Last week when RC0 was released, the updated installer for ''Juneau'' (SQL Server Data Tools) was not available. Depending on how you tried to get it, you either ended up on a blank search page, or a page offering the CTP3 bits. Important note: the CTP3 Juneau bits are not compatible with SQL Server 2012 RC0. If you already have Visual Studio ...

At PASS I am giving a presentation on Denali SQL Server 2012 - What's New in Engine and Tools. In previous blog posts I've compiled a list of resources and, now that CTP3 is out, I thought I'd compile a much larger list that flows somewhat like my slide deck. Here is the deck and sample files:http://bit.ly/AB-PASS-2012   The second demo ...

If you have access to both a CTP3 instance and a CTP1 instance, and the CTP3 instance can see the CTP1 instance, you can run all of these queries simply by creating a linked server on the CTP3 instance that references the CTP1 instance (and be sure to run in the context of master). I named this linked server ''OlderCTP'' so you will see that ...

If you're not OCD about prefixing every single column in a query, this is one that might bite you. Today you might have code that assumes that, because database_id is in sys.dm_exec_requests but not in sys.dm_exec_sessions, you don't need to prefix database_id in the following example:SELECT TOP (1)   s.session_id,   ...

Okay, I'll be the first to admit, I tried to install CTP3 on a machine without first cleaning up the CTP2 bits. My primary motivation was to be able to query the catalog views to detect any metadata changes that I hadn't already talked about here. As you might have guessed, this experiment did not go well. In a couple of cases I have installed ...

Ctrl+R is a good friend of mine - we go way back. It is very handy to use this command not only to hide the results pane away and focus on the query at hand, but to also be able to bring the results back just as quickly - without having to run the query again, or mess with click + drag nonsense. In Denali, we get a new version of SSMS, tightly ...

SQL Server Developer Tools (SSDT) - code-named ''Juneau'' - is now available. Many (including myself) believed that Juneau was simply a part of BIDS in CTP3, but after trying to use Juneau-specific functionality that this was not the case. As indicated on the Developer Tools page, and on the SSDT blog, you can download Juneau now through a Web ...

In case you missed my previous post, you can now download CTP3. The delivery mechanism this time is a little different. Instead of downloading an ISO, you download a very small EXE, two .box files, and an HTML file that currently contains a set of links that aren't fully functional. You run the EXE by double-clicking it, and it extracts the box ...

The CTP3 of SQL Server Code-Named ''Denali'' is now available. You can download the bits here: Download SQL Server ''Denali'' CTP3(You will need to use File Transfer Manager on Windows, and a Java applet on Mac OS.) If you are just interested in the Express version, you can go here (no FTM required):Download SQL Server ''Denali'' ...

Currently you may have code that makes decisions based on sys.databases.database_id or the built-in DB_ID() function. I have seen a lot of code out there that checks the database_id, and behaves differently based on the assumption that a value between 1 and 4 (as well as 32,767 - the resource database) means it is a system database, and anything ...