There have been a few interesting developments on the hardware front over the past week that I want to cover today. First, Intel has released the new Core i7-2700K processor, which is their new top of the line desktop CPU. It is basically identical to the older Core i7-2600K,… Read more

The Denver SQL Server User’s Group will be having their monthly meeting tonight at the Microsoft office in the Denver Tech Center. It will be a PASS Summit 2011 Debrief, where a number of members will give their impressions and experiences from the PASS Summit last week in Seattle.… Read more

Since Microsoft released the official name for “SQL Server Code Named Denali” last week at the PASS 2011 Summit, it seems like a good time for me to release an updated version of my SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries.  This set includes most of the relevant new DMVs Read more

Since Microsoft has been so busy releasing Cumulative Updates for both SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 over the past few days, I thought it would be a good time to release a new version of my SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries. Most of these queries… Read more

Microsoft has been busy getting SQL Server Cumulative Updates released over the past couple of days. The latest release is SQL Server 2008 SP3 CU1, which is Build 10.00.5766.00. This update has 19 listed fixes.

Remember, this Cumulative Update is only for SQL Server 2008 SP1, not for SQL… Read more

Microsoft has released SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM Cumulative Update 10. This is Build 10.50.1807.0, and it has 13 listed fixes. You must have SQL Server 2008 R2 installed before you can install this Cumulative Update.

As always, I want to remind everyone that this update is only for… Read more

Microsoft has released SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Cumulative Update 3. This is Build 10.50.2789.0, and it has 22 listed fixes. You must have SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 installed before you can install this Cumulative Update. Especially since Microsoft added some new functionality (such as some new… Read more

On Friday, October 14, 2011,  I had the pleasure of delivering my new Scaling SQL Server presentation at the PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle. This was a half-day session, so I had plenty time to present the material and not have to feel like I was rushing through the session.… Read more

There are four racks of servers and storage on stage for today’s keynote complete with roaring fans and flashing lights. This means that we are very likely in for some more interesting demonstrations during the keynote presentations today.

It is amazing how many people are here for the keynote and… Read more

It is hard to live tweet or live blog when the Wi-Fi is not working reliably. The keynote starts out with a speech from the PASS President, covering PASS business.

Ted Kummert announced that SQL Server Denali will be SQL Server 2012, to be released in the first half of… Read more

On Wednesday, October 12, at 10:15AM, I am going to get the pleasure of presenting my Hardware 301: Diving Deeper into Database Hardware Spotlight session at the PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle. This will be a 90 minute session, so I will have a little more time to present the… Read more

With relatively little fanfare, Microsoft added a few new DMVs into the SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 release, which came out a few months ago. They also added some new columns to at least one existing DMV (sys.dm_os_sys_info).

Some of these could be pretty useful for basic diagnostic purposes. Just… Read more

Microsoft has released the final, RTM version of SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3. This is build 10.00.5500. It includes the fixes up to the point of SQL Server 2008 SP2 CU4 (Build 4285).

That means that (as usual) if you are on a newer SQL Server 2008 SP2… Read more