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Data Mining Introduction Part 2

Daniel Calbimonte from SQLServerCentral.com

This is a continuation of first article about Data Mining. We will talk about decision trees. More »

Copy SQL Server Analysis Services Dimensions

Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com

How can you copy dimensions from one SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) Project to another? Are there any options to do so? This tip outlines three approaches for SQL Server BI Professionals who need to copy dimensions from one SSAS project to another. More »

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - Building a Full Text Index

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

I hadn’t used full-text indexing in production throughout my career. We hadn’t had the need in the applications I worked... More »

It's the end of 2012, but not the end of the world. As I look back at this past year, I think it's been a great year for SQL Server and data professionals. The big news of the year was the release SQL Server 2012. This is a great step forward for the platform with a number of enhancements that both make our jobs easier, as well as challenge our skills. The addition of AlwaysOn provides a number of great new ways to scale out SQL Server as well as ensure high availability. Power View, columnstore indexes, and the BI Semantic Model allow for better BI applications, and who could applaud the undo/redo features in Integration Services. There are lots of great things in this new release for the technical staff, though the licensing changes might cause some companies to reconsider or delay their upgrade plans.

We had more opportunities to use SQL Server in new ways, many of them with the expansion of cloud services. Amazon added SQL Server to its RDS platform, allowing quick and easy deployment of SQL Server in the AWS cloud. SQL Azure lost its name, as it was folded into Windows Azure, but it was enhanced throughout the year with a number of releases.

SQL Server is still one of the most secure database platforms available, though it did require patching for a critical flaw in an ActiveX control. There have been fewer advisories and issues with SQL Server 2008 and later than any of the other RDBMS platforms. That's good news as security continues to be an ongoing challenge for many organizations. However the security of the platform doesn't mean that DBAs can relax. There has been no shortage of data loss in 2012, mainly though laptop loss or insider actions. Everyone should continue to be vigilant about security, auditing, and especially SQL Injection.

The positive side of 2012 were lots of events for SQL Server professionals. There were 79 SQL Saturday events in 2012. That's amazing to me and it's something Andy Warren and I never would have imagined when SQL Saturday #1 took place in Orlando in 2007. A lot of the success is due to Karla Landrum's work in helping organize the events. Many thanks and congrats to Karla for an amazing job.

I only attended 4 of these because I participated in the SQL in the City tour that Red Gate Software put on. We held 8 fantastic events in the US and UK this past year, and we will put on a few events next year as well. Grant Fritchey and I will also be visiting some SQL Saturdays in 2013, and I hope to see some of you there. Along with Connections, SQL Server Live, the PASS Summit, and a number of other free events, there's a lot of great training and knowledge being shared in the SQL Server community. If you've got pictures or blogs of your time at an event, please share them in the discussion.

Here at SQLServerCentral I had a few milestones as well. Our Stairway Series took off and we published over 120 articles on various topics. We crossed over 1.5 million registrations, and receive over a million unique visitors every month, which are fantastic milestones for us. ASKSSC continues to grow as well for those people that prefer a Q&A format rather than a discussion. Based on comments and emails, the site continues to help educate and inform many data professionals on a daily basis. I hope that you have found us to be a valuable resource in your job and I hope we can continue to do so in 2013. If you have suggestions, comments, or critiques, please feel free to share them with us.

Happy New Year and my best wishes to each of you.

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

» Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

• Watch the Windows Media Podcast - 45.2MB WMV
• Watch the iPod Video Podcast - 35.8MB MP4
• Listen to the MP3 Audio Podcast - 7.0MB MP3

The podcast feeds are available at sqlservercentral.mevio.com. Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there. Overall RSS Feed: or now on iTunes!

Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

You can also follow Steve Jones on Twitter:

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Today's Question:

In SQL Server hardware configurations, what does the 'R' in RAID stand for?

By Dave Morris

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

This question is worth 1 point in this category: Hardware. We keep track of your score to give you bragging rights against your peers.

We'd love to give you credit for your own question and answer. To submit a QOD, simply log in to Contribution Center.

SQL Server 2012 Query Performance Tuning

SQL Server 2012 Query Performance Tuning leads you through understanding the causes of poor performance, how to identify them, and how to fix them. You’ll learn to be proactive in establishing performance baselines using tools like Performance Monitor and Extended Events. You’ll learn to recognize bottlenecks and defuse them before the phone rings. You’ll learn some quick solutions too, but emphasis is on designing for performance and getting it right, and upon heading off trouble before it occurs. Delight your users. Silence that ringing phone. Put the principles and lessons from SQL Server 2012 Query Performance Tuning into practice today.

Get your copy from Amazon today.

Using SQL Server 2012, create this simple stored procedure.

