Stewed Prunes...

Update on Resource DVD's...

I have had a couple requests over the past two weeks for the Technet Resource DVD we gave out Oct-Dec at our SQL events. I am all out of the DVD’s I have so and I have decided against posting it online. Here’s why…

This DVD was sent to production almost 6 months ago. This was prior even to the release of SQL 2005. There is a substantial amount of information on the DVD that is based upon pre-release information and beta products. Many of the documents, utilities and even webcasts have been updated to reflect the features and capabilities of the final SQL 2005 product.

I will investigate what we will do for the current and future DVD’s and their exposure online. For now, the best way to ensure you get the DVD is to come to a free Technet Briefing near you (in the U.S.).

Cheers!

New Downloads for Developers - Week Ending - 12/25/2005

Presentations and WebCasts –

New Video & Audio based information for developers is located at these links:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/archive.aspx

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=14

http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/dotnetrocks/

Extending Visual Studio 2005 Team System – Discussion on how Microsoft IT extended Visual Studio 2005 Team System to incorporate software development lifecycle methodology process by modifying the default process template. By modifying the process template developer compliance increased and external tools were eliminated.

Getting Started – Visual Basic Fusion with Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET – This presentation walks you through the Visual Basic Fusion articles and shows how Microsoft Visual Basic 6 applications can be extended with the Microsoft .NET framework. This video is the second of a two-part presentation by Scott Swigart of Swigart Consulting.

Beta’s, RC’s and CTP’s…Oh My! –

Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 1.2 – Compatible with Office “12” (Beta 1) – Windows Workflow Foundation is the programming model, engine and tools for quickly building workflow-enabled applications on Windows. It consists of a Microsoft® WinFX® name space (System.Workflow), an in-process workflow engine, and designers for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Windows Workflow Foundation is available (currently as Beta) for both client and server versions of Windows. Windows Workflow Foundation supports a wide range of scenarios including workflow within line-of-business applications, user interface page flow, document-centric workflow, human workflow, composite workflow for service-oriented applications, business rule-driven workflow and workflow for systems management.

Microsoft Pre-Release Software WinFX Language Packs – December Community Technology Preview (CTP) – The WinFX language packs contain translated text, such as error messages, for languages other than English. Installation of a language pack is not required to run WinFX resources on a non-English operating system; however, it is recommended.

Note: An English WinFX language pack is not available because all text is in English by default. To download a specific language pack, select the target language from the change language drop-down.

Pre-released WinFX Runtime Components Tool – For best results, install on a computer that has not had pre-release versions of WinFX runtime Components 3.0 installed on it. If your computer has a pre-release version on it, follow the Uninstall Instructions below to uninstall these pre-release bits before installing the November CTP. You must remove them in the correct order to ensure a clean uninstall.

If you have a pre-release version of SQL Server 2005, MSDN, Visual Studio 2005, or the .NET Framework, you must uninstall them by following VS pre-RTM Uninstall Instructions.

Microsoft Pre-Release Software WinFX Runtime Components – December Community Technology Preview (CTP) – "Windows Presentation Foundation", "Windows Communication Foundation", and "Windows Workflow Foundation" are the names for three strategic developer technologies that Microsoft plans to ship in 2006 as part of the Windows Vista operating system. In addition, Microsoft is making these technologies available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The WinFX Runtime Components December CTP enables developers to continue experimenting with early builds of these technologies, get acquainted with the development experience, and provide Microsoft with feedback.

Hotfixes, Patches, Updates, Service Packs —

Help for Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications SDK – This help file documents all the POSIX style APIs provided by Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications.

Australian Daylight Savings changes in Microsoft Products for the year 2006 – The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held during March 2006 in Melbourne Australia. Several Australian states including New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania, have changed the Daylight Savings transition end dates to the first Sunday of April 2006.

DirectX End-User Runtimes (December 2005) Full Download – This download provides the DirectX end-user multi-languaged redistributable that developers can include with their product. The redistributable license agreement covers the terms under which developers may use the Redistributable. For full details please review the DirectX SDK EULA.txt and DirectX Redist.txt files located in the license directory.

This package is localized into Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and English.

DirectX End-User Runtime (December 2005) Web Installer – Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.

Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update – KB911711 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: Datasync
Description: ActiveSync connection may fail if a user attempts to re-connect to a device after failing to enter a password. 

Tools and Apps –

PlaysForSure Portable Device Test Kit – Microsoft has established the PlaysForSure program to establish compatibility between music or video device and online stores that sell digital music and video using Windows Media technologies. If you are designing or manufacturing a portable media player device, you can use the PlaysForSure Portable Device Test Kit to verify that your device is compliant with the requirements of the PlaysForSure logo program. Please note that you must have a fully executed PlaysForSure Logo License Agreement in place with Microsoft prior to using the logo on your products or marketing materials.

Microsoft Domain-Specific Language (DSL) Tools – Using the Microsoft DSL tools you can create your own designer, integrated into Visual Studio, for a visual domain-specific language. The tools help you define the domain-specific language and generate the code of a graphical designer for you. The resulting designer uses the same underlying modeling technology that is used by the Class Designer and Distributed System Designers in Visual Studio 2005.

The Microsoft Tools for Domain-Specific Languages is part of the Visual Studio 2005 SDK.

SQL Server 2005 System View Map – The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 System View Map shows the key system views included in SQL Server 2005, and the relationships between them.

BizTalk Server 2004 Load Generation Tool – This tool is intended for developers and IT professionals to simulate load on a BizTalk Server. Using this tool, you can simulate load to instrument performance and stress against a BizTalk deployment. In addition, this tool may also be extended by developers to simulate load for custom transports. This tool should be used in a test environment only, and should not be used in a production environment. This tool is provided "as-is" and is not supported.

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Sample: Deploying Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Solutions using Windows Installer – This download targets developers who want to deploy a Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office solution using a Visual Studio 2005 Setup project to create a Windows Installer package.
The accompanying article provides the following discussions of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office deployment:

• An overview of the main steps required to deploy a Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office solution.
• An overview of how to deploy a Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office solution using the Visual Studio Setup project including how you can add the Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office runtime and the Microsoft Office 2003 primary interop assemblies prerequisites to your setup packages.
• The steps for granting security trust to a solution.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 – Update to the Web Project Conversion Wizard – The Web Project Conversion Wizard in Visual Studio 2005 has been updated to handle newly discovered conversion issues. This update will improve the success rate of the wizard and make it easier for developers to convert their Visual Studio .NET 2003 Web projects to the new Visual Studio 2005 Web Site project model.

Case Studies, Guides and Whitepapers –

Moving to SQL Server 2005 at Microsoft – Discussion on how Microsoft IT moved its line-of-business applications to SQL Server 2005. Additionally, this paper also discusses a number of details and best practices that Microsoft adopted to move its applications on SQL Server 2005 that may help other organizations successfully plan and roll out SQL Server 2005.

Upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 2005 – This guide is intended for software technical decision makers, solution architects, and software developers who are involved in Visual Basic 6.0 application or component development. It helps you understand the issues and risks that go along with upgrading to Visual Basic .NET. It also provides steps for preparing your applications for a successful and cost-effective upgrade. Finally, it gives ideas and pointers about how advance your application after you successfully upgrade it to Visual Basic .NET.

SQL Server 2005business Intelligence Metadata Whitepaper – This white paper covers several interesting and unique methods for managing metadata in SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services using built-in features including data lineage, business and technical metadata and impact analysis.

Related Download: The SQL Server 2005 Metadata Samples Toolkit can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=11DAA4D1-196D-4F2A-B18F-891579C364F4&displaylang=en

Cheers!

New Downloads for ITPros - Week Ending - 12/25/2005

Presentations and WebCasts –

Deploying SharePoint Products and Technologies for Enterprise Collaboration – Detailed discussion about the design and deployment of the Microsoft IT hosted collaboration platform. The platform supports personal storage, team Web sites, group and division portals, and enterprise services. With server farms centralized in three regional data centers, Microsoft saves both hardware and support costs.

Moving to SQL Server 2005 at Microsoft – Discussion on how Microsoft IT moved its line-of-business applications to SQL Server 2005. Additionally, this paper also discusses a number of details and best practices that Microsoft adopted to move its applications on SQL Server 2005 that may help other organizations successfully plan and roll out SQL Server 2005.

