Search results matching tag 'Releases'

Help Me Update the History of SQL Server

KKline — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:01:00 GMT

I was chatting with my buddy, Buck Woody (Twitter | Blog), about a week ago and we were discussing that it's pretty hard to put together the entire history of SQL Server. Then the thought hit me that I'd already done this, to a degree, in my book Transact-SQL Programming. This was the first Transact-SQL programming book on the market way back in the SQL Server 7.0 days and even included full coverage of both Microsoft and Sybase variants of T-SQL.

The thing is, I was never able to put out a second edition due to some legal and contractual issues. So, help me catch up on the history of SQL Server:

The Ancient History of Microsoft SQL Server

SQL Server, like many things related to SQL, is a story of diversity. At one time, both Sybase and Microsoft had virtually the same product with Sybase's product targeted at Unix and enterprise environments while Microsoft targeted only the Windows enterprise. Today, the two products are entirely divergent. The code base for each product is unique to each platform and shares no code at all. For a while, both Sybase and Microsoft called their flagship database product "SQL Server", but now, Sybase calls their implementation of the product Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise. So while the two products are now completely distinct, they continue to share a strongly similar Transact-SQL implementation. Other less noticeable similarities persist, such as the use of Tabular Data Stream (TDS), tempdb architecture, and a few other odds and ends.

Perhaps you want to know more about how things got to be the way they are? By reading this section, you will be making an admission that many programmers and developers are loath to - history is interesting ... perhaps even enjoyable. This is not actually a sign of weakness as some might attest. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, please read on. Table 1-1 shows the evolution of both Microsoft and Sybase’s version of SQL Server’s.

Notice that I stop at more than a decade ago. Help me add the subsequent details by leaving a comment! Extra points if you know the code name for each release.

1987 - Microsoft Buddies Up with Sybase

Microsoft and Sybase announce a technology and marketing partnership. Microsoft gets exclusive rights to market Sybase’s DataServer product on OS/2 and all Microsoft-developed operating systems. Sybase gets royalties and added credibility in the Unix and VMS markets. (Remember VMS?) Sybase ships their first commercial DBMS product, called DataServer, for Sun workstations running Unix.

It was only 20 years prior that the first Super Bowl was played as the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League, 35-10. (Hey, now this is important!)

1988 - Microsoft Buddies Up with Ashton-Tate

Microsoft and Ashton-Tate announce a marketing partnership. Microsoft can’t put a dent in dBase’s tremendous market presence. Ashton-Tate wants access to Sybase’s powerful multi-user database management technology, which ships this year. Microsoft forms a three-way alliance.

Another interesting three-way alliance was also making headlines at that time, as independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh probed the Iran-Contra affair.

1989 - SQL Server v1.0 Ships

Ashton-Tate/Microsoft SQL Server version 1.0 ships.

Perhaps not coincidentally, NYC transit fare rises from $1.00 to $1.15.

1990 - Microsoft Ships SQL Server v.1. for, OMG, Windows!

Ashton-Tate dBase IV was floundering. Microsoft wanted to beef up its offerings for the new OS/2 LAN Manager product. Microsoft and Ashton-Tate quit the partnership. “Microsoft SQL Server” version 1.1 ships by summer with support for Windows 3.0

Another partnership came to an end that year: ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

1991 - Microsoft Goes All-In on Windows 3.0

A proliferation of Windows 3.0 front-end tools spurs the growth of Microsoft SQL Server. Later that year Microsoft and Sybase amend their contract to allow Microsoft to make actual bug fixes - all under Sybase supervision. IBM and Microsoft call off their OS/2 partnership with Microsoft to focus on Windows. Sybase surpasses the $100 million revenue mark and goes public on NASDAQ.

Almost one thousand years ago to the day, significant improvements in front-end tools (i.e. the plow and horse yolk) spur a huge population boom in Europe. The Vikings and Europeans call off their partnership, with the Vikings dragging off most of the loot. Meanwhile, Islam is continuing its military expansion throughout the world. Fortunately, medieval Europe does not have to endure lengthy beta programs, although computer geeks have to endure a plague of viruses. No fair!

1992 - Microsoft Goes Nuts on Windows NT

Microsoft and Sybase SQL Server 4.2 ships. Microsoft diverts its attention away from OS/2 and into developing Windows NT. Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT later ships in beta release while Sybase ships its much-vaunted System 10.

