The development cycle for the next version of SQL Server is starting to ramp up and the program team are asking for feedback regarding features and enhancements that the community would like to see in the next version.  One of the best ways to ensure that your feedback is received is to make sure that any bugs or suggestion that you have for SQL Server are logged to SQL Server Connections http://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver.  This facility also allows you to vote on the importance of the bugs or suggestions identified by other people.

 

As a result of Greg Low relocating to Melbourne, he has regrettably decided that the logistics of organising the QLD SQL Server User Group (QSSUG) from afar are not sustainable.  As a result, I will be stepping into Greg’s shoes to organise the QSSUG.  I would like to thank Greg not only for thinking of me to organise the QSSUG but also for all of the tireless energy and enthusiasm that he has put into building the User Group up to what is the premier SQL Server User Group in Australia.  To find out details of other SQL Server User Groups in Australia refer to http://www.sqlserver.org.au/.

 

Talking of user groups, whilst I am in the United State next month to present at the PASS Community Summit I will be in New York and presenting at the NYPC Visual Basic SIG on Wednesday the 8th of November.  For more details regarding the User Group refer to http://www.ineta.org/desktopdefault.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=27&groupid=147.

 

If you are looking for an opportunity to share knowledge, information and experiences with other IT professionals in South East Queensland then why not attend the next WARDY IT Community Dinner? The WARDY IT Community Dinner is held on the second Monday of each month.  The next dinner is on Monday the 9th of October at Cavill's Norman Hotel, 102 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba.  Add this event to your Outlook Calendar.

 

 

If you are looking for additional SQL Server information between the WARDY IT newsletters then don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed for our SQL Server Blog http://www.wardyit.com/blog.

 

 

Should you have any suggestions or feedback on how we can improve the newsletter or content that you would like covered, please do not hesitate to email newsletter@wardyit.com.

 

Happy Reading

 

 

Peter Ward

WARDY IT Solutions Chief Technical Architect

Phone: +61 7 3856 5411     Mobile: +61 0 403 177 761

In this Issue:

Queensland SQL Server User Group

SQL Server 7.0 Support Policy

SQL Server Query Processing Team

Katami Performance Improvements

The many-to-many revolution

SQL Really Downunder

SQL Server 2005 Failover Clustering White Paper

SQL Server 2005 Training Offers

LieSpeed Free Lisences

SQL Server Tip of the Month

TSQL Tip of the Month

Reporting Service Tip of the Month

Queensland SQL Server User Group

Greg Low will be presenting at the Queensland SQL Server User Group (QSSUG) on Thursday the 26th of October.  Greg will be presenting on Full Text Search, Blobs and XML.  For more details and to register for this event refer to the Australian SQL Server User Group Website http://www.sqlserver.org.au.

 

 

SQL Server 7.0 Support Policy

There have been a lot of question of late regarding the support policy for SQL Server 7.0.  Effective December 31, 2005, support for all versions of Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 transitioned from Mainstream Support to Extended Support.  For details regarding the support policy for SQL Server 7.0 refer to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;912251.

 

 

SQL Server Query Processing Team

The SQL Server Query Processing Team have started up a new blog to provide tips ad tricks, advice and answers to frequently-asked questions to assts with writing optimal queries.  The SQL Server processing team is the team responsible for optimizing a query to produce an execution plan.  The new blog can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlqueryprocessing/.

 

 

Katami Performance Improvements

Katami is the code name for the next version of SQL Server.  The SQL Server engine team have put a callout for feedback from customers to identify the top performance issues for various Data Warehouse workloads and how these can be improved in next version of SQL Server.  So now is your opportunity to let the product team now about Data Warehouse performance improvements you would like to see.  http://blogs.msdn.com/sqltips/archive/2006/09/20/TOP_5_DW_PERF_IMP_NEXT_SQL.aspx.

 

 

The many-to-many revolution

Marco Russo has performed extensive research on advanced dimensional modeling with SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and has produced a whitepaper detailing how to leverage many-to-many dimension relationships.  This whitepaper can be downloaded from http://www.sqlbi.eu/Portals/0/Downloads/M2M%20Revolution%201.0.93.pdf

 

 

SQL Really Downunder

Not to be outdone by the SQL Down Under Code Camp, there will be a SQL ‘Really Downunder’ Code Camp being held in New Zealand on the Weekend of the 25th of November.  For more details regarding this event refer to http://www.dot.net.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=94.

 

 

SQL Server 2005 Failover Clustering White Paper

Microsoft has released a comprehensive white paper that documents the process for implementing failover clustering for SQL Server 2005 and Analysis Services.  The white paper also highlights the differences in the failover clustering implementation of SQL Server 2005 compared to SQL Server 2000.  The white pare can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=818234DC-A17B-4F09-B282-C6830FEAD499&displaylang=en.

 

 

SQL Server 2005 Training Offers

In order to assist with the uptake of SQL Server 2005 skills Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions are offering some great deals on SQL Server 2005 training.  They are not only offering discounted SQL Server training but also exam vouchers and free Measure Up exams to help you pass first time around  For details regarding all of the training offers available refer to http://www.sqlserver2005offers.com.

 

 

LiteSpeed Free Licenses

SQL Server LiteSpeed is one of the leading backup compression solutions for SQL Server and the Express version is now available for free.  The Express version of SQL Server LiteSpeed supports databases up to 10GB.  So if you have been thinking of a solution that will not only compress your backups but also improve there performance then this is an offer you should not miss.  For more details refer to http://www.quest.com/landing/?ID=708.

 

 

 

SQL Server Tip of the Month

Often there is a need to determine if a query is running slowly as a result of parsing, compiling or executing a statement.  Well STATISTICS TIME can be enabled in order to display the number of milliseconds required to parse, compile, and execute each statement.   The following example illustrates the details returned by STATISTICS TIME:

 

SET STATISTICS TIME ON

GO

SELECT     *

FROM  AdventureWorks.HumanResources.Employee

 

Messages:

 

SQL Server parse and compile time:

   CPU time = 10 ms, elapsed time = 1039 ms.

 

(290 row(s) affected)

 

SQL Server Execution Times:

   CPU time = 0 ms,  elapsed time = 4892 ms.

 

 

TSQL Tip of the Month

Of the limitations in previous versions of SQL server was the inability for the TOP to contain a variable.  In SQL Server 2005 the TOP clause has been expanded to allow the limiting operator to be specified as a variable ie.

 

DECLARE @top AS SMALLINT

SET @top = 20

 

SELECT

      TOP (@top) *

FROM

      orders

 

 

Reporting Services Tip of the Month

By default, reporting services returns the following error message when a report produces an error:

 

An error has occurred during report processing.

???

For more information about this error navigate to the report server on the local server machine, or enable remote errors.

 

Remote errors can be enabled so that additional details can be reported by following these steps:

 

1) Create a text file with an rss extension that contains the following text:

 

Public Sub Main()

  Dim P As New [Property]()

  P.Name = "EnableRemoteErrors"

  P.Value = True

  Dim Properties(0) As [Property]

  Properties(0) = P

  Try

    rs.SetSystemProperties(Properties)

    Console.WriteLine("Remote errors enabled.")

  Catch SE As SoapException

    Console.WriteLine(SE.Detail.OuterXml)

  End Try

End Sub

 

 

2) Execute the following command using the Reporting Services utility (rs.exe)

 

rs -i EnableRemoteErrors.rss -s http://servername/ReportServer

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