Aggregated Posts (sorted by date)
Support for SQL Server on Hyper-V
Abstract from Carpe Datum (Indexed 2008-08-27):
Many of us use SQL Server in a virtual environment, but as you know it's been difficult to find out what the support policy is for that, depending on the Virtual Environment. Well, for Hyper-V, there's no question: It has support. To find out exactly...(read more)[Image]
Using Locking Like Synchronization Object
Abstract from PSS SQL Server Engineers (Indexed 2008-08-27):
This post is more of a T-SQL trick and NOT a recommendation practice, but since I addressed this in a recent customer case I thought I would share it. Problem: Application needs to lock a row for the duration of the transaction and ensure no data from the row can be read by another user under read committed isolation. Clearly you can see the downside to concurrency and why I would not recommend this design. However, this customer needed to support an application that was...(truncated)...
Why you should read the Release Notes for SQL Server 2008
Abstract from PSS SQL Server Engineers (Indexed 2008-08-26):
Do the release notes really ever contain anything that can help you with your deployment of a product? Well in the case of SQL Server 2008, the answer is YES. Here are the following benefits for using the Releases Notes which can be found at the following direct link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/9/e/49eeb41a-a769-4...(truncated)... or by simply performing a Live Search of "SQL Server 2008 Release Notes": 1) Details about the dependency on Visual Studio 2008 SP1 in a nice ta...(truncated)...
SQL Server 2008, Report Builder
Abstract from Euan Gardens BLOG (Indexed 2008-08-25):
Ok so not everything for SQL Server 2008 is available yet, Report Builder is going to have a lag, you can find RC 1 here. This should work with RTM SQL 2008. Here are some of the changes from the last RC;Easy to use wizards for creating table, matrix and chart data regions. Support for directly opening and editing reports stored on the report server.Support for using server resources such as shared data sources. A query designer for Microsoft SQL Server data sources.Enhancements to the Report Bu...(truncated)...
SQL Server Express 2008, Advanced Services and Tools now available
Abstract from Euan Gardens BLOG (Indexed 2008-08-25):
Get it here.That should not be all the pieces of SQL Server 2008 available.[Image]
MOM 2005 Management Pack for SQL Server 2008 is Available
Abstract from Carpe Datum (Indexed 2008-08-25):
We've completed the work on the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) "Management Pack" for SQL Server 2008. MOM allows you to monitor and manage Microsoft and even other vendor's servers, so if you have this software in your shop you can download...(read more)[Image]
Report Builder 2.0 - RC1 Release
Abstract from SQL Server Reporting Services Team Blog (Indexed 2008-08-25):
[Image]Report Builder 2.0 RC1 is now available on Microsoft Download Center. Use this link for download. RC1 delivers improvements in the following areas compared to RC0:Easy to use wizards for creating table, matrix and chart data regions. Support for directly opening and editing reports stored on the report server.Support for using server resources such as shared data sources.A query designer for Microsoft SQL Server data sources.Enhancements to the Report Builder 2.0 ribbon. Please direct y...(truncated)...
IsNumeric Returns (1/TRUE) and I Expected (0/FALSE)
Abstract from PSS SQL Server Engineers (Indexed 2008-08-25):
The string '100,200,300' has fooled many a customer and support engineer alike. select cast('100,200,300' as bigint) Msg 8114, Level 16, State 5, Line 1 Error converting data type varchar to bigint. One might argue that this is a bigint value. However, the T-SQL parser does not allow comma separators in a bigint conversion so you get the proceeding error. So why would IsNumeric return a 1 for the value. The simple answer is a money value. Commas are allow...(truncated)...
FAQ: Switching between SQL Server 2008 edtions
Abstract from SQL Server Express WebLog (Indexed 2008-08-24):
There is an extra step that you need to take when upgrading from one edition of SQL Server 2008 to another, for example when upgrading from Express to Express with Tools. This extra step is called Edition Upgrade (sometimes SKU Upgrade) and the net result is that you have to run the install wizard twice when upgrading an existing instance to a different edition.Why did we do it?I don't have all the technical details here (I'm not a setup guy) but the basic deal is that the feature tree you see w...(truncated)...
Updates (fixes) to sp_helpindex2
Abstract from Kimberly Tripp (Indexed 2008-08-24):
I first posted an update to sp_helpindex here. My version of sp_helpindex was solely to expand what sp_helpindex showed and adds 1 or 2 things based on version: for SQL2005+ it adds included columns and for SQL2008 it also adds the filter predicate. So, there were two versions of sp_helpindex2 depending on which verison you're using. A lot of folks like the changes to this sp but, alas, it had a bug (or two :) and in fact, I found a few others when I went ba...(truncated)...
Auto update statistics and auto create statistics - should you leave them on and/or turn them on??
Abstract from Kimberly Tripp (Indexed 2008-08-24):
YES!!! OK, well, I guess I should be more specific because as in most things in SQL Server, the real answer is "it depends". And for these two options, it depends mostly on your SQL Server version. Since SQL Server 7.0, the way that auto update works, has changed (much so for the better!!). So, if you're in SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008, I would say most definitely - leave these ON (or ...(truncated)...