A famous diversion of attention in the political arena, you ask? Then President George H. W. Bush lost his lunch during a state dinner in Tokyo; White House officials tried to deflect attention saying Bush was suffering from stomach flu.

1993 - Microsoft and Sybase Become Unfriends

Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 ships, closely followed by Microsoft SQL Server. By 1994, Sybase SQL Server System 10 and Microsoft SQL Server were competing unabashedly as the two formally ended their partnership. (This is about the time that I started to use Microsoft SQL Server 4.21 on OS/2).

Likewise, the American voting public formally ended their relationship with “Read my lips” President George H. W. Bush.

1995 - Microsoft Enters the Enterprise Computing World

Microsoft SQL Server 6.0, a very significant release, ships in June. Up until this time, most Microsoft products were considered departmental-level only. SQL Server also begins to push out many PC-level database products, with the noticeable exception of Microsoft Access. Access will be a thorn in the side of SQL Server DBAs until ... uh ... probably 10+ years from now.

Other significant release for 1995 included O.J. Simpson - not guilty.

1996 - SQL Server 6.5 Goes Into Production

Though released in April, it’s no April Fool’s joke. SQL Server 6.5 is the most powerful and capable version Microsoft had ever produced. It also received considerable press because of its innovative user interface and free tools.

1997 - Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Beta Released. Remember the Code Name?

Is there a causal relationship between the Monkees' appearance at the Hollywood Bowl (June 10, 1967) and the first shipment of the Apple II Computer (June 10, 1977) and the release of MS SQL Server 7.0 beta (June 10, 1997)? It does make you wonder, doesn’t it?

1998 - Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 RTM

Microsoft offers another set of new innovations in the SQL Server 7.0 release, including an "all-in-the-box" strategy. Other major DBMS vendors had, and still have, separate products for ETL (extract-transform-load), administration tools, scheduling, and business intelligence. Not Microsoft. With SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft included the Data Transformation Service (DTS) for ETL work, Query Analyzer and other administration tools, OLAP services (my brain gets a little cloudy on this one), along with the already existing scheduler, SQL Agent.

2000 - Microsoft SQL Server 2000

Branding experts said that version numbers should get too big, or else customers would perceive the software as stodgy and old fashioned. So Microsoft switched from the version number nomenclature to the one highlighting the year of the release for SQL Server 2000. This release included the game-changing Enterprise Manager (EM). Forced many other DBMS companies to at least attempt to build useful tools (anyone use SQL*Plus from Oracle). Again, my brain is getting dusty with old age and too many releases, but IIRC this was the release in which Microsoft finally got ride of page-level locking in favor of row-level locking. That shuts up a lot of Oracle-bigots, but doesn't truly ease their smarmy attitude. Grudge matches continue unabated.

I'm going to follow-up with another blog post carrying forward with SQL Server 2000, including highlights for important half-steps like SQL Server 2000 SP3, the "Slammer" security release.

Feel free to throw down some of your SQL Server trivia knowledge about release and features for releases. Share a picture of one of your old boxes, if you have one!

Enjoy,

-Kev

Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | LinkedIn | Blog

New on SQLMag.Com: Update to SP_WHOISACTIVE

KKline — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:12:00 GMT

I profiled Adam Machanic's (blog | twitter) excellent stored procedure, SP_WHOISACTIVE, back in August of 2010 in my monthly SQLMag column, Tool Time. Adam has been diligent about maintaining the tool and adding new features. Read the details on my SQLMag Tool Time column (here - http://www.sqlmag.com/blogs/tool-time/entryid/76341/new-release-of-sp_whoisactive).

Enjoy!

-Kev

Twitter at kekline

Got a slow holiday seaons? Why not spend it learning?

KKline — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:40:00 GMT

Traditionally, the time between Christmas and New Years is a bit slow. Many people take time off from work and, for those of us still working, it's a good time to catch up on all of those low priority projects that have been on the back burner for the last several months.

If you find yourself with a few extra hours, why not engage in some first-hand learning with the new features of SQL Server 2008 R2? Here are two great resources to get you started.

First, take a look at betaforsqlserver.com, a partnership between MaximumASP, Dell, PASS, and Microsoft. When you register, you get your own sandbox SQL Server 2008 R2 including support for .NET and PHP, along with Reporting Services, Analysis Services, and Integration Services. It almost makes me believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch!

