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Data Management & Information Quality Conference
Europe's most authoritative and independent conference on Data Management and Information Quality will be held in London on 3-6 November 2008. Now in its 10th year, the Data Management & Information Quality Conference Europe 2008 offers unrivalled opportunity to learn from the industry's leading figures and network with and learn from your peers. read more...

Having vs Where: Which is better? Having or Where?
One of the points raised in the recent UG meeting was the question about HAVING and WHERE. So the question is, Which is better? HAVING or WHERE? Which one should I use? read more...

When should I use large Value Types (VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX), VARBINARY(MAX))
One of the feeling that I see, many people have is "Hey, there is VARCHAR(MAX), just use it, and you don't need to worry if the future requirements to increase the size of the column". However, this does not seem to be a recommended good practice for a number of reasons. read more...

Immediate deadlock notifications without changing existing code
In my previous post about immediate deadlock notifications in SQL Server 2005 I've shown a way to use a try catch block to get the deadlock error. read more...

Why LEN differs from DATALENGTH when using BINARY data
Here are all the 36 numbers between 0 and 9000 that have a different LEN than DATALENGTH. read more...

Debunking a Myth: Column-Stores vs. Indexes
Consider a traditional, row-oriented database. Indexes are known to improve query performance. They can greatly reduce I/O costs by avoiding the need to perform table scans since they directly contain the data you need to answer a query or contain pointers to such data. If you have a query that accesses only two out of thirty columns from a large table, and you have an index on these two columns, then you can use the indexes to avoid scanning all of the data in the table. read more...

Report Variables and Group Variables in Reporting Services 2008
Note: this posting provides an overview of when to consider using Report Variables and/or Group Variables for general report design patterns. There is also a detailed blog posting that describes a particular report design pattern (custom aggregation) people may have been using in Reporting Services 2005, which requires group variables in Reporting Services 2008. read more...

SQL Server 2008 - Auditing
As we all know that SQL Server 2008 is coming up with *Cool* enhancements that will help the End Users, DBAs, Developers in improving their productivity. Today I am going to blog about a feature which would be liked by people who maintain the compliance with the Security Standards. read more...

Reporting Services HTTP 401 (Unauthorized) - Host Headers require your attention
Recently, during an upgrade of our internal test server we identified a new type of HTTP 401 (Unauthorized) message. This post provides a description of the problem and the solution. read more...

Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory
This is the first blog post in a series I'll write over the coming months called Pushing the Limits of Windows that describes how Windows and applications use a particular resource, the licensing and implementation-derived limits of the resource, how to measure the resource’s usage, and how to diagnose leaks. To be able to manage your Windows systems effectively you need to understand how Windows manages physical resources, such as CPUs and memory, as well as logical resources, such as virtual memory, handles, and window manager objects. Knowing the limits of those resources and how to track their usage enables you to attribute resource usage to the applications that consume them, effectively size a system for a particular workload, and identify applications that leak resources. read more...

Study: IT jobs will drop in 2009
IT staff jobs are at increasing risk -- both for contractors and in-house workers -- according to a survey of top CIOs by Goldman, Sachs & Co released last week. Global services companies will also feel the pinch because of the slowing economy. read more...

Why San Francisco's network admin went rogue
Last Sunday, Terry Childs, a network administrator employed by the City of San Francisco, was arrested and taken into custody, charged with four counts of computer tampering. He remains in jail, held on $5 million bail. News reports have depicted a rogue admin taking a network hostage for reasons unknown, but new information from a source close to the situation presents a different picture. read more...

Intel slashes chip prices up to 31 percent
There were three price cuts in Intel's Core 2 Duo chip family. The 3.16 GHz Core 2 Duo E8500 was cut from $266 to $183 as of July 20. That 31 percent drop greatly outpaced all the other cuts, which ranged from 11 to 15 percent, according to an Intel price list . read more...

Cast Iron adds data-cleansing to integration appliance
Cast Iron Systems, maker of an appliance for integrating SaaS and on-premise applications, is introducing a new version that adds data cleansing and migration tools, along with a library of prebuilt integration templates for connecting many commercial software-as-a-service products. read more...

SSAS Deployment Wizard Retaining Permissions
Had a great question last week at the MNPASS SQL Server User Group in regards to using the Analysis Services Deployment Wizard and I just wanted to post the follow-up. I have read about the wizard, but actually have never used it (but you need to know about it for the MCTS test 70-445 or 70-448). I have just always deployed my databases through BIDS and have always had the roles and permissions defined in the solution. read more...

DDL appdomains appear in SQL Server log in SQL Server 2008
.NET (and therefore SQLCLR) divides up running its code (even within the same process like the sqlserver.exe process) into appdomains. The appdomain is like a lightweight process used to enforce isolation between running .NET code within the same Windows process. SQLCLR (.NET code running in SQL Server) uses appdomains to isolate execution of .NET code on a per database and per assembly owner basis. read more...

How do you shutdown a running SQLCLR appdomain?
When SQL Server creates a CLR appdomain to run code in (a runtime appdomain as noted in the previous blog entry), the appdomain normally stays in place for the lifetime of SQL Server. This is done to save appdomain create/teardown and assembly load time. Note that DDL appdomains, as opposed to runtime appdomains, are torn down immediately after they are used. A friend of mine recently wanted to shutdown an appdomain on purpose to troubleshoot a problem that he thought might have been SQLCLR-related. So how do you shutdown a runtime appdomain on purpose? read more...

How do the links in YOUR copy of SQL Server 2008 Books Online work?
I am just taking a quick show of hands; and maybe some information, if you are willing. (And if this hasn't happened to you, I apologize for taking up your time.)

I have had various problems on multiple installations of Books Online throughout the entire Katmai / SQL Server 2008 cycle. They have been on both 32 and 64-bit; with / without IE8 installed; and with / without Visual Studio installed. read more...