November 2006 - Posts

• So much enthusiasm for SQL Server at TechEd!! (and a teaser for something I'm working on...)

  TechEd in Barcelona is going really well. All the DAT sessions last week at the Developers conference were packed - I was particularly pleased that the chalk-talk I did on the internals of query execution in the Storage Engine was so popular that I had Read More... Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 4:49 PM by Paul Randal - MSFT | 1 Comments

• Enabling vardecimal storage format

  First, this feature is only available in EE and Dev SKU. Enabling vardecimal storage format on a table is a two step process as follows: First you need to enable database for Vardecimal storage format. This can be done using the stored procedure s p_db_vardecimal_storage_format. Read More... Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 4:33 PM by Sunil Agarwal | 6 Comments Filed under: VarDecimal Storage Format

• How to give feedback on SQL Server 2005?

  One of the sessions Don Vilen did last week at TechEd:Developers in Barcelona (that I helped with) was called The Doctor Is In: Tell Us Where It Hurts . It's basically a feedback gathering session for us and a way for customers to be able to discuss issues Read More... Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 1:32 PM by Paul Randal - MSFT | 0 Comments

• Estimating the space savings with vardecimal storage format

  Before enabling Vardecimal storage format, you may want to know the potential reduction in the size of the table. Clearly, if the table has no decimal/numeric columns, there will be no savings. Note, that even if you have a table with decimal/numeric Read More... Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 2:33 AM by Sunil Agarwal | 2 Comments Filed under: VarDecimal Storage Format

• Reducing the Size of your Database in SQL Server 2005/SP2

  An exciting new feature in SQL Server 2005/SP2 is Vardecimal Storage Format. This storage format lets you reduce the size of your table significantly if the table has one of more columns of type decimal or numeric without requiring any changes to your Read More... Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 5:48 PM by Sunil Agarwal | 2 Comments Filed under: VarDecimal Storage Format

• SQL Server 2005 SP2 CTP2 released

  We've released the second CTP (Community Technology Preview) of the SP2 for SQL Server 2005. All available links, docs, support instructions and info can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ctp.mspx . This release also includes the first look at Read More... Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 5:50 AM by Paul Randal - MSFT | 1 Comments

• When can allocation order scans be used?

  I know this is jumping the gun a little as I haven't made it this far in my series on fragmentation , but this came up in a chalk-talk I did yesterday at TechEd Developers in Barcelona and is worth blogging about. You'd expect a select * from mytable Read More... Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 2:31 AM by Paul Randal - MSFT | 8 Comments Filed under: TechEd 2006, Index Fragmentation Series, On-Disk Structures