A holiday in the US has Steve Jones on the slopes. A short reminder of patches released last week is the editorial today.

The Community Has Been Heard

by Steve Jones

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

Steve Jones talked about the announcements of Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2005 and Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2008 in this editorial.

Webinar Series: SQL Server 101

by Press Release

SQLServerCentral.com

A partnership with Pragmatic Works brings you some basic SQL Server training through a series of webinars.

Working with DTS in SQL Server 2008

by Dale Parsons

SQLServerCentral.com

How to continue using DTS packages in a SQL 2008 environment.

Use SSIS to import one cell of an Excel file into SQL Server

by Additional Articles

MSSQLTips.com

Integration Services (SSIS)

Recently I needed to find a method to import one cell of an Excel sheet into SQL Server 2005 using a scheduled job on a 64 bit clustered environment. For example, I have a monthly sales report listing sales per product category, such as Books, Magazines, DVDs, etc. I only want to import the Total Sales amount into SQL Server and this number is located in an Excel file "sales.xls.sheet1.cell.B5". I used to use OPENROWSET to solve the problem, however OPENROWSET requires Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider which is not available in 64 bit. In this tip I am going to talk about how to use SSIS to accomplish this task easily.

Safety in Numbers

by Steve Jones

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

One of the core things a DBA must do is ensure backup and recovery of data. This Friday Steve Jones asks about your tolerance for safety and backup data in a Friday poll.

Tips for New DBAs

by Craig Outcalt

SQLServerCentral.com

Career Growth

New and old DBAs alike can benefit from going back to the roots of the profession. This series of articles highlight the skills needed to move to the next level of Database Administration.