People reading this post might really wonder of having read /heard about a concept on Dependency tracking in SQL Server 2008. It is nothing, but a set of built in existing SYS objects and their effective usage that help us save time & tedious efforts.  Read more...

This article illustrates different methods to insert data into a table, including the new Row Value Constructor, which simplifies the data insertion.  Read more...

As we are reviewing the new features in SQL Server 2008, we found one that looks really interesting - Policy-Based Management. Could you help us to understand how this works and provide some examples? Can you please explain each of the components and how to manage them in the interface and with commands?  Read more...

ckup compression is a new feature in SQL Server 2008 that can help provide smaller sized backups and reduce backup time. This document provides guidance related to tuning options for backup performance. All of the information and test results presented here were done specifically by using the backup compression feature of SQL Server 2008; however, they apply broadly to any backup scenario whether backup compression is used or not  Read more...

SQL 2008 has some key improvements over SQL 2005. This article deals with backup compression and faster backups in SQL 2008  Read more...

This article illustrates the functionality of UPSERT via the MERGE command in SQL Server 2008.  Read more...

This article examines one of the T-SQL changes coming in SQL Server 2008: The hierarchyID.  Read more...

Looking at this from a confidentiality, integrity and availability perspective – the essence of security and compliance – there are quite a few new selling points.  Read more...

Part 2 of this article illustrates how to enable Change Data Capture on a database, on a table and how SQL Server tracks the data changes of the CDC enabled table.  Read more...

In this screencast, we look at Table Valued Parameters from both the server side and client side perspectives.  Read more...

This is the third articlefrom Dinesh Asanka in the series on the new Data Types in SQL Server 2008. In this article the spatial data types are explored.  Read more...

In this article, we are going to explore the new HierarchyID data type. We are going to show how to implement hierarchies in SQL Server 2005 and than how same thing in can be achived in SQL Server 2008 using the HierarchyID data type.  Read more...

This article is going to cover the newly introduced data types in SQL Server 2008 July CTP, and will specifically discuss the DATETIME functions.  Read more...

Paul Randal of SQLskills takes a look at lock escalation in SQL Server 2008  Read more...

SQL Server 2008, Katmai, apparently won't ship in Q2. Looks like a Q3 possibility now.  Read more...

Part one of this series illustrates how to enable Change Data Capture on a database, and on a table, and how to keep track of Data Definition Language changes on a table.  Read more...

Paul Randal talks about the new spatial data types and their indexes.  Read more...

Older versions of SQL Server had only one datatype to store both the date and time values. In SQL Server 2008, Microsoft introduces a set of new datatypes that store date and time individually, and both date and time together.  Read more...

This article highlights the steps involved to install SQL Server 2008.  Read more...

In SQL Server 2008 we get a new DATE date type that allows you to store a date without a time.  Read more...

SQL 2008 has some key improvements over SQL 2005. This article deals with backup compression and faster backups in SQL 2008  Read more...

SQL Server 2008, code named Katmai, has some very interesting additions to the SQL Server platform to make your development tasks easier. One of these is passing a table variable as a parameter to a stored procedure and regular columnist Jacob Sebastian shows us how.   Read more...

This article examines one of the T-SQL changes coming in SQL Server 2008: The hierarchyID.  Read more...