Update for Windows XP x64 Edition – KB903651 – See Below

Update for Windows Server 2003 – KB903651 – See Below

Update for Windows 2003 for Itanium-based Systems – KB903651– See Below

Update for Windows Server x64 Edition – KB903651 – Install this update to allow more than one domain-based DFS namespace to be created on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Australian Daylight Savings changes for Microsoft products for the Year 2006 – The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held during March 2006 in Melbourne Australia. Several Australian states including New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania, have changed the Daylight Savings transition end dates to the first Sunday of April 2006.

Update for Software Update Services – Run this script and follow the instructions in KB912307 to resolve an issue in Software Update Services (SUS) 1.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) in which all previously approved updates may revert to an unapproved state and the status appears as "updated". This script will reset your approval settings to their previous state. SUS 1.0 SP1 servers that were deployed on or after December 13, 2005 will not encounter this issue.

Tools and Apps –

SQL Server 2005 System View Map – The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 System View Map shows the key system views included in SQL Server 2005, and the relationships between them.

Active Directory Migration Tool v2.0 – The Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) version 2.0 provides an easy, secure, and fast way to either upgrade from Windows NT Server 4.0 to Windows Server Active Directory service or restructure Windows Server Active Directory domains between forests or within a forest. The tool migrates users, groups, and computers between domains in a way that allows users to have access to their resources and applications at all times. Version 2.0 includes new features, such as password migration, a scripting interface, and a command line interface, that make migrations easier.

Also available is the Active Directory Migration Tool v3.0, which provides an integrated toolset to facilitate migration and restructuring tasks in an Active Directory infrastructure.

BizTalk Server 2004 Load Generation Tool – This tool is intended for developers and IT professionals to simulate load on a BizTalk Server. Using this tool, you can simulate load to instrument performance and stress against a BizTalk deployment. In addition, this tool may also be extended by developers to simulate load for custom transports. This tool should be used in a test environment only, and should not be used in a production environment. This tool is provided "as-is" and is not supported. 

Case Studies, Guides and Whitepapers –

Microsoft CRM 3.0 Implementation Guide – This Implementation Guide provides the information required for a successful Microsoft CRM implementation into your business. This guide addresses the planning, installing (both hardware and software), pre-deployment testing, and operating tasks for the maintenance of the Microsoft CRM system.

This guide is written for the computer system administrator. This guide also assumes that any organization implementing Microsoft CRM software will have the services of an independent software vendor (ISV) or value-added reseller who is partnered with Microsoft and will help you with the entire process of implementing and maintaining your Microsoft CRM installation. Because of this assumption, there are references in this guide to these "partners" who are expected to provide various services to you.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Virtual PC Demonstration – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 release Virtual PC Demonstration. This demo is a one computer setup with Microsoft CRM 3.0 server and Microsoft CRM 3.0 client for Outlook. This demonstartion also contains Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Microsoft File Server Resource Manager – The Microsoft Corporation Information Technology group uses Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 File Server Resource Manager as a centralized tool for managing file servers located in branch offices around the world. File Server Resource Manager is a suite of tools that allows administrators to understand, control, and manage the quantity and types of data stored on their servers.

Live Communications Server 2005 Document: Configuring Certificates – This document explains how Live Communications Server 2005 uses certificates and how to configure certificates for each server role using your existing certificate infrastructure.

Terminal Services Scaling and Performance on X64-based versions of Windows Server 2003 – Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 Terminal Server lets users run Microsoft Windows®-based applications on a remote computer that is running one of the Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. This white paper contains results, analyses, and sizing guidelines for Terminal Services on x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003. Hewlett Packard worked in cooperation with Microsoft to perform the initial sizing tests and data collection in the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond, Washington. The tests were performed using Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1).

DirectX End-User Runtime – Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.

DFS Operations Guide: Using the DFSRAdmin Command-line Tool – The Dfsradmin.exe command line tool is new for the Distributed File System (DFS) in Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 R2. Use this tool to administer DFS replication, including creation of replication groups and replicated folders, adding members to replication groups, and managing the location of staging folders. This guide offers step-by-step instructions for performing these common tasks by using DFSRAdmin.

SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Metadata Whitepaper – This white paper covers several interesting and unique methods for managing metadata in SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services using built-in features including data lineage, business and technical metadata and impact analysis.

Related Download: The SQL Server 2005 Metadata Samples Toolkit can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=11DAA4D1-196D-4F2A-B18F-891579C364F4&displaylang=en

Security –

Improving Security at Microsoft through Deployment of Windows XP SP2 – Overview of why and how Microsoft IT proactively deployed Windows XP Service Pack 2. Windows XP Service Pack 2 is a critical security release that addresses Internet-based security threats.

Windows Server 2003 PKI Operations Guide – How to configure and operate a Windows certificate authority, with operational scenarios, custom configuration information, sample commands, and best practices.

MBSA 2.0 Scripting Examples – Sample scripts that illustrate how to extend MBSA 2.0 for greater scalability during scanning and report rollup.

 Cheers!

MOM 2005 Reporting and SQL 2005

This morning I delivered a webcast on MOM 2005 Sizing and Performance. Once of the questions that came up was this —

Can I use MOM 2005 Reporting with SQL 2005 Reporting Services?

I checked the MOM 2005 System Requirements and it notes that SQL 2000 Reporting Services would be required.

I also checked the MOM 2005 team product blog and did not see any announcement of being able to use SQL 2005 for the reporting services.

Finally, I pinged a couple internal distribution lists looking for some guidance and was told taht we do NOT currently support using SQL 2005 for either the MOM Reporting services *or* the MOM database.

I would encourage you to subscribe to the MOM blog above as I am sure it will be annouced there first, and to check the MOM site I linked to above as it will get posted there as well.

Cheers!

SQL Demo Scripts...

There have been many requests from across the country to post the scripts we use in our SQl Demos from the “Best Of…” and SQL Launch Events. Harold Wong zipped them up and sent them to me to post here.

Cheers!

Slide Deck from CDW SQL Webcast

Here are the slides for the Webcast we did this morning. I have added a couple extra decks that add some additional information for your use. If you are interested in seeing this session LIVE, check out www.technetevents.com for a live “Best Of SQL” event near you.

Cheers!

New Downloads for Developers - Week Ending - 11/26

Presentations and WebCasts –

New Video & Audio based information for developers is located at these links:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/archive.aspx

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=14

http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/dotnetrocks/

Channel 9 Video Interview MSDN – November 16, 2005 – “Coding for Fun”, “Exchange ‘12’”, and More!

MSDN TV: Favorite v2.0 Features in the Base Class Libraries – Kit George and Ari Weinstein give a rundown of their favorite Base Class Libraries (BCL) features new to the .NET Framework 2.0. Some are larger items which you may have heard of. Others are smaller "hidden gold" items that may be hard to find out about in any other forum. Discussed in the episode are Generic collections, new String APIs (Split, Contains, and IsNullOrEmpty), the TryParse pattern, Console improvements, new APIs for simpler file access (File.ReadAllLines and its cousins) and the Stopwatch class. Feel free to visit the BCL blog for other hints/suggestions.

Enhancing Developer productivity by Using SQL Server 2005 – Detailed discussion on SQL Server 2005 common language runtime (CLR) support to increase developer productivity and create a flexible pricing application solution at Microsoft.

Beta’s, RC’s and CTP’s…Oh My! –

Microsoft Visual Studio Extensions for WinFX - November CTP – The Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for WinFX November Community Technology Preview (CTP) provides developers with support for building WinFX applications using the final released version of Visual Studio 2005. This support includes XAML Intellisense support through schema extensions for the editor, project templates for the Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code named “Avalon”) and the Windows Communication Foundation (formerly code named “Indigo”), and WinFX SDK documentation integration. It does not include a graphical design surface for either the Windows Presentation Foundation or the Windows Communication Foundation.

Microsoft Pre-Release Software WinFX Runtime Components – November CTP – "Windows Presentation Foundation", "Windows Communication Foundation", and "Windows Workflow Foundation" are the names for three strategic developer technologies that Microsoft plans to ship in 2006 as part of the Windows Vista operating system. In addition, Microsoft is making these technologies available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The WinFX Runtime Components November CTP enables developers to continue experimenting with early builds of these technologies, get acquainted with the development experience, and provide Microsoft with feedback. More details about these technologies are below.

