External Links & References (SSQA.net)

Here is the list of information which is a Technical Rollup email we receive from TRM team. The list is ongoing and I have outlined the important ones that I feel and fits for 'generic' SQL Server environment.

Make sure to review, download, test and apply to your production environment. 

SQL Server 2008 Report Builder 2.0 RC1

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Report Builder 2.0 provides an intuitive report authoring environment for business and power users. It supports the full capabilities of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. The download provides a standalone installer for Report Builder 2.0.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=2&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dcc9acbbd-570c-4712-b74d-85f537a5a75f%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools is a free, easy-to use version of SQL Server Express that includes more features and makes it easier than ever to start developing powerful data-driven applications for the web or local desktop.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=3&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d7522a683-4cb2-454e-b908-e805e9bd4e28%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=4&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3db5d1b8c3-fda5-4508-b0d0-1311d670e336%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR August CTP

Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR implements support for SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=5&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dbb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed%26displaylang%3den

 

SQL Server 2008 Release Notes

This Release Notes document contains information for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 that supplements the SQL Server 2008 Readme and Books Online documentation.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=6&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3ddaf00920-7214-418a-a4b0-727f4ce08f81%26displaylang%3den

 

SQL Server Management Pack for MOM 2005

The SQL Server Management Pack monitors SQL Server services and features and their availability.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=7&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d79f151c7-4d98-4c2b-bf72-ec2b4ae69191%26displaylang%3den

 

SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) SDK (Beta)

This is a beta version of the Software Development Kit for SSDS including tools and client side components useful to developers building applications against SSDS.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=8&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d0b1fa5c6-ec9d-440b-939e-481dd05f2627%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft SQL Server Protocol Documentation

The Microsoft SQL Server protocol documentation provides technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary protocols that are implemented and used in Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=9&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d91ef5106-944a-41e1-b3a0-5bd3f2356f32%26displaylang%3den

 

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer

This download is the August 2008 release of SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=10&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dda0531e4-e94c-4991-82fa-f0e3fbd05e63%26displaylang%3den

 

Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server SP1

This Service Pack contains bug fixes and new features that address feedback from customers and provide support for recent operating system and database releases. This service pack applies to Team Foundation Server 2008, Team Foundation 2008 Proxy, and Team Foundation Server 2008 Build.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=11&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d9e40a5b6-da41-43a2-a06d-3cee196bfe3d%26displaylang%3den

 

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor

Download the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor. Upgrade Advisor analyzes instances of SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 to help you prepare for upgrades to SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=18&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3df5a6c5e9-4cd9-4e42-a21c-7291e7f0f852%26displaylang%3den

 

SQL Server Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007

Download SQL Server 2008 Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007. This package includes two add-ins for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (Table Analysis Tools and Data Mining Client) and one add-in for Microsoft Office Visio 2007 (Data Mining Templates).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=19&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d896a493a-2502-4795-94ae-e00632ba6de7%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, August 2008

Download the 2008 Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2008, a collection of stand-alone install packages that provide additional value for SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=20&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dc6c3e9ef-ba29-4a43-8d69-a2bed18fe73c%26displaylang%3den

 

 

SQL Server Data Services

SQL Server Data Services

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=23&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d2539d851-1e68-42fd-bee0-d36806a732fb%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Books Online

Download the documentation and tutorials for Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=24&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d765433f7-0983-4d7a-b628-0a98145bcb97%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Evaluation: Trial Experience for IT Professionals

Download SQL Server 2008 180-day Trial Software. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a database platform for large-scale online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, and e-commerce applications; it is also a business intelligence platform for data analysis and reporting solutions.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=25&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d265f08bc-1874-4c81-83d8-0d48dbce6297%26displaylang%3den

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Evaluation: Trial Experience for Developers

Download SQL Server 2008 180-day Trial Software. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a database platform for large-scale online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, and e-commerce applications; it is also a business intelligence platform for data analysis and reporting solutions.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=26&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d6b10c7c1-4f97-42c4-9362-58d4d088cd38%26displaylang%3den

 

 

Documents

 

SQL Server 2008 Licensing Overview

This document explains key licensing considerations for SQL Server 2008 customers.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/6/1e68f92c-f334-4517-b610-e4dee946ef91/2008%

 

XML Best Practices for Microsoft SQL Server 2005

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms345115.aspx

 

SQL Server 2005 Full-Text Queries on Large Catalogs: Lessons Learned

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/bestpractice/ftslesld.mspx

 

 

Data Dude - if you know about these 2 words then you know what I'm talking about.

Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals is an excellent tools for the users  to build SQL databases in a managed project environment with support for versioning, deployment, unit testing, refactoring, and off-line SQL development. SO what's that great news about this tool:

Gert Drapers announces:

The team is happy to announce that we just released CTP16, of the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR release. We are yet another step closer to reaching the finish line which is waiting for us at PDC in Oct of this year. More from this Blog post and not only that here is another exciting news for users about Getting-The_Crown-Jewels edition of the product.

TO get more hands on for you then I refer these Samples link too.

Training is best method to update and know about new technolgies and when it comes to SQL Server there are no special tricks.

SQLKnowHow - gear up for exclusive training from professionals continues such a world-class opporunity for the SQL Server users to know more about IT, details are as follows:

 

Why do would you want to use CLR in SQL Server?
Because its faster and simpler than the TSQL equivalent in doing scalar calculations and doing procedural processing.
Further more using .Net inside SQL Server means you can achieve somethings that are impossible using plain TSQL.
After this seminar you will have covered how to use .Net in SQL Server, why you would want to use it, guidance as to when you should use it and you will have the facts to convince your DBA that enabling CLR is a good thing.

(Click for more details .....) (Click to hide details)

Turbo charge your TSQL by using .Net in SQL Server

Presenter	:	Simon Sabin
Company	:	SQL Know How
Duration	:	1 day
Cost	:	£150 before 15th August, £200 after
Registration	:	Click here to register (http://register.sqlknowhow.com/book.aspx?cust=SKH1&eid=sqlbits20080912&disc=sqlbits)

Overview

SQL Server 2005 introduced the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to the SQL world with the ability to create stored procedures, triggers etc using a number of .Net languages and have it run inside the database server.

Most people ask the following questions,

1. Why do I need to use .Net?
2. Doesn’t it make my system unstable?
3. Doesn’t TSQL perform better?
4. How do I support it?
5. How secure is it?
6. When should I use CLR over TSQL?

We will answer these questions by looking at real world uses of the CLR in your database.

We will see how the code you write can be simpler than TSQL and perform better than TSQL, whilst not impacting on the stability of your system. We will also look at scenarios that aren’t possible using TSQL and how we can solve easily them using CLR objects.

Topics

During the seminar we will cover the following,

1. How CLR is hosted in SQL Server
2. Creating CLR objects using a .Net language
3. Comparing the performance with TSQL and other options
4. Providing guidance on when to use CLR objects and when not to
5. Getting the best performance from your CLR objects

Getting the most out of any situation is all about understanding which tool is best suited to what situation.
If you want to get the most out of your database then you need to understand how and when you CLR objects are the best tools for the job.

Presenters

Simon Sabin is an independant consultant and trainer. He has worked with SQL Server since SQL Server 6.5, on many large scale systems built using the Microsoft architecture. He was awarded the Most Valuable Professional award in 2006 and is a leader in the SQL Server community in the UK. He has written and delivered the developer track of the SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart training for Microsoft alongside Bob Beauchemin. Alongside Allan Mitchell, Darren Green and Tony Rogerson he has setup SQL Know How, a company for providing SQL Server Consultancy and training based on real world experience.

Full Price £200

Early Bird £150

click to register

Advanced SQL Server Troubleshooting with Christian Bolton

The Advanced Troubleshooting Workshop for SQL Server 2005 provides attendees with SQL Server internals knowledge, practical troubleshooting skills and a proven methodical approach to problem solving. The workshop will enable attendees to tackle complex SQL Server problems with confidence.

(Click for more details .....) (Click to hide details)

Advanced SQL Server Troubleshooting

Presenter	:	Christian Bolton
Company	:	Coeo
Duration	:	1 day
Cost	:	£150 before 15th August, £200 after
Registration	:	Click here to register (http://book.registrationisopen.com/book.aspx?cust=COEO&eid=sqlbits20080912&disc=sqlbits)

Advanced troubleshooting tools, techniques and best practices for SQL Server 2005

The Advanced Troubleshooting Workshop for SQL Server 2005 provides attendees with SQL Server internals knowledge, practical troubleshooting skills and a proven methodical approach to problem solving. The workshop will enable attendees to tackle complex SQL Server problems with confidence.

Target Audience

This is an advanced workshop designed for IT Professionals who design, administer or maintain critical platforms based on SQL Server 2005. Participants should be spending or planning to spend most of their time working with SQL Server.

