Policy-Based Management (PBM) was introduced with SQL Server 2008 – it’s a declarative system for ensuring the system configuration hasn’t drifted from the original configuration intent.  You can read more about Policy-Based Management in SQL Server Books Online, here . To help people get started...

Caveat: I don’t write code for a living. But I do know how to get things done, usually using brute force. SQLPS.exe is a decent environment, but sometimes I want to work in the default PowerShell environment. But if I want to work with SQL Server in the default PowerShell shell it means I need to load...

Back in SQL Server 2008 my team implemented the Central Management Server (CMS) feature. If you work as part of a DBA team and you haven’t tried it out I encourage you to do so. It’s available on all editions, even Express. In short, the CMS allows you to share entries in registered servers with other...

Last week we released an updated, almost completely revamped, System Center Operations Manager Management Pack for SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2. You can find all the details on the download page here .

I know I shouldn’t be but when I talk to DBAs I’m amazed how much time is spent installing/configuring the product. Having worked on the SQL Setup team for the SQL Server 2005 release I have an appreciation of how complex setup is from both sides: internal development and the end user. We just launched...

November is shaping up to be the perfect storm of conferences. In a time when budgets are extremely tight it amazes me that we have 4 conferences to cover in November.   SQL PASS When: November 2-5, 2009 Where: Seattle, Washington Site: http://summit2009.sqlpass.org/ Sessions: 2 focused on SQL Server...

Brent Ozar and Thomas LaRock do a 3 part video series on the power of Policy-based Management (PBM). Interestingly SCOM comes up several times in the discussion.   They cover the basics of PBM and Thomas goes into more depth on how he’s using it in his environment. The series is about 35 minutes...

Today compliance is a huge focus area for IT. Since compliance is written by lawyers for lawyers it takes a fair amount of translation to get it to the point where IT can understand what processes, policies, and configuration to implement to meet the requirements for a given compliance spec. If you...

I was playing around with PowerShell today (yes I’m was geeking out on Saturday afternoon) to learn how to access Performance Counters using PowerShell. My mission was to write a script that would return the Data File and Log File sizes for each database and a total for the instance. The good news is...

Check out the new SQL Server site !

JC Cannon, Senior PM on the SQL Server team, presents this webcast where he explores some of the new features in SQL Server 2008 and describes how they can be used to help an organization address their compliance needs.   In the webcast JC covers: Identity management Data protection Separation of...

The latest update to BOL is now available. The update is listed as August 2008 as that as the lock down for content changes. You can download it here .

I'm not super big on promoting marketing related stuff. But in this case I think there's a bunch of value for everyone. Our marketing team just launched a new site http://www.sqlserverexperience.com . Yes, it contains the normal marketing blah blah - sorry SQL Server Marketing team. But it also contains...

There are cases where the local cache used by IntelliSense becomes stale. Refreshing the cache is easy but not necessarily obvious. There are two ways to refresh the cache: 1) Go to Edit -> IntelliSense -> Refresh Local Cache and 2) Hit Ctrl+Shift+R

The SQL Server Product Group is holding a Webchat on Sept 23 from 10 am to 12 noon PST to get feedback from the community, customers, partners about their experience on SQL Server 2008 after over a month of RTM. You can find the details and participate through Microsoft.com Community Calendar : http...

The following write-up was originally an email I sent to Allan White (SQL Server MVP) in the context of a discussion on PowerShell and some of the PowerShell community postings questioning why SQL Server needed PowerShell support @ all given the strength of T-SQL. Allan and others encouraged me to post...

You've installed SQL Server 2008 on a clean machine and your vb script that uses DMO doesn't work. You're asking yourself: What the heck happened? Did those goofballs over @ MS hose me? Deprecation of DMO was announced in SQL Server 2005, but SQL Server 2005 still installed DMO. In SQL Server 2008 we...

The Edge folks (namely Joey Snow) sat in on the SQL Server 2008 shiproom on the day we RTM'd. You can view the video here . A few interesting things to share. During a release shiproom happens every day. Each team across SQL sends at least one representative. Depending on where we are in the release...

Two Express editions came on-line today. Express with Advanced Services and Express with Tools. You can download them from the Microsoft Download site. Here are the links: SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services (ENU): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B5D1B8C3-FDA5-4508...

This year @ TechEd I had the privilege of sharing the stage with Kevin Kline , Steve Jones , Buck Woody , and Allen White to discuss automating DBA tasks/processes. We discussed why automation is important and some of the technologies you can use to automate those tasks. Click here to launch the video...

One of the things I like most about new releases of software products is exploring the new capabilities. The big features always make in to the read me and the major articles but there's always a bunch of smaller things that are really cool but don't capture the headlines. I recently read two blog postings...

Our Customer Service and Support organization has a nice blog entry that discusses installing SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

In shameless self promotion the video of the talk I did on PowerShell and SQL Server has been posted to the web. I haven't watched this as I just can't bring myself to sit and watch myself for an hour but the session evaluations were pretty good. Therefore I think the odds are pretty good you'll get...

You're sitting at your desk rocking out to great music, you've just installed Management Studio 2008, you expand the Management node and start to click on Activity Monitor... Wait a second, What the %&*$#@, where's Activity Monitor? Did those goofs over at MSFT kill off a perfectly good tool? The...

One of the criticisms of our PowerShell implementation is the integration with Management Studio launches our custom minishell. With just a few simple key strokes you can add a custom tool menu item and toolbar button. To do this select "External Tools..." from the "Tools" menu in...