SQL Server 2008 Links

Tibor Karaszi covers the new backup compression feature in SQL Server 2008 with some code samples and size/time comparisons to standard SQL backup. Another blog post from Paul Randal with results from the November CT5 release is here ... Source : Tibor Karaszi - SQLblog.com - Blog Post

Data Compression Tests

In this 4 part posting, Linchi highlights the effects (good and bad) of data compression. Part 1 covers compression times using various MAXDOP settings. Part 2 looks at compression rates for a number of real customer databases, Part 3 focuses on insert overhead, and Part 4 demonstrates the potential for massive read performance increases with compression enabled. As usual, Linchi includes scripts and graphs the results, making for an excellent read. I'm sure the figures will change with the RTM release, but interesting results none the less ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLblog.com - Blog Post

Tuning the Performance of Backup Compression in SQL Server 2008

A fantastic overview of the new Backup compression feature in SQL Server 2008 and how it can be tuned for maximum performance ... Source : SQLCat.com

SQL 2008 Management Tools

A great summary from Simon (provided by Buck) on the improvements and additions to the Management tools in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Simon Sabin - SQLBlogCasts.com - Blog Post

Backup Compression

The SQLCAT Team share the results of backup compression tests on a couple of VLDB's ... Source : Lindsey Allen and Thomas Grohser - SQL Customer Advisory Team - Blog Post

Auditing in SQL Server 2008

Need to audit select statements on a specific table? In SQL 2005, this was not possible without 3rd party tools or using stored procs to create a custom solution. In 2008, we can use the new and enhanced auditing feature, as Aaron points out in this posting ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLblog.com - Blog Post

Policy Based Management WebCast

Formerly known as DMF or DMgF, Policy Based Management brings significant changes to the way in which DBA's apply SQL Server policy across the enterprise. In this webcast, Hongfei Guo from the SQL Server Manageability Team demonstrated this new feature ... Source : Hongfei Guo - SQL Server Manageability Team - WebCast

Encryption Techniques Compared

A great article on MSDN comparing various data encryption techniques. Transparent Data Encryption in 2008 is compared with cell level encryption in 2005 (also supported in 2008) as well as BitLocker and EFS ... Source : Microsoft.com - Article

2008 Feature Matrix : Enterpise vs Standard

This pdf compares the differences in features between SQL Server 2008 Standard and Enterprise Editions ... Source : Microsoft.com - Download

Performance Data Warehouse

One of the significant new features in SQL Server 2008 is the Management Data Warehouse. This feature provides huge benefits in collecting and analysing performance related data, and is particularly useful when managing numerous servers. In this article from SQL-Server-Performance.com, Greg Larsen walks us through the feature from start to finish and includes screen shots. Great stuff. ... Source : Greg Larsen - SQL-Server-Performance.com - Article

Compression: What's the difference between SQL2005 and SQL2008?

In this Blog Post, Euan talks about the compression features in SQL Server 2005, and then summarizes the exciting new compression features coming in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Euan Garden - Blog Post

SQL Server 2008 Encryption

SQL Mag article covering database encryption in SQL Server 2008 including Extensible Key Management and Hardware Security Modules - SQLMag subscription required to view this article ... Source : SQLMag.com - Article

SQL Server 2008 Security Whitepaper

This paper covers some of the most important security features in SQL Server 2008; Surface Area Config, SQL Agent Proxies, Execution Context, User/Schema Separation, Auditing, Encryption and more …. ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

Managing Unstructured Data with SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008 FileStream provides an alternative method for the storage of BLOBS. FileStream enables storage in the file system, yet maintains transactional consistency with the rest of the database. This Microsoft whitepaper covers the storage options for Blobs in SQL Server 2008, including the new FileStream option. Also, check out this blog post from Paul Randal on some of the limitations with FileStream ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

Performance Studio in SQL Server 2008

Performance Studio in SQL Server 2008 is a set of tools in Management Studio (SSMS) involved in performance troubleshooting. These tools include the new Data Collector, System Collection Sets, the Management Data Warehouse, and historical reports for the collection sets. It also includes the ever popular tools like Profiler, DTA, Graphical Showplan, Activity Monitor, Client Statistics, and standard performance reports based on the SQL Engine DMVs. In this blog post, Bill Ramos provides a link to his Technet webcast covering Performance Studio in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Bill Ramos - SQL Server Manageability Team Blog - Blog Post

Partition-level lock escalation in SQL Server 2008

In this blog post, Paul discusses the new Partition Level locking option in SQL Server 2008. He begins ... "Lock escalation in SQL Server 2005 and before only allowed table-level lock escalation. If you have a partitioned table with queries going against different partitions, then table-level escalation is a pain because the whole table is suddenly locked and concurrent queries against distinct partitions can't run. SQL Server 2008 gives the ability to escalate to a partition lock, which won't affect the queries on the other partitions" ... Source : Paul S Randal - SQLskills.com - Blog Post

