It's been a 4 year run but the time has come to leave the SQL Server group. It's been incredible working with all the folks in the development and marketing organizations as well as engaging with all the great customers and partners in the SQL Server community.
I won't be straying too far. I'm just moving over to the Office Server team to work on making our Office Servers such as SharePoint Portal Server super successful.
With that, I'm moving my blog as well over to MSDN. Check out my new SharePoint blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/thomriz. Not much there yet but there will be!
Enjoy SQL Server 2005. It's the biggest release we've done!
Tom
I will not post the names protect the innocent but I got this great email about my new book:
"Just ordered you rnew book, looking forward to getting it, I am a IT pro trying to bring in tool s availible in SQL 2005 into the business like reporting services and SSIS and analysis I hope this will help, thanks
Keep up with the blog, love it"
It's emails like these that make writing worthwhile since all authors know that there is no money to be made in technology books unless you write end user books. I once calculated what my pay was per hour on my Exchange/Outlook/SharePoint books and I was making lower than minimum wage!
On another note, I've been getting a ton of emails from customers and partners asking about how they get their hands on SQL Server 2005. Well, let me lay out the timeline for you (Please note this is for the English version since we are shipping international versions in a cascading fashion after the English one):
Now - Multiple SKUs of SQL Server 2005 are available for download for MSDN subscribers. You can get Developer, Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise. Please note that MSDN licenses are for dev/test and not for production use.
November 1st - You should see SQL Server 2005 start popping on price lists at your favorite resellers. You can place orders with some resellers but you won't get bits until Dec 1st.
November 7th - The eval version of SQL Server 2005 will be posted to the web. We changed the timeout (if memory serves me right :) ) from 120 days to 180 days. You can only get eval for the Enterprise Edition.
December 1st - SQL Server 2005 is available across all channels. Place your orders. Buy one for you, your friends, as holiday gifts, etc, etc. You can also download SQL Server 2005 from our volume licensing site on this date as well.
Make sure to attend a launch event since we are also giving away free copies of SQL Server at some of the events!!!!
Enjoy!
Well, it's finally here and it's damn good - SQL Server 2005. It's been a long road to get to this point with many twists and turns but in the end we made it. I'll have to create another post with all the inflection points we went through to get here but if you see me at launch, ask me about them.
On another note, my book has been published on SQL Server 2005. You can find it at this link. Give it a read, provide feedback, etc, etc. I worked with some other great authors on this book and it covers a lot of topics from installation, managing, developing, high availability, security, BI, etc.
Some folks have also asked recently about upgrade pricing for SQL Server 2005. We do not offer upgrade pricing since we moved to Software Assurance. If you bought your SQL Server 2000 licenses with Software Assurance and your contract is valid Dec 1st, 2005, you will get the rights to upgrade to SQL Server 2005. If you didn't, you will have to buy new licenses.
Go to the MSDN subscriber site, download the bits (we're posting all editions right now beyond developer!) and see you all at launch!
Tom
That's the question I've been pondering over the last couple of weeks. I wrote a SQL Server spotlight article on the new pricing and licensing for SQL Server 2005 which can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/spotlight/expandsqlserver.mspx
However, every day I get a question from customers about licensing SQL Server 2005. It's great to see the interest in the new product (and if you are buying SQL Server 2000 today, buy Software Assurance on your licenses so you get the upgrade to 2005) but I still wonder if I did a good job getting the word out on what the new feature matrix looks like and the changes we made to add more value to SQL Server 2005.
Hopefully all of you know about Reporting Services coming to all editions from Express all the way up to Enterprise Edition. Also, we are introducting passive servers at no additional charge with 2005. Many of you are used to this with passive servers in failover clustering but we did this for all passive servers such as log-shipped servers, mirrors in database mirroring, etc.
While I'm in a pondering mood, we are working on defining the next release of SQL Server 2005. I've thought about the enhancements I would like to see but of course I don't pay for the software, you do. If you want to get involved, drop me a line and let me know what you'd like to see in the next release. For those of you who don't know, we have an email alias called sqlwish (sqlwish@microsoft.com) that you can send your feature requests into as well.