Technical depth

300/400

Overview

This full-day workshop provides participants with the opportunity to learn about advanced SQL  erver support topics in a very approachable way. Low-level SQL Server components are illustrated by following the “life of a query”. This helps to consolidate understanding of the architecture and provides a context from which to delve further. An iterative methodology is presented to help structure advanced concepts including:

• Memory grants and cache usage
• I/O considerations and diagnosing problems
• SQL Server waits and wait types
• Troubleshooting latch waits
• Query plan optimisation and execution

Two tools are demonstrated throughout the workshop that are key to fast analysis and resolution:

• PSSDiag for data collection
• SQLNexus for data analysis

Full instruction is given in how to configure and run these tools in your own environment.

Key Benefits

The Advanced Troubleshooting workshop provides attendees with a comprehensive understanding of key troubleshooting tools and methods. Attendees will benefit from:

• Reduce time to resolution for production SQL Server problems
• educed occurrences of issues through proactive troubleshooting
• •Established troubleshooting methodology

Presenters

Coeo is an expert SQL Server Systems Integrator delivering Consulting, Remote DBA and Dedicated Engineering to large and medium sized businessesin the UK and mainland Europe.

Full Price £200

Early Bird £150

click to register

Making the most of data through business intelligence with Allan Mitchell

Companies today are drowning under a sea of data, but very rarely have the tools that would allow them to do anything useful with it. In this one day seminar, suitable for DBAs, business analysts and developers, Allan Mitchell and Chris Webb will give you an insight into what's possible with Business Intelligence tools that Microsoft offers. They have implemented BI solutions for companies large and small throughout the world. Let them show you the power of your data!

(Click for more details .....) (Click to hide details)

Making the most of data through business intelligence

Presenter	:	Allan Mitchell
Company	:	SQL Know How
Duration	:	1 day
Cost	:	£150 before 15th August, £200 after
Registration	:	Click here to register (http://register.sqlknowhow.com/book.aspx?cust=SKH1&eid=sqlbits20080912CA&disc=sqlbits)

Overview

Companies today are drowning under a sea of data, but very rarely have the tools that would allow them to do anything useful with it. In this one day seminar, suitable for DBAs, business analysts and developers, Allan Mitchell and Chris Webb will give you an insight into what's possible with Business Intelligence tools that Microsoft offers. They have implemented BI solutions for companies large and small throughout the world. Let them show you the power of your data!

Abstract

Over the course of the day Allan and Chris will run through the process of building a complete Business Intelligence solution using all the tools in the Microsoft SQL Server suite. We'll start off by taking raw transactional data and show you how to clean, transform and remodel it, and then load it into reporting and analysis tools that will let your end users gain the maximum business benefit from it. The breakdown of the day will be as follows:

What is BI?

Business Intelligence, or BI for short, is a term bandied around a lot today but what does it actually mean? We'll discuss some possible definitions and the kind of Business Intelligence solutions that companies are really building and using today.

Dimensional Modelling

The technique of dimensional modelling is meant to solve the problems that you encounter when trying to perform reporting directly from an OLTP database. In this part of the day we will look at: * What issues dimensional modelling is trying to solve * The theory of dimensional modelling * What structures you see in a dimensional model

ETL with Integration Services

ETL stands for 'Extract, Transform and Load', and it refers to the process of extracting data from your transactional systems, cleaning it, validating it, integrating it and then loading it into your dimensional model. It's probably the most important and the most lengthy part of a project because invariably the data you want to work with has a lot of problems, but if you give junk data to your end users they will not be able to do anything useful with it. In this section we'll take a look at how you can use Integration Services to:

1. Extract data from many different sources,
2. Clean, transform and conform it,
3. Use its advanced functionality to uncover useful information that you might not have known was there, and
4. Load it into your dimensional model

 

Advanced Analysis and Querying with Analysis Services

If you and your users need to be able to query your data easily, perform advanced analysis and calculations and get super-quick performance then you may want to consider using Analysis Services. In this section we'll discuss:

1. What Analysis Services is and what advantages it has over a relational database for BI
2. How to build cubes
3. How the MDX query language allows you to create queries and calculations that would be very difficult in SQL

 

Reporting with Reporting Services

While some users will want the powerful ad hoc querying that Analysis Services offers, most will just be happy with straightforward reports. Reporting Services allows you to create pixel-perfect reports from a variety of data sources and render them in a number of formats such as over the web, pdf and Excel. In this section we'll show:

1. How to build reports using Reporting Services
2. How to report from a relational data source
3. How to report from an Analysis Services cube

 

Data Mining

All kinds of patterns and trends are hidden in your data that you may not know about, and they can be found using the data mining functionality in Analysis Services. In the final part of the day we'll show you how to: * How to build data mining models that will allow you discover patterns in and make predictions from your data * Let your end users do this within Excel 2007

Presenters:

Allan Mitchell and Chris Webb are consultants with many years of experience of implementing BI solutions on the Microsoft BI platform and delivering training on this subject. They are both holders of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award.