Note: This is a pre-beta release. Therefore, do not install these builds on machines you depend on. If you have a previous version of Avalon ("Windows Presentation Foundation"), Indigo ("Windows Communication Foundation"), or pre-released versions of .NET Framework 2.0 installed you must read this before download.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 1.2 for Microsoft Pre-Release Software WinFX Runtime Components – November CTP (who comes up with the names for this stuff?!?!?!?!?) – Windows Workflow Foundation is the programming model, engine, and tools for quickly building workflow-enabled applications on Windows. It consists of a Microsoft® WinFX® namespace (System.Workflow), an in-process workflow engine, and designers for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Windows Workflow Foundation is available (currently as Beta) for both client and server versions of Windows. Windows Workflow Foundation supports a wide range of scenarios including workflow within line-of-business applications, user interface page flow, document-centric workflow, human workflow, composite workflow for service-oriented applications, business rule-driven workflow, and workflow for systems management. The Microsoft Pre-Release Software WinFX Runtime Components - November CTP must be installed before installing this package.

Microsoft Windows SDK for the November 2005 WinFX Runtime Components CTP – IMPORTANT: This version of the Microsoft Windows SDK is intended to support only the Microsoft® Pre-Release Software WinFX® Runtime Components - November Community Technology Preview (CTP) on Windows® XP and Windows Server® 2003 SP1 only.

While this version of the Windows SDK also contains pre-release content for Windows® Vista, the Win32-related content is not compatible with publicly available versions of Windows. This release of the Windows SDK is compatible with the RTM version of Microsoft® Visual Studio 2005.

The Windows SDK includes content for the APIs in Windows Vista, including the WinFX technologies: .NET Framework 2.0, Windows® Presentation Foundation, Windows® Communications Foundation, and Windows® Workflow Foundation.  Because the Windows SDK now contains the WinFX SDK content, the WinFX SDK will no longer be released separately.

Pre-released WinFX Runtime Components Uninstall Tool – For best results, install on a computer that has not had pre-release versions of WinFX runtime Components 3.0 installed on it. If your computer has a pre-release version on it, follow the Uninstall Instructions below to uninstall these pre-release bits before installing the November CTP. You must remove them in the correct order to ensure a clean uninstall.

If you have a pre-release version of SQL Server 2005, MSDN, Visual Studio 2005, or the .NET Framework, you must uninstall them by following VS pre-RTM Uninstall Instructions.

IronPython 0.9.5 – IronPython is the codename for an alpha release of the Python programming language for the .NET platform.
It supports an interactive interpreter with fully dynamic compilation. It is well integrated with the rest of the framework and makes all .NET libraries easily available to Python programmers.

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Sample: Outlook Samples (Beta) – This “Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Tools for Microsoft Office – Outlook® Samples (Beta)” release includes five sample projects that demonstrate some of the many ways to develop Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 add-in solutions by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System, Beta 2.

Microsoft Solutions Framework for Agile Software Development – Beta – This download contains the agile process guidance that will be shipping with Visual Studio Team System. MSF for Agile Software Development is a scenario-driven, context-based, agile software development process that utilizes many of the ideas embodied in Team System. This process incorporates proven practices developed at Microsoft around requirements, design, security, performance, and testing. This new release introduces the new Team Model, Mindsets, and Principles. It also contains many clarifications of the activities.

Hotfixes, Patches, Updates, Service Packs —

Update for Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Development Kit 1.7 – English – The Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Software Development Kit facilitates building ink-enabled applications for Tablet PC. The combination of software and hardware in a Tablet PC enables these methods of user interaction and allows for a rich, interactive, and productive computing experience for users.

The Tablet PC platform encompasses Windows XP and its extensions that enable input and output of handwriting and speech data on a Tablet PC as well as interchange of this data with other computers. The Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Software Development Kit (SDK) enables you to build ink-enabled, pen-enabled, and speech-enabled applications and supporting hardware for the Tablet PC.

Windows CE .NET 4.2 Platform Builder Update – KB909973 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: Compiler
Description: ARM processor only: Compiler may cause Datatype Misalignment exception.

Windows CE Platform Builder Update – KB909368 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: DirectX
Description: Video playback may hang after backwards skip.

Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update – KB908026 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: TimeSVC
Description: Under certain circumstances SNTP service may set local time incorrectly.

Tools and Apps –

Microsoft Application Verifier – Application Verifier is a runtime verification tool for unmanaged code that assists in quickly finding subtle programming errors that can be extremely difficult to identify with normal application testing.

Application Verifier is designed specifically to detect and help debug memory corruptions and critical security vulnerabilities. It makes it easier to create reliable applications by monitoring an application's interaction with the Windows operating system, profiling its use of objects, the registry, the file system, and Win32 APIs (including heaps, handles, locks, and more). It also includes checks to predict how well the application will perform under Least-privileged User Account operation.

SQL 2005 Express Edition Documentation and Samples – SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) is the next version of MSDE 2000. It is a free, easy-to-use, lightweight version of Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server Express makes it easy to develop data-driven applications that are rich in capability and fast to deploy. To download the samples and product documentation for SQL Server Express, click the links in the Files In This Download section. For the SQL Server Express site on MSDN, SQL Server discussion forums, and SQL Server 2005 product documentation, click the links in the Related Resources box.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition Server Tools – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition (SQL Server Mobile) is the compact database for rapidly developing applications in both native mode and the .NET Compact Framework that extend enterprise data management capabilities to devices.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition Server Tools installs the SQL Server Mobile Replication Components on the IIS box. The components are required for connecting the SQL Server Mobile database on a mobile device to a SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2000 SP3a, or SQL Server 2000 SP4 database.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP4 Replication Components – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition (SQL Server Mobile) is the compact database for rapidly developing applications in both native mode and the .NET Compact Framework that extend enterprise data management capabilities to devices.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP4 Replication Components installs the SQL Server 2000 SP4 Replication Components on the IIS box. The components are required for connecting with the SQL Server Mobile database on the mobile device.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP3a Replication Components – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition (SQL Server Mobile) is the compact database for rapidly developing applications in both native mode and the .NET Compact Framework that extend enterprise data management capabilities to devices.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP3a Replication Components installs the SQL Server 2000 SP3a Replication Components on the IIS box. The components are required for connecting with the SQL Server Mobile database on the mobile device.

Windows Media Encoder 9 Series x64 Edition – Windows Media Encoder 9 Series x64 Edition is a powerful tool for content producers who want to take advantage of the many innovations in Windows Media 9 Series including high-quality multichannel sound and high-definition video quality on x64 platforms.

Windows Media Format 9.5 SDK (x64) – The Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) provides the documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools you need to develop applications that run on Windows. The applications you develop with this edition of the SDK can run on the x64 based versions of Windows Server 2003 SP and Windows XP x64 Pro Edition.

Feature Pack for SQL 2005 – Nov 2005 – The Feature Pack is a collection of standalone install packages that provide additional value for SQL Server 2005. It includes:

• Latest versions of redistributable components for SQL Server 2005
• Latest versions of add-on providers for SQL Server 2005
• Latest versions of backward compatibility components for SQL Server 2005

Sample Code Generator 1.4.2.1 – The Sample Code Generator (XSDObjectGen) tool takes an XSD schema as input and generates sample code showing how to mark up C# and VB.Net classes so that when serialized with the XML serializer, the resulting XML will be valid according to the original schema. This update fixes some documentation changes and corrects a problem where the wizard did not generate code in some environments.

SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle v2.0 – SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server. SSMA automates almost every aspect of the migration process including assessment, schema and data migration, business logic conversion, and validation. Companies such as Motorola and Simon & Schuster have used SSMA to migrate their business-critical databases quickly, easily and accurately.

With SSMA, IT organizations now have the freedom to move to SQL Server and take advantage of SQL Server's exceptional security, scalability, developer productivity, and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership.

Case Studies, Guides and Whitepapers –

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Licensing White Paper – This white paper provides an overview of Visual Studio 2005 Team System licensing, focusing on typical configuration and deployment issues. This document will provide a general understanding of the core features, typical deployment scenarios and required licensing for the Visual Studio 2005 Team System product line.

BizTalk Server 2006 CTP: Installation Instructions and Known Issues – The installation instructions explain how to install BizTalk Server 2006 Community Technical Preview on Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows Server 2003. The known issues file describes known issues about the Community Technical Preview release.

NOTE: For the Beta 1 version, click here.

BizTalk Server 2006 Beta 2 Installation and Known Issues – The installation instructions explain how to install BizTalk Server 2006 Beta 2 on Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows Server 2003. The known issues file describes known issues about the Beta 2 release.

NOTE: For the Beta 1 version, click here.

