Today Microsoft has released a new cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 SP3. KB article: KB #2799883 There are three fixes listed at the time of writing The build number is 10.00.5829.00 Relevant for @@VERSION between 10.00.5500 and 10.00.5828As usual, I'll post my standard disclaimer here: these updates are NOT for SQL ...

There are several versions of PowerPivot available and starting with Excel 2013 there are also several versions of Excel. It is useful to look at the compatibility between the different versions of Excel and PowerPivot available now. As a general rule when you have a PowerPivot workbook saved with a specific version of PowerPivot: You can ...

Today Microsoft has released a new cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 SP3. KB article: KB #2771833 There are 9 fixes listed at the time of writing The build number is 10.00.5828.00 Relevant for @@VERSION between 10.00.5500 and 10.00.5827 It seems clear that Service Pack 2 servicing has been discontinued. So there is even less reason ...

This week there was a security release for all supported versions of SQL Server. Each version has 32-bit and 64-bit patches, and each version has GDR (General Distribution Release) and QFE (Quick-Fix Engineering) patches. GDR should be applied if you are at the base (RTM or SP) build for your version, while QFE should be applied if you have ...

Short version: the latest available version of MDX Studio can be downloaded from http://www.sqlbi.com/tools/mdx-studio/ Long version: Last week Stacia Misner twitted that the online version of MDX Studio was no longer available. It was hosted on http://mdx.mosha.com. It was a sad news, and it is also not good that nobody is maintaining the ...

Today Microsoft has released a new cumulative update for SQL Server 2008.  Cumulative Update #7 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 Knowledge Base Article: KB #2738350 At the time of writing, there are 9 fixes listed The build number is 10.00.5794 Relevant for @@VERSION between 10.00.5500 and 10.00.5793 No word yet on an ...

For the past two years, I have had the honor and privilege or authoring SSIS Design Patterns alongside Jessica Moss, Michelle Ufford, Tim Mitchell, and Matt Masson. Publication of the book – like many projects of this scope – has been delayed. The current publication date is 27 Aug 2012 and I have high confidence in this date. I take ...

Today Microsoft has released two new cumulative updates for SQL Server 2008. Cumulative Update #11 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Knowledge Base Article: KB #2715951 At the time of writing, there are two fixes listed The build number is 10.00.4333 Relevant for @@VERSION between 10.00.4000 and 10.00.4332 Cumulative Update #6 for ...

Today Microsoft has released two new cumulative updates for SQL Server 2008. Cumulative Update #10 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Knowledge Base Article: KB #2696625 At the time of writing, there is one fix listed The build number is 10.00.4332 Cumulative Update #5 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 Knowledge Base Article: KB ...

The optimizer is the part of SQL Server that takes your query and reorders and rearranges your query to find the optimal execution plan. In theory.   In practice, that doesn’t always work out well. Often, the optimizer manages to come up with brilliant ways to execute a complex query very efficiently – but sometimes, it misses an ...