Second, why not try your hand at one of the most exciting new features in SQL Server 2008 R2, PowerPivot for Excel? You can play with it to your heart's content at the new Microsoft Virtual Labs, another great service for learning in real albiet sandbox VM Hyper-V labs.

I know in my own case, it's often tough to find a free server somewhere where I can set up and install the sandbox environment. On top of that, even during a slow week, I rarely enjoy spending my time configuring an entire environment. Why not solve both problems at once with this fast and easy method of learning the news features?

Hope this helps! Happy New Year,

-Kevin

Product Watch: Scalable SQL Server Grid with XKoto. Could this be MSSQL's answer to Oracle RAC?

KKline — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:35:00 GMT

Microsoft SQL Server has been advancing technologically on every front with each new release. Having spent five years as an Oracle professional (I wrote my first technical book about Oracle) before moving to SQL Server in 1995, I spent a lot of time explaining and sometimes apologizing for the technical limitations in SQL Server when compared to Oracle. With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft finally had a product that required no apologies. This was a product that could scale to multi-terabyte database sizes and could handle tens of thousands of transactions per second. SQL Server could now handle just about anything you threw at it.

Despite these innovations, there's still one thing that Oracle has that SQL Server doesn't - Real Application Clusters (RAC). RAC promises that you instantly add new servers to the Oracle cluster, adding their processing power to the cumulative total processing power available for the database application. In a nutshell, RAC promises to deliver seemless scalability and load balancing. (The marketing claims are just that, btw. RAC is not nearly as easy to install, configure, or maintain as it should be.)

What if you'd like RAC-like capabilities for your SQL Server environment? Are you out of options? Not with Xkoto's new product called Gridscale. Gridscale virtualizes your SQL Server database(s) thereby enabling you to scale them out. As you add more servers, you get more power and improved availability. I've seen a demo presented by several members of the XKoto team and, despite my skepticism, I'm impressed. If you have extreme scalability needs or what to start with a limited amount of power today and scale up later, you should watch the on-line demo here.

As always, I welcome your comments!

Cheers,

-Kevin

What's Exciting in SQL Server 2008?

KKline — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:51:00 GMT

If you'd like a quick rundown on what I think is most interesting in SQL Server 2008, check out my new white paper at:

http://info.quest.com/KKBlog_WorththeWait_WhitePaper_KKline

Enjoy!

-Kevin

TechEd 2007 Day 1

KKline — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:01:00 GMT

I'm working three days in the SQL Server lounge area - Tuesday mid-day, Wednesday morning, and Friday morning. I'm also delivering an all new version of my popular session "SQL Server Performance Benchmarking & Monitoring. The crowds are thick and energetic. The technology is fresh. And the momentum seems to be very positive!

You can see my session, along with everyone else's at https://www.msteched.com/public/sessions.aspx. Remember - you can buy a conference DVD after the event. So check out the sessions to see if there's anything that you might want to buy the DVD to get at.

I also wanted to let you know about a key SQL Server announcements that Microsoft is making at TechEd that you should be aware of:

· The name for the next release of SQL Server™: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, formerly code-named SQL Server “Katmai,” and the delivery of the first SQL Server 2008 Community Technology Preview (CTP), now available for customer download at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/futureversion/default.mspx. The press release is shown below.

· The acquisition of Dundas Data Visualization Inc.’s Data Visualization products, which provide rich charting within SQL Server Reporting Services, enabling users to create information-rich reports and applications

Check http://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver for the Katmai CTP download files. It's very popular at the moment, so expect delays. They gave away 3000 DVDs at the SQL Server booth in the first few hours of the exhibit hall today. So I expect even more folks will be trying to get it on-line. And if you decide to install it right away, take my advice and only install Katmai on either a virtual machine or a dev machine that you can rebuild at any time.