For the Tech Preview version, click here.

Installing and Configuring Microsoft BizTalk Adapters for Enterprise Applications Beta 2 – Installing and Configuring Microsoft BizTalk Adapters for Enterprise Applications Beta 2

Visual Basic Language Specification 8.0 – The Visual Basic Language Specification provides a complete description of the Visual Basic language 8.0.

SQL 2005 Virtual Backup Device Interface Specification – The SQL Server 2005 Virtual Backup Device Interface Specification contains updated information about the Virtual Backup Device interface. Independent software vendors (ISVs) can use the Virtual Backup Device application programming interface (API) to integrate SQL Server into their products. This API is engineered to provide maximum reliability and performance, and to support the full range of SQL Server backup and restore functionality, including all hot and shadow-copy backup capabilities.

Using Microsoft Message Passing Interface – This paper describes the concepts behind the Microsoft Message Passing Interface (MPI) software (called MS MPI), a portable, flexible, vendor- and platform-independent standard for messaging on High Performance Computing (HPC) nodes. MPI is the specification, and MS MPI, MPICH2, and others are the implementations of that standard. MPI2 is an extension of the original MPI specification.
Fundamentally, MPI is the interconnection between nodes on an HPC cluster, tying nodes together. MPI provides a portable and powerful inter-process communication mechanism that simplifies some of the complexities of communication between hundreds or even thousands of processors working in parallel.

Migrating Parallel Applications – When migrating UNIX- and Linux-based HPC applications to Windows, the programmer has two choices:

• Migrating to native Windows
• Migrating to Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA)

Although not providing full access to the rich Windows application execution environment, SUA can provide a relatively easy migration of UNIX applications with little code change required. The migration of the core MPI code of an HPC application is greatly simplified by the inclusion of MS Message Passing Interface (MPI) as part of Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. MS MPI is based on and compatible with MPICH2, the most widely used MPI implementation, while providing improved security and job management capabilities.

This paper provides details on the two available migration paths.

Using the Microsoft Windows Computer Cluster 2003 Job Scheduler – Microsoft® Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 brings high-performance computing (HPC) to industry standard, low-cost servers. Jobs—discrete activities scheduled to perform on the compute cluster—are the key to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 operation. Cluster jobs can be as simple as a single task or can include multiple tasks. In some situations, tasks are serial—running one after another; in others, they are parallel—running all at the same time. The structure of the tasks in a job is determined by the dependencies among tasks and the type of application being run. In addition, jobs and tasks can be targeted to specific processors within the cluster. Processors can be reserved exclusively for jobs or can be shared among jobs and tasks.

Parallel Debugging Using Visual Studio 2005 – Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition and Visual Studio 2005 Team System support remote debugging of applications, including parallel applications. Visual Studio 2005 includes features that make it an effective debugging tool for Message Passing Interface (MPI) applications. You can execute the MPI applications directly from the Visual Studio session and specify the number of processors to use for the application. And when you set breakpoints in the application, you can have those breakpoints apply to all processes or only to some processes by filtering the breakpoints.

This paper describes how to use Visual Studio 2005 to directly debug parallel High Performance Computing applications on a local desktop or on a compute cluster.

Cheers! 

New Downloads for SQL 2005 - Week Ending - 11/12

SQL 2005 Samples and Sample Databases – The samples download provides 103 samples for SQL Server 2005, demonstrating the following components:

• Database Engine, including administration, data access, Full-Text Search, CLR integration, Server Management Objects (SMO), Service Broker, and XML
• Analysis Services
• Integration Services
• Notification Services
• Reporting Services
• Replication

The samples databases downloads include the AdventureWorks sample online transaction processing (OLTP) database, the AdventureWorksDW sample data warehouse, and the AdventureWorksAS sample Analysis Services database. These databases are used in the samples and in the code examples in the SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor analyzes instances of SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 in preparation for upgrading to SQL Server 2005. Upgrade Advisor identifies deprecated features and configuration changes that might affect your upgrade, and it provides links to documentation that describes each identified issue and how to resolve it.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) is a powerful and reliable data management product that delivers rich features, data protection, and performance for embedded application clients, light Web applications, and local data stores. Designed for easy deployment and rapid prototyping, SQL Server Express is available at no cost, and you are free to redistribute it with applications. Because it is part of the Microsoft Windows Server System, SQL Server Express is designed to integrate seamlessly with your other server infrastructure investments. For more information about SQL Server Express, see the SQL Server Express page on MSDN.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Evaluation Edition – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is comprehensive, integrated data management and analysis software that enables organizations to reliably manage mission-critical information and confidently run today’s increasingly complex business applications. By providing high availability and security enhancements as well as embedded reporting and data analysis tools, SQL Server 2005 allows companies to gain greater insight from their business information and achieve faster results for a competitive advantage. And, because it is part of Windows Server System, SQL Server 2005 is designed to integrate seamlessly with your other server infrastructure investments.

This fully functional trial software will automatically expire after six months. You can obtain the fully licensed version at any time.

For information about the different editions of SQL Server 2005, see the feature comparison page.

Microsoft SQL Server Managements Studio Express – CTP Nov. 2005 —Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) provides a graphical management tool for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) instances. SSMSE can also manage relational engine instances created by any edition of SQL Server 2005. SSMSE cannot manage Analysis Services, Integration Services, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, Notification Services, Reporting Services, or SQL Server Agent.

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express - Community Technical Preview November 2005 is unsupported pre-release software.

Cheers!

New Downloads for Developers - Week Ending - 11/12

New Video & Audio based information for developers is located at these links:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/archive.aspx

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=14

http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/dotnetrocks/

Presentations and WebCasts –

MSDN TV: IronPython – Pyton on the .NET Framework – IronPython is the codename for a new implementation of the Python programming language on the .NET Framework. It is fast - up to 1.8x faster than Python-2.4 on the standard pystone benchmark. It supports an interactive interpreter with fully dynamic compilation as well as static compilation to produce pre-compiled executables. It's well integrated with the rest of the Framework and makes all of the .NET libraries easily available to Python programmers. In this episode Jim Hugunin introduces IronPython with demos showing interactive exploration and GUI building from a command prompt as well as simple embedding as a scripting language in an existing Windows Presentation Foundation application.

Channel 9 Video Interview – Nov. 9, 2005 – There are a BUNCH of interviews in this download!

Hands-On Labs –

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Training: Outlook Hands-on-Labs – “Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Tools for Microsoft Office – Outlook® Hands-on Labs” step you through the process of creating and working with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 add-in solutions by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System, Beta 2. The labs are in both Microsoft Visual C#® code and Microsoft Visual Basic® 2005 code.

Web Services Enhancements 3.0 Hands-on-Lab – Exploring Security – Learn how to secure Web services without writing code, how to author security policies, and how to leverage the WSE programming model to secure your Web services.

Web Services Enhancements 3.0 Hands-on-Lab – Exploring Messaging – Learn how to create Web services with Web Services Enhancements 3.0 which extends the .NET Framework 2.0 ASMX Web Services to provide additional messaging abilities such as hosting ASMX Web services in console applications, using MTOM to send binary data efficiently and build your own peer to peer instant messaging program.

Beta’s, RC’s and CTP’s…Oh My! –

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express November 2005 CTP – Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) provides a graphical management tool for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) instances. SSMSE can also manage relational engine instances created by any edition of SQL Server 2005. SSMSE cannot manage Analysis Services, Integration Services, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, Notification Services, Reporting Services, or SQL Server Agent.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 SDK – Preliminary – The Microsoft CRM 3.0 SDK is for developers, system customizers and report writers. It contains the following sections:

·  Server Programming Guide – A guide for developers writing server side code, custom business logic, integration modules, workflow assemblies and more. This guide provides an architectural overview of Microsoft CRM, the entity model, security model, Web services, and sample code.

·  Client Programming Guide – A guide for developers customizing the Web client or the Microsoft CRM client for Outlook, including scripting, integration of custom Web pages, and sample code.

·  Report Writers Guide - A guide for developers writing reports for Microsoft CRM using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Report Designer.

Windows Workflow Foundation 1.2 for Office “12” (Beta 1) – Windows Workflow Foundation is the programming model, engine and tools for quickly building workflow-enabled applications on Windows. It consists of a Microsoft® WinFX® name space (System.Workflow), an in-process workflow engine, and designers for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Windows Workflow Foundation is available (currently as Beta) for both client and server versions of Windows. Windows Workflow Foundation supports a wide range of scenarios including workflow within line-of-business applications, user interface page flow, document-centric workflow, human workflow, composite workflow for service-oriented applications, business rule-driven workflow and workflow for systems management.

