MSSQL Server Reporting Services: Black Belt Administration: "Governor"

In working with many reporting tools over my career, particularly within enterprise business intelligence suites and high-end production reporting systems, I have become acquainted with various control features in each that allow administrators to govern the actions of end users. Reporting Services is no different in this aspect of need for control, and the application provides numerous avenues for restraining our users from kicking off resource crippling queries that, unchecked, could disrupt even the most robust systems, as well as to prevent other harmful activities. At various junctures within this series, we will examine ways to effect such controls on an intermittent basis.

Beta Call - Randolph for Database Schema Control

Maintaining control of your schema with SQL Server 2000 can be cumbersome. However there are starting to be more and more tools to assist you with version control and tracking your schema over time. Nob Hill software has a tool that helps, which is currently in Beta and code named "Randolph". If you have a need, check out their new product.

The Value of A DBA

SQL Server 2000 does an amazing job of running itself to a large extent, much more so in my experience, than the other major platforms. That being said, it isn't designed to run without some sort of DBA, at least not at an efficient level. But what value does a production level DBA bring to your organization? Your manager might wonder, but with many years of experience as a production DBA and manager, Steve Jones brings you a look at the value that a DBA provides.

Teach Old Data New Tricks with the Fully Loaded Advances in ADO.NET 2.

The Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0 delivers an updated ADO.NET that will streamline your data access development efforts. The ADO.NET team has worked with both the System.Xml team and the SQL Server™ team to provide a consistently rich developer experience, crossing technology boundaries from ADO.NET to XML and back. This will all be apparent as you dig into ADO.NET 2.0. There are improvements on so many fronts that you will certainly be pleased.

Rather than attempt to list every new and updated feature of ADO.NET 2.0, I will discuss in detail some of the more interesting improvements and focus on performance and flexibility.

The Multi Phase Data Pump

SQL Server 2000 has an amazing ETL tool in Data Transformation Services that is included at no charge, something none of the other database vendors include. DTS has great flexibility to make your job easier, but it has some quirks in this version. The Multi Phase Data Pump is hidden inside the tool, but can provide a great programming environment and Dinesh Asanka brings us a look at what you can do wit this tool.

Using Source Control to Develop Smarter

Veteran and novice developers alike need source control management (SCM). Also known as asset management, and source code management, SCM helps you (and your team) manage development projects, and the components and code that make up the project.

There are many benefits to using source control management, most notably the ability to develop code faster, smarter and more accurately. Source control management tools help you control your code; especially in multiple developer projects.

SQLH2: The Free Health, History and Performance Monitoring Tool

One of the strengths and powers of the SQL Server platform over others is the shear number of things that are available free from Microsoft besides the relational platform. DTS, Reporting Services, SQLAgent, and more are included with the product. One of the newer utilities is SQLH2, a performance monitoring tool that is reviewed here by Kathi Kellenberger.

The Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle

This paper discusses the Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle (or SDL), a process that Microsoft has adopted for the development of software that needs to withstand malicious attack. The process encompasses the addition of a series of security-focused activities and deliverables to each of the phases of Microsoft's software development process. These activities and deliverables include the development of threat models during software design, the use of static analysis code-scanning tools during implementation, and the conduct of code reviews and security testing during a focused "security push". Before software subject to the SDL can be released, it must undergo a Final Security Review by a team independent from its development group. When compared to software that has not been subject to the SDL, software that has undergone the SDL has experienced a significantly reduced rate of external discovery of security vulnerabilities. This paper describes the SDL and discusses experience with its implementation across Microsoft software.

All about the 'Case'

When installing SQL Server, regardless of versions and editions, SQL Server database administrators tend to choose the default collation and sort-order, which is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. Though case insensitiveness makes the life of the database developers and database administrator's easy, there are situations where case sensitivity should be enforced just as password checking is enforced.

In this article, I would like to discuss different methods for achieving case sensitivity in a case insensitive database/server.

Automating DTS Execution

Database Transformation Services (DTS) in SQL Server 200 was a breakthrough tool, really paving the way for a low-cost, easy to use, ETL tool. However, it was not a true robust programming environment and contains quite a few quirks that are apparent as you get into more detailed packages. New author Gus Carnu addresses one of those issues with a look at the ExecutePackage task.