Entries for the 'SQL Server 2008' Category

Best SQL Server Blog Posts of 2008

I was going to try to go through my google reader shared items from this year and try to come up a list to end all lists. However, who am I to decide? On top of that, narrowing it down to a top 25 favorites was going to be a enormous task given the huge growth in quality SQL bloggers this year.

However, instead of giving you a list, I will give you a tool to find good SQL blog posts based on the collective conscience on the internet. Hopefully, you will see the value and join in making this tool better.

Popular Posts on “SQL Server”(RSS) from RSSMeme.

Behind the scenes in a nut shell

Blog software syndicates via RSS. Readers subscribe in google reader or their favorite reader but only google reader applies here. When a user in google reader finds a post interesting, he\she can share it. All of the shares are indexed by RSSMeme. The idea being is a human actually recommends the post. More shares the better. Sure, there are also sites like Digg and Dotnetkicks but the down sides to those make them less appealing to me.

A side effect

Using this link you can find recently shared items containing “SQL Server”. This can help you find new interesting feeds. You can also use it to find breaking new on SQL Server or whatever tickles your fancy. However, it may not be quite as real time as twitter.

Start sharing

So if you use google reader and don’t use the share functionality, start! And maybe, you too can be part of the Internet SQL Mafia ©. Westside.

Top Sharers

• StatisticsIO
• Brent Ozar
• ttoennies
• Jeremiah
• Rob Boek
• Bogdan Brinzarea

P.S. Congrats to the Detroit Lions for their perfect season.

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Don’t be that Guy

In SQL Server 2008, security is locked down further than previous versions. Two biggies are the fact that the local windows admins  are not added to the SA role and the SA login is disabled by default. During setup, you manually add accounts to the SA role. You must add at least one. In my case, I added myself during setup.

I removed myself from the SA role to do some permissions testing. Yep, they worked. I could not do X or Y. Now, I try to login as SA to give myself SA again. Denied.

And no, I do not have permissions to enable SA because I am  “that guy”. Now, it looks like I will be rebuilding the master db. Good thing this was a test box.

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Good SQL Blogs from around the Tubes.

This is my 2nd installment of cool new(at least to me) sql blogs. I am trying to focus on ones that have good content and may not being getting enough exposure(by my guess). Not that I can slashdot your blog or anything but links are good.

If you don’t end up here, it could be for several reasons:

1. You blog is part of a large established aggregations like SQLBlog, SQLBlogcast, SQLTeam or SQLServerCentral.
2. Your blog is an MSDN blog. I suggest you check this periodically.
3. Your site is already high profile with lots links etc..
4. I might not know about your site. Let me know.
5. Most of your posts are not tsql or database engine related
6. Yer mamma dresses you funny.

In no particular order:

1. Jim McLeod (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight: Cluster Won’t Start Due to Incorrect Startup Parameters

2. Joe Sack (WWW, RSS) – Not new to me but a good one.

Recent highlight: Windows Server 2008 - How to Move the Quorum Disk Group

3. The Database Whisperer (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight: Adding a Check Constraint to a View

4. Chris Shaw (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight: SQL Quiz Part 2

5. Aaron Lowe (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight: SQL Quiz: Toughest Challenge

6. Deepak - (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight: SQL Server 2005 Default Trace

7. SQL in the Wild (WWW, RSS) Not new but you should be reading

Recent highlight: When is a critical IO error not a critical IO error?

8. SQL Ninja (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight: Ongoing Education for the Terminally Lazy/Busy

9. You Want Fries with that? (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight: SQL PASS Community Summit 2008

10. Glen Berry - (WWW, RSS)

Recent highlight - Excellent Results With SQL Server Native 2008 Backup Compression

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My Blogroll is Jacked

I tried to create cool web 2.0 blog roll. It worked for a while but it is hosed.. It would take me too much time to recreate it. Not to mention blogs come and go so I am going to do three things.

• Share from google reader interesting(to me) posts. These will show up in my friendfeed widget on the left. You can also subscribe to my shared items here.
• Friend me on Facebook because they show up there too.
• I am going to do a monthly post on new SQL blogs that I have found that are not getting a lot of exposure but have great content.

So post interesting things and you get  a link from me in several place. Woohoo. Yah, big deal, right? If I am missing you, let me know. The amount of good SQL blogs is growing exponentially and it is hard to keep up.

NOTE: IF YOU ARE ONLY POSTING AN RSS SUMMARY, I AM PROBABLY NOT READING YOUR BLOG!!!11WON

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TCP Chimney Offload

Here is a Windows setting that often doesn’t play well with SQL Server. There is not much info out there so I thought I would blog about it.

There are three sets of problems that I have run into that can come from it:

1. Network disconnects. It manifests at the client with these errors: Reference kb945977.

Error message 1
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB] General Network error. Check your network documentation

Error message 2
ERROR [08S01] [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure

Error message 3
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server. (provider: TCP Provider, error: 0 - An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.)

Do any of those ring a bell? :)

2. High NonPaged pool usage with some NIC’s. Reference kb918483. This manifests with this error message.

A significant part of sql server process memory has been paged out. This may result in a performance degradation.

