This extended stored procedure has been documented and blogged elsewhere, however, I just discovered it today, and I thought it was cool enough, I'm reblogging it anyway.
xp_msver was a new extended stored procedure included with the release of SQL Server 2008.
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If you need to test connectivity from your workstation to a remote database server, here is a handy trick which will help you accomplish it.
Right-click on a blank area of your windows desktop and choose create new text file: Create and save the file name with something like TestConn.
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This is a known issue with SQL Server 2008, that certain DDL operations like ALTERing a column datatype using Management Studio GUI fails.
For example, in Object Explorer, navigate to a table column > right-click on column > Modify.
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If you don't have local login rights on a Server and need to find system resources onboard. Here is a little TSQL script that will display useful information like CPU, memory and pagefile size:
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I worked on my Database Inventory script a bit and am releasing an enhanced version of the original. When run in the Master database, the script displays a list of all user databases located in the specified sql named instance, along with file name, file type, file path and file size columns.
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I've been testing the re-released Best Practice Analyzer called SQL Server 2005 Best Practice Analyzer 2.0.
I find this tool to be very handy for identifying database Security & Performance issues and making fix recommendations, even though it is CTP and not final release yet.
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As a DBA for a large corporation, I manage literally hundreds of databases. In order to help keep track of all the databases and log files, I needed a way to quickly gather an inventory of all databases located on each sql named instance, so I came up with this simple little script that also includes a filesize in megabytes column: USE [Master] GO SELECT sysdatabases.
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When creating SQL Server 2000 ETL solutions like importing of text files, it is common for developers to employ DTS packages to accomplish results quickly. The downside of this approach is that DTS packages have certain programmability limitations and don't always offer the best performance.
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Sometimes it's handy to create a Linked Server to text files in order to perform distributed queries or bulk inserts of flat-file data into SQL Server.
In order to demonstrate this capability with SQL Server 2000, create a text file copy of the Categories table from Northwind database and place the text file named CATEGORIES.
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1.) Download and install Teradata OLE DB driver on the target server where SQL Server 2000 is hosted.
2.) Right-click the Linked Server node under Security node in Enterprise Manager and select “New Linked Server.
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Maybe this is known among those who have to connect to Teradata stores from SQL Server but I needed to accomplish this from SQL Server 2005 and didn't find any published resources on how to do it.
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I ran across a article on Builder AU entitled: SQL Server 2005 Secrets, posted August 10, that should be more aptly titled “SQL Server 2005: Top 10 New Features”. Either way, its a good update on what to expect.
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I found a pretty good webcast by Kimberly Tripp on Performance Tuning:
MSDN Webcast: SQL Server 2000 Performance Tuning - Finding the Right Balance of Indexes – Level 200
It's probably more detailed than what the average DBA needs but if you're really wanting to squeeze the last bit of performance out of your database, this could be the ticket.
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Well, I took the SQL Server Administration Exam (70-228) and passed with a score of 757 yesterday. It was my first MS Exam so I was a little nervous. Next up: SQL Server Development (70-229), then C# Web Applications (70-315) and finally Windows 2000 Server Administration (70-215).
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