I've had several people ask how the compatibility mode/level fits in with the SQL Server lifecycle . For example, the question might be: once we no longer support SQL Server 2000, does that mean we don't support databases restored/attached to later versions...

There's a new setup portal to help you out with any SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 setup issues. You can search for setup content, get downloads, watch videos and more. Learn how to slipstream (new in SQL 2008 SP1) or sysprep (new in R2). Check...

Some of you may be wondering if you should get the SQL Server 2008 certifications or wait for new SQL Server 2008 R2 certifications. There's no point in waiting, because there will not be any new exams for R2. See the blog below for the reasons why. If...

We have released our latest JDBC driver Microsoft SQL Server JDBC 3.0 in sync with SQL Server 2008 R2! In this release we added support for features introduced in SQL Server 2008, which includes date and time data types, sparse columns, MERGE statements...

It’s here! SQL Server 2008 R2 is available and faster than ever! SQL Server 2008 R2 has five published TPC-E benchmark results. It holds the top four performance results and the best price/performance result. The testing used up to 96 cores. Did you catch...

You can now get Visual Studio 2010 and the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit ! Look for a launch event near you. Other training kits: Silverlight 4 Training Kit SharePoint 2010 Training Kit Office 2010 Training Kit Windows...

DMV: sys.dm_db_partition_stats This DMV returns information for the current database context. It can tell you how many rows are in each table (per partition) and how much of the space is used and reserved for in-row, overflow, and LOB data (with...

I was recently asked about whether SQL Server data can move between architectures, say from x64 to x86. Yes, you can move SQL Server data back and forth between x64, x86, and IA64 architectures. The data and log files themselves do not store anything...

Today I am presenting about SQL Server Performance Tools at the Boise Code Camp. You can download the slides and supporting files here on this blog (at the bottom it says Attachment(s): PerformanceTools.zip ). The basic agenda of items covered is: ...

If you use JDBC with SQL Server please fill out our survey before April 5, 2010. This is your chance to provide input for our next release, so take advantage while you can! http://blogs.msdn.com/jdbcteam/archive/2010/03/18/microsoft-sql-server-jdbc...

This week we released cumulative updates for both RTM (RTM based CU 10) and SP1 (SP1 based CU 7) of SQL Server 2008. · Build 2766: Cumulative update package 7 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979065/en-us · Build...

You may be sometimes seeing stuck/stalled IO messages on one or more of your SQL Server boxes. This is something it is important to understand so I am providing some background information on it. Here is the message you may see in the SQL error...

How to rename a SQL Server varies a bit depending on the SQL version, whether it is clustered or not, and whether you want to rename the server/virtual server part of the name (works except for SQL 2000 clusters) or the instance part of the name (requires...

When you start SQL Server (2005+) it creates a separate "Dedicated Administrator Connection" or DAC using a special TCP port. One sysadmin at a time can connect with this DAC connection by specifying Admin:ServerName\Instance. From SQLCMD you can either...

You probably use remote desktop to connect to your servers or other desktops. You may see Remote Desktop referred to as RDP, RDS, or MSTSC. One common concern is how to resize the remote desktop connection. You can use mstsc.exe to open your connection...

You can download a free developer kit for SQL Server 2008 R2 (there's also one available for SQL 2008, the link is at the bottom of the R2 download page). Each kit has videos, samples, labs, and more to help you learn about new features. For instance...

Starting with SQL Server 2008 SP1 you can “slipstream” SP1 and/or SP1 + SP1 based CUs to avoid a multi-step installation process. http://blogs.msdn.com/petersad/archive/2009/04/16/create-a-merged-slipstream-drop-containing-sql-server-2008-server...

SQL Server 2008 R2 gets an official date http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2010/01/19/sql-server-2008-r2-gets-an-official-date.aspx SQL Server 2008 R2 gets May release date http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/sql-server...

Need to find the amount of fragmentation in all your indexes in all databases for a given instance of SQL Server 2005 or later? You can use the undocumented/unsupported sp_MSforeachdb to loop through all the databases. For more information on fragmentation...

See my new blog post (written with Denzil Ribeiro) about " How and Why to Enable Instant File Initialization " on our PFE blog . Keep an eye on the PFE blog for more posts from my team in the near future.

Our new book, Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting, will be shipping soon! Order now! :-) Christian Bolton , Justin Langford , Brent Ozar , and James Rowland-Jones have each written several chapters in this book. Steven Wort , Jonathan...

There are two new cumulative updates (CUs) available for SQL Server 2005 as of today. · SQL Server 2005 SP2 based CU17 ( 9.00.3356) . This is the last SP2 based CU as SP2 will no longer be supported after 1/12/2010 . KB = Cumulative update package...

Are you familiar with SQL Server's default trace setting? It can be helpful with finding basic who/when type information on major events. For example, you may want to know who was creating and dropping databases on a given instance. SQL Server has...

I had a question about how to do a backup and skip a corrupted block of data. First, DO NOT DO IT unless you absolutely have to, such as when you are taking a backup prior to trying to fix the corruption (which means you should be on the phone with Microsoft...

It is important to optimize TempDB for good performance. In particular, I am focusing on how to allocate files. TempDB is a unique database in several ways. The ones most relevant to this discussion are: · It is often one of the busiest...