The code name “Oslo” repository now has the official name “SQL Server Modeling Services”. SQL Server Modeling Services will be a SQL Server workload like SQL Server Reporting Services. Details will be announced at the PDC where the most relevant session is http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/SVR19 . You...

Repositories face issues to do with versioning schema and data as well as integrating with an organization's lifecycle processes. Here is a whitepaper I wrote on how the "Oslo" team thinks about handling various lifecycle/versioning issues http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638048.aspx . The whitepaper...

Here is a nice article on how to make a copy of the “Oslo” repository so you can later restore it to its previous state http://blogs.msdn.com/modelcitizen/archive/2009/04/06/how-to-clean-up-the-repository.aspx . This is great for experimenting with the repository and for edit debug cycles with domains...

Now that the codename “Oslo” repository is public I can discuss its architecture and design. When designing a new product or component I like to: 1. Understand the business landscape. For example, what is the market opportunity, what are the major competitors, where are the competitors likely to...

The central challenge of repository implementations is how to provide support for an extensible list of metadata schema. The most common solution is to use a universal schema (e.g. an entity table, a property-value table and a relationship table). This makes writing tools like repository browsers easier...