SQL Server

Identifying Performance Bottlenecks

Joe Webb — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:47:51 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended my "Identifying Performance Bottlenecks" session this morning at DevTeach/SQLTeach. As promised, here is the PowerPoint slide deck I used during the presentation.

Regarding the question of on the performance of LINQ, Bob Beauchemin recently posted a series of blogs entries on the topic. Here's a link.

And here's a link to series of posts on the Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) that Louis Davidson authored.

Cheers!

Joe

What's the difference in a GDR, a Cumulative Update, and a Service Pack?

Joe Webb — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:11:24 GMT

The nomenclature used for referencing software releases and updates can be quite confusing. Let's consider an example to illustrate what the various terms mean.

As a new version of a product is being developed, it may be made available to select customers and community members for early testing. This is sometimes called alpha builds of the product.

As development progresses and the product becomes more and more polished, it's provided to a wider audience. This used to be called beta releases; for example beta 1, beta 2, etc. However a few years ago Microsoft changed the terminology for SQL Server pre-releases. They are now referred to as CTPs (Community Technology Previews). You can download the November CTP, for example.

As the product enters it's final stages before release, the feature set is complete and the product is undergoing final testing, it's called an RC (Release Candidate).

After a product has undergone significant testing and it's determined that no more changes will be made to the product before release, it's sometimes said that the product has gone golden. It's also called a GA (General Availability) release.

Once the bits been turned over to a company to mass produce the media (CDs, DVDs, etc), it's RTM'd (Released To Manufacturing).

Usually sometime around the RTM, the product version is "launched". The timing of the launch may or may not have any correlation with the time the product is actually available for purchase. The launch has more to do with marketing and product feature education than availability.

Finally the product is released! It's available for purchase from the normal distribution channels.

Over time, Hot Fixes are created by the dev team to address specific product issues affecting certain customers. Sometimes the issue is so wide spread, a GDR (General Distribution Release) is issued so that all customers will receive the updates.

Since hot fixes and GDRs are designed to quickly address specific problems encountered by specific customers, they can be issued rather often. The rapidity of the hot fixes and GDR's makes it impractical for many IT shops to keep up with the pace of the releases. So, a CU (Cumulative Update) is created that contains all of the applicable hot fixes. This makes it easier for customers who haven't been directly affected by the issues that sparked the hot fixes to remain current.

Once a large enough collection of changes have been gathered, an SP (Service Pack) will be issued. Historically, SPs have also been the release vehicle used to deliver new features that were not ready at the time of GA. For example, Database Mirroring was made available in SP1. SP2 brought us the custom reports as in the Performance Dashboard. Microsoft has since indicated that SPs will not be used as a release vehicle for new features.

And then the whole cycle starts overs. Feel like you're on a treadmill yet?

For more information, check out the following links:

Cheers!

Joe

SQLExamples: A great new SQL Server resource

Joe Webb — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:36:04 GMT

I hope that everyone that works with Microsoft SQL Server is aware of the MSDN SQL Server Forums. If not, you should really go check them out. They're a great resource when you're staring at a tough SQL Server-related problem.

Now, some of the Moderators, Answerers, and MVPs have gotten together to create a new resource to supplement the Forums; it's called SQLExamples. We just started it a few weeks ago so it's still very much in its infancy and somewhat sparsely populated. But it's growing quickly. I think it'll be a boon for SQL Server professionals the world over before long.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Joe

SQL Server Security Vulnerabilities

Joe Webb — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:31:53 GMT

At the 2007 PASS Community Summit in Denver, a keynote speaker made a passing comment about how there has not been a security bulletin released for SQL Server in over three years! I forget which speaker made the statement, but I found it utterly amazing. Not a single security bulletin released in over three years! Could this be true?

If you've worked with SQL Server for a while, you'll undoubtedly remember SQL Slammer, the worm that hit thousands of SQL Servers around the world in 2003. It's effects were nothing short of devastating for many companies.

I made a mental note to do my own research into what the speaker stated as fact; but promptly forgot about it while sitting in session after session, soaking in as much good technical content as my brain could absorb.

In a recent blog posting however, Jeff Jones did the research that I forgot to do. His posting, entitled SQL Server - Fact Checking Recent Vulnerability History, details the most recent security bulletins released for Microsoft SQL Server.

Jeff found that SQL Server 2000 hasn't had a security bulletin released since January of 2004, and even more amazingly, SQL Server 2005 has never had a security bulletin released! He goes further in his research, though, and compares these figures to the numerous security-related critical patch updates for Oracle.

It's an interesting read that I thought you may like to see. Check it out.

Cheers!

Joe

Tips & tricks for writing better queries presentation

Joe Webb — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:30:16 GMT

Thanks to all 60+ people who braved the flood warnings in Nashville to attend the SQL Server User Group meeting earlier today. I hope you found it to be worth your while. Some of your questions and comments at the end gave some some great ideas for future presentations. Thanks!

And thanks to Quest and RHT for sponsoring our meeting meeting today. If your in the Nashville areas, I'd encourage you to come on out for our next meeting, most likely sometime in May.

As promised, here's a link to the presentation materials, both the PowerPoint presentation and the demonstration code.

Cheers!

Joe

What SQL Server service pack do I have installed?

Joe Webb — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:27:49 GMT

If you've used SQL Server for a while, you're probably familiar with the @@version function. Selecting the function in a query window produces the following results on my system.

From this, you can quickly determine that I'm running SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition version 9.00.3054.00 on an Intel X86 processor. It may also appear that I've installed SQL Server SP2, however that is rather misleading. The "Service Pack 2" text in the above image refers to the operating system, not the SQL Server system.

To determine SQL Server's service pack level, use the built-in SERVERPROPERTY function with appropriate parameters - EDITION, PRODUCTLEVEL, and PRODUCTVERSION.

For example the following queries produce the results shown in the image below.

From this, you can see that I am indeed running SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition updated with Service Pack 2.

The SERVERPROPERTY function is part of SQL Server 2000 and greater. Prior to that, we had to resort to equating the product version to a service pack level. Here's a link to a KB article with more details for v7.0 and earlier.

Cheers!

Joe

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services White Paper

Joe Webb — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:18:41 GMT

Interested in learning more about Microsoft SQL 2008 Server Reporting Services? I recently stumbled upon a White Paper on the Microsoft site that provides a good overview. While weighing in at only 14 pages including the title page, table of contents, and copyright stuff, it does provide a good, abeit somewhat general, overview of the product and it's capabilities.

You can download it from here.

Cheers!

Joe

Real world DBA podcast

Joe Webb — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:34:28 GMT

I recently worked with Buck Woody to turn one of my blog posts into a podcast. It's my first podcast! :) I recorded it about midnight one evening after everyone else in my family had retired for the evening. With the house so quiet, I didn't realize I was whispering until I heard it mixed with Buck's projecting and charismatic dialog. Here's a link to the podcast. I'd love to hear what you think and if you'd like to hear more of these.

If you're not familiar with Buck Woody's work in the SQL Server community, I would encourage you to head on over to his blog site - http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/. He's putting together some great content, a mix of traditional blog posts and podcasts, called the Real world DBA. Good stuff!

Cheers!

Joe

Formatting strings

Joe Webb — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:46:38 GMT

I just completed teaching a Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services class in Charlotte, North Carolina - a wonderful and beautiful place to visit!

In a couple of the demonstrations, we used some predefined formatting strings to customize the way a user can see a value in a report. For example, we used C0 to display a currency value with no numbers to the right of a decimal point.

One question that almost always comes up during the class is: where can I find a list of those predefined formatting strings?

Microsoft has them on the MSDN Library site, but the are buried and rather difficult to find. So, I thought I'd share them with you here. These links are for v2.0 of the .NET Framework, however these pages include links to other versions including v1.1, v3.0, and v3.5 of the .NET Framework.

Enjoy!

Joe

Upgrading to SSNS 2005

Joe Webb — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:30:13 GMT

Last week, I completed an upgrade of a SQL Server 2000 server to SQL Server 2005. Not really a big deal; servers are routinely upgraded to a newer version of software. Sometimes it seems the upgrades come too quickly. Other times it seems like we are waiting for the proverbial pot of water to boil while eagerly looking forward the next release.

This server, however, included a Notification Services instance. It got me to thinking about upgrades and some of the changes in SSNS between v2.0 and 2005. I've compiled a "Top 10" list of enhancements to SSNS 2005. (I wish I could have composed the Top 10 list for SQL Server 2008, but alas it's not there. I'm sure we're all aware by now of the its premature deprecation. That'll be the topic of another blog.)

Number 10. Support for the 64-bit platform.
As an add-on for the prior version of SQL Server, SQLNS was not supported on a 64-bit installation. In 2005, it is.

Number 9. Hostable execution engine.
With the newer version, each SQLNS instance may be hosted within an existing application or process; it no longer requires that a NS$InstanceName service be created.

Number 8. Better vacuuming performance.
The vacuumer now transverses through the obsolete data in a much more efficient manner.

Number 7. Analysis Services Event Provider.
You may now use MDX queries to collect event information.

Number 6. Management API.
The Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.nmo API may be used to programmatically create and manage SQLNS instances.

Number 5. Database independence.
The database objects historically created in the instance and application databases may now be created in a database that we specify during the build process.

Number 4. Subscriber defined conditions.
Under certain circumstances, subscribers may define query clauses over a pre-defined dataset.

Number 3. Management Studio integration.
SQLNS is now a full-fledged part of SQL Server and it\u2019s been integrated into Management Studio.

Number 2. New views.
There are new views in SQLNS 2005 we can use to create and manage subscribers, devices, and subscriptions using T-SQL. (Click here to see a prior post on this subject.)

And the Number 1 feature. Goodbye Notify() function!
A new view allows us to write T-SQL code in our matching rules which is not only more intuitive, but also offers improved performance. (Click here to see a prior post on this feature.)

And there you have it. My Top 10 List of new and greatly appreciated features in SQLNS 2005.

As for conducting the upgrade, here are a couple of resources to help.

Cheers!

Joe