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Great SQL Functions You Should Know
The guys over at less than dot have a great top 10 SQL Server functions you should know, that you probably have ignored until now (if you read it). http://wiki.lessthandot.com/index.php/Ten_SQL_Server_Functions_That_You_Have_Ignored_Until_Now
SQL 2008 Central Management Server
SQL 2008 has some new DBA focused features, one of which is the Central Management Server for issuing multi-queries (queries against many servers at once, even down level clients) and Policy Based Management. Connections use your Windows Authentication only.
Preserving SQL Job History
I am often migrating servers and like to keep the SQL job history more accessible than a backup I need to restore. So, I created a script for saving this information into a table for easy access later:
How do you manage database log files?
There seems to be a lot of mis-understanding of log file management, potentially enough to cause data loss in a disaster recovery scenario. Paul Randal has an excellent blog post on the subject and survey results of what the public does: http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/Importance-of-proper-transaction-log-size-management.aspx
Best Thing I Learned at PASS Summit
Update: I won a prize for my short answer to the contest http://summit2009.sqlpass.org/AboutSummit/ROI/BestThingWinners.aspx
SQL Server OLTP Disk IO Configuration Best Practices
I am currently working on building out a new SAN (older HP EVA 8000) for new Windows 2008 and SQL 2008 migration from SQL 2005. There is so much you can tweak that I wanted to put all my thoughts in one location, so here is my brain dump which will be updated as time goes on. Listed below in order of importance.
Memcache equivalent product by Microsoft
Microsoft is coming out with a competitive product to Memcache, one of the most popular data caching products on linux. It looks like it will be free also and available this summer.
Nice TCP Port Query and Monitoring Tools from Microsoft
I came across some nice TCP port query tools that do better testing than DOS telnet to port x and leave a hanging connection from Microsoft.
Data Dude - Visual Studio 2008 Database Edition GDR R2 Released
If you are using the Visual Studio Team System Database Edition (Data Dude), you will want to upgrade to the latest version that came out at end of April 2009. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en
Reason's to update:
SQL Server 2008 Downloads
What's New in Service Pack 1
The following features are new in Service Pack 1:
