SQL Server Manageability Team Blog : SQL Server Management Studio

Uploaded Demo Scripts for TechNet Webcast - Using the New Policy-Based Management Framework in SQL Server 2008

HongfeiG — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:26:00 GMT

Thanks for those who have attended this presentation. I have attached the demo policies and the demo script as promised. Note that the policy files only work for SQL Server 2008 CTP6 and above. Cheers, Hongfei...(read more)

Multiple Server Query Execution in SQL Server 2008

Eric Kang — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:16:00 GMT

SQL Server 2008 SSMS introduces a new feature, Multiple Server Query Execution, in Query Editor. This feature intends to increase the productivity of running same query against multiple servers at once. Some of useage include: · Configure group of servers...(read more)

Performance Data Collector for SQL Server 2008 - Revealed

billramo — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:37:00 GMT

I’ve been getting many requests on what is this new Performance Data Collector tool and how does it work. First off, Performance Data Collector is simply a component as one of the tools in Management Studio (SSMS) involved in performance troubleshooting....(read more)

November CTP News: Workaround fix for query execution issue

Eric Kang — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:03:00 GMT

SQL Server 2008 November CTP (CTP5) has a known issue that any query execution hangs indefinitely. Fortunately, there is a quick and simple workaround to fix the issue. Cause & Problem: User changes the default setup directory to a custom one during...(read more)

How do you like to learn? or SQL Server Agent Proxy Accounts

Paul Mestemaker — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:29:00 GMT

One of my favorite parts of my job as a Program Manager is evangelizing our products. I love teaching people how to be more effective by introducing them to new features or tying many existing features together in an end-to-end scenario. I like to learn about technology and I'd imagine that the majority of my readers are also technology enthusiasts by profession. The problem I have now is that I do not have enough time in the day to learn about everything that could be cool and figure out how it could be useful. I recently watched a video by Brian Knight from JumpStart TV on SQL Server Agent Proxy Accounts. I thought it was a great way to quickly learn about one piece of SQL Server Agent without reading lots of documentation. To reach the broadest audience most effectively, I'm considering putting together short videos like the folks at JumpStart TV to give you an overview of how to use our features. My questions to you are......(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)

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)

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)

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

Management Studio Reports - Part 3 - Standard Reports

Paul Mestemaker — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:13:00 GMT

Sorry for the delay for part 3. I have not been able to take our existing standard reports and make them work properly in a Reporting Services environment. I'm going to release the files anyway, in case one of you can figure out what is wrong. I'm not a Reporting Services guru, but I hope that somebody out there can find the bug and let us all know. (I think the problem is in the extraction tool that we used to dynamically localize them into US - English.)

Please see the attached zip file containing all of our standard reports. You can view them in Business Intelligence Development Studio and look the queries behind them... but for some reason, some (original Disk Usage.rdl for example) will not run out of the box.

Here are some descriptions of parameters for the reports:

Parameter Name	CLR data type	Comments
ObjectTypeName	String	The type of object. For example, “Database”, “Login”, “Functions”.
ObjectName	String	The name of the object. For example, “Foo”, “AdventureWorksDW”, “GetUserIDFromName”, etc.
ErrorText	String	Used in the Default report to show error information.
Filtered	Boolean	This was used to indicate whether the dataset being passed from OE is filtered or not. We will respect the filters the user has in place in OE and this parameter allows us to indicate on the list reports whether the list is filtered.
ServerName	String	Name of the server and instance currently connected. In the form of “server\instance” for a named instance and “server” for a default instance. Prompt Name: ServerName Allow Null: checked Allow Blank: checked Avail Values: none Defaults: none
FontName	String	Name of the font to be used to display the report. Defaults: Non-Queried – “Tahoma”
DatabaseName	String	Name of the database containing the current object. If the object is not database scoped, this value will be an empty string.

Please post a comment if you have any questions/suggestions.