This week I had to move a couple of databases between two SQL Azure accounts. I needed to decommission one account and thus get the important stuff out before nuking it. My goal was straight forward: move two databases from one SQL Azure server (and account...

I follow the blog and/or Twitter of many of the SQL Server MVPs and to be blunt this is a truly amazing group of professionals. Their passion for SQL Server is undeniable. Their desire to expand their already deep knowledge of the product is unsurpassed...

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...

We recently announced some changes to a set of technologies that were linked together via the codename “Oslo”. While some of the technologies originally part of “Oslo” have shipped, some have not, specifically these are: the “Oslo” repository, “Quadrant...

SP1 has been released! The release includes Management Studio Express, Express Edition with Advanced Services (Full-text Search and Reporting Services) and Express Edition Toolkit (necessary for building reports for Express Edition with Advanced Services...

I've seen this question come up a lot in the newgroups: "I already have SQL Server 2000 installed, can I install SQL Server 2005 side-by-side with SQL Server 2000?" The short answer is yes. SQL Server is a multi-instanced product which means that with...

Friends, For those of you living in the Bay Area, the Microsoft community, or the database community you've probably already heard much about Jim Gray's disappearance. For those of you that have not here are several news stories about it: News...

We are three days away from launch. I've been working on the launch demos and they're shaping up nicely. The manageability session will cover Policy-based Management, Performance Data Collection, T-SQL IntelliSense, PowerShell, and a few of the enhancements...

A question came up at the launch event: will T-SQL Intellisense and the T-SQL Debugger support SQL2K5 and/or SQL2K. The situation involves connecting to these server versions from Management Studio 2008. The answer is no, in order to enjoy IntelliSense...

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...

Last Thursday morning @ the PASS Summit I participated in a panel discussion on automating DBA tasks. It was a great discussion and I was humbled by the other panel members. During the discussion I jotted down a few notes that I didn’t get to mention...

As you probably heard, on Wednesday, November 19th, during Ted Kummert's keynote at the PASS Summit Conference, Microsoft announced future capabilities for application and multi-server management as part of the SQL Server code-name "Kilimanjaro"...

The list of blogs run by the SQL Server product group keeps growing. Here I offer merely a snapshot in time of the current blogs. At the bottom there's also two links that list blogs by MS employees and SQL Server MVPs; these are not complete but offer...

Check out the new SQL Server site !

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...

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Oracle-Warns-of-Critical-DB-Server-Vulnerabilities/ Excerpt: The database server giant plans to issue patches for at least 41 vulnerabilities "Two of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploited without authentication...

In CTP5 we removed the Surface Area Configuration Tool (SACT). The main use of the tool is to enable remote connections for the Database Engine. To enable remote connections this sans SACT do the following: Launch SQL Server Configuration Manager Expand...

Since we started doing CTP with the prerelease of SQL Server 2005 I've been a huge fan. It allows the product team to get a build of the product in the hands of users quicker and more often. It means the feedback loop from user to product group is shorter...

I've been using Vista for a while now but haven't ventured in to the land of the sidebar and gadgets. There are some interesting (read obvious) ones out there like stocks quotes, traffic, music, etc. But I've yet to see one where I've felt I couldn't...

This is a great interview with David Litchfield. I was recently in a review with Bob Muglia, Senior VP for the Server and Tools business, where the SQL team presented there had yet to be a security GDR for SQL2K5. Bob asked if it was because the product...

There is a bug in the SQL Server 2008 June CTP that causes Declarative Management to be inoperable. The fix is very simple. Launch a command line and run the following command: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\sn.exe -Vr Microsoft...

Today at the Worldwide Partner Conference we announced that SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and Windows Server 2008 will launch together at an event in Los Angeles, California on February 27, 2008. SQL Server 2008 can be expected to release in Q2...

http://media.putfile.com/Microsoft-Rebrands-iPod-Packaging This really speaks for itself. Please don't get me wrong. I don't post this to be malicious or because I feel hatred toward MS. I love this company and I love working for this company. Day...

Far be it from me to poke the sleeping bear, but when I hear good news about the product I work on I just have to share it. I think common folk call what I'm feeling "pride". I'm happy to go with that. So what's this good news I speak of? SQL Server didn...

How many different database objects are there? I don’t know the answer either but off the top of my head I’d guess somewhere between 50 and 100, depending on how you count them. Yes, I could go count them but I’m writing this on a Saturday and between...