a monitor script that gets kicked off via a cron job. However I am running into a few issues and I was hoping for some advice...
First off I have read through most of the documentation that come with the firebird DB and a lot of the documentation that is provided on their site. I have tried using the gstat tool which is supplied but that didn't seem to give me the kind of information I was looking for. I ran across README.monitoring_tables file which seemed to be exactly what I wanted to monitor. Yet this is where I started to hit a snag in my progress....
After running from logging into the db via isql, I run SELECT MON$PAGE_READS, MON$PAGE_WRITES FROM MON$IO_STATS; I was able to get some numbers which seemed okay. However upon running the command again it appeared the data was stale because the numbers were not updating. I waited 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes and all the data was the same during each. Once I logged off and back on to run the command again the data changed. It appears that only on a relog does the data refresh and yet I am not sure if even then the data is correct.
My question is now am I even doing this correct? Are these commands truly monitoring my db or are just monitoring the command itself? Also why does it take a relog to refresh the statistics? One thing I was worried about was inconsistency in my data. In other words my system was running yet when I would logon each time the read/writes were not linearly increasing. They would vary from 10k to 500 to 2k. Any advice or help would be appreciated!
When you query a monitoring table, a snapshot of the monitoring information is created so the contents of the monitoring tables are stable for the rest of the transaction. You need to commit and start a new transaction if you want fresh information. Firebird always uses a transaction (and isql implicitly starts a transaction if none was started explicitly).
This is also documented in doc/README.monitoring_tables (at least in the Firebird 2.5 version):
A snapshot is created the first time any of the monitoring tables is being selected from in the given transaction and it's preserved until the transaction ends, so multiple queries (e.g. master-detail ones) will always return the consistent view of the data. In other words, the monitoring tables always behave like a snapshot (aka consistency) transaction, even if the host transaction has been started with another isolation level. To refresh the snapshot, the current transaction should be finished and the monitoring tables should be queried in the new transaction context.
(emphasis mine)
Note that depending on your monitoring needs, you should also look at the trace functionality that was introduced in Firebird 2.5.

How does azure websites with EF migrations ensure integrity when updating

The scenario is simple: using EF code first migrations, with multiple azure website instances, decent size DB like 100GB (assuming azure SQL), lots of active concurrent users..say 20k for the heck of it.
Goal: push out update, with active users, keep integrity while upgrading.
I've sifted through all the docs I can find. However the core details seem to be missing or I'm blatantly overlooking them. When Azure receives an update request via FTP/git/tfs, how does it process the update? What does it do with active users? For example, does it freeze incoming requests to all instances, let items already processing finish, upgrade/replace each instance, let EF migrations process, then let traffics start again? If it upgrades/refreshes all instances simultaneously, how does it ensure EF migrations run only once? If it refreshes instances live in a rolling upgrade process (upgrade 1 at a time with no inbound traffic freeze), how could it ensure integrity since instances in the older state would/could potentially break?
The main question, what is the real process after it receives the request to update? What are the recommendations for updating a live website?
To put it simply, it doesn't.
EF Migrations and Azure deployment are two very different beasts. Azure deployment gives you a number of options including update and staging slots, you've probably seen
Deploy a web app in Azure App Service, for other readers this is a good start point.
In General the Azure deployment model is concerned about the active connections to the IIS/Web Site stack, in general update ensures uninterrupted user access by taking the instance being deployed out of the load balancer pool and redirecting traffic to the other instances. It then cycles through the instances updating one by one.
This means that at any point in time, during an update deployment there will be multiple versions of your code running at the same time.
If your EF Model has not changed between code versions, then Azure deployment works like a charm, users won't even know that it is happening. But if you need to apply a migration as part of the migration BEWARE
In General, EF will only load the model if the code and DB versions match. It is very hard to use EF Migrations and support multiple code versions of the model at the same time
EF Migrations are largely controlled by the Database Initializer.
See Upgrade the database using migrations for details.
As a developer you get to choose how and when the database will be upgraded, but know that if you are using Mirgrations and deployment updates:
New code code will not easily run against the old data schema.
If the old code/app restarts many default initialization strategies will attempt roll the schema back, if this happens refer to point 1. ;)
If you get around the EF model loading up against the wrong version of the schema, you will experience exceptions and general failures when the code tries to use schema elements that are not there
The simplest way to manage a EF migration on a live site is to take all instances of the site down for deployments that include an EF Migration
- You can use a maintenance page or a redirect, that's up to you.
If you are going to this trouble, it is probably best to manually apply the DB update, then if it fails you can easily abort the deployment, because it hasn't started yet!
Otherwise, deploy the update and the first instance to spin up will run the migration, if the initializer has been configured to do so...
If you absolutely must have continuous deployment of both site code/content and model updates then EF migrations might not be the best tool to get started with as you will find it very restrictive OOTB for this scenario.
I was watching a "Fundamentals" course on Pluralsight and this was touched upon.
If you have 3 sites, Azure will take one offline and upgrade that, and then when ready restart it. At that point, the other 2 instances get taken off-line and your upgraded insance will start, thus running your schema changes.
When those 2 come back the EF migrations would already have been run, thus your sites are back.
In theory then it all sounds like it should work, although depending upon how much EF migrations need running, requests may be delayed.
However, the comment from the author was that in this scenario (i.e. making schema changes) you should consider if your website can run in this situation. The suggestion being that you either need to make your code work with both old and new schemas, or show a "maintenance system down page".
The summary seems to be that depending on what you are actually upgrading, this will impact and affect your choices and method of deployment.
Generally speaking if you want to support active upgrades you need to support multiple version of you application simultaneously. This is really the only way to reliably stay active while you migrate/upgrade. Also consider feature switches to scale up your conversion in a controlled manner.

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