Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 CTP - Download

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 - CTP is available for download, you can download it from,

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=bd200f8e-ba8a-45e3-af59-e28a9e2d17df&displaylang=en

You can use these packages to upgrade any of the following SQL Server 2008 R2 editions:
1. SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Computing Edition
2. SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition
3. SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition and Developer Edition
4. SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition
5. SQL Server 2008 R2 Web Edition
6. SQL Server 2008 R2 Workgroup Edition
7. SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition

The following New Features are Included in SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1,

* Dynamic Management Views for increased supportability
* ForceSeek for improved querying performance
* Data-tier Application Component Framework (DAC Fx) for improved database upgradest
* Disk space control for PowerPivot

SSIS: Data Extraction From SharePoint List

Problem:-
How to extract the data from SharePoint List using SSIS?


Solution:-
If you want to extract the data from SharePoint, you need to install the “SharePointListAdaptersSetup.msi”. It provides 2 controls SharePoint List Source & Destination Control, Which is written by C# 3.0 Framework.


Download SharePointListAdaptersSetup.msi

Failed validation and returned validation status "VS_NEEDSNEWMETADATA".

Problem:
Today I deployed my ETL package at my Staging Server. When I tried to execute the ETL, it throws error like,
[SSIS.Pipeline] Error: "component "SharePoint List Source" (1)" failed validation and returned validation status "VS_NEEDSNEWMETADATA".

Solution:
I followed the steps listed here to solve that problem.

1. Open your ETL Package (*.dtsx) file thru Microsoft Visual Studio
2. Reconfigured every of components of the package, by double click on the components, refreshing the schema, mapping with proper destination if required, etc.,
3. Save the Package
4. Import the package to Integration Services

After I tried to execute my package at staging server, it works fine.

Hope it helps!

Difference Between ReportServer Database Vs ReportServerTempDB

ReportServer	ReportServerTempDB
It Stores information about the report schema, report property, data sources, parameters, stores the folder hierarchy, report Execution log	It stores only the cached copy of the report data.
It always exists until changes on the RDL Schema	It expires based Expiry settings
It helps to access the structure	It helps to improve the performance of report execution as it is loading data from cache
Data always exists during SSRS service restarts	Services restarts will clear the Temp Data

Configuring SSRS Report Timeout in SharePoint

In My Project, we have integrated the Report(SSRS) with Sharepoint site. One of the report takes long time to display the data due to huge data.

When I tried to access that report, It throws the below error:

If you check the report thru Native Mode, then its default timeout limit is 9000 secods(2.5 hrs). If the report is integrate with SharePoint, Then Default Timeout limit is reduced to 120 seconds(2 minutes). If any report exceeds this limit, then  the Sharepoint server throws the timeout error as exhibit above.

To Solve this issue, We've increased the timeout limit of the Sharepoint by following the steps listed here:

1.Locate web.config for the SharePoint site you have configured for SSRS integration (in my case I used the default site, so the file is located at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\8080)

Note:8080 is a portNumber used in the Sharepoint, so you check the correspoing port that used in your project

 

2.Open the file in an XML or text editor

3.Look for "httpRuntime" (easiest thing to do is use the FIND functionality of your editor - ctrl F in most cases)

4.Inside the tag, add executionTimeout="1800" (30 Minutes)

(The end result will look like this: <httpRuntime maxRequestLength=”51200” executionTimeout=”1800” />)

5. Close and save the file

6.Restart IIS

Hope this helps you!

SQL Server Editions

Microsoft Provides different Editions of SQL Server, Which are categorized as below, based on the demands and business requirements.

