SQL Server 2008 SP1 - New features!

We'll, no more worrying about installing a Service Pack for SQL Server 2008 and not being able to uninstall in the event of problems. Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2008 now allows roll-back of the service pack without having to uninstall the entire application, which will reduce risk for DBA's and minimize down-time for data services consumers!!

Some additional feature of SP1 are:

1. Slipstreaming
2. Report Builder 2.0

This is a great addition to an already awesome product!

Here is link to SP1 download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=66ab3dbb-bf3e-4f46-9559-ccc6a4f9dc19&displaylang=en

Sneak Preview into SQL Server Codenamed Kilimanjaro on April 30

On April 30th 2009, we will get a sneak preview into the next version of SQL Server platform, which has current name of "Kilimanjaro". One of the areas the webcast will cover is features such as Self Service Business Intelligence, Scale-Out Data Warehousing and Multi-Server Management. Additionally, we will get a sneek preview at Project Madision and a new BI Tool called Gemini, which should be very intersting.

A bit of humour.......

Out of curiosity, I wanted to understand why the name Kilimanjaro was adopted for this next release, which will undoubtedly change prior to release to manufacture (RTM), so did a little background research and can only conclude, (from Wiki) Kilimanjaro breaks Kilima (Swahili for "hill, little mountain") and Njaro, whose supposed origin varies according to the theories—according to some it's an ancient Swahili word for white or for shining, so decided to interpret this as the "Shining Hill" release or something we can see from a far!!

This is one not to be missed and for everyone interested, please use the following link to register for webcast:

http://www2.eventsvc.com/academylive/register/95712536-abbb-4621-a484-33cb28bce69c

Thanks,
Phillip Cox

SQL Server 2008 Certification

We'll, I sat the SQL Server 2008 Transition Certification Exam 70-453 back in December 2008 to migrate my SQL Server 2005 MCITP award to SQL Server 2008. This exam is basically both the technical specialist and professional level exams rolled into one examination.

In all honesty, the exam wasn't all that difficult, but did mean spending a fair amount of time getting to grips with new features in SQL Server 2008, as majority of the examination covers familar topics that SQL Server 2005 product includes. Although, where they do differ is on the new features of SQL Server 2008, thus requirement to spend time understanding these new tools.

Good luck to everyone who is scheduled to sit the exam!
Well worth it!

I'm back!!

It's been sometime since I have updated the blog and apologies, but I have been working very hard with implementing SQL Server 2008 infrastructures.

Over the coming year, you will find a great deal of SQL Server 2008 information to help plan, design, implement and support the roll-out of the "king of databases!".

SQL Server 2008 - RC0 Now Available

SQL Server 2008 RC0 is available at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=35F53843-03F7-4ED5-8142-24A4C024CA05&displaylang=en

Enjoy!

Policy Based Management - What is it?

In previous versions of SQL Server, the biggest missing part was lack of a centralized management framework to create, deploy and manage a policies based infrastructure. One of the key management components in SQL Server 2008 is the ability to define policies and deploy across all servers to enforce configurations and making management less error-prone. This is achived via the new Policy-Based Management, which consists of three components, which are: policy management, explicit administration and execution mode.

Policies can be targeted at the following: database engine, a database, a table, an index, xp_cmdshell, which form the basic hierarchy. Policies allow a DBA to enforce basic standards across a set of SQL Server instances, such as naming standards, sp_configure options and feature availability as an example, which allows a SQL Server environment to have the same "look and feel" across an organization.

Policies are created using the SQL Server Management Studio Tool and stored in the MSDB database, thus any change to a policy or condition requires a backup of the MSDB database. To create a new policy, the syntax is as follows:


Declare @policy_id int
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_syspolicy_add_policy
@name=N'Check Window User',
@condition_name=N'Check if windows user policy',
@policy_category=N'',
@description=N'',
@help_text=N'',
@help_link=N'',
@schedule_uid=N'00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000',
@execution_mode=0,
@is_enabled=False,
@policy_id=@policy_id OUTPUT,
@root_condition_name=N'',
@object_set=N'Check if windows user policy'_ObjectSet'

This is an awesome addition to an already brillant product and should make life easier to SQL Server DBA's!