When SQL Server's spatial data types were introduced, people asked "Why does every standard method begin with ST" (e.g. STIsEmpty). SQL Server docs always cite the OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) specifications, but OGC's methods do not begin with ST. Where did it come from? As far as I can figure the "ST" before every standard method comes from the SQL Multimedia (SQL/MM): Part 3 Spatial spec. But SQL/MM prefixes standard methods with "ST_" not "ST". ESRI and IBM's DB2 spatial extender also us... [read more]

Yesterday a friend asked me if it was better to always use a value of GEOMETRYCOLLECTION EMPTY as an alternative to making a geometry/geography column nullable. OGC has its own concept of database NULL, that is [GEOMETRY] EMPTY, where [GEOMETRY] can be any valid geometry subtype (that is 'POINT EMPTY', 'LINESTRING EMPTY', etc). When I asked why it mattered, he said he was tired of putting ..WHERE...IS NOT NULL in every UPDATE of SQL Server spatial data type. Sounds like reason for a blog entry. ... [read more]

I'm knee deep in setting up my Lenovo X60 Tablet with Windows 7 and my initial impressions are extremely positive. The fact that all the drivers for my laptop were in the install except for the fingerprint reader and the ACPI power management driver nearly made me giddy. I was thrilled that I didn't have to use any of those icky drivers from Lenovo. Microsoft tests the drivers in the Windows install far better than any of the vendors and doesn't install extra crud except the drivers themselves. ... [read more]

Yesterday we released two more languages of the Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR release, Simplified Chinese and French in addition to the six languages we released on December 19th 2008. Chinese (Simplified) (zh-CN) http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/2/2/2223ECF9-7485-4A0B-8928-C881C876D261/Readme.mht http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/2/2/2223ECF9-7485-4A0B-8928-C881C876D261/setup.exe French (fr-FR) http://download.microsoft.com/download/B/4/4/B44806AB-8176-4473-... [read more]

  Window Server 2008 R2 Server Core, that is. When this product went public beta yesterday, I scanned the feature list to see if were any new and cool features for the DBA. Nothing specific as far as I could see. It is x64 only and does support live migration which is equivalent to vmotion on VMWare. Cool but neither are necessarily SQL related. In case you have not heard about Server Core. It is a stripped down version of Windows Server with no GUI. You basically log into a cmd prompt or a... [read more]

The purpose of making a backup is to be able to restore it at some point. Many of the companies I visit do regular backups but haven't ever restored one of them. If you really want to be safe, test the process to pull a SQL Server backup from off-site storage and restore it. I'm watching a company do this right now and they are struggling. We have a trouble ticket open with the backup software vendor to understand why we can't access our backups. I suggest you test your backups quarterly or twic... [read more]

I suppose you're really a geek when this happens.. Anyway, I woke up during the night and glanced at the clock. It was 4:43am. Somehow I got confused and thought to myself: "Am I dreaming in SSL?"

PASS have finally published its accounts from 2004 onwards. The most interesting reading is the budget http://www.sqlpass.org/AboutPASS/Governance/Financials2008_2009.aspx as this shows the breakdown of costs. What hits you is the scale of things. Whilst the likes of SQL Saturday and SQLBits do things on a volunteer basis it appears that PASS have full time people managing it and they also pay for professional services like marketing, event organisation etc. I guess when you get to above a certa... [read more]

Ok, so I'm migrating the user group website to windows 2008 and I use Index Server called via a linked server to get at the catalogue data. Could I find "Index Server" - nope; luckily I found a post ( http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s=a7fe647ccbf48ebddf8801a540a8c044&showtopic=630309&pid=589481605&st=0&#entry589481605 ) that told me. Note to self: On Windows 2008 to install Index Server you add the File Server role and its under there. Tony....( read more )

If you work a lot with SQL Server, like I do, the missing column headers when you copy query results from a query in the Management Studio is a major frustration. A colleague pointed me to a nice option to keep those headers while copying your data ! [Tools] -> [Options] -> [Query Results] -> [SQL Server] -> [Results to Grid] : specify the option to "Include column headers when copying or saving the results".

