SQL Server Magazine UPDATE, October 21, 2004--SQL Server 2005 Technology Previews

SQL Server Magazine Web ExclusiveOctober 21, 2004SQL Server Magazine UPDATE, October 21, 2004—SQL Server 2005 Technology PreviewsInstantDoc ID 44292by Various authors

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October 21, 2004

1. Perspectives

2. News and Views

3. Announcements

4. Peer to Peer

5. Hot Spot

6. Events Central

7. New and Improved

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1. Perspectives

    by Brian Moran, [email protected]

Microsoft has announced a change in SQL Server 2005 beta programs. Don't worry—it's not a delay; the change will get new SQL Server 2005 betas to you sooner rather than later. In an email to SQL Server 2005 beta testers last week, Microsoft Senior Vice President Paul Flessner said that as part of the company's efforts to work more closely with beta testers during the product-development cycle, the SQL Server team decided to release Community Technical Previews (CTPs) for SQL Server 2005. "The SQL Server 2005 CTPs are interim builds of SQL Server 2005 between major betas that will enable you to test and experiment with new features as they are added to the product without having to wait for the next beta," Flessner's memo explained. "Your involvement during the development cycle will ensure that we ship a better product."

So what's a CTP release? Let's not mince words: It's beta software. Essentially, Microsoft has decided that it has made enough improvements to SQL Server 2005 since Beta 2's release to make the product valuable and stable for testing and learning purposes. As Flessner noted, Microsoft based its decision to release CTP builds for SQL Server 2005 on the helpful feedback that the development team received during SQL Server 2005 Beta 1's limited community release. The company hopes to release more than one CTP version between now and the official public beta, Beta 3. That decision depends on how much feedback the community gives the SQL Server development team. Microsoft developers are using the CTPs to get more feedback about how to improve the product, so let's give it to them! A lot of work goes into a CTP release, so it's not worth Microsoft's time to produce one unless we provide feedback that the SQL Server team can use to make the final release better. If Microsoft doesn't get much feedback, we might have to wait for the next beta to get any new bits.

Users who have access to the SQL Server 2005 download area on BetaPlace ( http://www.betaplace.com/ ) received the first CTP last week, and within the week, MSDN Universal, Enterprise, and Professional subscribers will be able to download the CTP from the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Subscriber Downloads site. I haven't explored the CTP release yet, but here are a few enhancements Microsoft told me to expect:

Is Beta 2 upgradeable to CTP, or will you need to reinstall SQL Server 2005 to Beta 2? Because Microsoft doesn't perform beta-level testing on CTPs, the company recommends not running the CTP on the same machine as the betas—you should keep them separate. Of course, Virtual PC from Microsoft (or other virtual machine technology) is a great way to deal with multiple software versions on one physical machine. If you're wondering about SQL Server 2005 ship dates, Microsoft is still planning to release Beta 3 in the first quarter of next year and the final product next summer.

2. News & Views

Microsoft has released a hotfix for a 8649 error message that might occur when you execute the DBCC CHECKDB statement in SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3). The error message looks like "Server: Msg 8649, Level 17, State 1, Line 2 The query has been cancelled because the estimated cost of this query (381) exceeds the configured threshold of 50. Contact the system administrator." This problem occurs because the DBCC CHECKDB statement checks the server-wide query governor cost-limit time setting, but it ignores the session time setting QUERY_GOVERNOR_COST_LIMIT that's set by the SET QUERY_GOVERNOR_COST LIMIT statement. Because of this error, you can't use maintenance plans with the query governor cost-limit server setting and a reasonable database size and you can't perform a database integrity check in a database maintenance plan. To learn more about this error and the supported hotfix, read the Microsoft article "FIX: You receive a "Msg 8649" error message when you execute the DBCC CHECKDB statement in SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3)" at
    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=840208

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"How many hours do you work in a typical week?" Here are the results from the 360 votes:

"Will you download SQL Server 2005's new Community Technology Previews?" Go to the SQL Server Magazine home page ( http://www.sqlmag.com ) and submit your vote for

