Euan Garden's BLOG
Life, the Universe, MS, VS, Testing and SQL Server
Using Excel as a source for manual Tests in VSTT
We get asked for this a lot and we are looking to address it in the future, for now Michael has a...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 05/09/2007
Analysis Services Load Simulator
This is a cool project for lots of reasons; There is a real need for this It has already been used...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 05/02/2007
FAQ: Problems installing Express SP2 on a machine with ACT! installed?
Seems like Mike has the info on whats going wrong and how long it will be before its fixed.
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 04/09/2007
FAQ: How do I query Active Directory from SQL Server?
There are several ways but the most commonly used approach of using linked servers hits ona 1000 row...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 03/22/2007
Visual Designers for Database Objects, time for more feedback.
Mairead is asking for more feedback here.
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 03/21/2007
CTP of SQL Server 2005 Best Practice Analyzer available
Paul is the PM, he made the announcement today.
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 02/22/2007
Database Diagrams, Feedback and Usage
Database Diagrams in SQL Server 2005 and VS 2005 were one of the more ahem controversial issues....
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 02/21/2007
SQL Server 2005 Sp2 Released
Ok I am being brave again and forward posting this, SP2 is done and should be available for download...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 02/19/2007
Analysis Services 2005 Performance
I think its fair to say that this 100+ page monster is the definitive SSAS 2005 Perf White paper,...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 02/15/2007
FAQ: How do I connect to Excel 12 in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
This question has been coming up a lot internally lately, short answer is: Data...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 02/08/2007
FAQ: What impact does querying a DMV have on the system perf/load?
Linchi continues his excellent series analyzing the impact of new system features in SQL Server 2005...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/29/2007
FAQ: When will there be a Best Practices Analyzer for SQl Server 2005?
Soon according to Paul.
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/23/2007
SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard/Hosting Services RTM
Nice work Dan and team, you can get it here, including some of the source. There is a link that page...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/23/2007
What impact does the default trace/page checksumming have on SQL Server 2005 Performance?
When it was announced that there was a default trace that was on in SQL Server 2005 lots of people...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/18/2007
SQL Server Compact Edition launches (finally)
I mean SQL Server CE, SQL Server Mobile, SQL Server Everywhere...oh well you get the idea. Lots of...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/16/2007
Want to know about the SQL Server Plan Cache?
and how its managed, and how its different in RTM, SP1 and SP2? Start here, it took me 2 nights to...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/16/2007
SQL Express for Absolute Beginners
No not a reference to the movie but a great set of videos to help folks get started with SSE. You...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/04/2007
Outstanding Publishing Wizard Tutorial
Scott Guthrie has produced a great tutorial in using the CTP of the Publishing Wizard over here. I...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/03/2007
Top Posts for 2006
Welcome to 2007! As seems to be the trend here is the list of most popular posts for the last year,...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 01/01/2007
Final CTP of SQL Server 2005 SP2
Just in time for Christmas get it here. This will be the last CTP of SP2 so get testing and have a...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 12/24/2006
New Best Practices Site + 2 x SQL 2005 Systems > 200TB
I was reading through some of the PASS slides from MS Presenters that were shared out internally....
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 12/12/2006
Data Dude is now available to MSDN customers
You can get it here, more details from Gert here Congrats to the team, its less than 2 years since...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 12/11/2006
FAQ: SQL Server and Sequence Objects/Generators
SQL Server 2005 includes a lot of changes to help make moving from Oracle to SQL Server easier,...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 12/08/2006
SQL Server 2005, SP2 CTP Available
Get it while its hot! Whats New Download Page (this will be live later today) I know a lot of people...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 11/07/2006
SQL Server Hosting Toolkit CTP available
Dan announced this a little while back here. One of the challenges that we did not really come up...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 10/31/2006
Lots of Data Dude (and Dudette) action
The final CTP of DataDude is now live, Gert blogged lots of info here. Matt clarifies the licensing...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 10/24/2006
FAQ: What happens when SQL Express is installed on a machine with 2 Procs or more than 1GB of RAM
Remember SQL Express has a limitation of a single proc and 1GB of RAM (for the Buffer Pool), so can...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 10/03/2006
FAQ: How do I add new licenses to SQL Server 2005 or How do I change the licensing mode
In previous versions of SQL Server there was a licensing app that was integrated into control panel...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 09/28/2006
Cool new BLOG from SQL Server Customer Support Team
The folks from CSS have a huge amount of knowledge and while there have been a couple of bloggers I...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 09/26/2006
Actioning Feedback: Reporting Services "All"
I'm sad, I admit there are sometimes very small things that get added to products that get me...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 09/21/2006
Reports in Management Studio
One of the cooler features in SSMS is the vast amount of info thats integrated via the summary page...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 09/07/2006
Hows your join theory?
I linked to Craig's blog when he started but he has had a series of CRACKING posts on joins. I...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 08/24/2006
Data Dude CTP 5 is out
In case you missed the 1,000s of other posts you can find it here. Highlights so far (for me at...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 08/23/2006
Time to vote on Made in Express
Have you been following Made In Express? If not then its still ok, the 12 finalists are done and now...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 08/22/2006
The final word(for now) on Import/Export
The folks at SQLTeam have done some analysis on different ways of importing text files, you can read...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/27/2006
The BOL train keeps rolling
The 3rd update to SQL Server 2005 Books On Line(BOL) is now available here, also the online version...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/25/2006
Test Post for Technorati
Technorati Profile
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/25/2006
FAQ: How do I import/export data with SQL Express
As a follow up to Tuesdays post, lets take a look at how this changes with SQL Express. (as always a...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/20/2006
FAQ (With a little history), How do I copy tables with Keys and constraints from one Server/DB to another Server/db?
I see this question come up in 2 main contexts, one is express users the other is users who thought...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/18/2006
Data Dude CTP 4 is out in the wild
Get it while its hot!
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/13/2006
FAQ, Why does SSMS take 45s to start up?
This is not the answer to all occurences of the issue but try the following; Shut down SSMS. Go into...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/11/2006
A REAL monster
The folks on the BI Practices Team(now merged in with the SQL Server Perf Engineering Team) have...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/06/2006
New (on fire) Blog SQL Server Everywhere Edition
The SQL Everywhere guys have started blogging in fine style with 3 good posts today. You can read...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 07/04/2006
I/O subsystem requirements for the tempdb database
I've been catching up on my KB reading, I was prompted to go read this article by Robert Dorr, one...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 06/29/2006
The future of Data Access/Programability
When Paul starting talking about Microsofts vision for data a while back one of the key pillars was...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 06/27/2006
SQL Server 2005/2000 JDBC v1.1 CTP
Can be found here. Why is this especially interesting? well it includes the following; Bug fixes...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 06/26/2006
FAQ: Do I have to have a named SQL Express instance to use Data Dude?
No And now the explanation. I have seen a fair number of folks having problems getting data dude...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 06/22/2006
Migration CTPs
When we first released the Oracle Migration Assistant we had a ton of requests for other platforms....
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 06/20/2006
Tech Ed SQL Goodies
Data Dude CTP bits can be got here, its an .img file which I a cd image, hence needs either exploded...
Author: Euan Garden - MSFT Date: 06/15/2006