Hotfixes, Patches, Updates, Service Packs —

Windows CE .NET 4.1 Platform Builder Update – KB909084 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: MSHTML
Description: The Soft Input Panel (SIP) may not appear when focus is set to a text box.

Windows CE .NET 4.2 Platform Builder Update – KB909250 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: DirectX
Description: MP3 files with certain metadata may not play correctly.

Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update – KB909476 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: Compiler
Description: ARM processor only: The adjustor thunk may reuse the r3 register without saving it. Compiler may cause Datatype Misalignment exception.

Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update – KB909073 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: DirectX
Description: Source filter may not work correctly. As a result, a user may not know the bitrate for the input stream.

Update for Windows Embedded for Point of Service – KB903937 – This update resolves an issue where Remote Assistance does not function under Windows Embedded for Point of Service.

Tools and Apps –

Microsoft .NET Framework SDK v2.0 Samples Download – This self-extracting Zip file contains the latest Technology and Application samples available for the .NET Framework SDK 2.0 release. The Technology and Application samples demonstrate code functionality found in version 2.0 of the .NET Framework and Visual Studio 2005.

Using these samples requires installation of the .NET Framework 2.0 redistributable and the .NET Framework SDK 2.0 , also available on Download Center.

.NET Framework 2.0 SDK (x86) – The Microsoft .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.0 (x86) includes tools, documentation and samples developers need to write, build, test, and deploy .NET Framework applications.

You must install the .NET Framework Redistributable Package version 2.0 (x86) prior to installing the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK (x86).

Mobile Ink To-Do Starter Kit – This Visual C# and Visual Basic .NET Starter Kit is a complete Mobile PC and Tablet PC application. The starter kit contains a semi-transparent form for taking notes and keeps them synchronized through a Web Service. It also supports battery awareness and online and offline data, two key features of a great Mobile PC applications. The project comes ready to compile and run and it's easy to customize with only a little extra programming.

Word 2003 Sample: Importing XML Data to Word 2003 using Visual Studio Tools for Office – This download accompanies the MSDN article "Importing XML Data to Word 2003 Using Visual Studio Tools for Office" available from the Additional Resources box.

With this sample, you can import XML data from a database into Word documents using Visual Studio Tools for Office, Version 2003. You will also create a document programmatically that contains a button control allowing the user to access a database.

Visual Studio Tools for Office – v2003 Sample: Building a Professional Excel Stock Allocation Application – This sample solution illustrates the process of creating a Microsoft Excel Stock Allocation application in Microsoft Visual Basic .NET using Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System, Version 2003.

The associated MSDN article discusses the implementation process used to create the application. Code snippets illustrate individual components of this Stock Allocation application.

SQL 2005 Samples and Sample Databases – The samples download provides 103 samples for SQL Server 2005, demonstrating the following components:

• Database Engine, including administration, data access, Full-Text Search, CLR integration, Server Management Objects (SMO), Service Broker, and XML
• Analysis Services
• Integration Services
• Notification Services
• Reporting Services
• Replication

The samples databases downloads include the AdventureWorks sample online transaction processing (OLTP) database, the AdventureWorksDW sample data warehouse, and the AdventureWorksAS sample Analysis Services database. These databases are used in the samples and in the code examples in the SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor analyzes instances of SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 in preparation for upgrading to SQL Server 2005. Upgrade Advisor identifies deprecated features and configuration changes that might affect your upgrade, and it provides links to documentation that describes each identified issue and how to resolve it.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) is a powerful and reliable data management product that delivers rich features, data protection, and performance for embedded application clients, light Web applications, and local data stores. Designed for easy deployment and rapid prototyping, SQL Server Express is available at no cost, and you are free to redistribute it with applications. Because it is part of the Microsoft Windows Server System, SQL Server Express is designed to integrate seamlessly with your other server infrastructure investments. For more information about SQL Server Express, see the SQL Server Express page on MSDN.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Evaluation Edition – Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is comprehensive, integrated data management and analysis software that enables organizations to reliably manage mission-critical information and confidently run today’s increasingly complex business applications. By providing high availability and security enhancements as well as embedded reporting and data analysis tools, SQL Server 2005 allows companies to gain greater insight from their business information and achieve faster results for a competitive advantage. And, because it is part of Windows Server System, SQL Server 2005 is designed to integrate seamlessly with your other server infrastructure investments.

This fully functional trial software will automatically expire after six months. You can obtain the fully licensed version at any time.

For information about the different editions of SQL Server 2005, see the feature comparison page.

Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET Upgrade Assessment Tool – The Visual Basic 6.0 Upgrade Assessment Tool measures application upgrade effort. This tool analyzes the application components and the relationships between them from an upgrade perspective, considering elements, constructs, and features that consume resources during an upgrade. It generates a group of reports that are used for calculations related to task effort and cost. The user can specify configuration values that will override the initial estimation inputs to adapt the assessment tool to their needs.

Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0 – The Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0 release provides standards-conformant implementations of:

• XML 1.0 (DOM & SAX2 APIs)
• XML Schema (XSD) 1.0
• XPath 1.0
• XSLT 1.0

In addition, it offers client and server-safe components for XML over HTTP. MSXML6 is also the first version of MSXML to provide a 64-bit redistributable package.

Web Services Enhancements 3.0 for Microsoft .NET – WSE 3.0 simplifies the development and deployment of secure Web services. It enables developers and administrators to apply security policies to Web services running on the .NET Framework 2.0. Using WSE 3.0, Web services communication can be signed and encrypted using Kerberos tickets, X.509 certificates and other custom binary and XML-based security tokens. In addition username/password credentials can be used for authentication purposes. An enhanced security model provides a policy-driven foundation for securing Web services. WSE also supports the ability to establish a trust-issuing service for retrieval and validation of security tokens, as well as the ability to establish more efficient long-running secure communication via secure conversations.

Web Services Enhancements 3.0 for Microsoft .NET Redistributable Runtime MSI – This is the redistributable package for WSE 3.0. For an overview of WSE 3.0 see the Web Services Enhancements page.

Case Studies, Guides and Whitepapers –

Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET FMStock Upgrade Case Study: Before Upgrade – This case study showcases the process of upgrading a Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 application to a functionally equivalent Visual Basic .NET application using the Visual Basic Upgrade Assessment Tool, the Visual Basic Upgrade Wizard, and the guidance chapters using the Fitch & Mather Stocks 2000 (FMStocks 2000) application as a reference application. It describes the issues encountered while upgrading the FMStocks 2000 application to Visual Basic .NET, identifies their resolutions, and explains how these resolutions were determined. The aim of this case study is not to identify all the issues involved in upgrading to Visual Basic .NET; the aim is to demonstrate the approach taken
to identify issues and resolve them.

This case study will also serve as a starting guide for those who would like to test the assessment tool and upgrade wizard by using FMStocks 2000 as a sample application. This will give developers some familiarity with these tools and with the upgrade process before starting a real upgrade project.

Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET FMStock Upgrade Case Study: Post Upgrade – This case study showcases the process of upgrading a Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 application to a functionally equivalent Visual Basic .NET application using the Visual Basic Upgrade Assessment Tool, the Visual Basic Upgrade Wizard, and the guidance chapters using the Fitch & Mather Stocks 2000 (FMStocks 2000) application as a reference application. It describes the issues encountered while upgrading the FMStocks 2000 application to Visual Basic .NET, identifies their resolutions, and explains how these resolutions were determined. The aim of this case study is not to identify all the issues involved in upgrading to Visual Basic .NET; the aim is to demonstrate the approach taken
to identify issues and resolve them.

This case study will also serve as a starting guide for those who would like to test the assessment tool and upgrade wizard by using FMStocks 2000 as a sample application. This will give developers some familiarity with these tools and with the upgrade process before starting a real upgrade project.

Upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 Applications to Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 2005 – This guide is intended for software technical decision makers, solution architects, and software developers who are involved in Visual Basic 6.0 application or component development. It helps you understand the issues and risks that go along with upgrading to Visual Basic .NET. It also provides steps for preparing your applications for a successful and cost-effective upgrade. Finally, it gives ideas and pointers about how advance your application after you successfully upgrade it to Visual Basic .NET.

Cheers!

Best Of SQL Slides...

