Adam Machanic : sql server 2008

SQL Server 2008: Lock Escalation, INSERTs, and a Potential Bug

Adam Machanic — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:10:00 GMT

Lock escalation is a funny thing. I've found myself on numerous occasions waging war against its concurrency-sapping existence, and rarely have I found myself wishing that it would work more aggressively. But there is a time and place for everything,...(read more)

Dr. OUTPUT or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the MERGE

Adam Machanic — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:31:00 GMT

It would be fair to say that there aren't a huge number of programmability features added to SQL Server 2008 that will have a great impact on most of our day-to-day lives as SQL Server developers. The release was clearly manageability themed rather than...(read more)

[New England] Kalen Delaney Internals and Query Tuning - in the Boston area October 12-16

Adam Machanic — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:16:00 GMT

In case you missed Kalen's post , we're excited to announce that she will be joining us here on the East Coast in October to deliver her SQL Server 2005/2008 Internals and Query Tuning seminar. This is, to my knowledge, the most advanced public SQL Server...(read more)

Speaking Season About to Begin: MCM, Roadshow, PASS, and SQLCLR Precon at DevTeach

Adam Machanic — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:20:00 GMT

Fall is now in full swing, and after a relatively quiet several months my speaking schedule is about to jump into fairly-packed mode. Following is a list of where I'll be headed over the next couple of months:

Next week I'm really excited to be teaching a day of the Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft SQL server 2008 program's beta rotation. I'll be teaching developer topics including ADO.NET, XML, and SQLCLR. Should be a good time!

November 12, the SQL Server 2008 Roadshow hits Boston, and I'll be presenting a half day on all sorts of SQL Server 2008 topics. This one is free, so if you're in the Boston area you have nothing to lose by checking it out.

November 19-21 is the PASS Summit, and I'm excited to be involved in three presentations. I'm doing a spotlight presentation on programmatic/application concurrency topics, a duo with Peter DeBetta called "[Anti]patterns and [Mal]practices", and a duo with James Luetkehoelter on performance metrics.

December 1 and 2 I'll be in Montreal, speaking at the always-fun DevTeach/SQLTeach conference. Aside from speaking in the regular conference program, on December 1 I will be doing a full-day preconference on SQLCLR development. In this preconference I will start with SQLCLR beginner topics and take you all the way through to some really advanced use cases. So this one should be of interest even if you've been using SQLCLR for some time. Best practices will be stressed, and you might just learn about some of the dusty corners you've not yet had a chance to touch. I'm also upgrading the content to cover what changes SQL Server 2008 brings to the table, so this will be a complete session on the topic. I think that SQLCLR, while not used much in SQL Server 2005, will really pick up adoption in SQL Server 2008 and beyond. So now is the time to pick up what will be a key skill going forward.

SQL Server 2008: Return of the Debugger

Adam Machanic — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:06:00 GMT

A lot of people will be interested to know that at the launch event in LA it was announced that the T-SQL debugger is returning to Management Studio in SQL Server 2008.

Personally, this is not a feature I've been lamenting the loss of; I never used it in SQL Server 2000, and unless we can view temp tables, table variables, etc, I just don't see it as something with a lot of utility for the way I personally develop T-SQL.

But this isn't just about me, and I know that there was a huge amount of interested in seeing the debugger come back into the core SQL Server tools. So congrats to all of the step debug fans out there; get your F10 keys ready for SQL Server 2008!

In case you don't read our Roller... Breaking news on RTM release date

Adam Machanic — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:27:00 GMT

And I quote...

final Release to manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 expected in Q3.

Thanks to Jason Massie for the pointer (via our Roller, of course!)

SQL Server 2008 CTP5 VHD Now Available

Adam Machanic — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:46:00 GMT

Lazy developer that I am, I just hate running installers to set up VHDs for the SQL Server 2008 CTPs. So I was overjoyed when Microsoft did the work for me and released a pre-installed VHD image for CTP4.

CTP5, alas, did not ship with a VHD, forcing me once again down the path of the dreaded installer. But today I'm happy to report that Microsoft has once again come through for those of us who simply can't be bothered to click the "Next" button; a VHD for CTP5 has appeared on the Microsoft Download Center.

So download, enjoy, and think of all of the effort you'll save by not having to install...