SQL Server 2005 DB Snapshot: Imperfect Yet Useful?

Database Snapshot (DB Snapshot for short) is a new tool offered by SQL Server 2005. Database snapshots can be used to protect against user errors, by creating a "snapshot" of your data that you can refer to later if you need to recover data or database objects that were accidentally (or even intentionally) updated or dropped. While the feature is quite useful, it doesn’t provide a 100% guarantee against user errors.

Improving Performance with SQL Server 2005 Indexed Views

This document describes the improved indexed views capability of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition. Indexed views are explained and specific scenarios in which they may provide performance improvements are discussed.

You have two identical tables in a SQL...

SQL Writer in SQL Server 2005

Definitely written for backup ISVs, but this is an interesting architectural article as to how the backup systems will work in SQL Server 2005.

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices

With SQL Server 2005 recently released, one of the things that many people are looking for are some guidelines for working with the new product. New author NandaKishore brings us a list of best practices that should give you a start.

Which one of the following may not be...

Intro to Database Mail in SQL 2005

Mail processing in SQL Server 2005 has changed substantially, including a new name, DBMail! Corey Bunch birngs is an introduction to this new subsystem, including HTML formatting.

Starting and Stopping SQL Server Part 4

Continuing with his series on working with SQL Server, Andy Warren looks at how long it can take to start or restart the services and why.

When programming SQL Server 2005 CLR user-defined types,...

Speeding up the VS/SQL User Interface Load Time

A frustrating thing for those who open and close Query Analyzer all day long about the new Visual Studio interface for SQL Server is the load speed. This quick blog shows you how to speed up the load time with a switch change.