March 2007 - Posts

SQL Server 2005 Virtual Labs

It's simple—no complex setup or installation is required to try out Microsoft SQL Server 2005. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks anytime.

 

 Various topics:

T-SQL, Reporting Services, Integration Services, Service Broker and many more labs.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/traincert/virtuallab/sql2005.mspx

 

SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Virtual Labs:

·         Upgrading to Reporting Services 2005

·         Migrating DTS to SSIS

·         Upgrading Analysis Services 2005

·         Upgrading the relational engine

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/aa740409.aspx

 

More Virtual Labs about XML, Web Services and ADO.NET

 

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032302652&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

 

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/aa740376.aspx

 

 Enjoy,

Itay Braun

Premier Field Engineer - SQL Server

Microsoft Services - UK

E-Mail: itayb@microsoft.com

Mobile: +44-796-928-9996

Veni         Vidi         Fixit

 

Posted 30 March 2007 09:58 PM by ThePremiers | no comments
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White Papers about SQL Server 2000/2005

Hi

Here is a long list of many white papers about SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005:

Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DTA) in SQL Server 2005, Database Mirroring, I/O basic, 64 bit, working with tempdb, recompilation and many more.

enjoy.

http://www.sqlskills.com/whitepapers.asp

 

Kind regards,

Itay Braun

Premier Field Engineer - SQL Server

Microsoft Services - UK

E-Mail: itayb@microsoft.com

Mobile: +44-796-928-9996

Veni         Vidi         Fixit

 

Posted 29 March 2007 03:20 PM by ThePremiers | no comments
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How to compare the configuration of two SQL 2005 Servers?

It is important to compare the configuration of two servers, for ex. The Test and the production servers, or more important, the production and a disaster recovery stand by server.

So, how can I compare the configuration of two SQL Servers?

Well, the answer starts with the white paper SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices - Operational and Administrative Tasks (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/sql2005secbestpract.mspx)

 I mentioned this document in one of my previous posts

 

Step 1 -  Script the configuration of the servers to file

I quote from the document:

The SQL Server Surface Area Configuration command-line interface, sac.exe ("C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sac.exe"), permits you to import and export settings. This enables you to standardize the configuration of a group of SQL Server 2005 instances. You can import and export settings on a per-instance basis and also on a per-service basis by using command-line parameters.

For a list of command-line parameters, use the -? command-line option. You must have sysadmin privilege to use this utility.

 

The following code is an example of exporting all settings from the default instance of SQL Server on server1.

 

sac out server1.out –S server1 –U admin –I MSSQLSERVER

 

Step 2 – compare the two XML files using any text comparison utility

 

Cheers,

 

Itay Braun

Premier Field Engineer - SQL Server

Microsoft Services - UK

E-Mail: itayb@microsoft.com

Mobile: +44-796-928-9996

Veni         Vidi         Fixit

 

 

Posted 25 March 2007 03:39 PM by ThePremiers | no comments
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TechNet Webcast: SQL Server 2005 SP2 Tools and Improvements (Level 200)

Event Overview

In this webcast, we discuss the broad range of tools available for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2). If you are a database administrator or IT professional who is new to SQL Server 2005 or would like to see a few of the great scenarios enabled by SP2, you should attend this session. We cover several tools and features that are new or improved in SP2, including Management Studio, Best Practices Analyzer, multi-instance maintenance plans, custom reports, script generation, and the Copy Database Wizard.

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032330865&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US&flag=1

 

Cheers,

Itay Braun  

Premier Field Engineer - SQL Server

Microsoft Services - UK

E-Mail: itayb@microsoft.com

Mobile: +44-796-928-9996

Veni         Vidi         Fixit

 

Posted 21 March 2007 02:57 PM by ThePremiers | no comments
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SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices

FYI

Microsft recently published a document about SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices.

You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/sql2005secbestpract.mspx

And here are some relevant webcasts:

Measuring the Security Quality of SQL Server 2005 - Eric Ogren, Security Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group

Authentication and Authorization

Encryption

Execution Context

SQL Server Security Best Practices

 

Enjoy,

Itay Braun

Premier Field Engineer - SQL Server

Microsoft Services - UK

E-Mail: itayb@microsoft.com

Mobile: +44-796-928-9996

Veni         Vidi         Fixit

 

Posted 19 March 2007 06:34 PM by ThePremiers | 1 comment(s)
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Cumulative hotfix package (build 3152) for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 is available

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 hotfixes are created for specific SQL Server service packs. You must apply a SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) hotfix to an installation of SQL Server 2005 SP2. By default, any hotfix that is provided in a SQL Server service pack is included in the next SQL Server service pack.

SQL Server 2005 SP2 includes all the SQL Server 2005 hotfixes up to and including build 9.0.2211. For more information about which SQL Server 2005 hotfixes are included in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

921896 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921896/) A list of the bugs that are fixed in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2

Cumulative hotfix package (build 3152) for SQL Server 2005 SP2 contains the SQL Server 2005 hotfixes that were not included in SQL Server 2005 SP2. This build approximately corresponds to build 9.0.2214 through build 9.0.2219.

Note This hotfix rollup build is also known as build 3152.

 Our recommendation to customers is to install this QFE rollup *ONLY* if they require any of the fixes that are in it. Customers who only need the DB maint fix should install either the re-released SP2 (if they haven’t upgraded to SP2 yet) or the SP2 GDR (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933508) if they downloaded SQL Server SP2 before March 05, 2007 and installed that download patch.

 Here is the link:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;933097

 

Posted 15 March 2007 01:52 PM by ThePremiers | no comments
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Custom SQL Server Administrative Reports - Part I

Custom Administrative Report 

As you know Microsoft just released set of reports as part of the “Performance Dashboard”. These reports could be used on SQL Server 2005 SP2 only.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1D3A4A0D-7E0C-4730-8204-E419218C1EFC&displaylang=en

 

The "Performance Dashboard" is a good example of custome administrative reports. Of course you can  use other custom reports in the Management Studio.

 

Report 1 - Last Full Backup for each database 

The report attached show a list of the databases and their last full backup date. If the last full backup was more than 7 days ago then the database name turns red, else it turns green.

The query excludes the following databases: Northwind, pubs, tenpdb, AdventureWorks, AdventureWorksdb, model.

 

How to use it?

Save the RDL file on your machine. You should create a folder for the reports. For ex.

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\CustomReports".

Right click on an SQL Server node in the Object Browser (the node can be SQL Server 2000 as well), click on Reports, Custom Reports, and browse to the location of the RDL file.

This is it, the Management Studio can run the report, you don’t need Reporting Services server for that.

 Soon I’ll upload another report about database properties.

It is just a first version so please let me know if you found any bug.

I hope others will share their reports / queries with us.

 

What Next?

Report 2 - databases best practice (when something is not on the "best practice mode" the databases turn red with explanation what's wrong)

 

Cheers,

Itay Braun

Premier Field Engineer - SQL Server

Microsoft Services - UK

E-Mail: itayb@microsoft.com

Mobile: +44-796-928-9996

Veni         Vidi         Fixit

 

 

Posted 13 March 2007 07:21 PM by ThePremiers | no comments
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Live Meeting on Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals (Data Dude)

We are running a Live Meeting for customers and partners on the benefits and virtues of Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals.

The meeting will take place on 28 March 2007, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m and will be delivered by our VSTS Technical Specialists, Neil Kidd & Richard Erwin.

This Live Meeting will provide an introduction to the product features and highlight the benefits it can bring to a development organisation. Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals delivers a market-shifting database development product designed to manage database change, improve software quality through database testing and bring the benefits of Visual Studio Team System and life-cycle development to the database professional. It integrates fully with SQL Server 2005 (and will also work with SQL Server 2000)

Please promote this Live Meeting to your customers. By clicking on the link they can add the appointment to their dairy and join the meeting at the appropriate time.

This is a great way to scale our customer messaging and will help us qualify customer opportunities.

 

See the details at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/events/webcasts.aspx

 

This Live Meeting is technical in it’s nature and is targeted at developers, architects, testers, project managers and database professionals.

 

Any questions – please ask.

Posted 08 March 2007 10:48 AM by ThePremiers | no comments
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SQL Server 2005 SP2 - all the answers in KB 933508

Hello all.

I guess by now you know there is a small problem with the maintenance plans after installing SP2.

For more details on the problem and how to get the fix:

KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933508

 

For customer that installed the original SQL Server 2005 SP2 released on Feb. 19th, 2007:

·         Please install the General Distribution Release (GDR) on top of that build to fix the problem.  No un-installation of the old SP2 is needed.

·         GDR download location: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=e2c358a1-ecc4-4c49-8f65-daa6b7800eec&displaylang=en.

·         This will be available on Windows Update tomorrow. 

For customers that have not upgraded to SQL Server 2005 SP2 official release:

·         We released the refreshed SQL 2005 SP2 at Microsoft Download Center last night (March 5th, 2007):

·         http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d07219b2-1e23-49c8-8f0c-63fa18f26d3a&DisplayLang=en

·         This SP2 (9.00.3042.00) includes the fix for the database maintenance job problem identified in the original SP2 build which was released on Feb. 19th, 2007.

Thanks,  

Itay Braun

Posted 07 March 2007 11:20 AM by ThePremiers | no comments
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