Welcome to the August WARDY IT Solutions SQL Server Newsletter

The second half of 2007 is looking to be a bumper half for SQL Server. The Community Technology Previews (CTP's) for SQL Server 2008 are starting to be regularly released and the July CTP can be downloaded from here. The second half of the year also signals the start of the conference season and there are two SQL Server events that you should make sure you don't miss.

First off there is the PASS Community Summit in Denver, Colorado and then the second annual SQL Server Down Under Code Camp. The SQL Server Down Under Code Camp is the largest SQL Server event in Australia and is once again being held at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. This year Kevin Kline is a special guest presenter and will be presenting two sessions, Bare Metal SQL Tuning and Top Ten Mistakes for DBAs. If you have not already secured your spot for the SQL Server Down Under Code Camp make sure you do soon, as places are filling fast.

If you are in Las Vegas or Salt Lake City in the second week of September make sure you look out for the WARDY IT SQL Server road trip. As I will be presenting at both the Las Vegas and the Utah County SQL Server User Groups on the way to the PASS Community Summit.

Chuck Boyce and I have just finished recording the second AskaSQLGuru Podcast with SQL Server MVP and New York City SQL Server User Group leaders Joe Lax and Linchi Shea. The iTunes feed for this Podcast can be found here .

Don't forget to check out SQL Server Aggregator, your one stop shop for all of the best blogs on SQL Server.

Happy Reading

Peter Ward

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WARDY IT Community Dinner

The WARDY IT Community Dinner is a casual event for IT professionals in South East Queensland. It is a fun way to meet new people and find out how other IT professionals are dealing with the challenges that we face every day. As I will be presenting at the PASS Community Summit there will be no September WARDY IT Community Dinner.

The October WARDY IT Community Dinner is being held at Fiasco's Steakhouse at the Morrison Hotel on Monday the 8th of October. Add this event to your Outlook Calendar.

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September SQL Server User Groups

At the September QLD SQL Server User Group, Jeff Wharton will be presenting a session titled SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition: A DBA's Primer. For more details refer to here.

There will also be an additional QSSUG event on Tuesday the 9th of October as Kevin Kline will be presenting a special session on Surviving the Data Avalanche.

At the September Canberra SQL Server User Group, Athena Pawlowski will be providing an introduction to the new Microsoft certifications and Jeff Wharton will be presenting a session titled SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition: A DBA's Primer. For more details refer to here.

For details of SQL Server User Group events in other Australian cities refer to the Australian SQL Server User Groups. Of special note is that a new SQL Server User Group is about to start in Hobart. For more details about this new User Group refer to here.

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SQL Delta

SQL Delta is a database compare and synchronization tool that performs both structure and data comparisons of SQL Server 7, 2000 and 2005 databases all from the one tool. The great thing about this tool versus many of the other competitors in the market place is that you only need to purchase one tool instead of a separate tool to perform schema and data comparison. For more details regarding SQL Delta refer to here.

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Row and Cell Level Security

In high security environments there is often a need to have granular control over who can see particular rows or columns in a table. The following white paper provides an overview of how this granular level of security can be achieved with SQL Server 2005 by using a design that provides row and cell level security. The white paper can be downloaded from here.

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Monitoring Gadget

Windows Vista has introduced Sidebar Gadgets that can be used to monitor anything from stock prices to the weather in your next holiday destination. Conchango has recently release a Gadget that can be used to monitor SQL Server. More details regarding the Gadget can be found here.

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Database Design and Management Degree

If you are thinking about sitting the MCITP exams for SQL Server have you ever thought about combing the exams with university study in order to a achieve a Master of Database Design and Management? For more details on how you can achieve a Masters degree with as little as six subjects refer to here.

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CTP LiveMeeting Events

A series of LiveMeeting events are available for download for many of the new features in SQL server 2008 including Star Join Query Optimizations and Table Valued Parameters. The LiveMeeting events for the June CTP are available for download from here and for the July CTP from here.

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Inside SQL Server 2005

The fourth and final volume of the Inside SQL Server 2005 series has been completed and is now available for pre-order. The final volume focuses on Query Tuning and Optimization. For more details on the Inside SQL Server 2005 series refer to here.

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Security Best Practices

Microsoft has recently released a white paper that covers the operational and administrative tasks for SQL Server 2005 to ensure a more secure SQL Server system. This white paper can be downloaded from here.

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SQL Server Virtual DBA

Virtual DBA is a remote database administration service designed by WARDY IT Solutions to assist organisations with the management of Microsoft SQL Server. Our Virtual DBA service provides a cost effective solution to meet the day-to-day challenges of availability, performance and administration of Microsoft SQL Server databases. To find out more about the benefits of a Virtual DBA refer to here.

Something you may not know is that our Virtual DBA service can be utilised for phone and email support. So, if your organisation just needs someone that they can call on for advice then why not use a Virtual DBA?

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