SQL Server 2008 Hot Add CPU

Another new feature in SQL Server 2008 is the ability to dynamically add CPU's to a running system without downtime. In this blog post, Paul provides an overview and disccusses some of the requirements ... Source : Paul S Randal - SQLskills.com - Blog Post

33 New Dynamic Management Views In SQL Server 2008

Denis lists the 33 new DMV's in SQL Server 2008. The trackback comment from Aaron Bertrand links to his blog post that lists column differences in DMVs that exist in both 2005 and 2008 ... Source : Denis Gobo - SQLblog.com - Blog Post

iFTS

A great series of blog posts from Simon Sabin on SQL Server 2008 Integrated Full Text Search (iFTS) ... Source : Simon Sabin - sqlblogcasts.com - Blog Post

SQL Server 2008 Security Overview for Database Administrators

SQL Server 2008 is secure by design, default, and deployment. Microsoft is committed to communicating information about threats, countermeasures, and security enhancements as necessary to keep your data as secure as possible. This paper covers some of the most important security features in SQL Server 2008. It tells you how, as an administrator, you can install SQL Server securely and keep it that way even as applications and users make use of the data stored within ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

Policy Based Management - Evaluation with Powershell

A great series of blog posts from Lara on Policy Based Management. In this one, she demonstrates how we can use powershell scripting to evaluate policies. Whilst not required for SQL Server 2008 instances (as we can store/automate policies in the server) it's a great technique for automating policy checks against older SQL Server instances (2000 and 2005) ... Source : Lara Rubbelke - SQLBlog.com - Blog Post

Policy Based Management - Facet-Evaluation Mode-Target Mapping

I've been looking for a blog post like this for a while. As well as explaining the concepts behind Policy Based Management, Dan provides a matrix which maps Facets by Target Type (and Target Types by Facet) as well as listing the supported evaluation modes for each facet. In a related post, Peter DeBetta provides a script to list the mappings. This will be very useful in later releases of SQL Server 2008 to discover any changes from the currently supported mappings in RC0 ... Source : MSDN Blogs - Dan Jones - Blog Post

Filtered Indexes

create index i1 on t1(col1) where col1 > 5 and col1 < 20 -- Huh ? Conor shows how this is possible in SQL 2008 ... Source : Conor Cunningham - sqlSkills.com - Blog Post

More Filtered Indexes

Grumpy takes us through one of the benefits of Filtered Indexes - reducing the maintenance impact for 24/7 operations ... Source : Grumpy Old DBA - sqlBlogCasts.com - Blog Post

Resource Governor

SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor allows much more control over resources compared to SQL 2005. In this blog post from ScalabilityExperts, the feature is demonstrated through examples and compared to the closest options available in SQL 2005 ... Source : ScalabilityExperts.com - Blog Post

Data Compression - Page Vs Row

Sunil from the Storage Engine Team blogs about the differences between page and row compression in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Sunil Agarwal - SQL Server Storage Engine - Blog Post

Resource Governor Q&A

The SQL Server PSS Engineers answers some common questions about the new Resource Governor tool and provide some best practices regarding its use ... Source : MSDN Blogs - PSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

Transparent Data Encryption in SQL Server 2008

Laurentiu provides an excellent coverage of the new Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) feature in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : MSDN Blogs - Laurentiu Crisofor - Blog Post

High Availability

Automatic Page Repair with Database Mirroring

One of the hottest features in SQL Server 2005 is database mirroring, and it's helped many companies implement successful and relatively inexpensive high-availability strategies. In SQL Server 2008, Database Mirroring has been enhanced in several ways - one of which is the ability to automatically repair corrupt pages! ... Source : Paul Randall - SQLskills.com - Blog Post

Performance Boost for Database Mirroring

In this blog post, Paul talks about how the Log Stream Compression feature in 2008 may boost the performance of synchronously mirrored databases where network throughput is constrained by large transaction rates ... Source : Paul Randall - SQLskills.com - Blog Post

Development

Sneak Peak - SQL Intellisense

In the spirit of continuing to wet your appetite for the next CTP of SQL Server 2008, I thought I would give you a glimpse of the T-SQL Intellisense functionality that is coming for SQL Server Management Studio ... ... Source : US ISV Developer Evangelism Team - Blog Post

T-SQL Enhancements in 2008

T-SQL Legend Itzik Ben-Gan takes us on a tour of the new T-SQL features in 2008 including MERGE, Table Valued Parameters, HIERARCHYID and lots more ... Source : Microsoft.com - MSDN Article

MERGE statement with Optimistic Concurrency

If I was a Gartner analyst, this one would be titled something like "Merging the old and new; Exploiting Synergies for Elegant Design". I'm not sure what Synergy Exploitation involves (I'm not sure it's legal either!), but this probably comes close. In this post, Simon describes combining new features in SQL Server 2008 (MERGE and Table Valued Parameters) with the classic optimistic locking design to enable the passing of multiple rows into a stored procedure for insert/update (i.e.; merge) into an existing table, and as per the optimistic locking methodology, if ANY of the rows have changed, the whole operation is aborted. Very nice. ... Source : Simon Sabin - SQLBlogcasts.com - Blog Post

30,000 columns per table?