Cheers,

-Kevin

~~~
With the SQL Server “Katmai” June CTP release, customers can immediately utilize new capabilities that support their mission-critical platform and enable pervasive insight across the enterprise. June CTP lays the groundwork for innovative policy-based management that enables administrators to reduce their time spent on maintenance tasks. June CTP provides enhancements in the SQL Server BI platform by enabling customers to provide up-to- date information with Change Data Capture and MERGE features, And develop highly scalable analysis services cubes with new development environments.

Mission-critical platform

Declarative Management Framework (DMF)

Declarative Management is a new policy-based management framework for the SQL Server Database Engine that delivers the following benefits:

· Ensure compliance with policies for system configuration

· Prevent/monitor changes to the system by authoring policies for the desired configuration

· Reduce total cost of ownership by simplifying administration tasks

Pervasive Insight

Change Data Capture (CDC)

· Change Data Capture (CDC) is a generic component that will track database changes asynchronously and expose the changes through a relational interface which can be consumed easily.

· Through this interface, consumers can very easily track changes based on their specific requirements and consume the change data using T-SQL or other data access methods.

MERGE SQL Statement

· Common data warehouse scenarios require developers to either insert information or update information. SQL Server 2008 will provide new statements within the SQL language to enable developers to provide this functionality with a single statement.

VSTA Support for the Script Task and Component

Auto migration – Existing script components in SQL Server 2005 will automatically invoke the new VSTA environment, which makes the migration of old script components seamless.
C# support - With this improvement, SSIS package developers will be able to code in C#, along with existing Visual Basic .NET
Debugging – Standard VS debugging features are also fully enabled in this new environment.

Star Join Query Optimizations

· For improved query performance for common data warehouse scenarios, Star Join Query optimizations reduce query response time by recognizing data warehouse join patterns.

AS Dimension Design: Improved Supportability and Integration of Best Practices

· Enhance UI for creating and editing dimensions to guide users toward designs that follow best practices.

· These include: Finish Attribute Relationship Designer, Dimension structure (presentation of attribute relationships), modification to wizards to align output with best practices, simplifying creation of composite keys, and AMO warnings (spanning all objects, not just dimensions)

Developer Productivity

Table Value Parameters

· In many customer scenarios, it is necessary to pass a set of table structured values (rows) to a stored procedure/function on the server. These values may be used for populating/updating a table directly or for more complex manipulation of data for business logic purpose. Table valued parameter will provide an easier way to define a table type as well as allow applications to create, populate and pass table structured parameters to stored procedures and functions.

June CTP builds upon the robust platform of SQL Server 2005 and continues to improve the functionality in key areas like Manageability and Replication. For a complete list of June CTP features and enhancements, please refer to the Readme file included in the download.

Microsoft announces next version of SQL Server

KKline — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:58:00 GMT

Check out the press releases:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-09KatmaiPR.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/futureversion/default.mspx

-Kevin

Microsoft/PASS Survey

KKline — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:06:00 GMT

Help Microsoft and the Professional Association for SQL Server with our latest survey drive. We're trying to figure out as much as we can about your wants and needs as they relate to SQL Server. Help us out by filling out the survey, which can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes, at http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/p55650250.aspx.

This survey is extremely important in terms of guiding future decisions at Microsoft with regards to SQL Server. So give voice to your priorities and issues by taking part.

Many thanks,

-Kevin

New Windows Live Search Macro for SQL Server

KKline — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:23:00 GMT

If you're a fan of the MSDN on-line search tool for the SQL Server 2005 Books On-Line (BOL), you might want to try a new tool. The new search tool is available at http://search.live.com/macros/sql_server_user_education/booksonline and offers more precise and targeted search results than MSDN.

You can investigate creating your own Windows Live search macro here. The macro is an easy to share home page that you can reuse, email to your friends, and post to the Windows Live Gallery. There are lots of examples, such as:

If you give this site a spin, send feedback to the SQL Server Documentation team at

SQLServerUE@hotmail.com.

Enjoy!

-Kevin

Slipstreaming Hot Fixes and Service Packs

KKline — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:42:00 GMT

I've been getting requests from users concerning the best way to roll out new service packs and hot fixes to their SQL Server computers. A perenial question that always seems to come up is "Why doesn't Microsoft slipstream (that is, add the hot fixes and service packs directly into the product) updates for SQL Server?"

This is an important philosophic question about what is the best way to support a production software product. It all comes down to mindset and how you prioritize various issues. I can't pretend to speak for Microsoft, but you can get some great insight into these issues by reading Euan Garden's, a person I emminently respect, blog posts on this topic at http://blogs.msdn.com/euanga/archive/2006/04/27/584637.aspx.

Let me, and more importantly Euan, know what you think.

Cheers,

-Kevin