Core Editions:

1.       Standard Edition – This is for small and medium sized organizations, it will be useful for team development data application. It is integrated with BI and high end features with limited access

2.       Enterprise Edition – It Provides comprehensive features, including OLTP and OLAP, etc., with unlimited access

Specialized Editions:

1.       Workgroup Edition– It will be useful for small organizations like, departmental  or branch office. Easily you can upgrade this version to Standard or Enterprise

2.       Web Edition – This is same as Workgroup, It can serve as front end web server.

3.       Developer Edition – It contains all the functionality of Enterprise edition, but it restricted to use only for testing, development and demo purpose

Free Editions:

1.       Express Edition – Express is a next version MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Data Engine), it is lightweight and embeddable

2.       Mobile Edition, Compact 3.5 Edition - SQL Server Compact 3.5 is the next version of SQL Server Mobile, adding the desktop platform

Cloud Services:

1. SQL Azure Database – it is a cloud based RDBMS, it helps to deploy relational database solutions to the cloud services.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Kit

Microsoft has released a training kit for SQL Server 2008 R2. Please install this on your computers and go through the content whenever you have time. It has lot of useful content with lots of presentations, demos and hands-on exercises.

Here are the highlights of the contents in this toolkit:

New Content: Build Your First Microsoft BI Solution with SQL Server 2008 R2

• Build Your First Microsoft BI Solution with SQL Server 2008 R2
• Introduction to BI Modeling Techniques
• Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services
• Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
• Publishing and Accessing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Reports
• Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
• Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Query Syntax
• Accessing SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Data
• Introduction to SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
• Introduction to Data Mining with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
• Introduction to Self-Service Reporting and Analysis with SQL Server 2008 R2 

Other Content

• Getting Started Building Web Applications With SQL Server
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers
• SQL Server 2008 Update for Developers

Usability Improvements

• The master configuration wizard no longer auto-starts and can be launched manually from the Prerequisites page if needed. This makes it easier to use individual demos or hands-on labs without having to install the prerequisites for the entire training kit.
• Remote SQL Server instances are now supported for many demos and hands on labs. Unfortunately we were not able to add support for remote SharePoint 2010 installations. This still requires manual intervention.
• We reworked the menu structure and content pages to improve navigation and discovery of content.
• We added a desktop shortcut to the main training kit page (default.htm).

You can download this toolkit from Microsoft Download Center using the below URL:

Download SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Kit

What is Denali?

Denali is code name of SQL Server 2011.

Here is the list of the code name of other versions of SQL Server.

In 1988, Microsoft released its first version of SQL Server. It was developed jointly by Microsoft and Sybase for the OS/2 platform.

1993 – SQL Server 4.21 for Windows NT
1995 – SQL Server 6.0, codenamed SQL95
1996 – SQL Server 6.5, codenamed Hydra
1999 – SQL Server 7.0, codenamed Sphinx
1999 – SQL Server 7.0 OLAP, codenamed Plato
2000 – SQL Server 2000 32-bit, codenamed Shiloh (version 8.0)
2003 – SQL Server 2000 64-bit, codenamed Liberty
2005 – SQL Server 2005, codenamed Yukon (version 9.0)
2008 – SQL Server 2008, codenamed Katmai (version 10.0)
2010 – SQL Server 2008 R2, Codenamed Kilimanjaro (aka KJ)
2012– SQL Server 2012, Codenamed Denali (version 11.0)

Books Online - SQL Server Code-Named "Denali"

Books Online includes

• Setup and upgrade instructions.
• Information about new features and backward compatibility.
• Conceptual descriptions of the technologies and features in SQL Server.
• Procedural topics describing how to use the various features in SQL Server.
• Tutorials that guide you through common tasks.
• Reference documentation for the graphical tools, command prompt utilities, programming languages, and application programming interfaces (APIs) that are supported by SQL Server.
• Descriptions of the sample databases and applications that are available with SQL Server.

Download - Books Online SQL Server Code-Named "Denali"

New Enhancement in SSRS 2008:

• Report Builder 2.0
• Data Builder
• Integrating SSRS 2008 with Microsoft Office Sharepoint
• Introducing the Tablix Report Properties
• Enhanced charting visualization
• New controls "Gauges"
• Enhanced Performance and Memory Management
• Provides Embeddable SSRS Reports controls which can be used with Windows and web application
• HTML Text formatting – Supports proper in-line formatting while exporting the report to different format which is missed in previous release
• We can export to Microsoft word