June 2007 - Technical Rollup Mail - SQL
News
Microsoft SQL Server Code Name “Katmai”
SQL Server code name "Katmai," the next release of Microsoft SQL Server, provides a comprehensive data platform that is more secure, reliable, manageable and scalable for your mission critical applications, while enabling developers to create new applications that can store and consume any type of data on any device, and enabling all your users to make informed decisions with relevant insights.
https://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/futureversion/default.mspx
https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-09KatmaiPR.mspx
Performance and Scalability: SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition Benchmarks
SQL Server 2005 achieved the #1 price/performance result for 3TB TPC-H non-clustered benchmark. This is a record breaking TPC-H three terabyte benchmark for a database running on Microsoft Windows and an HP Integrity rx8640 Server. The recent TPC-H benchmark study with HP demonstrates Microsoft SQL Server’s ability to deliver enterprise scalability and performance enabling our customers to run large scale, mission critical applications with the best price/performance. This result is twice the size of previous SQL Server benchmarks achieved for the launch of SQL Server 2005 demonstrating that SQL Server continues to push the performance envelope. Furthermore, SQL Server 2005 outperformed the previous best result on Windows with performance of 60,359 QphH@3TB (queries per hour) compared to the previous record of 37,813 with a much better price/performance of $32.60 compared to $38.00.*
https://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/compare/benchmarks.mspx
https://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/compare/sap/sapsales.mspx
Tech·Ed 2007: Turn “doing your job” into “making your mark.”
Tech·Ed 2007, Microsoft’s premier annual conference* for IT Pros and Developers is dedicated to providing technical training, information and resources to help you maximize your Microsoft investment. For five days in June, you will interact with experts, collaborate among peers and engage in trainings focused on Microsoft’s innovative technologies to move your business forward. Let this year’s Tech·Ed be your first step to “making your mark” which you can draw from long after Tech·Ed is over.
https://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007/default.mspx
Running SQL Server on "Microsoft Windows Server Longhorn" or Microsoft Windows Vista
In an effort to provide customers with more secure products, Microsoft Windows Server "Longhorn" and Microsoft Windows Vista are supported by SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 1 (SP1), and for all other editions will be supported by SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later when it becomes available. Earlier versions of SQL Server, including SQL Server 2000 (all editions including Desktop Engine edition, a.k.a MSDE), SQL Server 7.0, and SQL Server 6.5, will not be supported on Windows Server "Longhorn" or Windows Vista. Customers running applications with these earlier versions of SQL Server should consider evaluating and upgrading to SQL Server 2005, which was designed to take advantage of the upcoming security and performance enhancements in the operating environment.
Microsoft SQL Server Release Services
The Global Release Services team within the SQL Server organization is a central team providing a variety of services to one of the biggest development organizations in the world. We drive a lot of processes and business decisions which significantly impact both, our internal operations as well as our customers world wide. This blog is intended to share some of this information with you straight from the source, drive interaction as well as to solicit your feedback on particular topics for us to make better decisions for you !
https://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseservices/default.aspx
Documents
Reducing Database Size by Using Vardecimal Storage Format
The Vardecimal storage format became available starting with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) in the Enterprise Edition. This storage format can be enabled at a table-level granularity. When enabled, SQL Server stores decimal and numeric data in the variable portion of the row instead the fixed portion. You can use vardecimal storage format to reduce the size of your database if you have tables with decimal and numeric data types. How much space you save depends on the number of decimal or numeric columns, the data distributions, and the size of the table(s). Since this is a new storage format but not a new data type, you do not need to apply any application changes to benefit from it. This white paper covers the impact of enabling vardecimal storage format on different workloads.
https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb508963.aspx
Downloads
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 / 2005 Management Pack
The SQL Server Management Pack monitors the availability and performance of SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and can issue alerts for configuration problems. Availability and performance monitoring is done using synthetic transactions. In addition, the Management Pack collects Event Log alerts and provides associated knowledge articles with additional user details, possible causes, and suggested resolutions. The Management Pack discovers Database Engines, Database Instances, and Databases and can optionally discover Database File and Database File Group objects.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver 1.2 Community Technology Preview April 2007
In its continued commitment to interoperability, Microsoft has released a new Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver with SQL Server 2005. The SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver 1.2 CTP April 2007 download is available to all SQL Server users at no additional charge, and provides access to SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 from any Java application, application server, or Java-enabled applet. This is a Type 4 JDBC driver that provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in J2EE (Java2 Enterprise Edition). This release of the JDBC Driver is JDBC 3.0 compliant and runs on the Java Development Kit (JDK) version 1.4 and higher. It has been tested against all major application servers including BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, JBoss, and Sun.