I have had many, many requests for the slide decks I was working from for the Nov 15/17 Best of SQL presentations…

Here ya go!

Cheers!

AdventureWorks Trace File...

I have had a couple of people ask me for the AdventureWorks trace file that I used during my SQL Database Tuning Advisor demo from yesterday’s SQL Event.

Posted Here…

Cheers!

New Downloads for SQL - Week Ending - 11/05

SQL 2005 Launched this week and with it we also have some great new tools and documents for your SQL implementations!  Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check out a Best Of SQL Event in your area!

Finally, look for a SQL Launch Event coming to your part of the world soon!

SQL Server Express Utility – SSEUtil.exe is a tool that lets you easily interact with SQL Server. Among other things, it allows you to:

• Connect to the main instance or user-instance of SQL Server.
• Create, attach, detach, and list databases on the server.
• Upgrade database files to match the version of the server.
• Execute SQL statements via the console (similar to SQLCMD).
• Retrieve the version of SQL Server running.
• Enable and disable trace flags (for example, to trace SQL statements sent to the server by any client application)
• List the instances of SQL Server on the local machine or on remote machines.
• Checkpoint and shrink a database
• Measure the performance of executing specific queries.
• Create and playback lists of SQL commands for the server to execute.
• Log all input and output.

SQL Server Health and History Tool (SQLH2) – This version of SQLH2 supports SQL Server 2005 RTM collection. SQLH2 collects four main types of information:

1. Feature Usage – What services/features are installed, running and level of workload on the service.
2. Configuration Settings – Machine, OS and SQL configuration settings, SQL instance and database metadata.
3. Uptime of the SQL Server service
4. Performance Counters (optional) – Used to determine performance trends

Anaheim SQL Launch Event Registration Closed!

Some weeks ago I posted a challenge where if the Anaheim launch event had the highest attendance of all the US launch events I would let an attendee at one of my SoCal events shave my head. I want to assure you that I did not have the event closed to save my hair. The response to the SQL launch has been phenominal across the country. This is the not only event that is closed (or will close) because we hit maximum capacity at the associated venue. I imagine MOST of the events will close as we get closer to event days so if you are interested in attending in your part of the US, you better register now.

Cheers!

New Download for SQL Server - Week Ending - 10/30

SQl Server Migration Assistant for Oracle v2.0 Beta — SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server. SSMA automates almost every aspect of the migration process including assessment, schema and data migration, business logic conversion, and validation. Companies such as Motorola and Simon & Schuster have used SSMA to migrate their business-critical databases quickly, easily and accurately.

With SSMA, IT organizations now have the freedom to move to SQL Server and take advantage of SQL Server's exceptional security, scalability, developer productivity, and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership.

SQl Server Health and History Tool (SQLH2) Performance Collector — The SQLH2 Performance Collector is a stand-alone service of Microsoft Windows that collects and stores performance counter data from selected servers. You should install this optional component if you are interested in collecting performance counters along with system information. The SQLH2 Collector gathers the data that this service collects and stores this data in the repository when you run the SQLH2 Collector. To obtain the SQLH2 Collector, search the Microsoft download site and search for "SQLH2".

Improving Data Securoty by using SQL Server 2005 — Detailed discussion describing how Microsoft IT uses SQL Server 2005 to improve data security for its line of business applications. SQL Server 2005 enabled Microsoft IT to implement column-level encryption together with a robust, and yet easy-to-use encryption key management framework.

Cheers!

New Downloads for SQL Server - Week Ending - 10/08

SQl Server Migration Assistant for Oracle v2.0 Beta — SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server. SSMA automates almost every aspect of the migration process including assessment, schema and data migration, business logic conversion, and validation. Companies such as Motorola and Simon & Schuster have used SSMA to migrate their business-critical databases quickly, easily and accurately.

With SSMA, IT organizations now have the freedom to move to SQL Server and take advantage of SQL Server's exceptional security, scalability, developer productivity, and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership.

Cheers!

In Texas for the SQL PASS Conference...

You would think i would have gotten enough SQL in the past few months. I am attending the SQL PASS Conference in Grapevine, Tx this week. Nice to be back home for a week, get some more SQL training and see some friends and family……

Will provide reports on the conference as days go on…..

Now…..I need to find the closet Pancho’s and a Schlotsky’s!

Cheers!

New Downloads for SQL Server 2005 - Week Ending - 9/18

• Setup and upgrade instructions.
  
• Information about new features and backward compatibility.
  
• Conceptual descriptions of the technologies and features in SQL Server 2005.
  
• Procedural topics describing how to use the various features in SQL Server 2005.
  
• Tutorials that guide you through common tasks.
  
• Reference documentation for the graphical tools, command prompt utilities, programming languages, and application programming interfaces (APIs) that are supported by SQL Server 2005.
  
• Descriptions of the sample databases and applications included with SQL Server 2005.

SQL Server 2005 September CTP: Upgrade Advisor — Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor analyzes instances of SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 in preparation for upgrading to SQL Server 2005. Upgrade Advisor identifies deprecated features and configuration changes that might affect your upgrade, and it provides links to documentation that describes each identified issue and how to resolve it.

SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor - Community Technology Preview September 2005 is unsupported pre-release software.

SQL Server 2005 September CTP —

SQL Server 2005 drives better decision-making with enterprise-grade reporting and data analysis. A highly reliable database platform for critical applications, SQL Server 2005 delivers high levels of availability, performance, and security.

SQL Server September 2005 Community Technology Preview (CTP) is the second version of SQL Server 2005 made available for general testing. The previous CTP was available only in English and Japanese. SQL Server 2005 September Community Technical Preview Developer Edition and Express Edition are each available in nine languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. All other editions are available in English and Japanese. Not all languages are currently available; they will be added to the Download Center as they are completed

Cheers!

New Downloads for SQL Server -- Week Ending - 9/11

SQl Server Migration Assitant for Oracle v2.0 Beta — SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server. SSMA automates almost every aspect of the migration process including assessment, schema and data migration, business logic conversion, and validation. Companies such as Motorola and Simon & Schuster have used SSMA to migrate their business-critical databases quickly, easily and accurately.

With SSMA, IT organizations now have the freedom to move to SQL Server and take advantage of SQL Server's exceptional security, scalability, developer productivity, and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership.


Licensing

SSMA is a FREE download, and is available for use by any customer or partner with no charge or any obligations. However, the product requires a license key for activation. The key can be obtained after quick and simple registration. Microsoft reserves the right to use an e-mail address or phone number provided during registration in order to contact a customer regarding his/her SSMA experience.

Cheers!

SQL 2005 Updates...

I had my largest attended SQL presentation yesterday in Irvine, Ca. Crowd of 300 showed up in spite of PDC being around the corner in LA. (my event was FREE…..well…..almost….had to pay for parking). If you couldn’t make it to Irvine, we are repeating it in San Diego tomorrow (Thursday).

While my content is ITPro focused, I had at least 100 developers in the room which demonstrates to me the overwhelming desire for knowledge around what can be done with SQL once it is in place. No doubt in my mind that SQL is the back-bone of many an organization’s data storage. These companies need to know what SQL can do for them. They need to know how to use SQL to do their bidding.

I think we need some seminars on how to get data in and out of SQL, how to analyze that data, how to leverage Visual Studio to create awesome applications for SQL, and how to make sure the data in the server is avaialable all the time. Let me know what you think…

I am linking back to some previous posts which points out some excellent resources for SQL 2005. Make sure to check the main SQL 2005 site for the latest SQL product, and launch information.

In addition, Kevin Remde has noted some important changes that have been announced for the release of SQL 2005.

Paul Flessner (a Senior VP at MS) talks about why we are making these changes.

Finally, the new SQL 2005 September CTP is available for download now!

Cheers!

Oracle to purchase Siebel....

Software maker Oracle has agreed to acquire competitor Siebel Systems in a deal worth around $5.8 billion, the companies said Monday.

Full Story here….

Wow…..Oracle will just not go away…..

Cheers!

SQL 2005/Visual Studio 2005/Biztalk 2006 Launch Tour - Dates and Cities available....

We now have registration cities and dates available for the Big Launch……

Here is a challenge to my faithful blog readers (now up to 7!)……

I want the largest attendance of any of the nationwide events. For the SoCal area it will be in Anaheim, CA on Dec. 6th. I wish I could offer some sort of prize to everyone if Anaheim has the largest attendance but sadly, my budget is about $1 dollar……and that has to cover my T&E for the next 10 months.