Well, that's it for now. See you all at launch on November 7th.
Yes. Yet another post about the SQL Server September CTP being available and Paul Flessner's letter. However, I wanted to let folks know that we did publish out all the languages of SQL Server with this CTP. So, if you are looking for the Spanish, French, German, etc version to test, grab a copy of developer edition in those languages.
I pre-briefed the MVPs yesterday on the news so that they would be prepared for any questions that folks have on what we're announcing. My biggest concern was that there would be confusion of what VS build to use with our September CTP. The answer is the VS RC that was just released. Lots of customers have been scratching their heads throughout the beta process asking this question. When you're working to integrate two beta products together, you sometimes get mismatches, especially when they use the same underlying technologies that may be in a phase shift between them.
The good news is that once we RTM, customers will very easily recognize that the RTM version of SQL Server 2005 works with the RTM version of VS 2005.
On a side note, hopefully some of you have been following the LINQ news. When the LINQ folks first showed me SQL integrated into the languages, my immediate feedback to them was that some early SQL Server 2005 customers thought that's what we meant when we said the CLR would be integrated into SQL Server. I think LINQ and some of the stuff Microsoft is doing in WinFS will take data to the next level for the developer. It's exciting to be part of the groups that are thinking of where we go in databases and information management for the next 10-20 years.
Finally, Dave Campbell is probably presenting right now on the future of data at PDC. We worked together on his deck and I'm debating writing a whitepaper based off the deck. There are some good ideas that we talked about but had to limit in scope in the session since it was only 1 hour and 15 minutes and it has 3 demos!
Well, time to get back to work. Enjoy the CTP, download the beta of WinFS and give us your feedback on all of that plus LINQ.
We've posted Beta 1 of WinFS, the next generation relational file system for Windows, to MSDN subscribers today (http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/) There were some snafus since the bits weren't supposed to hit until tonight but what can you do. . . . :)
There are some exciting things with this beta including Windows XP support. The end game for WinFS stays the same which is that WinFS will be in beta when Windows Vista ships. You'll learn a lot more about WinFS at PDC.
There is also a new WinFS Blog available up on MSDN for you to learn more about the product at http://blogs.msdn.com/winfs
We took some people by surprise by releasing our beta early but we wanted to make sure we get it out there before PDC so developers have some time to try it out and provide feedback. It's pretty neat if you haven't tried WinFS. The samples in the SDK are excellent and will step you through getting started with WinFS.
Stay tuned for more WinFS news in the future. . . . Who knows. Maybe we'll surprise everyone again!
Tom
http://msdn.microsoft.com/sql/default.aspx?pull=/msdnmag/issues/05/09/SQLServer2005/default.aspx
For those of you who have never seen Donald Farmer from our team give his data cleansing demo, you're missing a fun show that is extremely useful. As I like to say for DWs: "Garbage in, garbage out".
Now only if I could use SSIS data cleansing to clean out my Outlook inbox :)
Ok. I suck. First, I forgot my password. Then, the folks at junkies updated their servers which caused me problems but they were swift to fix the issue. So, I'm back and I'm going to start blogging about PDC since I'm the track advisor for the Data and Systems track.
Right now we're working on Dave Campbell's anchor session for the track. We will talk about the future of where MSFT is going with data technologies. We have some interesting technologies that we'll unveil that are in development.
Is there anything you're expecting from this session? We'll of course cover SQL Server and data access technologies but any other technologies you would expect to hear about?
We'll also be holding some focus groups at PDC so if you're interested in attending them and providing detailed feedback, email me directly.
Tom
Today, we announced the beta of our SQL Server 2005 JDBC driver. You can download the driver from the following location: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2005/jdbc.mspx
For those of you who use the 2000 JDBC Driver (and yes, I'd love to talk to any of you who do!!!), you will be presently suprised with the new driver. We support JDBC 3.0, integrated authentication, better performance, etc.
The way I think about JDBC is that it's another way to put and get your data into SQL Server regardless of the platform you run on. Of course, you could say the same thing for the web services support in SQL Server 2005. . . .
Download the beta, give it a try and provide feedback.