SQL Server Tables and Exchange Web Services
The SQL Server Tables and Exchange Web Services sample demonstrates a powerful integration of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 features. This integration enables you to provide data from both Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server to client applications so that the data appears as if it were stored in SQL Server.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise / Exchange Server 2007 32-bit VHD
The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalogue of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 provides built-in protection technologies to help keep the e-mail system up and running and better protected from outside threats while allowing employees to work from wherever they are using a variety of clients including Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Web Access, and mobile devices. Exchange Server 2007 makes it easier for IT to deliver these new capabilities to their organizations by making the messaging environment easier to manage and more cost efficient. Please see www.microsoft.com/exchange/preview for additional information.
.NET Rocks! - Paul Randal on SQL Server 2005 Performance and Recovery
Paul Randal started in the industry in 1994 working for DEC on the VMS file system and check/repair tools. In 1999 he moved to Microsoft to work on SQL Server, specifically on DBCC. For SQL Server 2000, he concentrated on index fragmentation (writing DBCC INDEXDEFRAG, DBCC SHOWCONTIG) and various algorithms in DBCC CHECKDB. During SQL Server 2005 development was the lead developer / manager of one the core dev teams in the Storage Engine, responsible for data access and storage (DBCC, allocation, indexes & heaps, pages / records, text / LOB storage, snapshot isolation, etc). He also spent several years rewriting DBCC CHECKDB / repair. Since SQL Server 2005 shipped, Paul has managed the Program Management team for the core Storage Engine to become more focused on customer/partner engagement and feature set definition. Paul regularly presents at conferences around the world on high-availability, disaster recovery and Storage Engine internals. His popular blog is at https://blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverstorageengine.
Readme Files for SQL Server 2005 SP2 and SQL Server 2005 SP2 Express Editions and Tools
SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) will upgrade all editions of SQL Server 2005 to SP2 except Express Edition. You must use Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) SP2 to upgrade instances of SQL Server Express to SP2. SQL Server Express SP2 can also be used to install a new instance of SQL Server Express.
SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access
Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for Access is a tool for migrating databases from Microsoft Access to Microsoft SQL Server 2005. SSMA for Access converts Access database objects to SQL Server database objects, loads those objects into SQL Server, and then migrates data from Access to SQL Server. SSMA for Access supports Access 97 - Access 2003 databases.
SQL Server Migration Assistant for Sybase ASE
SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for Sybase ASE is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Sybase ASE database to SQL Server. SSMA automates almost every aspect of the migration process including assessment, schema and data migration, business logic conversion. With SSMA, IT organizations now have the freedom to move to SQL Server and take advantage of SQL Server's exceptional security, scalability, developer productivity, and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership. SSMA for Sybase ASE consists of a client tool that you use to migrate ASE databases to SQL Server, and an extension pack that contains tables and stored procedures to support migration and functions that replace Sybase ASE system function usage in migrated databases.
Events/WebCasts
SQL 2005 Webcasts and Virtual Labs
SQL Server 2005 is data management and analysis software that delivers enhanced security, availability, and scalability to mission-critical data applications—while making them easier to develop, deploy, and manage. Choose from a wide range of live and on-demand webcasts. Or take part in a virtual lab, which allows you to cut your teeth on the new platform by experimenting with its different capabilities.
Support WebCast: How to use custom assemblies in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
This Support WebCast describes how you can use custom code in a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services report. We will cover a typical scenario where you would want to use a custom assembly in a report. The presentation simplifies and outlines all the steps to create, deploy, and troubleshoot custom assemblies that are used with Reporting Services. This presentation discusses how to use embedded code instead of a custom assembly and also discusses the pros and cons of using embedded code compared to using a custom assembly.
