SQL Server

Advert for SQL Bits III

Colin Angus Mackay — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:24:50 GMT

SQL Bits III will be held on 13th September 2008.

SQL Server 2008 RTM

Colin Angus Mackay — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:24:59 GMT

It would appear that SQL Server 2008 has finally RTM'ed. MSDN and TechNet subscribers can now download it from their respective websites.

SQL Server / Visual Studio Install Order

Colin Angus Mackay — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:02:10 GMT

Yesterday I paved my laptop in order to upgrade to Windows Vista. I've now started to reinstall everything from scratch again. However, one thing that didn't work out was the installation of SQL Server 2005. No matter what I tried I could not seem to get it to install the SQL Server Management Studio - somehow it was convinced that it already existed. I eventually figured out why.

I'd installed Visual Studio 2008 first, and as part of that installation it installed SQL Server 2005 Express edition. The express edition does not come with SQL Server Management Studio. When I went to install SQL Server 2005 it refused to install the management studio saying that more up-to-date versions of the tools were already available on the machine. (Well, I suppose some of them were, at least the ones installed by Visual Studio 2008's installer). Running the Service Pack 2 upgrade did not help either. It concluded that the client tools were not valid as part of the upgrade and refused to install them.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that it would be quicker, given my recent wiping of my laptop to just start afresh again and install things in the correct order. I suppose I was lucky to have that option. I am also lucky that I don't activate Windows until I'm sure everything is installed correctly - after all I do have 30 days to activate Windows. I'd hate to have lost an activation of Windows because of a dodgy install.

So what is the installation order I've now used that works:

Windows Vista SP1
Windows Update (my install required 33 updates)
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2005 SP2
Visual Studio 2008

Installing SQL Server 2005 on Vista

Colin Angus Mackay — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:40:48 GMT

Perhaps this is not so much an issue with installing SQL Server 2005 on Vista, but of the way I install SQL Server 2005 on Vista, or even more accurately install it on my laptop on Vista.

A SQL Server will expect to run constantly on the machine that it is installed on. However, not on my laptop. I generally have SQL Server turned off on my laptop because it uses resources that it does not need. I don't frequently use SQL Server on my laptop but I do need it sometimes. Because of this, during the installation I customise it so that the SQL Server services do not start up automatically as they normally would.

There is a slight problem with this approach I've discovered when installing on Vista. SQL Server 2005 came out before Windows Vista and they don't actually get along out of the box. You have to install SQL Server 2005 SP2 (or so several dialogs claim) before you can start working with SQL Server 2005 on Windows Vista.

At the end of the process for installing SP2 it will let you know that admin users on the Vista box will not be admin in SQL Server unless you are explicit about which users to add. It then launches a "SQL Server 2005 User Provisioning Tool for Vista" to allow you to set up the admin users. However, if the SQL Server services are not running it cannot do this - the User Provisioning Tool will run, but when you apply the changes it will popup an error message and quit. So, it would seem that what I should have done is let the installer get on with running SQL Server 2005 when it finished so that the admin users could be set up. However, I didn't and it failed. So, without any users set up on the SQL Server I could not log in.

After hunting around on disk for this User Provisioning Tool I discovered that the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration tool will allow me to launch the tool by pressing the "Add New Administrator" link in its dialog. So, with the SQL Server services (all of them indicating in the User Provisioning Tool, in my case the Database Engine and the Analysis Services) running I add myself to the list of users, click OK and.... A moment later everything seem to work. There is no confirmation, the dialog just goes away without any error messages. To test it worked I opened up the SQL Server Management Studio and attempt to log in. It works. I'm happy.

Now, finally, I go and limit the amount of memory I'm prepared to allow SQL Server to use. See my post on managing SQL Server's memory usage. It is a laptop after all...

Technorati Tags: sql server,sql server 2005,vista,user provisioning tool,sp2,administrator

Speaking at SQL Bits III

Colin Angus Mackay — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:05:24 GMT

I've just had the email through to let me know that my session has been selected for SQL Bits III on the 13th of September. I'll be talking on the subject of Spatial Queries in SQL Server 2008, an evolving talk I've done a couple of times before. It will be updated once again for SQL Bits III.