Tom
Ok. We made a lot of announcements around SQL Server 2005 today. I'll try to capture them all here but may miss a few in my haste:
1) We released the June CTP. It will be available to anyone. Yes, anyone! Like AOL CDs, you'll get probably 10 copies of the June CTP from many different sources plus it's downloable from Microsoft.com. Enjoy and provide feedback!
2) Reporting Services changes. We moved the report server all the way down to Express. Report Builder is now all the way down to Workgroup. You asked for it, we delivered. Check out the new SQL Server 2005 SKU matrix at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.mspx
3) We announced the first SQL Server 2005 benchmarks for both TPCC and TPCH. We blew away both SQL Server 2000 and Oracle on compatible hardware. For those of you wondering if SQL Server 2005 scales better than 2000, make no doubt about it, the benchmarks show how we are anywhere from 2-5x faster than 2000. With SSIS, we can even be faster than even that against DTS.
4) SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle launched. Go to your Oracle friends, give them the migration assistant that converts data and PL/SQL to T-SQL. Get them off their bad Oracle habit fast :) http://www.microsoft.com/sql/migration
5) All TechEd attendees get a copy of SQL Server Standard Edition when we release. Yes, a free copy of Standard Edition!
6) SQL Server 2005 Developer content. Win $50k for first place. That could buy something real nice, like lots of XBoxes! Check out Paul's post on it at http://www.theserverside.net/news/thread.tss?thread_id=34252
7) A new readiness kit for SQL Server 2005. It includes whitepapers, samples, links to webcasts, etc, etc. You can get the DVD via ordering it from the Microsoft website.
8) Starting with the June CTP, you can download books online separate from the product from the SQL website. Download it, install it, study it, enjoy it!
That's a lot . . . . Signing off from Teched. . . . .
Tom
As he states in his blog entry, I convinced (ok, I begged) Euan Garden to partner with me and Matt Nunn on the Data and Systems track at PDC. So, now the hard work begins of coming up with the track abstract, working through the multitude of sessions (some new and interesting topics you will not want to miss about data in general) and the long meetings (blue bags or black bags, long-sleeved shirts or short-sleeve. . . ).
What would you like to see in the Data and Systems track at PDC? Of course, SQL Server will be there but is there other things you are interested in?
I'll be at TechEd so if any of you are there, stop by the SQL Server cabana and say hi. We have some interesting things to announce at TechEd this year so be sure to keep looking for that news when it hits.
Tom
If you are going to use the April CTP with encryption, please note that some of the T-SQL syntax has changed. BOL is behind so it has incorrect information.
In particular, the syntax for the OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY has changed to OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY keyname DECRYPTION BY decryption method.
Good luck!
Tom
I just got back from a whirlwind tour of SoCal. For thos of you who attended, drop me a line. I'd love to hear your feedback on the roadshow event or the user group meeting.
I always learn a lot when I come back from these types of events. We did the ask the experts at the end of the day and there were a ton of questions. The interesting thing was that the questions bubbled up mostly into SSIS and Database Mirroring questions. I'm going to try to answer some here since I think a lot of folks may have the same questions.
I also found a lot of people excited about SQL Server 2005. Anyway, here goes some of the Q&A we got:
DB Mirroring Question Sampler:
Q) What happens to open transactions in DB Mirroring on a failover?
A) It depends on the state of the transaction but we will always make sure the database comes up in a consistent state. That means that if the transaction has not been committed, we will roll it back.
Q) What does the witness server really do? Do I have to license it?
A) A witness is not required and it does no transaction processing or anything like that. It is there to allow automatic failover by providing quorum when the principal or mirror goes down. In our licensing, we have allowed even SQL Server Express which is free to act as a witness. Now, you can make a witness do other things so you will want to get a license besides Express if you are going to perform more capabilities than just witness capabilities.
Q) What's the performance overhead?
A) As with all performance questions, it depends. However, if safety is on, you will slow down the principal while it waits for acknowledgements from the mirror. Therefore, for highest performance, you can turn safety off but you lose some HA. Plus, in our Standard Edition, safety is always on. You can only turn safety off in the Enteprise Edition.