Support WebCast: How to use custom assemblies in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
TechNet Webcast: The Next Release of Microsoft SQL Server: Overview (Level 200) – Monday, June 04, 2007. 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
This session provides an overview of the next release of Microsoft SQL Server that is currently under development. We cover the core value proposition, major themes and scenarios, and some specific improvements. We also discuss the new development processes Microsoft is using to build this release, the release timeline, and the disclosure calendar.
TechNet Webcast: The Next Release of Microsoft SQL Server: Overview (Level 200)
Performance methodology best-practices for Siebel running on Microsoft – Friday, June 08, 2007. 9:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Yannick Germain is a Siebel professional with over 10 years of experience in software development, systems performance and scalability engineering. This experience includes eight years at Siebel Systems, three of which were spent developing application modules for the Siebel Field Service product line, and the remaining five of which were spent on Performance and Scalability engineering projects for the Siebel Enterprise product line. Yannick was frequently called upon by Siebel executives to work on escalated accounts to analyze and solve mission critical performance and scalability problems. Yannick successfully enabled Siebel Partners perform ~30,000 users high-end Benchmarks; For this work, he was awarded the highest level of recognition by Siebel executives and, most importantly, by Siebel Customers. In this webcast Yannick goes into the most valuable performance tuning and best practices for Siebel Customers running in Microsoft environments.
Performance methodology best-practices for Siebel running on Microsoft
MSDN Webcast: Building Smart Client Applications Using Synchronization Services for ADO.NET (Level 200) – Monday, June 11, 2007. 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Even in an increasingly connected world, offline applications are still a necessity. Attend this webcast to learn how you can build an offline smart client application that synchronizes a backend database with a local Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition store using the Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET.
TechNet Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (Level 200) – Monday, June 18, 2007. 9:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services includes new capabilities that enable you to deliver rich and powerful analytics to your organization. In this session, we demonstrate how you can use SQL Server Analysis Services to build a highly scalable business intelligence (BI) infrastructure that supports the analytics your business needs to improve overall performance. During the discussion, we cover the Unified Dimensional Model (UDM), proactive caching, multidimensional expressions (MDX), and new manageability enhancements.
TechNet Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (Level 200)
TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Uses SQL Server 2005 to Power a Global Forensic Data Security Tool (Level 300) – Tuesday, June 19, 2007. 9 :30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
The Microsoft Information Security team uses an internal tool called Information Security Consolidated Event Management (ICE) version 3.0 to gather forensic data from more than 85 proxy servers around the world. Powered by Microsoft SQL Server 2005, this 27-terabyte data management system collects different types of global evidence, such as inbound and outbound e-mail traffic, log-on events, and Web browsing, into a single database. Join this session to learn how ICE 3.0 provides rapid security analysis and queries, robust proxy performance analysis, and extensive troubleshooting functionality. We discuss how table-level partitions allow event processing and database loading without affecting the ongoing query activities and analysis work of security forensics engineers. Storage area networks (SAN) manage enterprise storage for ICE 3.0, and the service maintains an uptime of nearly 99.9%. A controller application dynamically launches multiple instances of Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), which seamlessly responds to changes in the volume of incoming evidence. This tool was redesigned in 2006 using SQL Server 2005. Join us for a closer look at how this SQL Server upgrade enhanced the data feed process and query response time, expanded the data retention period, and reduced manual data loading and data validations.
TechNet Webcast: Real-Time Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (Level 300) – Wednesday, June 20, 2007. 9:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
There is an increasing demand to make business intelligence (BI) real time; however, making this happen can be difficult. Join this webcast as we discuss the challenges of real-time BI and show how some obstacles can be overcome with help from new features in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, along with other components of Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Although some barriers that prevent complete real-time BI still exist, SQL Server 2005 can make your information close enough to real time to support better and faster business decisions.