3. I suspect that a mysterious periodic cluster failover was caused by this. I cannot prove it though.

To disable this setting, run Netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED and reboot. You should do this at the client and SQL Server if you have problem 1. With problem #2 when you are on SQL Server standard edition, you might as well try it because if it doesn’t fix it you only have a few other options. Chances are that the only fix is an upgrade to Enterprise Edition.

There might be a good reason to leave it enabled in some situations but I am not sure what they are. It has caused me enough problems to turn it off by default.

Edit: Doh, Sara Henwood wrote a similar but better post on this issue. I wish I would have saved it to gray matter back when it came out.

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Never Index a BIT?

Never say never, right? For example, you have an orders table. It has an IsShipped bit column which is what marks an order as done to the business. You might have a more complex version of this example so employees can see the outstanding order count in the app:

CREATE TABLE#temp
    (
                c1INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED,
                c2 VARCHAR(10) DEFAULT  'bob',
                c3 bit
    )


INSERT INTO#temp(c3)
        VALUES
    (1)
GO 5000000


INSERT INTO#temp(c3)
        VALUES
    (0)
GO 500 


--13,000 IO's
SET STATISTICS io ON
SELECTCOUNT(*)
    FROM #temp
    WHEREc3 = 0


CREATE INDEXix ON#temp(c3) include (c2) 


--6 IO's 
SET STATISTICS io ON
SELECTCOUNT(*)
    FROM #temp
    WHEREc3 = 0
           

In SQL 2008, we can get a little better with filtered indexes but really all we are saving is space.

CREATE INDEXix2 ON#temp(c3) include (c2) 
    WHEREc3 = 0

--4 IO's

SET STATISTICS ioON
SELECT COUNT(*)
    FROM #temp
    WHEREc3 = 0

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SQL Server 2008 Beta Test Update

Got the final letter from Prometric. I went 4 of 5 on the SQL server 2008 beta tests. I failed the one of the BI tests which is a good sign since I have not built a cube in 6 or 7 years, I would consider myself at the the jr. level with SSIS and wouldn't know a decision tree if it hit me in the face.

So for what it is worth, I am a new MCITP DBA 2008 and MCITP Database Developer 2008. Yep, there will party hats, kazoo's and everclear infused watermelon at my house tonight. Stop by but I warn you that the first person to pass out will get the shaved eye brow treatment and ANSI written across their forehead in permanent marker.

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SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide

The new upgrade guide for SQL Server 2008 is out. Please respect the environment and do not print the 7mb 490 page document but be sure to read cover to cover several times. :) I have just cracked it open but the contributors is the who's who of the SQL Server community.

Contributing writers from Microsoft: Arvind Rao, George Huey, Richard Waymire, Siva Harinath, Edward Melomed, Deepika Mistry, Fernando Caro, Goldie Chaudhuri, Max Verun, Vijay Tandra Sistla, Tom Michaels, Justin Erickson, Devendra Tiwari, Jingwei Lu, Fernando Azpeitia Lopez, Ketan Duvedi, Lukasz Pawlowski, David Noor, Matt Masson, Karandeep Anand

Contributing writers from Solid Quality Mentors: Ron Talmage, Aaron Johal, Steven Abraham, Allan Hirt, Herbert Albert, Antonio Soto, Greg Low, Joe Webb, Craig Utley, Dejan Sarka, Larry Barnes, Pablo Ahumada

Technical reviewers from Microsoft: Rebecca Laszlo, Saket Suman, Paul Mestemaker, Vishal Anand, Leo Giakoumakis, Alejandro Hernandez Saenz, Tom Michaels, Bob Ward, Lindsey Allen, Sanjay Mishra, Umachandar Jayachandran, Mike Wachal, Richard Tkachuk, Donald Farmer, Ritu Kothari, Rakesh Parida, Prash Shirolkar, Dave Sell, Craig Guyer, Denny Lee, Peter Scharlock, Yinyin Gao, Rahul Sakdeo, Eliza Tobias, Hajnalka Sarvari

Contributing editors from Solid Quality Mentors: Kathy Blomstrom

Contributing editors from Microsoft: Jen Witsoe, Suzanne Bonney, Megan Bradley, Tresy Kilbourne, Bronwyn McNutt

 

Haha, now when these folks do a vanity google search they will find themselves here. Hopefully, I can some up with something interesting enough to bring them back. :) However, this is like getting a free hardcore book, so read up.

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New\Newish SQL Blogs(at least to me)

I have found a lot of new SQL blogs lately. Here are the top 5 top 10 in no particular order. I am going to try to make this a monthly post.

While they may be new to me, they may not be new. I am going to try to stick with ones that  A) have good content and B) may not be getting enough attention. It is hard for me to judge B. It mostly just based on my perception which could be wrong. :)

So if you are not on the list don’t take offense. Nothing personal but your blog sucks. Just kidding!

1.

SQL Fool (WWW, RSS)

Author: Michelle F. Ufford

Recent Highlight: Performance Comparison of