I've seen and worked with some bad table and index designs in my time, but none of them bad enough to push the limits of SQL Server 2008 which is expected to support 30,000 columns and 1,000 indexes per table! In this blog post, Kimberly provides an overview of the supported column and index maximums per table in both 2008 and 2005 and why these limits *may* be required ... Source : Kimberly L. Tripp - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Sparse Columns

SQL Server 2008 introduces Sparse columns which allows columns containing NULL to consume zero space, even for fixed length columns. Combined with the increased number of columns supported in 2008 (30,000), sparse columns provide an excellent solution to common database design problems such as document repositories that require lots of attributes to be stored for lots of document types. In this post, Paul blogs about Pre-2008 solutions, and how the solution could be implemented using Sparse columns ... Source : Paul S. Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Table Valued Parameters

One of the cool new features in SQL 2008 is the ability to pass a table as a parameter to a stored procedure. In this post, Peter provides a code example of how this feature is used ... Source : Peter Debetta - sqlJunkies.com - Blog Post

SQL Server Data Services

A great interview with David Campbell, including an overview of the new SQL Server Data Services ... Source : Channel 9 - MSDN.com - Video

Powershell

I'm trying to convince Peter Ward (my local MVP and user group leader) to run a session on Powershell to make it easier for me to get into :-) In the meantime, I'm doing my own research, helped by blog posts such as this one from Lara that link to various powershell resources. Thanks Lara! ... Source : Lara Rubbelke - SQLBlog.com - Blog Post

Filestream Performance in SQL Server 2008

Paul reveals some interesting performance graphs comparing filestream to database blob storage ... Source : Paul S. Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Data Warehousing & BI

Data Warehouse Performance in SQL 2008

A great overview of the Data Warehousing improvements in SQL 2008 including Star Joins, Partitioned Tables, Data Compression and Partition Aligned Indexed Views ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article

ETL World Record with Integration Services 2008

The SQLCAT team loaded 1.18 TB in under 30 minutes using SQL Server Integration Services 2008! This blog post tells the inside story on how this was achieved ... Source : Microsoft SQL Server Data & SQL Storage Performance Team - Blog Post

SQL Server 2008: Reporting Services no longer needs IIS?

Title says it all, but is this really a feature you can benefit from or is it some piece of random engineering that the dev team decided to do because it would be "fun"? ... Source : Euan Garden - Blog Post

An Introduction to New Data Warehouse Scalability Features in SQL Server 2008

This paper introduces the new performance and manageability features for Data Warehousing in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

An Introduction to SQL Server 2008 Integration Services

This paper discusses the challenges that face businesses that rely on data integration technologies to provide meaningful, reliable information to maintain a competitive advantage in today’s business world. It discusses how SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS) can help Information Technology departments meet data integration requirements in their companies. Real-world scenarios are included ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

Reporting Services in SQL Server 2008

Reporting Services 2008 provides the tools and features necessary to author a variety of richly formatted reports from a wide range of data sources and provides a comprehensive set of familiar tools used to manage and secure an enterprise reporting solution ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Overview

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services builds on the value delivered with the significant investments in Analysis Services 2005 around scalability, advanced analytics and Microsoft Office interoperability. Through substantially improved performance and scalability, and developer productivity, you can build enterprise scale Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) solutions ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper

Replication

SQL Server 2008: Configuring Peer-to-Peer Replication

One of the cool features added in SQL Server 2005 for scaling-out a workload was peer-to-peer replication. The major drawback was that to change an existing peer-to-peer topology, the entire topology had to be quiesced. In SQL Servr 2008, the Configure Peer-To-Peer Topology Wizard in Management Studio has undergone a major face-lift and a peer-to-peer topology can be altered ONLINE ... Source : Paul S Randal - SQLskills.com - Blog Post

Spatial Data

Spatial Data. A niche or a tool for the masses?

In this blog post, Bob Beauchemin talks about the upcoming support for spatial data in SQL Server 2008. This new functionality makes it possible to integrate location awareness into just about any type of application ... Source : Bob Beauchemin - SQLskills.com

Demystifying Spatial Support in SQL Server 2008

This blog post contains a wealth of information on spatial data in SQL 2008 ... Source : Roger Doherty - Blog Post