Installing Data Dude CTP16 with SQL 2008 and Visual Studio
Abstract from Kimberly Tripp (Indexed 2008-08-24):
OK, so SQL Server 2008 came out *BEFORE* Visual Studio SP1 but VSSP1 was required (this was a bit annoying and created a lot of confusion/emails/newsgroup posts, etc.) but luckily VSSP1 came out only a couple of days after SQL Server 2008 RTM'ed. As for Data Dude, well, it's not RTM'ing until later this year (I think there will be one more release - probably an RC0 - before RTM) but they've been pushing out various CTPs... so, what works with what and how th...(truncated)...
SQL Server 2008 fails to send database mail, Sparse columns with filtered indexes, Upcoming Events, and - as usual - catching up (i.e. cookies)!
Abstract from Kimberly Tripp (Indexed 2008-08-24):
OK, so, I don't blog very often. I don't know what it is... I think it's that I feel like I always need to blog huge posts and the thought of writing my huge post makes me not want to blog... so, sometimes my time-between-blogging (TBB :) is long. I'm going to turn over a new leaf (no, really... I'm *really* going to try this time!!) and I'm going to try and write smaller posts and more of them. And, yes, don't worry, I'll still write the long in-depth ones ...(truncated)...
The SQL Express 2008 family is getting bigger
Abstract from SQL Server Express WebLog (Indexed 2008-08-23):
We've released SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools (a new edition for 2008) and SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services to the web. You can find information comparing the three editions of SQL Express in my recent blog post. You can find links to download any of the three editions of SQL Express from the Express web site. For those of you looking for Management Studio Express, you can install it from either SQL Express with Tools or SQL Express Advanced; there will not be a separet downloa...(truncated)...
SQL Server: Windows Groups, default schemas, and other properties
Abstract from Laurentiu Cristofors blog (Indexed 2008-08-22):
Exceptions are dangerous because people like to simplify their thinking process using rules, so exceptions always carry the risk of being overlooked. In security, exceptions are a bad thing because they make the model more complex and complex systems can break in more ways than simple systems, thus being harder to analyze and secure.Windows Groups are an exception in the SQL Server security model. You can quickly infer my opinion about them from the above paragraph. At Windows OS level they beha...(truncated)...
How to create an autonomous transaction in SQL Server 2008
Abstract from Microsoft SQL ISV Program Management Team (Indexed 2008-08-22):
I have been asked by many customers and partners, especially those migrating from Oracle, this question: how to create an autonomous transaction in SQL Server? It turns out to be a tricky thing to do since SQL Server doesn't have built-in autonomous transaction support like Oracle. An Autonomous transaction is essentially a nested transaction where the inner transaction is not affected by the state of the outer transaction. In other words, you can leave the context of current transaction (outer ...(truncated)...
Dynamic Partition Elimination Performance
Abstract from Craig Freedmans WebLog (Indexed 2008-08-22):
In this post on partitioned tables, I mentioned that SQL Server 2008 has a much more efficient implementation of dynamic partition elimination as compared to SQL Server 2005. In response, a reader posted this comment asking how much dynamic partition elimination really costs in SQL Server 2005. While I was sure that the answer is not much, I nonetheless decided to measure it and find out. I wrote the following stored procedure which creates a table with the specified number of partitions:CREAT...(truncated)...
REDIST
Abstract from Data Dude (Indexed 2008-08-22):
I got lots of questions based on my last post regarding the parser and script generator and the ability to redistribute the bits. If you own an official copy of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR you are allowed to redistribute these bits as described in the in the redist file that we install. %ProgramFiles%Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0VSTSDBredist-enu.txt REDIST-ENU.TXT Subject to the license terms for the software, you may redistribute the files (unmodified) lis...(truncated)...
How to create an autonomous transaction in SQL Server 2008
Abstract from SQL Programmability & API Development Team Blog (Indexed 2008-08-22):
I have been asked by many customers and partners, especially those migrating from Oracle, this question: how to create an autonomous transaction in SQL Server? It turns out to be a tricky thing to do since SQL Server doesn't have built-in autonomous transaction support like Oracle. An Autonomous transaction is essentially a nested transaction where the inner transaction is not affected by the state of the outer transaction. In other words, you can leave the context of current transaction (outer ...(truncated)...
SSIS: Case sensitive SQL Server configurations
Abstract from SSIS Junkie (Indexed 2008-08-22):
I just received an email from Michael Groh who had a warning about using SQL Server configurations in SSIS and he suggested I post about it on my blog which I'm more than happy to do. Here's what Michael had to say: We finally tracked down a really vexing problem with configurations in a simple SSIS package. The package populates a number of variables from the SSISconfig.ssis_configurations table. We noticed that, after moving the configuration data to another db server, all of the v...(truncated)...
Reporter Network