Backup compression in SQL Server 2008
Tibor Karaszi covers the new backup compression feature in SQL Server 2008 with some code samples and size/time comparisons to standard SQL backup. Another blog post from Paul Randal with results from the November CT5 release is here ... Source : Tibor Karaszi - SQLblog.com - Blog Post
System Health XEvent
SQL Server 2008 introduces a new event handling system called Extended Events, or Xevents. In this post, Bob Ward talks about an "always on" event called System Health that, among other things, enables details of events such as deadlocks, non yielding problems and severity 20 errors to be captured. Best of all, recent events it captures can be inspected at any later time using a new DMV. This is yet another example of how XEvents will make troubleshooting prickly problems so much easier ... Source : Bob Ward - PSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post
Resource Governor
Arguably one of the most significant new features in 2008, Resource Governor brings with it a fair amount of confusion. In this post, Bob Dorr addresses some of the common misunderstandings, including why a process can exceed its maximum CPU usage ... Source : Bob Dorr - PSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post
Data Compression Tests
In this 4 part posting, Linchi highlights the effects (good and bad) of data compression. Part 1 covers compression times using various MAXDOP settings. Part 2 looks at compression rates for a number of real customer databases, Part 3 focuses on insert overhead, and Part 4 demonstrates the potential for massive read performance increases with compression enabled. As usual, Linchi includes scripts and graphs the results, making for an excellent read. I'm sure the figures will change with the RTM release, but interesting results none the less ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLblog.com - Blog Post
Tuning the Performance of Backup Compression in SQL Server 2008
A fantastic overview of the new Backup compression feature in SQL Server 2008 and how it can be tuned for maximum performance ... Source : SQLCat.com
SQL 2008 Management Tools
A great summary from Simon (provided by Buck) on the improvements and additions to the Management tools in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Simon Sabin - SQLBlogCasts.com - Blog Post
Backup Compression
The SQLCAT Team share the results of backup compression tests on a couple of VLDB's ... Source : Lindsey Allen and Thomas Grohser - SQL Customer Advisory Team - Blog Post
Auditing in SQL Server 2008
Need to audit select statements on a specific table? In SQL 2005, this was not possible without 3rd party tools or using stored procs to create a custom solution. In 2008, we can use the new and enhanced auditing feature, as Aaron points out in this posting ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLblog.com - Blog Post
Policy Based Management WebCast
Formerly known as DMF or DMgF, Policy Based Management brings significant changes to the way in which DBA's apply SQL Server policy across the enterprise. In this webcast, Hongfei Guo from the SQL Server Manageability Team demonstrated this new feature ... Source : Hongfei Guo - SQL Server Manageability Team - WebCast
Encryption Techniques Compared
A great article on MSDN comparing various data encryption techniques. Transparent Data Encryption in 2008 is compared with cell level encryption in 2005 (also supported in 2008) as well as BitLocker and EFS ... Source : Microsoft.com - Article
2008 Feature Matrix : Enterpise vs Standard
This pdf compares the differences in features between SQL Server 2008 Standard and Enterprise Editions ... Source : Microsoft.com - Download
Performance Data Warehouse
One of the significant new features in SQL Server 2008 is the Management Data Warehouse. This feature provides huge benefits in collecting and analysing performance related data, and is particularly useful when managing numerous servers. In this article from SQL-Server-Performance.com, Greg Larsen walks us through the feature from start to finish and includes screen shots. Great stuff. ... Source : Greg Larsen - SQL-Server-Performance.com - Article
Compression: What's the difference between SQL2005 and SQL2008?
