Had a fascinating conversation with one of our partners today, the meeting was about how they should be integrating all the new test artifacts in VSTS 2010 (Test Cases, Test Plans, Test Configs, Shared Steps, Test Points, Test Results) into their customised...

I have received a ton of private mail on this, hence rather than just pasting the same answer in I’m going to take it on here. Interestingly enough I explained this problem, with a slightly different context, back when 2005 SP1 came out here , but lets...

Spent this morning at the convention centre getting some help from the onsite Tech Support guys with a demo hardware disaster that had an unfortunate impact on my codecamp session. Apologies to the attendees for the lack of focus on the session as I was...

Its Saturday and I am hanging out in the fabby LA weather, high 80's today. I spent the day at the SoCal CodeCamp , no sessions for me to present today so I got spend the day listening to other folks. There is nothing more educational than watching other...

Yep I'm off to LA at the end of the week. Originally I was supposed to do a session on Software Quality and Diagnostics for Services, but we gave that slot to some other folks, then I was not going, then I was added to the booth/lounge team and now I...

Get it here

While SSIS has always been able to load SQL Server at high speed it doesn't use any of the high speed Oracle APIs that are available. Well there is now a new high performance loader for Oracle and another one for Teradata. Downloads are here.

One of the most common asks for SQL Server related to servicing/patching (after uninstall of updates/SPs) is the production of slimstreamed media, ie where the Update/SP and the RTM are included together in a single plackage. Now there are a couple of...

Ok so not everything for SQL Server 2008 is available yet, Report Builder is going to have a lag, you can find RC 1 here. This should work with RTM SQL 2008. Here are some of the changes from the last RC; Easy to use wizards for creating table, matrix...

Get it here. That should not be all the pieces of SQL Server 2008 available.

Get it here. No tools or advanced services yet, but they will be here shortly. Good info on this page but beware its download link points to 2005 still.

In short there is a "rolling thunder" plan to both release bits and update all the sites. Yesterday the MSDN subscriber sites were updated, also the MVP and TAP sites. Today Eval Edition and Feature Pack became available

Ok lots of folks are confused and are having their installations bounced. There is some info in the release notes but this is the definitive KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956139 Let me try and explain; SQL Server 2008 has dependencies on (and includes...

I'm forward dating this, but as you read this the bits should start becoming available. Congrats to the team on a focused release < 3 years since the last release. The various SKUs and supplimental bits such as the Feature Pack are going to be coming...

Details are here http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2008/06/07/sql-server-2008-rc0-now-available-for-subscribers.aspx More info once I have mine downloaded and installed under Hyper V

Read all about it here http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2008/06/04/new-logo-for-sql-server-2008.aspx Remind me to write a long and painfu post about the battle with Central Marketing during SQL 2000 as to why it was better(or NOT)...

Somehow I managed to miss this one (thanks to Erland for the pointer). Folks have been asking for access to docs on TDS since before I was involved in SQL Server, well now you can peruse(all 124 pages) to your hearts content. http://msdn.microsoft.com...

Ever had to take over the code for a system you did not define? Ever found the documentation for such an app, to be ahemmm lacking?   Its  a fairly common ask from new app developers/ DBAs to find out if certain code is still being used for...

Jeff has a follow up post to the demos from Mix here . The silverlight unit test framework is based on a special build of mstest's infrastructure, targetted at CoreCLR. How cool is that :-)

The SQL 2008, VS2008, Windows Sever 2008 launch event in the US happened this week. Dan Jones has some highlight features that were announced; T-SQL Debugger is back Object Search is back Activity Monitor has effectively been rewritten to improve perf...

Apparently there is an issue in the CTPs of SQL Server 2008 related to leap year. Although there is no known impact on SQL Server 2005 or prior versions at this time. The result of this issue is that SQL Server 2008 services will not start during the...

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/prodinfo/download.mspx Update: While this http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/bb851668.aspx page still says Nov it actually takes you to a page that is Feb, or says it is Feb. I'm downloading at home right now, if its the...

If you were at Seattle Code Camp this morning and heard me mention the new WCF load testing work that our Ranger team has been doing, Jeff has a great summary post here .

Here is a nice picture of all the version numbers, now I still see a bunch of folks who are confused by the info that comes out of SQL Server in terms of versions, so try running the following script; set nocount on go select @@version go select 'Edition...

I love our MVPs (most of the time <g>) I was about to sit down, after watching the Seahawks win the division again, and write a lap around the November CTP from a test perspective. However Grant Holliday has 2 great posts. In general he gets it...