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February 2005 - Posts

Wednesday, February 23, 2005 7:02 PM

Office Excel Add-in for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services – its free, its powerful and it could save you money!

Well I’ve been blogging for a 11 weeks or so and looking at my stats I can see the posts that attract the most attention are those that either advertise a freebie or offer a performance tip.  So, blatantly pandering to my ratings, here’s another
posted by Mat_Stephen | 4 Comments
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Thursday, February 17, 2005 4:31 PM

Office Business Scorecards Accelerator – the ultimate marriage of business and intellgence. Another free application from Microsoft

At first glance, particularly if you’re a jaundiced techie like me, you may think the Balanced Scorecard is a concept wholly worthy of its acronym, BS.  You might find a description of its function couched in those seemingly worthless terms like
posted by Mat_Stephen | 4 Comments
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Monday, February 14, 2005 5:25 PM

Reporting Services : 21 Report packs released to the web for free download

Just incase you missed this freebie: Report Packs SQL Server 2000 Report Pack for Microsoft CRMDownload this set of six predefined CRM-based reports and a sample database that let you easily visualize and author managed reports to support key sales
posted by Mat_Stephen | 7 Comments
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Friday, February 11, 2005 7:03 PM

Its Sunbelieveable: Sun’s First Windows - Microsoft SQL Server SAP Benchmark and Certification

Actually, I reckon it must be Sun’s first Windows - SQL Server benchmark ever, unless you know otherwise?   It’s great to see Sun embracing the new Opeteron chip from AMD and coming up with a great 32 bit SAP SD 2 tier 2 proc benchmark   http://www50.sap.com/benchmark/pdf/cert0205.pdf
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Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:51 PM

SQL Server Performance Top Tip: SQL Server User Mode Scheduler (UMS) – understanding it can explain some odd performance

When performing batch jobs where you wish to run processes in parallel it is important to understand how the scheduler works.   You can get a description of what the scheduler does by looking under the title ‘SQL Server Task Scheduling’ in Books
posted by Mat_Stephen | 4 Comments
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005 5:46 PM

Migrate your legacy Oracle databases to SQL Server - Tools you need to do the conversion

Its a question that comes up more and more as people realise they can take advantage of SQL Server's lower TCO.  "Does Microsoft have any tools for converting PSQL to TSQL".  No, but the link below will take you to a company that has tools to
posted by Mat_Stephen | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, February 08, 2005 3:50 PM

Microsoft SQL Server Performance Top Tip: Degrees of Parallelism and a Degree of Uncertainty

Max degree of parallelism is an advanced configuration option in SQL Server about which many question have been asked and much written.  In this blog entry I hope to offer some insight and certainty as to what this option does and how it should be
posted by Mat_Stephen | 2 Comments
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Friday, February 04, 2005 4:50 PM

Blogcast - Creating a simple Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services report using the Report Wizard

Following the trend I've created my first Blogcast - Creating a simple SQL Server Reporting Services report using the Report Wizard.  It lasts about 6 minutes.  It takes you through the simple steps required to create a simple report, making
posted by Mat_Stephen | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005 11:13 AM

SQL Server SP4 Beta is still Open

SQL Server SP4 Beta is still Open. Customers can sign up here for the SP4 Beta Program http://www.microsoft.com/sql/evaluation/betanominations.asp.  Upcoming Wechat on SQL Server SP4 on February 15, 2:00 – 3:00pm PST. Sign up here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats/default.mspx
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005 1:26 PM

Microsoft SQL Server Performance Top Tip: Multi Processor (SMP) sudden death syndrome.

You’ve been really proud of your nice new multi processor box, its got eight processors and some serious grunt.  Everyone has been really pleased with the system’s lightening responsiveness and the big boss thinks you’re a super computer guru – looks
posted by Mat_Stephen | 5 Comments
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005 11:42 AM

Microsoft SQL Server Performance Top Tip: Multi Processor (SMP) Box Doesn’t Use All It’s Processors

Seen this?  You’ve got a nice new sparkling multi processor box, packed with ‘go-faster’ chips but the performance isn’t much better than your old one or two processor box.  You take a look at the processor usage, either through task manager
posted by Mat_Stephen | 8 Comments
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 4:28 PM

I'm trying to find some detail on Patch management / deployment on a 4 SQL Server node cluster?

Stephen Daborn asked this question on my High Availability blog entry and I didn't get back before the post closed - sorry Stephen - been doing a lot of snow boarding recently. Anyway its a good question and it deserves an answer. The best thing to do
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 3:54 PM

Business Intelligence Portal Sample Application for Microsoft Office

A good number of people have told me just how useful this sample application is: Business intelligence portal sample application for Microsoft Office 2003 is an integrated, web-based OLAP solution that enables employees in an organization to create and
posted by Mat_Stephen | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 2:50 PM

TechNet Webcast: Troubleshooting Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (Level 200) Friday, February 04, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Friday, February 04, 2005 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time Bryan Von Axelson, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation In this session we show how to review SQL Server logs, SQL Server events in Event Viewer, and create a Database Maintenance plan that
posted by Mat_Stephen | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 2:05 PM

Microsoft SQL Server 64 bit links

Our 64 bit SQL Server case studies can be found @ http://www.microsoft.com/sql/64bit/productinfo/casestudies.asp The 64 bit SQL Server home page is @ http://www.microsoft.com/sql/64bit/default.asp Some material around 64 bit SAP/SQL @ http://www.microsoft-sap.com/technology.asp#64_bit
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 2:02 PM

Using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services against SAP - and other Application Partners for Reporting Services

Do you want to use Microsoft Reporting Services to report data from SAP R/3 and SAP BW?  Then check out Software4You from the list of Application Partners for Reporting Services @ http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/partners/softwareapps.asp  
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 1:40 PM

Convert Crystal Reports to SQL Server Reporting Services

I’ve been asked many times if Microsoft provide a tool for converting legacy Crystal Reports to SQL Server Reporting Services.  The answer is no.  However I do know someone who does.   Hitachi Consulting has an RDL generator that will generate
posted by Mat_Stephen | 9 Comments
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005 11:31 AM

Microsoft and SAP Deliver Integration of SAP NetWeaver and .NET with Visual Studio .NET 2003-Integrated Portal Development Kit for .NET (PDK)

This tool has been long awaited, now its arrived SAP developers can combine the power of .NET with the functionality of SAP.  This is great news if you're into developing SAP applications, along side SQL Server the PDK makes Microsoft a most
posted by Mat_Stephen | (Comments Off)
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