Euan Garden's BLOG : SQL Server

FAQ: SQL Server 2008 SP1 released, but how does the fix list relate to CU4 that was just released?

euanga — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:23:00 GMT

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 go through it again with 2008 context. Bob Ward has an excellent post on this here, so if you don’t want to read the waffle below follow that link.

Releasing something as large and broadly used as a SQL Server Service Pack is a mind boggling undertaking, there are literally millions of tests to run, the closer you get to release the more expensive every change in the code is as tests may need re-run (stress and perf tests are particularly expensive to run). Hence the team tries to raise the bar on fixes during the SP cycle so that by the end the fix must be high priority and present low risk of regression.

The SP takes many months to gestate and during that time the team will release hotfixes/QFEs and these days cumulative updates (CU’s). to begin with these changes are automatically ported into the SP source tree but at some point close to the end this has to stop. After this point the trees diverge, hotfixes continue to be released to the wild but not added to the SP tree.

Hence there is a problem, when the SP releases it has a bunch of fixes that were never released as hotfixes, plus it has gone through lots of testing that is not applied to hotfix/CU engineering, hence orgs want to deploy quickly. HOWEVER there have also been hotfixes released that are not included, if you have the latest hotfix/CU and then apply the SP, you are going to lose some of these hot fixes.

The solution is that there is a post SP hotfix rollup or CU that is generated soon after the SP comes out to resync.

All right now onto the 2008 SP1 specifics;

CU4 was released on March 19 as defined by this KB. However the SP1 KB says that SP1 includes everything up to and including CU3, however that’s not strictly correct, it appears as if 6 fixes made it into SP1 according to Bob.

Applying SP1 over CU4 WILL wipeout the remaining fixes in CU4 with the exception of those 6, so if you have CU4 installed you should probably wait for SP1-CU1 to come out as that will have all of the missing fixes. You are then going to have to install SP1 and then CU1 to get to the best known state.

On the upside I think its AWESOME that this SP can be uninstalled AND slipstreamed, these feature requests have been outstanding for a very long time, great work SQL Team.

Now there are some things I think that could be done to make things easier;

1/ When the SP1 installer runs it could detect that CU4 is installed and point out that some fixes are going to be rolled back, it would be awesome if it could list those fixes but I’d take the warning for now.

2/ The KB needs to be crystal clear so that we don’t need blog entries like this, and Bob’s one and no doubt several from the MVPs that will be needed over time.

3/ The team might need to think about clearer separation, I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that SOME of the CU4 fixes are included but not the majority, it may have been better to not include any of the CU4 fixes given the dates, but then of course hindsight is always 20/20…

Thoughts?

UPDATE: SP1 CU1 is now out so the fixes are aligned.

SQL Server 2008, Reportbuilder RTMs

euanga — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:35:00 GMT

Get it here

High performance loading in SSIS for Oracle and Teradata

euanga — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:55:00 GMT

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.

Slipstreaming SQL Server Updates/Service Packs in SQL 2008, almost

euanga — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:32:00 GMT

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 reasons to do this, the first is to save time and complexity for the person doing the installs, the second is to allow issues in setup to be addressed. Well as part of the re-architecture of SQL 2008 setup the later scenario was enabled in a clear but perhaps unintuitive way.

If you snag the first Update for 2008 one of things it can do is put down updated setup files, that can then we be used by the rtm installer...

Bob Ward from SQL CSS has a great post that explains it in detail here.

SQL Server 2008, Report Builder

euanga — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:18:00 GMT

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 and chart data regions.
Support for directly opening and editing reports stored on the report server.
Support for using server resources such as shared data sources.
A query designer for Microsoft SQL Server data sources.
Enhancements to the Report Builder 2.0 ribbon.

SQL Server Express 2008, Advanced Services and Tools now available

euanga — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Get it here.

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

SQL Server 2008, Express Edition now available

euanga — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:56:00 GMT

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.

SQL Server 2008: Why do all the Microsoft web sites still point at and talk about SQL Server 2005

euanga — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:26:00 GMT

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

SQL Server 2008 Installation Confusion, VS 2008 Sp1 and NetFx 3.5 Sp1

euanga — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:13:00 GMT

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) VS 2008 SP1 and its components (BIDS is just VS 2008, SSMS uses components), plus NetFx 3.5sp1. SQL includes the RTM versions of both of these, HOWEVER they are not broadly released yet. There is a check in SQL Server Setup that if you have an old version (Beta, RC, whatever) it will bounce the install and ask you to upgrade to the RTM bits...which of course are not yet available independent of SQL.

KB lays out the options but for now here they basically are;

1/ Don't install the components that need SP1 of VS (basically the tools) yet, install the services and then install the tools later when Sp1 is out.

2/ Use a clean machine that does not have previous versions of VS 2008 (and I think Netfx 3.5) on it.

Of course this begs the question when are these bits going to be available for VS independent of SQL, well given the RTM bits are part of SQL you can imagine its not going to be long. And as Express is released by VS and SQL at the same time, thats when Express should also come out.

Clear as Mud? I try...

UPDATE: Thanks to a question from Dave it looks like option 2 above is going to make life VERY difficult for you if you want a box that has SQL 2008 RTM and VS 2008 Pro/Team SP1. I've pinged several folks in SQL and VS setup teams to see if there is a problem, my advice for now would be to wait until VS SP1 ships if you want an easy route to have everything on the box.

SQL Server 2008 RTM

euanga — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:00:00 GMT

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 available over the next few weeks.

Once all the links go live I'll update this post with the links.

Enjoy

Update: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx Has Ent, Dev, Std, Web and Workgroup for subscriber downloads, can't see Express or Ent Trial yet on the non subscriber pages.

Update: Today Eval Edition and Feature Pack became available

SQL 2008: Technet/MSDN Subscriber? Download RC0 now

euanga — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:31:00 GMT

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

SQL Server has a logo again!

euanga — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:01:00 GMT

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) to have a picture of a building on the box than the Red Braid that had been on many of the previous boxes

TDS Documentation

euanga — Sat, 31 May 2008 07:29:08 GMT

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/en-us/library/cc448435.aspx

SQL 2008: How do I tell if a specific table is still being used in an app?

euanga — Thu, 29 May 2008 05:11:50 GMT

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 apps that have evolved over a number of years. In SQL 2005 we added a DMV that allows you to work out if an index is being used or not. However the question still comes up about tables.

This came up recently on our internal SQL 2008 alias in the context of using sp_trace_setfilter, but Jack came up with a better solution using audit.

create server audit unused_tables to file (‘c:\temp’)

go

alter server audit unused_tables with (state = on)

go

use database pubs

go

create database audit specification unused_tables for server audit unused_tables

add(select on authors by public),

add(insert on authors by public),

add(update on authors by public),

add(delete on authors by public)

go

alter database audit specification unused_tables with (state = on)

go

Then to check on it:

select * from sys.fn_get_audit_file(‘c:\temp\*.aud’, NULL, NULL)

go

Of course having found out that a bunch of tables are not being used what do you do? If you delete them the above data helps you feel pretty confident that they are not being used but its not perfect (classic example is the end of month, end of year reports...).

Hence I'll leave this as an exercise for the reader :-)

New Tools Features announced at Launch event

euanga — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:04:10 GMT

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 and usefulness