In this Blog Post, Euan talks about the compression features in SQL Server 2005, and then summarizes the exciting new compression features coming in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Euan Garden - Blog Post
SQL Server 2008 Encryption
SQL Mag article covering database encryption in SQL Server 2008 including Extensible Key Management and Hardware Security Modules - SQLMag subscription required to view this article ... Source : SQLMag.com - Article
SQL Server 2008 Security Whitepaper
This paper covers some of the most important security features in SQL Server 2008; Surface Area Config, SQL Agent Proxies, Execution Context, User/Schema Separation, Auditing, Encryption and more …. ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper
Managing Unstructured Data with SQL Server 2008
SQL Server 2008 FileStream provides an alternative method for the storage of BLOBS. FileStream enables storage in the file system, yet maintains transactional consistency with the rest of the database. This Microsoft whitepaper covers the storage options for Blobs in SQL Server 2008, including the new FileStream option. Also, check out this blog post from Paul Randal on some of the limitations with FileStream ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper
Performance Studio in SQL Server 2008
Performance Studio in SQL Server 2008 is a set of tools in Management Studio (SSMS) involved in performance troubleshooting. These tools include the new Data Collector, System Collection Sets, the Management Data Warehouse, and historical reports for the collection sets. It also includes the ever popular tools like Profiler, DTA, Graphical Showplan, Activity Monitor, Client Statistics, and standard performance reports based on the SQL Engine DMVs. In this blog post, Bill Ramos provides a link to his Technet webcast covering Performance Studio in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Bill Ramos - SQL Server Manageability Team Blog - Blog Post
Partition-level lock escalation in SQL Server 2008
In this blog post, Paul discusses the new Partition Level locking option in SQL Server 2008. He begins ... "Lock escalation in SQL Server 2005 and before only allowed table-level lock escalation. If you have a partitioned table with queries going against different partitions, then table-level escalation is a pain because the whole table is suddenly locked and concurrent queries against distinct partitions can't run. SQL Server 2008 gives the ability to escalate to a partition lock, which won't affect the queries on the other partitions" ... Source : Paul S Randal - SQLskills.com - Blog Post
SQL Server 2008 Hot Add CPU
Another new feature in SQL Server 2008 is the ability to dynamically add CPU's to a running system without downtime. In this blog post, Paul provides an overview and disccusses some of the requirements ... Source : Paul S Randal - SQLskills.com - Blog Post
33 New Dynamic Management Views In SQL Server 2008
Denis lists the 33 new DMV's in SQL Server 2008. The trackback comment from Aaron Bertrand links to his blog post that lists column differences in DMVs that exist in both 2005 and 2008 ... Source : Denis Gobo - SQLblog.com - Blog Post
iFTS
A great series of blog posts from Simon Sabin on SQL Server 2008 Integrated Full Text Search (iFTS) ... Source : Simon Sabin - sqlblogcasts.com - Blog Post
SQL Server 2008 Security Overview for Database Administrators
SQL Server 2008 is secure by design, default, and deployment. Microsoft is committed to communicating information about threats, countermeasures, and security enhancements as necessary to keep your data as secure as possible. This paper covers some of the most important security features in SQL Server 2008. It tells you how, as an administrator, you can install SQL Server securely and keep it that way even as applications and users make use of the data stored within ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper
Policy Based Management - Evaluation with Powershell
A great series of blog posts from Lara on Policy Based Management. In this one, she demonstrates how we can use powershell scripting to evaluate policies. Whilst not required for SQL Server 2008 instances (as we can store/automate policies in the server) it's a great technique for automating policy checks against older SQL Server instances (2000 and 2005) ... Source : Lara Rubbelke - SQLBlog.com - Blog Post
Policy Based Management - Facet-Evaluation Mode-Target Mapping
I've been looking for a blog post like this for a while. As well as explaining the concepts behind Policy Based Management, Dan provides a matrix which maps Facets by Target Type (and Target Types by Facet) as well as listing the supported evaluation modes for each facet. In a related post, Peter DeBetta provides a script to list the mappings. This will be very useful in later releases of SQL Server 2008 to discover any changes from the currently supported mappings in RC0 ... Source : MSDN Blogs - Dan Jones - Blog Post
Filtered Indexes
create index i1 on t1(col1) where col1 > 5 and col1 < 20 -- Huh ? Conor shows how this is possible in SQL 2008 ... Source : Conor Cunningham - sqlSkills.com - Blog Post
More Filtered Indexes
Grumpy takes us through one of the benefits of Filtered Indexes - reducing the maintenance impact for 24/7 operations ... Source : Grumpy Old DBA - sqlBlogCasts.com - Blog Post
Resource Governor
SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor allows much more control over resources compared to SQL 2005. In this blog post from ScalabilityExperts, the feature is demonstrated through examples and compared to the closest options available in SQL 2005 ... Source : ScalabilityExperts.com - Blog Post
Data Compression - Page Vs Row
Sunil from the Storage Engine Team blogs about the differences between page and row compression in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Sunil Agarwal - SQL Server Storage Engine - Blog Post