Full Price £150

Early Bird £100

click to register

Introduction to using SQL Server for the Jack of All Trades with Tony Rogerson

This one day seminar will first familiarise the person new to SQL Server to the product itself and what comes with it and the tools used to manage and develop against SQL Server. We will also look at best practices in the area of setting up SQL Server and configuring the hardware and also building a simple but effective and manageable High Available installation.

(Click for more details .....) (Click to hide details)

Do not click any of the links below:  Here is the piece of advice I would like to share that do not fall for tricks played by SPAMMERS and phishing email you see below: *************************************************************************
Alert Name: My Custom Alert Obama has big speech plans in Utah Sat, 9 Aug 2008 07:17:51 -0700 the above link goes to http://tycharu.137.com1.ru/cnncurrent.html page which is a virus prone! FULL STORY   You have agreed to receive this email from CNN.com as a result of your CNN.com preference settings. To manage your settings click here. To alter your alert criteria or frequency or to unsubscribe from receiving custom email alerts, click here. Cable News Network. One CNN Center, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 © 2008 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company All Rights Reserved. View our privacy policy and terms.

**********************************************************

All the links you will see blue in color leads to same webpage which collects your personal information & virus hack.

Be safe ... secure your system!

PASS community connector email that I would like to share!

Prove that you've got what it takes!

From the blog of Technical Rollup mail that we receive from Microsoft here is the list of SQL Server Migration Assistant tools available from Microsoft to migrate/upgrade data from other data sources such as Access, Sybase & Oracle.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

SSMA 2008 for Sybase V4.0

Automates database migration from Sybase ASE to SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=3&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d4fc68b67-149f-4237-8869-e70b68947f4f%26displaylang%3den

 

SSMA 2008 for Sybase PowerBuilder Applications v1.0

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) 2008 for Sybase PowerBuilder Applications is a tool that cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating PowerBuilder Applications designed for Sybase to SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=4&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3dad09f718-7d6f-499b-8a6a-0ea98e0c0295%26displaylang%3den

 

SSMA 2008 for Oracle V4.0

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) 2008 for Oracle is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=5&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d3e8722ae-77f3-4288-906d-f421e24d322f%26displaylang%3den

 

SSMA 2005 for Sybase V4.0

Automates database migration from Sybase ASE to SQL Server 2005.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=6&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d842b092d-c123-4c76-8051-30b16e45d554%26displaylang%3den

 

SSMA 2005 for Oracle V4.0

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) 2005 for Oracle is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server 2005.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=7&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d6d9bc6a7-75da-493e-bee5-50f4a4352b91%26displaylang%3den

 

SSMA 2005 for Access V4.0

Automates database migration from Access to SQL Server 2005.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=8&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d4ecd1e67-c64e-49e6-821e-c4d83d9d5fed%26displaylang%3den

 

SSMA 2008 for Access V4.0

Automates database migration from Access to SQL Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=9&srcdisplaylang=en&srccategoryid=&srcfamilyid=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3ffamilyid%3d133b59c2-c89c-4641-bebb-6d04476ec1ba%26displaylang%3den

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

It is a compulsory requirement that you need a license to work/operate a software application. That means it is required for each physical or virtual processor accessed by an operating system environment running such a software.

I must admit  Licensing policy or information from Microsoft is bit confusing, many times I was stumbled upon what to refer or review in case of any deployment of SQL Servers within a physical or virtual environment. So I tend to visit HowToBuy all the times to make sure I do not violate or overpay any financials towards licensing.

Open Source software has taken more importance to the IT users, one way it is good for variety of technologies to use. Until now the world was waiting to see what would be the stand from a Software gaint such as Microsoft. No doutb that Microsoft has to protect their own software in addition to contribution towards open source, an interesting blog post I have seen that is interesting to know that a number of agreements with various software companies to protect them and their users and list of strategies that are credited some other concrete ways method here.

Here is the interesting information in their (MS) own words about Open Source at Microsoft: Licenses: Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) policies.

As you may be aware all the Technical information roll-up on MSDN & Technet is sent out in email format, in this regard I wanted to share the important and interested links for you on SQL Server arena.