Fortunately, EVERYONE that attends will recieve a copy of SQL Server 2005 AND a copy of Visual Studio 2005. I think that is a darn good incentive to go……considering the event is FREE. Of course there is some legal mumbo jumbo that applies to this so let’s break away from our regularly scheduled program to get that over with…..

*Offer only good to registered launch event attendees. Must be present at event to receive software packages or vouchers for software redemption. Limit: one offer per person, while supplies last. The software may not be resold and is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient*

(I read that as – register, show up, get it, don’t try to sell it afterwards…..but I am not a lawyer)

So……for my SoCal SQL people (and you Dev types and Biztalkers)….tell your boss know you need a paid day off to learn cool stuff. Tell your friends, tell your User Groups, tell your grandma and grandpa, put in for a day of vacation if your boss won’t pay ya to learn. Link to my blog, post to your blogs, chat about it, get a tattoo with the regostration link……well……a temporary tattoo. Make the Anaheim event the largest of the events in the states. Get your free stuff, meet the SQL/VS/Biztalk Gurus and yes…..I will even be there.

I just had a fabulous idea……(”The Nun” won’t like it……but she isn’t home to stop me…..)

If, after the counting is all done (sometime after the January 11th event), Anaheim has the largest attendance in the states, I will let one of my attendees shave my head at one of my Live Technet briefings in SoCal……I will even let my hair grow out till then for a more dramatic shave if it happens….

I better post this……she is pulling into the driveway…..

Cheers!

*update* - I just realized the Anaheim event could be the most attended event without this post. We do have a pretty darn good marketing machine at MS. Since there is no easy way to know for sure and I am committed, I am just gonna run with it. I would like to see how much impact this challenge generates though. My request to you is to post your comments here if you will be attending, and make an effort to come see me at the event. When I have the details, I will post what I will be doing at the launch event and where I will be. My goal is to meet you, get you the information you want, and take your feedback into the product groups. So post your comments (Thank you Sylvia!), email me, come see me at the event!

New Downloads for SQL - Week Ending - 9/04

SQL Server Report Pack for Office Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 — The Microsoft SQL Server Report Pack for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is a set of 8 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services reports that work with a sample database of information extracted from a SharePoint Portal Server environment. This database can be populated from your own SharePoint Portal Server environment using the downloadable Data Extraction Program (DEP). The DEP will read the SharePoint Portal Server data via the object model. You also can use the sample reports as templates for designing new reports.

This Report Pack includes the following reports:

• Storage Report
  Shows a listing of the virtual servers and the number of collections, sites, areas, lists, files and size. Also shows a size distribution and storage usage chart, and a top 20 sites based on size.
• Storage Trend Report
  Shows four charts illustrating the virtual server storage trend, site collection growth trend, area growth trend and list growth trend.
• Site Trend Report
  Shows hit counts for virtual servers, collections, areas and lists. Also shows the top 20 sites based on hits.
• Comprehensive Site Collections Report
  Shows the list of site collections, who owns the collection, configurable characteristics about the owner and the date the collection was last accessed.
• Detailed Site Collection Report
  Shows top 20 pages accessed (based on hit count) for this site collection.
• Detailed Page Report
  Shows users who have access to the page, when they last accessed it, any referrer URL and number of hits. Also shows two charts illustrating user distribution and referrer distribution.
• Best Bet Keyword
  Shows top 20, top 10, bottom 10, or bottom 20 keywords used for searching. Also shows which keywords have best bets.
• Search Terms
  Shows top 20, top 10, bottom 10, or bottom 20 search terms used for searching. Also shows which search terms match a defined keyword.

Cheers!

Rock Solid SQL 2005 in Southern California!

I am delivering two Rock Solid SQL 2005 sessions next week in SoCal….

September 13th — Irvine, Ca – 8am-12noon

September 15th — San Diego (Mira Mesa), Ca – 8am-12noon

Rock Solid SQL: Strengthen your SQL Servers with SQL Server 2005

SQL Server databases provide the foundation for your business solutions, so don’t you want to build the finest groundwork possible?  The new SQL Server 2005 will enhance security, reliability, and performance to give you a solid, dependable base.  Think about your current SQL system: Can you still access your database if the server goes down?  How fast can you failover?  What is your Maintenance Plan?  Who is Locking and who is Blocking?  In this session, we’ll upgrade an existing SQL Server database to SQL Server 2005 and show you how to maintain a more secure, reliable database solution for your business.

We will look at:

• How to exploit the new security features to tighten controls on your existing systems.
• How the new Database Mirroring technology can provide faster, automatic failover.
• How simple and easy it is to configure automatic maintenance plans and alerts.
• How the new Dynamic Management Views provide greater insight into your database performance with simple, yet powerful reports.
• How to quickly tune the database with the Database Tuning Advisor.
• How you can reduce locking contention with new optimistic concurrency controls.
• How to enhance performance and reliability by partitioning tables on the disk.

Cheers!

SQL 2005 Roadshow in LA

I will be at the Microsoft booth for the SQL 2005 Roadshow in LA this Thursday, Sept. 8th. You can also meet some of the local Technology Specialists and others from the SoCal district. Put a face on an email address and let us know what you think about the new SQL 2005 product.

Cheers!

Mirror, Mirror on the Lan.....is my data in the can?

<first…….go grab yourself a 6 pack….this is a long one>

<beer 1>

I admit it…..I am a SQL n00b…..So I am taking a SQL 2072 course next week in Oklahoma City.

Go ahead…..I know you want to…..have your chuckle about how Oklahoma sucks and you know it does cuz that is the only thing that keeps Texas from falling into the Gulf of Mexico.

I like that joke btw…..BUT!

The fact is, I will be learning more about SQL in one week…..in Oklahoma…...than I have in the past 10 years.

<beer 2…..you know you chugged the first one right after you saw “Oklahoma” and “Texas”>

On a personal level, I have had zero use for SQL. For that matter I have had zero use for databases of any kind for the last 10 years or so. I used to have an Access (95) DB years ago. The only reason I had that one was to make an attempt at moving my fantasy football league over from AppleWorks and my Apple //gs to my brand spanking new AMD 486–120 (I still have that machine and I still use it now and then….it posts and boots to a Win95 OSR2 desktop faster than most of my gHz boxes get to WinXP) ((I also have my Apple //gs still which comes in handy for playing Wizardry!))

Wow…..I feel like I just jumped into the way-back machine with my pet boy, Sherman…..but I digress….

I tried to port my fantasy football league over from AppleWorks (which I loved) to Access (which I hated). I didn’t know I hated it until after trying to figure it out. I never did get comfortable with Access but I blame the simplicity of using AppleWorks on that.

Now I find myself in the position of having to learn SQL for my job….which isn’t a bad thing. It’s not like I haven’t been in a similar position about every two weeks for the last 8 years with the monstrous number of products and technologies we churn out. I believe anyone at Microsoft will tell you “If you don’t like learning new stuff, you work at the wrong company”.

I have just never had a use for or had to learn SQL…..till now.

In 1994, I never imagined that a database application – one that could essentially run on a home PC – would be capable of storing and querying the massive amounts of data that SQL can today. Of course, in 1994 I never imagined that I would need more than 200 megs of hard drive space or that my 5 1/4 floppy would be useless in just a couple of years. Back then, it would take my Apple //gs (which had an Applied Engineering TransWarp GS Accelerator) 30 minutes to parse the AppleWorks database and create the scoring report for my 10 team fantasy football league. It took well over an hour if I turned the TransWarp “off”. That database only held a few hundred players with weekly – not cumulative – stats in it. Today www.fanball.com supports hundreds of individual leagues, each determining their own scoring method, players rosters, play off schedules and ALL with the ability to provide immediate scoring information.

And that is just the football portion of their site. They also do baseball.

All that accessibility……all of those stats…….all of that FOOTBALL!!!!!….because of a database….

