SQL Server Manageability Team Blog : SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (January 2008) -- Now Available!

Paul Mestemaker — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:39:05 GMT

It's a new year and, with it, we come bearing gifts! We have a pretty significant update to SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer . It contains many new and updated rules for Analysis Services, a few important rules for the Relational Engine, a couple...(read more)

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (July 2007) is available

Paul Mestemaker — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 22:14:00 GMT

This week we celebrate independence. No, I'm not referring to Independence Day in the United States. I'm announcing the official release of SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer as an independently serviceable tool. What do I mean by independently serviceable? ......(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 Best Practices Analyzer (February 2007 CTP)--Now Available

Paul Mestemaker — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:14:00 GMT

The much-anticipated SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer is now available on the Microsoft Download Center. Thank you all for your input on this blog. Thank you to the MVPs who have given me early feedback on the utility before it officially went live......(read more)

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2--Now Available

Paul Mestemaker — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:18:00 GMT

After working on SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 for the past 9 months, I am elated to see it be officially released to the web. This service pack will not only address the most common bugs reported from customers, but it also introduces some cool new functionality. I am meeting with Kimberly Tripp today to show her some of the cool scenarios that are now possible with SP2. ......(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 Best Practices Analyzer - Webcast - Resources

Paul Mestemaker — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:15:00 GMT

Resources for today's webcast.

Webcast:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032306503&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Upgrade Advisor Tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1470E86B-7E05-4322-A677-95AB44F12D75&displaylang=en

TechNet Webcast: Upgrade and Migration: Planning Considerations for SQL Server 2005 (Level 300)

Presenters: Michael Raheem and Euan Garden

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032292288&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Self-help resources from Microsoft:

http ://www.MicrosoftELearning.com/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/

Paul A. Mestemaker II

Program Manager

Microsoft SQL Server

SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer - Webcast

Paul Mestemaker — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 01:55:00 GMT

There will be a webcast on Thursday, September 7, 2006 at 9:30am on the next version of SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer. You can follow the link below to register for the event. I will try to address the questions and concerns that were brought up in previous blog entries. If you'd like to ask questions, you can do so during the Live Meeting or you can post a comment to this blog.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032306503&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Using the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor and New SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer Tools (Level 200)

Start Time: Thursday, September 07, 2006 9:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
End Time: Thursday, September 07, 2006 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

The webcast will have about 45 minutes of content. They have budgeted for 90 minutes, but I think 60 minutes is the sweet spot. Out of the 90 minutes, I will leave at least 30 minutes open for Q&A.

Paul A. Mestemaker II
Program Manager
Microsoft SQL Server

SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer - Progress

Paul Mestemaker — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 05:25:00 GMT

Thank you to everybody who posted comments in newsgroups, forums, and on the first SQL Server™ Best Practices Analyzer blog entry. We have been able to complete a lot of your requests already.

We’ve had some great short-term success with SQL BPA 2.0. Thanks to a lot of help from the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer team, in just a couple of weeks we’ve been able to put together a prototype with the following features:

A good looking, functional GUI
An extensible engine to execute rules
About 10 configuration/security checks for SQL Server 2005 database engine
A few rules for SQL Server Analysis Services
One basic check for SQL Server Integration Services packages
Multiple reports (view by issue type or server)
Ability to save your scan as XML or export the report you’re viewing to HTML

All of this is very exciting. In the coming month, we will be adding a few more features to the prototype in case we get the opportunity to demo it at a conference like TechEd. More importantly, we will continue our investigation on a few topics:

What level of support will we have for SQL Server 2000?
What features and rules from the original version of BPA will we transition?
Will we provide the ability for people to write custom rules?
Should we localize this tool?

These are four of the most difficult questions we face in the project. I could write an entire blog entry about the difficulties with each of these topics. Each one could dramatically change the scope of the project. The more feedback we get from customers, the better we can judge what is important. I’ll post a blog entry on one of these four topics within the next two weeks. Please let me know which one interests you the most.

-Paul

Best Practices Analyzer for SQL Server 2005

Paul Mestemaker — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 00:09:00 GMT

I’ve seen a few posts in forums and newsgroups requesting Best Practices Analyzer support for SQL Server 2005. Good news… we just started developing a new version that will work with SQL Server 2005! If you aren’t familiar with this type of utility, check out Best Practices Analyzer Tool for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 1.0 or Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool v2.5.

It is very early in the development cycle and we’d like to hear your thoughts on the following questions:

1) Is a Best Practices Analyzer tool something that you feel is important for SQL Server 2005?
2) What versions of SQL Server should this support? (SQL Server 2005 only, SQL Server 2000+)
3) What components should this support? (SQL Server Engine, Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Notification Services, Integration Services)
4) What features would you like to see in it?

I'll post the results of our plans once things become clearer.

Thanks,
-Paul