TechNet Webcast: Real-Time Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (Level 300)
TechNet Webcast: Introduction to Data Mining with SQL Server 2005 (Level 200) – Monday, June 25, 2007. 9:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Join this webcast to find out how Microsoft SQL Server 2005 can help you dramatically expand your data mining capabilities. In this session, we introduce you to the possibilities of data mining and predictive analytics. Learn about the data mining process and the specific mining capabilities present in SQL Server 2005.
TechNet Webcast: Introduction to Data Mining with SQL Server 2005 (Level 200)
Momentum Webcast: Selecting the Right SQL Server 2005 Edition to Fit Your Business (Level 200) – Monday, June 25, 2007. 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is available in a variety of editions to best match the demands of your business applications. Attend this session to learn about the differences between editions of SQL Server, especially Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition, so you can avoid the common mistake of choosing the wrong edition to run your mission-critical applications. In this webcast, we present the value of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition by describing its exclusive features and benefits, and by demonstrating practical usage scenarios. Join this presentation as we compare the capabilities of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition with those available in SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition.
Momentum Webcast: Selecting the Right SQL Server 2005 Edition to Fit Your Business (Level 200)
Further on-demand webcasts are available here: https://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetsqlserver2005.mspx
New KB’s
SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition
FIX: You may receive an assertion or database corruption may occur when you use the bcp utility or the "Bulk Insert" Transact-SQL command to import data in SQL Server 2000
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=933573
FIX: Error message when you use the sp_addarticle stored procedure to add articles to an existing transactional replication publication in SQL Server 2000: “Cannot create a file when that file already exists”
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=932686
FIX: The Sqldumper.exe utility cannot generate a filtered SQL Server dump file when you use the Remote Desktop Connection service or Terminal Services to connect to a Windows 2000 Server-based computer in SQL Server 2000
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=928079
FIX: The sp_droparticle stored procedure performs very slowly if the @immediate_sync property is set to TRUE in SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=932674
SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition
FIX: Failed assertion message in the Errorlog file when you perform various operations in SQL Server 2005: "Failed Assertion = 'fFalse' Attempt to access expired blob handle (3)"
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=933766
FIX: SQL Server 2005 does not reclaim the disk space that is allocated to the temporary table if the stored procedure is stopped
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=931843
The Batch Requests/sec counter of the SQL Statistics performance object increases one time for each RPC in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936637
List of known issues when you install SQL Server 2005 on Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn"
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936302
How to use Windows Management Instrumentation in SQL Server 2005 to change the account of the SQL Server service or the password of the SQL Server service programmatically
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936492
A user who is not a member of a required role can still connect to a SQL Server 2005 database after you set the user access option for the database to RESTRICTED_USER
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=935997
After you install a 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005 on a 64-bit version of Windows, the 32-bit entries for SQL Native Client Configuration and for SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration appear in SQL Server Configuration Manager
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936491
FIX: The query performance is slow when you run a query that uses a user-defined scalar function against an instance of SQL Server 2005
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=933724
FIX: High CPU utilization by SQL Server 2005 may occur when you use NUMA architecture on a computer that has an x64-based version of SQL Server 2005 installed
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=931821
FIX: Event ID: 1 may be logged when you use a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) writer to back up a snapshot in SQL Server 2005
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=934396
FIX: When you run the "dbcc dbreindex" command or the "alter index" command, some transactions are not replicated to the subscribers in a transactional replication in SQL Server 2005
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=916706
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
FIX: Indexes that at rebuilt after you run a maintenance plan that contains the Rebuild Index task have the same Ignore Duplicate Key setting as the Ignore Duplicate Key setting of the Rebuild Index task
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936894
SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition
FIX: Error message when you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0: “Setup failed to validate specified Reporting Services Report Server”
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=935922
SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services
FIX: An access violation may occur in SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services when you try to use a 2007 Office system program to open an offline local cube
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=925000
SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
FIX: Error message when you run an MDX query in SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services: "An unexpected error occurred (file 'pffilestore.cpp', line 3267, function 'PFFileStore::HandleDataPageFault')"
https://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=932610
Security permissions that are associated with the existing roles may reset when you use the Analysis Services Deployment Wizard to deploy a SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services project