Here's the abstract: It is reckoned that 80-90% of data has a spatial component to it. But what do we do with it now? At best, we constrain it to postcodes. Well, that would be great if we were delivering letters, but the majority of us aren’t. In this session we look at Spatial Queries in SQL Server to see how it works and what can be done with it.

Technorati Tags: SQL server,SQLBits,SQLBits III,Spatial Queries

VBUG Manchester - Spatial Queries

Colin Angus Mackay — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:08:47 GMT

Just a reminder to anyone that is interested that I'm speaking tomorrow (Thursday July 24th) Evening at VBUG in Manchester on the topic of SQL Server 2008 Spatial Queries, slide decks are available on my website.

Technorati Tags: VBUG,Manchester,Spatial Queries,SQL Server 2008,SQL Server,SQL,spatial,slide deck

Tip of the Day #5 (SQL Server memory usage)

Colin Angus Mackay — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:14:29 GMT

You can limit the amount of memory that SQL Server uses by using the sp_configure stored procedure. By limiting the amount of memory that SQL Server is permitted to use it means that more memory is available to other applications or other instances of SQL Server. In fact books on-line recommends setting the minimum and maximum memory used on each instance of SQL Server running on the same machine as SQL Server does not make any attempts to balance memory usage across instances.

In order to use this you must be in an advanced mode. To set this up use:

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE

Next, to make the actual change you need the following:

EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory (MB)', 512
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE

The above example will set the maximum amount of memory the server will use to 512MB. The RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE is necessary in order for the change to take effect immediately. If it is missed out then the change won't take place until the SQL Server is restarted.

If you want to check that the change has taken place you can use the following:

EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory (MB)'

This will just display the current setting. You will get a result set that looks something like this:

The congif_value is the value that the SQL Server is currently configured with. However, it may not be what is currently in force. The run_value shows you what is currently in force.

If you don't want to type so much SQL yourself, then you can do the same in the SQL Server Management Studio. Right-click the server in the object explorer and select "properties" from the context menu. This will bring you up a dialog with all the server level properties in it. Go to the "memory" page and you can set the values that you want there. There are a couple of radio buttons that will allow you to switch between the currently configured value and the running value. By pressing Okay the updated value is applied to the server immediately.

For more information:

Technorati Tags: sql server,memory

SQL Bits III Session Voting and Delegate Registration open

Colin Angus Mackay — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:28:30 GMT

SQL Bits are going for a slightly different take on the registration process this time. You vote for the sessions you want to see at the same time as signing up for the conference. This is quite interesting because it means that you are signing up as a delegate without actually knowing what the final agenda will be. It's quite exciting really!

If you want to vote on the sessions you want to see and sign up for the conference then you can head on over to the SQL Bits website and sign up. Remember to vote for my session while you are there: "Where's my data? An introduction to Spatial Queries in SQL Server 2008"

Technorati Tags: SQLBits,SQLBits III,SQL Server,conference,community

SQL Bits III - Call for Speakers

Colin Angus Mackay — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:45:01 GMT

Session submission is now open for SQL Bits III. SQL Bits III will take place on Saturday 13th September in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Also, if you are feeling particularly artistic they are also running a competition to come up with a new logo.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server,SQLBits,conference,hatfield,competition

Postgraduate .NET Application Development

Colin Angus Mackay — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:01:49 GMT

Glasgow Caledonian University is currently developing a new Postgraduate course on .NET Application Development. This course will combine the expertise of their lecturers with the industry-standard Microsoft Official Curriculum. This course will offer a series of academic qualifications, starting with a Postgraduate Certificate and potentially leading on to a Postgraduate Diploma and an MSc, and will also provide preparation for Microsoft Certification in .NET specialist areas. A Postgraduate Certificate is likely to take 3 months of full-time study or 6 months part-time. A full MSc takes 1 calendar year of full-time study and 2 to 3 years part-time.

The university has a short survey that is designed to find out how they can best deliver this course to meet the needs of potential students. They are interested in the views of potential students, employers who wish to develop staff and employers who recruit developers. If you think the course might be of interest to you, please take a moment to answer these questions.

The survey can be found here