Loads of SQL Server tips as well as all the latest SQL Server news brought to you by Brisbane's Leading SQL Server Consultants

Newsletter Issue #29
In this issue:

WARDY IT Community Dinner
July SQL Server User Groups
Tech-Ed Influencers Party
SQL Server Virtual Labs
Indexed Views
SQLQueryStress Tool
Post SP2 Builds
Analysis Services Stored Procedure Project
DMV StatsTool
SQL Server Virtual DBA

Did you know?

Peter Ward will be presenting at the SQL Server Society of Las Vegas on Tuesday the 11th of September

 

Peter Ward will be presenting at the Utah County SQL Server User Group on Friday the 14th of September

On top of the announcement in last month's SQL Server newsletter, that WARDY IT Solutions has been awarded as a Microsoft Certified Partner, I am proud to announce that this month WARDY IT Solutions has been awarded as a Microsoft Small Business Specialist. A big thank you to all of our customers for making this possible and to Jeff Wharton for his tireless efforts.  Jeff Wharton is WARDY IT Solutions Chief Solutions Architect who has been working hard since joining WARDY IT to ensure that we meet all of the certification requirements.

 

Have you ever wanted somewhere that you could post a SQL Server question to and then have someone create a personalised screencast that answers your question? For example: How do I enable a trace flag in SQL Server 2005? or How do I define the security context for a SSNS component?. Well now you can, using AskaSQLGuru. AskaSQLGuru is a new SQL Server venture that I have started with several other SQL Server 'gurus' from around the globe. So why not check it out today at www.AskaSQLGuru.com.

 

The first public release of the next version of SQL Server, SQL Server 2008 is now available. The Community Technology Preview of SQL Server 2008 can be downloaded from here.

 

To find out more on how the next version of SQL Server will affect your organisation why not contact Brisbane's Leading SQL Server Consultants, WARDY IT Solutions?

 

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. Due to popular demand, the July WARDY IT Community Dinner is heading back to the Punjabi Palace restaurant at West End. The July WARDY IT Community dinner is on Monday the 9th of July. Add this event to your Outlook Calendar.

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July SQL Server User Groups

At the July QLD SQL Server User Group, local SQL Server expert Keith Martin will be presenting on SQL Server clustering with tips and tricks on high-availability from the field. Add this event to your Outlook Calendar

 

At the July Canberra SQL Server User Group Paul Randal will presenting on the Secrets of Fast Detection and Recovery from Database Corruptions. For more details regarding this event refer to here.

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Tech-Ed Influencers Party

WARDY IT Solutions is proud to be organising and the major sponsor for the Tech-Ed Influencers Party at Tech-Ed Australia on the Gold Coast. So if you are an MVP or MCT make sure you register ASAP on the WARDY IT website as places to this Free event are limited. For more details refer to here.

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SQL Server Virtual Labs

Microsoft has recently released a series of Free Virtual Labs to help evaluate server products including SQL Server. The SQL Server labs range from 'What's new in SQL server 2005' to 'Migrating to SSIS'. A complete list of the Virtual Labs available for SQL Server 2005 can be found here.

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Indexed Views

Indexed Views are a feature available in SQL Server 2000 and 2005 that can be used to improve the performance of SQL Server. For further details on SQL Server 2000 refer to here and for SQL Server 2005 refer to here.

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SQLQueryStress Tool

Adam Machanic has released a new version of his SQLQueryStress tool. This tool automatically collects metrics to help you determine whether your queries will perform under load and what kind of resource strain they put on your server. The tool can be downloaded from here.

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Post SP2 Builds

A new knowledge base article has been released that lists the SQL Server 2005 builds that have been released after SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. The article lists the build numbers as well as the fixes contained in each build. A complete list of SQL Server 2005 builds can be found here and the KB article can be found here.

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Analysis Services Stored Procedure Project

A new version of the Analysis Services Stored Procedure Project has been released. The Analysis Services Stored Procedure project is a set of sample stored procedures for Analysis Services 2005. These samples have been written in C# and sample MDX queries are included that demonstrate the use of the procedures against the Adventure Works DW sample database. More details of the project can be found here.

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DMV StatsTool

Dynamic Management Views are a great addition to SQL Server 2005 but one of the annoyances is that when SQL Server is restarted all the history in these views is lost. The DMV StatsTool is an application that solves this problem by collecting DMV data that you can then later analyse and report on. The DMV StastTool can be downloaded fron 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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WARDY IT Solutions is a highly regarded IT Solutions provider specialising in Microsoft SQL Server.  You may not be aware though that WARDY IT Solutions is also a Microsoft Certified Partner and has an established relationship with numerous hardware and software vendors, enabling us to provide competitive pricing on your next hardware or software acquisition.  For more information on how WARDY IT Solutions can assist with your next acquisition email: contact@wardyit.com.