3. Announcements

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SqlJunkies is your online community resource for original tutorial and how-to articles for developing applications with SQL Server 2000 and Yukon; peer-to-peer help and networking through discussion forums and newsgroups; technology tips and pointers from expert bloggers; and the latest in SQL Server-related events and news.
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4. Peer to Peer

by Brian Moran, [email protected]

Q. When I use different SQL Server tools to return statistics information about an event, I sometimes receive widely varying results. For example, when I run Listing 1 in Northwind with Query Analyzer's Show Server Trace option turned on, the server trace shows that the SQL:StmtCompleted event performed 185 reads. However, Figure 1 shows the event's statistics when I execute the query with STATISTICS IO enabled—1711 total reads. And if I use SQL Server Profiler to trace the query's execution, I get 1721 reads for SQL:StmtCompleted. Which result is correct, and why do the tools return different results?

Find the listing, figure, and answer to this question today at
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At TechEd 2004 in San Diego, Microsoft thrust Visual Studio fully into the enterprise development space by introducing the newest version, Visual Studio 2005 Team System. Like previous versions, this product supports application development in any of the .NET languages, including Visual Basic .NET (VB .NET), C#, J#, and C++. But Microsoft has added several enterprise-oriented team development and project-management features to put the product on par with any enterprise-level development tool. Microsoft plans to release Team System when it releases single-user editions of Visual Studio 2005 in mid-2005. In his October SELECT TOP(X) column, "Visual Studio 2005 Team System," Michael Otey shares Visual Studio 2005 Team System's five most important enterprise-oriented features. Read this article today at
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Hot Threads: Check out the following hot threads, and see other discussions in our 30 SQL Server forums.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/sqlserver/forums/

Distributor Can't Connect to Subscriber
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Preventing Client Connection to Enterprise Manager
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Declaring Variables Inside a View
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Subquery Performance Tuning
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Errors in Stored Procedure Syntax
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DTS Losing Records Without Reporting Errors
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5. Hot Spot

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6. Events Central

Learn from SQL Server Magazine experts at Europe's premiere SQL Server event—Brussels SQL Server Day on October 26. Join Microsoft and SQL Server Magazine for a free, full-day event that gives SQL Server users the tools they need to unleash the power of SQL Server 2000, deploy SQL Server Express, and get ready for SQL Server 2005. Register now!
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See the complete Windows IT Pro Network guide to Web and live events
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7. New & Improved

    by Dawn Cyr, [email protected]

Red Earth Technologies announced Superior SQL Builder 1.5, a SQL scripting tool that lets you build complete SQL scripts without typing code. The product's scripting technology lets you quickly transform database data by using an intuitive interface that simplifies the script-building process. By using the integrated scripting environment, you eliminate the need to cut and paste individual queries to form a solution, and the environment lets you view complete SQL scripts. The product's new features include the automation of database connections and the inclusion of new script templates that let you eliminate syntax, logic, and typographical errors when developing SQL scripts. SQL Builder 1.5 supports SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle, and MySQL. A fully functional evaluation version of the product is available at the company's Web site, and online program registration costs $349. For more information, contact Red Earth Technologies at 61-7-5534-6551 or [email protected].
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Sane Solutions announced NetTracker 7.5 SMB and NetTracker 7.5 eBusiness, Web-data analysis applications that use your SQL Server database to provide users with scalable Web analytics and open access to your Web data warehouse. Both products use an open database schema to let users easily extract data for integration with other business data through third-party solutions such as business intelligence (BI), customer relationship management (CRM), sales force automation (SFA), or contact-management tools. The products provide custom reporting features and enterprise Web-data-management options. Pricing for NetTracker 7.5 SMB starts at $7500, and pricing for NetTracker 7.5 eBusiness starts at $25,000. For more information, contact Sane Solutions at 401-295-4809, 800-407-3570, or [email protected].     http://list.windowsitpro.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/ehwx0McMHC0Kj40BJPs0AA

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