SQL Server Manageability Team Blog : SQL Server 2005 - SP2

Reducing Database Size by Using Vardecimal Storage Format

Paul Mestemaker — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:36:00 GMT

In addition to the improvements to the management tools in Service Pack 2 that I've outlined on this blog, the engine team has introduced the VarDecimal storage format. They have just published a whitepaper on how to reduce your database size. Check it...(read more)

SQL Connections 2007 (Orlando, FL) -- Follow-up

Paul Mestemaker — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:24:00 GMT

After one heck of a trip to Orlando, FL for SQL Connections, I'm back in Redmond. Here is a quick re-cap of my sessions and links to session content......(read more)

SQL Server Manageability Webcast - SP2 Improvements - Resources

Paul Mestemaker — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:55:00 GMT

Thank you to those who attended today's webcast. As promised, here are links to the resources associated with the demos. Downloads: SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/sp2.mspx SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack (February 2007): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=50b97994-8453-4998-8226-fa42ec403d17&displaylang=en...(read more)

SQL Server Manageability Webcast - SP2 Improvements

Paul Mestemaker — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:57:00 GMT

I'll be giving a webcast in one week on the manageability improvements introduced in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. Feel free to post questions/comments to this blog that you'd like me to address during the webcast. ......(read more)

SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports -- Now Available!

Paul Mestemaker — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:55:00 GMT

Have you ever noticed one of your SQL Server instances running unusually slowly? Have you had difficulty quickly identifying what areas could be affecting its performance? One of our customer support Escalation Engineers, Keith Elmore, specializes in understanding these types of problems. He has worked with customers all over the world on diagnosing their toughest and most critical performance bottlenecks. Keith has put together a set of Reporting Services reports ......(read more)

Maintenance Plan Changes in SQL Server 2005 SP2

Paul Mestemaker — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 11:38:00 GMT

Users of SQL Server 2005 maintenance plans should be aware of a change in SP2 that affects existing cleanup tasks until updated using SQL Server SP2 tools. ......(read more)

SP2/BPA Frequently Asked Questions

Paul Mestemaker — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:21:00 GMT

I have been getting a lot of questions and hearing a lot of speculation about SP2 and BPA. Let me address some of the most common questions. SP2 When will SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 be available? I see there are a lot of great features in the December CTP of SP2. I can’t upgrade my DB engine, yet. Can I upgrade only the tools on my client workstation? Will this still work with SQL Server 2005 RTM and SP1? When will SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer be available? BPA What are some of the new features in SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer? Will we be able to create our own rules? Who is the target audience for SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer? We used SQL Server 2000 Best Practices Analyzer 1.0 to check our T-SQL code. It is very useful in our development process. Why are you getting rid of it?...(read more)

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 - December CTP

Paul Mestemaker — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 03:58:00 GMT

Before I go on vacation, I'd like to send a quick thank you to the community for giving us their thoughts on the November CTP of SP2. There were many thousands of downloads and a lot of people have started posting their suggestions and bug reports on Microsoft Connect. I'd like to call out a few MVPs for their reviews/feedback on the features in my area......(read more)

SQL Server 2005 - Service Pack 2 - Web Chat

Paul Mestemaker — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:01:00 GMT

Whenever something you use every day changes, it's not always easy to put down what you're doing, find out what changes and determine if it's right for you/your team. For some environments, it will take a great amount of effort to investigate and adopt SQL Server 2005. We in the SQL Server Product Team would like to help you understand what's changed in Service Pack 2 and the potential benefits of using it in your environment.

If you have any questions regarding Service Pack 2, please join us in a public web chat tomorrow between 9:00am - 10:00am Pacific Time.

Here are a couple of links where you might have already stumbled on this:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/default.mspx

Event: Service Pack 2 Web Chat

Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Time: 9:00am - 10:00am (Pacific)

Thanks,

Paul A. Mestemaker II
Program Manager
Microsoft SQL Server Manageability

[Updated to reflect 9:00am starting time]

Custom Reports in Management Studio

Paul Mestemaker — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:56:00 GMT

One of the improvement areas we've introduced in Service Pack 2 is the ability to run your own reports inside Management Studio. See below for a draft of the Books Online topics. This is subject to change at any time. Paul A. Mestemaker II Program Manager Microsoft SQL Server Manageability ...(read more)

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 - November CTP

Paul Mestemaker — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:08:00 GMT

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 - November CTP is available for download. For more information please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ctp.mspx.

Over the next few weeks, we will be posting blogs on some of the improvements the SQL Server Manageability team has made in Service Pack 2.

Visit the SQL Server Tools General Forum if you have any questions on SQL Server management tools.

If you find a bug or have a suggestion on how to improve SQL Server, visit SQL Server's page on Microsoft Connect: http://connect.microsoft.com/SqlServer.

Paul A. Mestemaker II
Program Manager
Microsoft SQL Server