<beer 3…..come on…..we have a football related topic here>

*Note* – I don’t know what database Fanball uses…..for all I know they have linked a couple thousand TransWarped Apple //gs machines together and have Wozniak on the payroll….The point I am trying to make it how far we have come……

Now…..I was semi–advanced back then. On my Apple //gs I actually had two 5 1/4 floppies AND two 3.5 floppies. I even had two SCSI hard drives but I used most of the hard drive space for my BBS. The fantasy football stuff was pretty small and I wanted to make use of the 5 1/4’s as long as I could so I ran AppleWorks from the 3.5’s and stored the football stats on the 5 1/4’s. I learned a few tricks in those days…..you could notch the floppy disks with a $5 disk notcher (or a pocket knife if you were lazy) and use both sides. This allowed me to use both sides of the floppy – doubling storage capacity – AND it saved me money which I desperately needed for beer. But it always seemed to reduce the reliability of the floppy disks. It certainly shortened their life spans. But even on an un-notched disk, sneeze the wrong way and those old floppies would scramble data faster than a Waffle House cook does eggs. That meant manually backing up data to another floppy. I usually made yet another copy just in case (I almost always sneeze in pairs…) THAT was how I backed up my data and guaranteed it was accessible when I needed it.

Now, with SQL 2005, we have things like log shipping and peer-to-peer replication. Magical, wondrous, computer voodoo to someone who manually made 3 copies of their data just in case it was allergy season.

But my favorite way to guarantee that SQL 2005 guarantees data is protected (and ALWAYS available!) is - mirroring with automatic failover.

If, like me, you are new to SQL/Databases (or just haven’t been exposed to SQL 2005 yet), let me offer a very simplified explanation of what is involved.

For database mirroring with automatic failover to work, you need….take a deep breathe…..relax……<grab your beer so you don’t commit alcohol abuse>…….three (3) SQL Servers……

<finish beer 4, grab beer 5 but don’t open yet…..>

….I know you winced. You may have blown beer out your nose. Some of you may have even decided to quit your job as a SQL DBA and (gasp!) become a SQL Developer…..

Let me finish and then  I will tell you a little secret that may save you some beer money…..

….breathe……relax…..

<bathroom break>

<beer 5……nurse it>

Server 1 is the “primary” or “principal” database server. It is the machine you want up 24/7. It is the “all the eggs in one basket” machine. It is online and active and is the DB server that all of your applications are writing to and reading from. The apps have no concept of any additional servers in the mix.

Server 2 is the “backup” or “mirror” database server. It *must* start off with an exact copy of the primary database data. Simplest thing is to just restore a backup of the primary to this machine. There is some planning involved here to make sure this DB has the exact same data as the primary….but I only had you grab a 6 pack. For the 12 pack version come to a Live Technet briefing or find a local SQL 2005 Roadshow or SQL Launch Event or read this.

As our applications are reading and writing data on Server 1, we will commit the transactions at both servers at the same time (technically we don’t commit to the primary until we can commit to both at the same time). This can introduce some latency so monitor your network especially if you have bandwidth concerns. The trade off is availability and redundancy.

Server 3 is called a “witness” server. The witness server is essentially the innocent by-stander at the scene of the server failure crime. It’s purpose is to just keep an eye on both servers and determine if one or the other goes offline. if one goes off line it notifies the other that it is now the primary. If the original primary comes back it notifies the servers and we can switch roles again after data is back in sync.

So you decide to implement this solution. You go purchase a SQL 2005 Enterprise license. Cough of the same amount for the Backup server license, Then you grab SQL 2005 Express edition as a witness server.

<waitadamnminute….. beer muffs must have distorted my hearing>

Did I just say you could use SQL 2005 Express Edition as the witness server to a SQL 2005 Enterprise mirror?

Yes I did.

No need to have an Enterprise class server twiddling it’s thumbs and keeping an eye on two other servers. Use it’s little brother to do that job…..you can even fudge things a little and have a second instance on the primary or backup server act as a witness but if that dual-role server goes offline you won’t be failing over automagically. Just so ya know….ANY version of SQL 2005 can act as a witness.

How far have we come in just 10 years…..

<beer 6>

Enjoy at your leisure……

Cheers!

SQL 2005 Roadshow coming to LA

The SQL 2005 Roadshow hits LA on Sept 8th.

$99 if you register online now……$150 if you walk-in.

Get the facts about migrating to SQL Server™ 2005 in one information-packed day in a city near you! SQL Server experts from Scalability Experts, Solid Quality Learning, and Hitachi Consulting will present practical, real-world information in three tracks—administration, development, and business intelligence. You can find answers to specific questions in the Ask the Experts session. You'll come away from the Get Ready for SQL Server 2005 Roadshow with a clear understanding of how to implement a best-practices migration to SQL Server 2005 and how to use SQL Server 2005's new capabilities to improve your database computing environment.

Cheers!

Slides for Rock Solid SQL

I have received a number of requests for the slide decks from our Rock Solid SQL 2005 session so I have decided to post them here and refer people to the blog instead of flodding the MS Mail servers with a buch of decks.

Cheers!

Rock Solid SQL Resources

I am currently delivering some Live Technet Briefings on SQL 2005. I have collected a series of resources here to support the sessions as well as address some of the questiond that come up during the sessions….

Cheers!

How to find a Live Rock Solid SQL Session in your area

Session Outline

SQL 2005 Product Overview

SQL 2005 Case Studies

Capabilities by SQL Edition

SQL 2005 TechCenter

SQL 2005 Webcasts

SQl Community Site

SQL 2005 Upgarde Advisor Download

Webcast – Surface Area Configuration Tool

Updating you SQL Server Skills to SQL 2005 Course

Microsoft Virtualization Roadmap

This nice little titbit regarding virtulization came across the wire today……

-----------------------------------

Microsoft President, Steve Ballmer, stated publicly at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas on April 20^th, 2005 that we see virtualization as a core enabling technology. To that end, Microsoft will provide Windows virtualization in the Longhorn Server wave.

This is not a secret. Virtualization technology is going into the OS.

Rather than try to paraphrase, I’m going to point you to the URL so you can see and hear Steve yourself as well as obtain a transcript and copy of his PowerPoint deck. If you don’t believe the Microsoft commitment to virtualization after this, listen to it again. If you want to skip to the part on Microsoft virtualization, fast forward about 50 minutes into the demo. Since this is public information, you should feel free to forward this link to your customers as well.

Keynote:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/mgmtsummit/keynotes.asp

On a more detailed level, we have a publicly available slide deck delivered by Mike Neil, Windows Virtualization Product Unit Manager at WinHec. This deck explains our roadmap from Virtual Server 2005 RTM to Windows Virtualization. This deck details some of the key features we are considering and discusses the new architecture that will be employed in Windows virtualization. This deck is publicly available at:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/8/f/98f3fe47-dfc3-4e74-92a3-088782200fe7/TWSE05008_WinHEC05.ppt

Some of the key points in this deck are:

• Virtualization is going into the OS in the Longhorn Server wave.
• Windows virtualization will be hypervisor based and take full advantage of hardware innovations from Intel and AMD in the forms of VT and Pacifica, respectively.
• Windows virtualization will provide 32-bit and 64-bit guests.
• We will have a smooth migration from path from Virtual Server to Windows virtualization. We want our valued customers know that their Virtual Server investment will be safe with a migration path to Windows virtualization.
• …and plenty more so check out the deck…

Time for some Tech Stuff.....

I am delivering some Live Technet Briefings next week in Santa Barbara, CA on 8/16 and Burbank, CA on 8/18.

I am delivering the same sessions in Irvine, Ca on 9/13 and San Diego, Ca on 9/15.

The subject will be SQL 2005 and will be a little different from Technet Sessions you may have attended in the last couple of years.

We have traditionally done 2 or even 3 sessions in the 4 hour window we have. With the SQL 2005 Launch coming up in November, we are focusing all of our attention on SQL 2005 for the entire 4 hours. We also normally swap content every three months or so. Again, with the SQL 2005 Launch on the horizon, we are going to maintain this same content from August through basically Dec 1st. There will likely not be any Live Technet Briefings during the month of November as our presenters will be supporting our local Districts with the SQL Launch.

Here is a summary of SOME of what I will be discussing -

   Upgrading/Migrating from previous versions of SQL to SQL 2005 and the SQL Upgrade Advisor

   SQL 2005 Security / Surface Area Configuration Tool / User Schema Seperation / SQL Server Agent Proxies

   Database Tuning Advisor and the SQL Profiler Tool (<- SQL 7!! article....couldn't find a more recent one!)

   SQL Management Tools / Dynamic Management Views

   Pessimistic and Optimistic Concurrency Controls

   Snapshot Isolation

   Peer-to-Peer Replication

   Database Mirroring  

Now you see why we are spending 4 hours on this session....

Cheers!

ps....Note that we are starting our Technet Briefings at 8am and end at 12 noon. NOT 8:30 - 12:30 anymore!