USE AdventureWorks2012

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE PROC [dbo].[TestProc3] 
AS
SELECT * FROM [Sales].[vSalesPerson]

Executing the above SP returns 17 rows of data. Without further work it does NOT tell me the meta data of the columns returned. I have a requirement that requires knowledge of the column meta data. I then execute the following T-SQL

/* SELECT A */

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object(OBJECT_ID('TestProc3'), 0)

/* SELECT B */

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object(OBJECT_ID('TestProc3'), 1) 

The question is: Which SELECT statement (SELECT A or SELECT B) returns NON NULL values for the columns: source_database, source_Schema, source_Table,source_Column.

By bitbucket

Answer: SELECT B

Explanation: This dynamic management function takes an @object_id as a parameter and describes the first result metadata for the module with that ID.

Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/63b0fde7-95d7-4ad7-a219-a9feacf1bd89

» Discuss this question and answer on the forums

Securing SQL Server

Written by Denny Cherry, a Microsoft MVP for the SQL Server product, a Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server 2008, and one of the biggest names in SQL Server today, Securing SQL Server, Second Edition explores the potential attack vectors someone can use to break into your SQL Server database as well as how to protect your database from these attacks. In this book, you will learn how to properly secure your database from both internal and external threats using best practices and specific tricks the author uses in his role as an independent consultant while working on some of the largest and most complex SQL Server installations in the world. This edition includes new chapters on Analysis Services, Reporting Services, and Storage Area Network Security.

Get your copy from Amazon today.

List all Usernames, Roles for all the databases.

Shiva CHALLA from SQLServerCentral.com

Generates a list of ALL Users and their database Roles for all Databases (Or for a specific user). More »

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.

SQL Server 2005 : Business Intelligence

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SQL Server 2005 : SS2K5 Replication

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SQL Server 7,2000 : SQL Server Newbies

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SQL Server 2008 : SQL Server 2008 - General

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Record locking - Question1: How can a user, say User1, be able to lock a row, say Row1, and any dependent rows, say...

Writing a Single Trigger on Two Relations - Dear, I have an application running on my system. There is a certain module that if I click on 'Save' button,...

Upgrading to 2012? - I was wondering if anyone had opinions on upgrading from 2008 R2 to 2012. I am currently using 2008 R2...

Database restore issue - Hi, I am facing an error while restoring adventure works database to my sql server 2008. TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management...

how to find resource database location - how to find resource database location

send sms to a mobile phone from sql server 2008 - hey everybody ! please can someone tell me if we send sms to a mobile phone from SQL SERVER 2008 if...

2008 Central Management Server - Schedule Multi Server Query? - Hi Everyone - I have a 2008 Central Management Server that we're able to run queries from against all our SQL...

SQL Server 2008 : T-SQL (SS2K8)

CTE with multiple tables - I've seen lots of examples of CTE's on line using a single table.......my situation I need to recurse thru 2...

Moving groups - Hi. I want to group records by moving group by one field for example: I have table with measurements with structure:...

Need To Generate XML File - Hi, I Have Table Data For The Following Stucture.. [code="sql"]CREATE TABLE [dbo].[xmldata]( [FirstName] [varchar](110) NULL, [LastName] [varchar](210) NULL, [Email] [varchar](110) NULL, [Phone] [varchar](110) NULL, [Position] [varchar](110) NULL, [Branch]...

sp_OAGetProperty @obj, 'responseText', @response OUT cannot handle large output - Hi All, This is quite weird, so thought you can have some ideas, please: I use HTTP POST to send and XML...

SQL Server 2008 : SQL Server Newbies

Database Monitoring tool - Hi, Do anyone knows what is the best tool for database monitoring. Basically I need to monitor more than 50 database...

Create Table and Bulk Insert - Hi guys, I have a .csv file wich has the following information (exactly like this): List Name: User Format Version:1.2.5.0 Date:12/11/2012 12:00:34...

SQL Server 2008 : SQL Server 2008 Administration

sql sever 2005 logshipping - i got below issue in the SQL Server 2005 log shipping Log Shipping Backup job has failing since 1 week with...

Fragmentation size - Dear Friends 1-1-How to know the fragmentation size for whole database not only for certain table, to decide if it exexceeds...

Log File Size Issue - Hi, One my DB Log File Grown to large and now user were getting "transaction Log Full" error. When i checked server...

Career : Certification

Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Training Kit (Exam 70-461) publishing delay - I've been waiting patiently for this training kit coming out for months now, expectantly waiting for it's arrival end of...

Career : Resumes and Job Hunters

How can I attract Senior Database Administrator candidates? - I have a few full-time DBA positions open on my team, one of which is for a Sr. DBA. We...

Programming : Connecting

unable to connect on all instances on remote machine - Hi, I have a virtual network with machine DC (AD DC), Machine A and Machine B all on the same...