As with every new major milestone, one of the first things I do is check out what has changed under the covers. Since RC0 was released yesterday, I've been poking around at some of the DMV and other system changes. Here is what I have noticed: New objects in RC0 that weren't in CTP3Quick summary: We see a bunch of new aggregates for use with ...

I've said many times that my favorite new feature in SQL Server 2005 is the new metadata, in particular the new Dynamic Management Objects. When I have to do troubleshooting on a SQL Server 2000 system, it is worse than painful, not to have my favorite tools like sys.dm_tran_locks, sys.dm_exec_cached_plans andsys.dm_exec_query_plan. By now, on the ...

It's my first post of the new year. I hope it's starting out well for all of you! New year, but sometimes the same old questions. I got another email asking about defragging the system tables. It seems to be in the Hit Parade of FAQs. First of all, WHY do you think you would need to defrag a system table? Fragmentation is only a problem when you ...