Yesterday Microsoft made available Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2008. This allows you to test the service pack in your test or QA environments before deploying the eventual final release, and also to provide feedback to Microsoft about potential issues with the service pack. The build number is ...

The recent release of security fixes for SQL Server 2000 and 2005 (the issue did not impact SQL Server 2008) announced in MS09-004 seemed to spur two SQL Server 2005 cumulative updates (CUs) earlier this week -- one for those on SP2, and one for those on SP3.  (This typically happens when there is a new service pack released, as adoption ...

So recently I have been charged with updating several SQL Server 2005 clusters from SP2 + GDR to SP3.  My experiences have been relatively good but the past few have been downright horrible.  I have come across two pretty serious issues, and I am not sure which issue is worse, so I am just going to present them to you in arbitrary ...

I recently posted about the availability of SQL Server 2005 SP3.  I have a bit more information about cumulative updates and the service pack, for those of you who might be confused about the whole mess involving CU#10, CU#11, post-SP3 CU#1, and are wondering whether you need to install some pre-SP3 CUs and then SP3, or SP3 and then the ...