Category Archives: SQL Server Administration

Download SQL Server 2008 SP3

Posted on by
Reply

Microsoft has recently announced Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2008. There is a separate file for each version (IA64, x86 and x64), download those that apply to your SQL Server installation.. Please visit the download page here..   Service Packs are released to address known issues and bugs and also few enhancements to various sections of the SQL Server product. To find a list of bugs and issues that are addressed in SQL Server 2008 SP3, please visit the link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2546951.

Some of the enhancements are:

  • Enhanced upgrade experience from previous versions of SQL Server to SQL Server 2008 SP3. Increased performance & reliability of the setup experience
  • In SQL Server Integration Services logs will now show the total number of rows sent in Data Flows.
  • Enhanced warning messages when creating the maintenance plan if the Shrink Database option is enabled.
  • Resolving database issue with transparent data encryption enabled and making it available even if certificate is dropped.
  • Optimized query outcomes when indexed Spatial Data Type column is referenced by DTA (Database Tuning Advisor)
  • Superior user experience with Sequence Functions (e.g Row_Numbers()) in a Parallel execution plan.

And last but not the least, before installing the SP3 take a minute to read the SQL Server 2008 SP3 release notes

Do you like this site? Like our FB page @ Facebook.com\LearnSQLWithBru so that, you know when there is a new blog post.

– Bru Medishetty

Cannot access SQL Server 2000 Activity Monitor in SQL Server 2008 or above

Posted on by
Reply

If you are using SQL Server Management Studio in SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2 or above, you can acces the previous versions of SQL Servers from the Management Studio as shown in the picture below. I am using SSMS in SQL Server Code-Named Denali (CTP 3) and I am connected to a SQL Instance of the same version as that of the Management Studio. I am also connected to another SQL Server which is SQL Server 2000.

In order to open the activity monitor, I right-click on the connected server (SQL 2000 here…) and choose Activity Monitor from the popup menu.

We get the following error indicating that we cannot access activity monitor of SQL Server 2000 instance inside Management Studio.

The reason for this is, SQL Server Activity Monitor in SQL Server 2008 and above, utilizes the Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) introduced in SQL Server 2005. Whereas, activity monitor in SSMS 2005 is designed for backward compatible so that we can still be able to work with SQL Server 2000.

Do you like this site? Like our FB page @ Facebook.com\LearnSQLWithBru so that, you know when there is a new blog post.

— Bru Medishetty

List of all Data and Log Files of a SQL Instance

Posted on by
Reply

Ever faced a sitaution where you had to find out all the database files (Data and Log) of a SQL Instance?

I came across this situaion many times, especially when I am working with a new SQL Instance which was taken over by my team OR when the previous admin of that box has left the company and its now my turn to maintain / administer that instance.

In order to list the files, we just need to query the system table sysaltfiles.  The picture below is a screen show that I ran earlier today on one of my SQL Instances.

SELECT * FROM SYSALTFILES

This  query can be further tweaked to get only the data files or only the log files by adding where clause and filter by griupid column. Groupid = 1 indicates it is a data file and groupid = 0 indicates it is a log file.

Do you like this site? Like our FB page @ Facebook.com\LearnSQLWithBru so that, you know when there is a new blog post.

– Bru Medishetty