While this topic is in Books Online for SQL Server 2005, I found it really handy as a quick reference for writing elementary and advanced Reporting Services expressions. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms157328.aspx

I'm writing an SSIS package to iterate over the MOSS logs directory to import the logs into a SQL Server table (eventually a data mart) where I can write queries to pull out the information I need. What I plan to do is loop over the logs directory structure...

For my future reference (and yours as well), here is how to configure your SQL Server 2005 maintenance plans so that they operate correctly with MOSS. A great post by Jingmei Li. http://blogs.msdn.com/jingmeili/archive/2007/02/26/sql-server-2005-maintenance...

Another nifty note about indexing. One of the more popular interview questions for technical folks is the various effects a change to a clustered index can have on nonclustered indexes. This post clears some of that up: Does rebuilding a clustered index...

Here is a great link on how to create a time dimension for a relational data warehouse in SQL Server. It's great that I won't have to worry about this again! http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/enigma/archive/2004/02/04/940.aspx

The following URL goes to the SQL Server Feature Pack which consists of a listing of SQL Server 2005 redistributable components and add-ons for SQL Server. If you have a server that only needs ADOMD.NET for example, or Notification Servers Client Components...

Here is the link for the MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0 add-in for SQL Server Reporting Services. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4E50BE6E-3F92-4552-A78C-B3BE1D94D5DA&displaylang=en

Here is a great article on how to leverage the unit testing engine built into Visual Studio to test SQL Server Reporting Services. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsql90/html/VS05PLTSQL.asp

The feature pack is a set of separate downloads that allow you to install components of SQL Server without installing the whole server product. Available at the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=D09C1D60-A13C-4479...

I recently ran into a question regarding the scope of connection pools that .NET creates when applications require a database connection. The following feedback and link was provided by a colleague of mine in response to the question: As per the...

Federated database design relates to carrying service oriented architecture into the database layer. Because SQL Server 2005 has several application server-like capabilities (i.e., SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server Service Broker, Web Services...

Use SQL Server Service Broker for asynchronous transactional messaging from applications where transactional throughput and scalability is required, as well as rehydratable and failure resistant transactional consistency is required. The example would...

I recently resolved an error with the SQL Server 2005 Configuration Manager. Occasionally, during setup, some .mof files don't get installed and registered correctly. There is a program called mofcomp that is responsible for registering and storing the...

Of course, by now everyone is running Visual Studio 2005, riiight? [8-|] For those folks that are just beginning to install, check out this tool that will clean your machine of previous versions of pre-released Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005...

Here is a situation I recently ran across. We created a report which executed a stored procedure. The parameters being passed had default values, so that when they were not qualified, they would default to pre-assigned values. Thus, when these "optional...

The official SQL Server 2005 table map can be found below in .pdf format. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2ec9e842-40be-4321-9b56-92fd3860fb32&DisplayLang=en

A very good article on MSDN will help developers determine when to use the CLR stored procedures, functions and triggers versus traditional TSQL ones. The guidance is as follows directly from the article: Use declarative T-SQL SELECT , INSERT , UPDATE...

Since I'm doing a bit of SQL Server Reporting Services development and architecture, I found this URL on MSDN that leads to standard .NET format syntax for data types. This is specifically relevant when doing financial reporting and formatting numbers...

So here is another solution to the following error message: The data set "DataSetName" contains a definition for the field "FieldName". This field is missing from the returned result set from the data source. This can happen in report designer when...

Ever get this error from SQL Server Reporting Services when you consume a stored procedure and attempt to preview the report from the designer? The data set "DataSetName" contains a definition for the field "FieldName". This field is missing from the...

The Approach Since there is no table of contents functionality in SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services, I had to develop a maintainable approach that worked well within the domain of Reporting Services as a technology. The Table of Contents requirement...

Like Silk. I had an instance of the full imprint of SQL Server 2000 SP4 (Database Engine, Analysis Services, Reporting Services, etc.). I just ran through the setup and it worked wonderfully. It detected the installed products and versions and asked me...

Part 2 on AWE Memory If AWE is enabled, SQL Server cannot use the paging file If AWE is enabled, SQL Server will grab all memory it is allowed if the max server memory configuration option is not set. If you accidentally forget to set this, SQL...

Yes, I know that SQL Server 2005 is on the horizon. However, there are still many companies that are interested in clustering on SQL Server 2000. As a result, here are some of the most prevalent gotchas when attempting to cluster. These tips are from...

The following link goes to an MSDN article which outlines some of the do's and don'ts surrounding importing of data. Whether its for a Data Warehouse or for import into a transactional applcation, these best practices are lessons learned from the best...