Policy Based Management (PBM) is an effective system for DBAs to manage one or more instances of SQL Server. Just to give a brief overview of what it consists, it consists 3 components: Policy management for Administrators to create policies Explicit administration for Administrators to select multiple targets to check whether they comply with a specific/multiple policy(ies) Evaluation modes based upon the schedule and execution of defined policies that is automated Policy-Based Management relie... [read more]

If this keeps up, I might need to define a tag for this stuff.. Our old friend Adam Machanic , perhaps inspired by the work of Dirk and Madhivanan , left a comment with his own contribution to the seasonal query pool. He was sufficiently concerned that...( read more )

We are often asked how to extend the filtering of RML (ReadTrace/OStress) or Profiler.  Filtering during trace production is the preferred method because it typically reduces the overall impact of the Trace on the SQL Server throughput.   For late filtering you can generally use the Profiler filtering or database table (fn_trace_gettable and save to .TRC using Profiler).  However, the SMO object model provides TraceFile implementations that make this very easy.  The Trac... [read more]

If you’re using SQL Server as the database for on of the well-known enterprise applications like Siebel, JD Edwards or Peoplesoft you may be very interested in the workshops that Frank McBath, a well known expert in the integration between Microsoft and Oracle field (btw did you know that a Microsoft Oracle Center of Excellence exists?) with a strong knowledge of SQL Server. The workshop will focus on this topics: Top Reasons for SQL Server 2005/2008 Query Repro: Reproducing Problem Queries Outs... [read more]

I'm sure most people either DBA or developers faced at least once a requirement to execute bunch of script files. As you know we can do it by using Script Task in SSIS, however I would like to share with you a unfrequented used :r parameter in SQLCMD utilty. Let say you have three files (.sql) that do an UPDATE,INSERT and finally SELECT statements. All you need is to have a single batch file which will execute those .sql files. Create a batch file named DML.sql and add the below code :r "c:\myUp... [read more]

If you're an MSDN Subscriber, you've got a little present waiting for you at http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions . Both the x86 and x64 versions of Windows 7 Beta! It's wonderful to see that Microsoft is back to generating excitement about their OS betas. I have to admit that during the Vista beta I never bothered to try it because of all the issues people were reporting on the internet. While I do like the release version, I just didn't see anything compelling during the betas to warrant su... [read more]

On the heels of Christmas Eve’s seasonal query from Dirk Gubbels comes this gem from Madhivanan (with a tip of the hat to Dave Edwards’ link in Log Buffer #129 ). set nocount on select space ( 7 - len ( replicate ( char ( 42 ), no )))+ replicate ( char...( read more )

Exciting news over on The Windows Blog : the first and only release of the Windows 7 Beta will be available for download here this Friday, January 9. The full details are here , but I'll share some highlights: The beta will only be available for a limited...( read more )

Donald(Farmer) has posted his new years resolutions for his speaking engagements. http://www.beyeblogs.com/donaldfarmer/archive/2009/01/you_say_you_wan.php They're great. I totally agree with the reduction of slides. My presentations last year had few slides and is something I'm going to commit to more in 2009. I remember seeing Mike Taulty presenting at a usergroup meeting and he had slides that moved rather than being static. I'm going to commit to moving the slides I do use, from ... [read more]

Due to a bug in Windows XP builds prior to the XP SP2 hot fix or XP SP3 release you may encounter one of the following bugs while attempting to install SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 SP3 based builds. An application that uses the Sxs.dll file crashes when you run the application on a Windows XP-based computer http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943232 The computer may restart when you add a manifest that has the Windows Vista extension to an .exe file or to a .dll file in Windows XP Service Pack... [read more]

I was searching for a particular document for SQL 2008 and thought I'd list the links to what I found, there's some especially good white papers in Technet, I can recommend the T-SQL enhancements and the indexed view white papers especially: SQL Server 2008 White Papers http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/white-papers.aspx Technet SQL 2008 White Papers http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418496.aspx A list of blogs and other sites, sadly no Grumpy Old DBA http://msdn.m... [read more]

Copyright Remus Rusanu 2009. Visit the original article at http://rusanu.com/2009/01/07/ot-wwwinstrainatatero/  Sorry for the off-topic post, this is for my Romanian friends who are reading this blog. Un site destinat comunitatilor romanesti din strainatate: www.instrainatate.ro. Acesta contine anunturi de interes pentru regiunile cu o activitate semnificativa a comunitatii romanesti, posibilitatea de a cauta si stabili legaturi cu conationali [...]

I’d recently built a two-node failover cluster for a customer using Windows Server 2008 and it’s working really well. The customer wanted to extend the cluster by adding a third node and I came across a problem with the Full Text Search service following the SQL Server installation. The new node was introduced to the failover cluster – no problem. I’d re-run SQL Server setup.exe on the new node for each of the three instances, then run Service Pack 2, plus CU7 to synchronise the SQL binaries on ... [read more]

A lot of developers have SQL Server and its different services running on their PC or notebook to develop or test BI solutions. Unfortunately this slows down your system quite a lot. To speed things up when not using SQL Server, I used to stop and start each service manual quite often. Recently I found out that it's possible to start and stop all services at once with a simple batch file. It now only takes a couple of seconds instead of a few minutes and some annoying steps. Copy/paste the f... [read more]