MTS, Cursors, and More!

A client of mine installed Microsoft Terminal Server 4.0, and he is willing to install SQL Server 7.0 on it. Will SQL Server 7.0 have a compatibility problem on Terminal Server 4.0?

SQL Server 7.0 does not yet support Terminal Server. Microsoft is working on enabling full support for Terminal Server and hopes to have it soon. (For more information, see "WTS Alert.")

Does SQL Server 7.0 limit the number of cursors?

Available resources (memory, disk space, locks, etc.) represent the only practical limit to the number of cursors. As available resources reach depletion, you may see some primitive warning messages. Microsoft has extended the way you declare, open, and fetch cursors, but the old syntax still works.

The upgrade wizard in SQL Server 7.0 features a utility that scans the SQL Server 6.5 database for potential problems (e.g., procedures that reference nonexistent tables). Is this utility available independently of the upgrade wizard?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. The feature is not available outside the upgrade wizard, and I know of no way to make it work otherwise.

What is the most cost-effective way to run three separate servers and connect workstations to them based on Microsoft licensing and taking into account per-seat and per-server licensing?

Per-seat licensing lets you connect to any number of servers from a single computer with a single license. If you purchase per-server licenses, they let some number of users (the number of licenses you purchase) connect to a single server. Therefore, if you have multiple copies of SQL Server to run, per-seat licensing makes the most sense.

Do you know whether Systems Management Server (SMS) 1.2 will run without problems after I upgrade from SQL Server 6.5 to 7.0? Which version of SQL Server is best to use?

SQL Server 7.0 does not support SMS 1.2. To use SQL Server 7.0, you will need SMS 2.0. The following information is from http://www.microsoft.com /smsmgmt/exec/faq.asp: SMS 2.0 works with SQL Server 6.5 with Service Pack 4 or later. Because of the many improvements in SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft recommends using the most recent version with SMS 2.0. If you are upgrading from a previous version of SMS, you first need to upgrade SMS to 2.0 before upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 7.0.

The SQL Server 6.5 CD-ROM has a tool to upgrade the client ODBC. I have not detected a similar tool on the SQL Server 7.0 CD-ROM. How can I update SQL Server 7.0 clients without installing the client connection?

If you run setup from the CD-ROM in SQL Server 7.0, you can simply uncheck all server-related components to update only the ODBC/OLE DB components. You can run MDAC_Typ.exe to install all the Microsoft Data Access components—they now come as a package.

We want to migrate from SQL Server 6.5 to SQL Server 7.0. The outside company that does our programming and provides DBA support wants to wait until Microsoft releases the first service pack. Is waiting necessary?

Unless the outside company has found specific problems with the shipping version of SQL Server 7.0, I see no reason to wait. SP1 is in the works, but Microsoft has not announced dates.