Goals for 2011
After getting tagged by Denis Gobo, I put my 2011 goals down on paper.
Monthly Archive: December 2010
Identifying Key and RID Lookup Issues and How to Resolve
Tip : Identifying Key and RID Lookup Issues and How to Resolve
SSMS Tools Pack now supports Denali CTP1
Earlier today, Mladen Prajdić (blog | twitter) released an updated version of his SSMS Tools Pack (v.1.9.4), a free add-in for Management Studio that provides a ton of helpful functionality that isn't available with...
Cumulative Update #1 for SQL Server 2005 SP4
Well, much quicker than I would have suspected, the SQL Server Release Services team has incorporated all of the fixes in 2005 SP3's CU #12 into the first CU for SP4. Thanks to Chris...
SQL Sentry Plan Explorer : Version 1.1!
Last week, Microsoft offered up an early Christmas present: SQL Server 2005 SP4. This week, it's SQL Sentry's turn to play Santa Claus: several new features and fixes have been packaged up into SQL...
Cumulative Updates for SQL Server 2005 SP3 and 2008 R2 are available
After releasing SQL Server 2005 SP4 on Friday (you can read more about it here), the release services team did not hang up their hats for the Christmas holiday, but continued working on other...
The curious case(s) of the Microsoft product naming department
I talk about some questionable choices by the SQL Server naming committee.
SQL Server v.Next (Denali) : Metadata enhancements
See some new metadata-related features introduced in SQL Server 2012.
SQL Server 2005 SP4 is here!
Yes, the day has finally arrived, and a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Typically when Microsoft promises a release in Qx or Hx, the software comes on the last or second last day...
Slide Deck & Demos : Charlotte SQL Server User Group, 2010-12-15
On Wednesday I presented my "What's New in Denali" presentation in Charlotte, NC. Attached is a .zip file containing the PowerPoint presentation, as well as the scripts used in the demos and some sample...
What permissions are required for SET IDENTITY_INSERT ON?
Some older versions of SQL Server documentation were not very precise about the permissions required to change a table's IDENTITY_INSERT setting.
The old "do as I say, not as I do" problem
Sometimes, Microsoft's documentation – and the occasional comment in their own code – doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence.
T-SQL Tuesday #13 : Business Expectations
This month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Steve Jones (@way0utwest) over at SQLServerCentral. For some history on T-SQL Tuesday, see Adam Machanic's posts here and here. The topic this time is summarized as:...
Ola Hallengren adds STATISTICS support to his solution
Last week, Ola published a very useful update to his Backup, Integrity Check and Index Optimization scripts: the solution now supports updating statistics. There are several options, such as only updating when the data...
SQL Server v.Next (Denali) : Deriving sets using SEQUENCE
One complaint about SEQUENCE is that there is no simple construct such as NEXT (@n) VALUES FOR so that you could get a range of SEQUENCE values as a set. In a previous post...
SQL Server v.Next (Denali) : More on contained databases and "contained users"
One of the reasons for contained databases (see my previous post) is to allow for a more seamless transition when moving a database from one server to another. One of the biggest complications in...
Slides : Philly SSUG, 2010-12-08
Attached are the slides and samples from my presentation to the Philadelphia SQL Server User Group on December 8 (Denali_PSSUG_20101208.zip). Please let me know if you have any problems. File Attachment: Denali_PSSUG_20101208.zip
SQL Server v.Next (Denali) : Another SSMS bug that should be fixed
Sorry to call this out in a separate post (I talked about a bunch of SSMS Connect items the other day), but Aaron Nelson (blog | twitter) jogged my memory today about an issue...