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 #28
In this issue:

WARDY IT Community Dinner
June QLD SQL Server User Group
Hyperbac for SQL Server
Diagnose and Correct Scheduler Errors
SQL Server Express vs. Compact Edition
New Best Practices Articles
Analysis Services Load Simulator
Sorting and Case Sensitive Collations
DMV Webcast
SQL Server Virtual DBA

Did you know?

Peter Ward will be a 'Spotlight' speaker at the 2007 PASS Community Summit. The world's largest SQL Server event

 

WARDY IT Solutions is a Microsoft SPLA licensing partner?

I am extremely proud to announce that WARDY IT Solutions has recently been awarded as a Microsoft Certified Partner with the competencies of Data Management and Business Process and Integration. Microsoft Certified Partners are independent companies that can provide you with the highest levels of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and hands-on skills.  To find out more abou the Microsoft Partner program refer to here.

 

Over the last month, details have started to be released on SQL Server "Katmai" which is the next release of SQL Server. Full details of the announcement can be found here. One of the features that is generating a great deal of excitement is the introduction of new spatial data types for developers to build location aware applications.

 

If you have not yet started to think about upgrading from SQL Server 2000 then now is a great time to start, as mainstream support will no longer be available for SQL Server 2000 after the 8th of April 2008. For more details refer to here.

 

Keep an eye out for the upcoming WARDY IT Update Breakfast in Brisbane. The Update Breakfast is a free quarterly breakfast event to help keep you up-to-date with new and upcoming changes in SQL Server and how these changes affect your organisation.

 

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

To celebrate the 1st Birthday of the WARDY IT Community Dinner we are doing something a little different. Instead of the traditional dinner on the second Monday of the month we are holding a WARDY IT picnic on Saturday the 23rd of June, and lunch is on us. The WARDY IT Community picnic is being held at New Farm Park and family/significant others are more than welcome to join in the fun. All we ask is that you bring your own drinks, a chair and start practising for the Developer vs. IT Pro cricket match. Add this event to your Outlook Calendar.

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June QLD SQL Server User Group

At the June QLD SQL Server User Group, Victor Isakov will be presenting. Victor has just completed the SQL Server Ranger program so the presentation  is surely one not to be missed.

 

The June QLD SQL Server User Group is your last chance for an entry into the draw for free registration to the world's largest SQL Server conference the 2007 PASS Community Summit in Denver, Colorado valued at over AU$2000! The prize will be drawn at the June User Group Meeting.

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Hyperbac for SQL Server

Hyperbac for SQL Server is a class leading backup Compression and Encryption solution for SQL Server. If your organisation is struggling with the ever increasing duration and size when performing SQL Server backups then Hyperbac is the perfect solution. Not only can Hyperbac reduce the size of you backups, but also the duration for backup and restoration operations. Why not download an evaluation of Hyeprbac today form here and check out the savings on your own databases, we are sure that you will not be disappointed with the results.

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Diagnose and Correct Scheduler Errors

Since the introduction of the user mode scheduler and the addition of scheduler health error messages, various misconceptions have arisen. This white paper thoroughly documents scheduler health details and associated troubleshooting techniques. The whitepaper can be downloaded from here.

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SQL Server Express vs. Compact Edition

Microsoft currently offers two database products that are free to download and deploy that are suitable for local storage: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. The following white paper helps to determine which of these versions is appropriate based on your requirements. This white paper can be downloaded from here .

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New Best Practices Articles

On the Microsoft SQL Server Development Customer Advisory Team blog, three new SQL Server Best Practices white papers have been announced, Deployment Guidance for Web Hosting Environments, Resolving Common Connectivity Issues in Analysis Services and Implementing Application Failover with Database Mirroring. Links to each of these white papers can be found here.

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Analysis Services Load Simulator

The Analysis Services Load Simulator aka ASLoadSim is a community project that contains a set of utilities to generate a query load and test the scalability of Analysis Services server. Details of this project can be found here .

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Sorting and Case Sensitive Collations

Louis Davidson, author of Pro SQL Server 2005 Database Design and Optimization has written a great blog post and addendum to his book on one of the topics that catches developers out time and time again! This is collation and how it affects results. Louis's blog post can be found here.

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DMV Webcast

One of the new features introduced in SQL Server 2005 is Dynamic Management Views (DMV) .  DMVs can be used to return server state information for monitoring the health of a SQL Server instance.  Greg Low has just completed an MSDN webcast on how the DMVs can be used to performance tune and troubleshoot applications. The webcast can be viewed 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.