Microsoft and HP have announced another appliance, called the Database Consolidation Appliance (DBC) (see my blog about the other two appliances). In short, this appliance consolidates databases into a single, virtual environment. In more detail: Many customers continue to struggle with … Continue reading →
Some announcements and notes from SQL PASS Summit 2011, going on this week: It was announced that the official name of the SQL Server “Denali” product is SQL Server 2012 and will be released in the first half of the year 2012. There … Continue reading →
Here is a quick example of when using temporary tables will give you a big performance gain. I recently was given this query to improve, as it was taking over 15 hours to run: SELECT * FROM ( SELECT * … Continue reading →
If you are the decision maker in your company and you are tasked with purchasing one or more servers to be used solely for SQL Server and solely as a data warehouse, be aware there are options outside of the usual … Continue reading →
Microsoft has made available SQL Server appliances and reference architectures that allow customers to deploy data warehouse (DW), business intelligence (BI) and database consolidation solutions in a very short time, with all the components pre-configured and pre-optimized. These appliances include all the … Continue reading →
All the videos for the sessions at 24 Hours of PASS are available for free. Check the session schedule for a complete list. Some great stuff!
Continue reading →As a SQL Server DBA, usually the largest databases in size and in number of users that I had to manage was an ERP database, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX. And because these types of database typically have a lot of users, database blocking … Continue reading →
Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), formally called by its code name “Project Madison”, is an edition of Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 R2 that was released in December 2010. PDW is Microsoft’s reworking of the DatAllegro Inc. massive parallel processing (MPP) product … Continue reading →
Replaying multiple threads of a captured trace in SQL Profiler is difficult, and you are limited to replaying the workload from a single computer. Distributed Replay is a new multi-threaded replay utility in Denali that solves this problem by allowing you … Continue reading →
Project Apollo is a new feature in CTP3 of SQL Server 2012 (code name of “Denali”) that enables a new columnstore index that offers 10-100x performance improvements for a star join or similar query. Apollo brings together the in-memory columnstore … Continue reading →
Here is a got-ya that happened to me. In SQL Server I want to generate a script of all the tables in case I need to re-create them. This is usually the case in a development environment when I’m building … Continue reading →
According to the post SQL Server “Denali” Experts–We Need You! that asks for your feedback on the Microsoft certifications for the next version of SQL Server, there will be seven exams: Four certification exams are planned for SQL Server 2012, code … Continue reading →
As I play with the recently released CTP3 of SQL Server 2012, code name of Denali, I wanted to point something out about installing SSAS, since there is now two “modes” you can choose from due to the the new BI Semantic Model … Continue reading →
Microsoft has released the final build of SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1. It includes fixes from SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM Cumulative Updates 1 through 6, and some new features introduced since those cumulative updates. Release notes for SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 is available here. SP1 adds several … Continue reading →
CTP3 of SQL Server Code 2012, code name “Denali”, was made available for download this morning. You can download the 32-bit and 64-bit versions here. Official announcement from the SQL Server team blog and the announcement from the Analysis Services … Continue reading →
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), codename “Juneau”, is the name for the new SQL Server Development Tool to be released along with the next version of SQL Server 2012, codenamed “Denali“. Its purpose is to provide a single development environment for … Continue reading →
OK, since this conference in is England, it’s a little harder to get to compared to TechEd. No matter, all the videos for this conference are online (65 of them). Take a look at the recorded sessions at http://sqlbits.com/content/Event8. All … Continue reading →
At the recent TechEd North America 2011 conference, details on the next version of SQL Server 2012 (codename “Denali”) were released. Part of those details were an update on the SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) roadmap. The main new feature in … Continue reading →
SQLdiag is a diagnostics collection utility to collect logs and data files from SQL Server that you can use to monitor your servers over time or troubleshoot specific problems with your servers. SQLdiag can collect data from: Windows performance logs, Windows event … Continue reading →
While nothing beats going to a conference, the next best thing is to watch the recorded sessions. Fortunately, Microsoft has posted ALL the session videos for Tech·Ed North America 2011 and they are available for free! Here is the list … Continue reading →