SSIS Question Sampler:
Q) How do I move to SSIS?
A) It's a migration. We have a migration wizard that will take your DTS packages and migrate them to SSIS. The thing you have to remember is that SSIS is not a minor upgrade to DTS. It's a re-write to make SSIS super scalable and have great performance and functionality. The good thing is that we still ship the DTS 2000 runtime in certain versions of SQL Server 2005 so you can continue to run your DTS packages even as part of a SSIS workflow.
Q) What's new in SSIS?
A) That's hard to answer is a few words but here's my shot at it. Rewritten code base and designer to make your enterprise ETL needs a reality at very low cost. Integration with a very large set of traditional (relational) and new datasources such as web services and XML. Advanced functionality such as text mining, data cleansing and rich debugging. Lots and lots more even beyond this.
Enjoy!
Tom
Roger Jennings just had his SQL Server 2005 XQuery article posted at http://www.ftponline.com/vsm/2005_06/magazine/features/rjennings/.
Great article if you want to learn more about XML support in SQL Server 2005.
One another note, if you haven't watched Shankar's smart client and SQL Server 2005 XML webcast, check it out at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032271489&Culture=en-US
I got the privilege of a personal demo of what Shankar showed in the webcast in his office. Just a little jab at my buddy Shankar but we need to get him some better UI for his demos :) Of course, it's not all about sizzle with Shankar but the nuts and bolts of evangelizing the work the the XML team in SQL Server is doing. I'll add the sizzle for him.
Final thing, if you haven't seen the information of the SQL Server 2005 roadshow, you're missing out. Bill Baker, myself, Euan Garden and a bunch of folks are heading on the road to get folks excited about and teach SQL Server 2005. You'll also get drill-down sessions on BI, Developer and DBA topics. It's your own personal mini-SQL 2005 conference! Check it out at http://www.windowsitpro.com/roadshows/sqlserverusa/index.cfm?code=featuredlink
I'll be at the Anaheim one April 26th plus I'm doing the .NET User Group in LA on the 27th. Stop by and say hi if you're in the area there. Lattes (or Jamba Juice for the healthy folks) are on me.
Tom
My buddy Shankar pointed me to this on XML indexing. It's an interesting topic since figuring out smart ways to index and search XML is a tough job.
Here's the paper: http://www.vldb.org/conf/2004/IND5P2.PDF
It talks about compression, tokenization, path indexing, etc, etc. If you're serious about XML and SQL Server 2005, you should read this paper.
Enjoy!
Tom
Yes. James Hamilton and I got done up in makeup to bring you the SQL 2005 .NET show. Give it a watch but make sure it close to bedtime in case we put you to sleep :)
And it's amazing, two blog posts in a single day. I've met my quota for the month based on my previous patterns of posting :)
Tom
Lots of folks had both good and bad feedback on the SKU matrix (http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.asp) so we're looking at changing it. No, we're not moving features around but we are trying to get more clear on what things like Advanced Measures and Dimensions are. What do you think of the matrix?
Here's what some folks said:
1) What is the 2 CPU limit for DB mirroring in standard? - It's not a hard coded 2 CPU limit. What it is actually is that we support only a single threaded redo on the mirror and safety must always be on in Standard. Explaining that to the large breadth of SQL customers seemed overkill so we tried to put some guidance using determinstic things like CPU limits. Did we do a good job?
2) Why is XML and XQuery broken out? - Well, we should have made it possibly Native XML storage and querying since some may ask what about XPath?
3) 64-bit Support? Which 64-bit? - Both Itanium and x64 are supported in Standard and Enterprise.
4) Your BI categorizations stink (and I'm putting this nicely). - Yes, we will fix these. I'd love any feedback on how folks would like to see this done better.
To be honest, Corey Thomas (my teammate) and I struggled on the matrix because you want something that is concise, yet informational but also descriptive enough to make people understand it and make decisions off of it but not too descriptive so that you have to go buy the print edition of it at your favorite bookstore. Sometimes I think the SKU matrix is an IQ test. I should start using it as an interview question such as: “Imagine you have 4 editions of your product and your product is a database server that scales from the very small to the very large. And, oh yeah, you have BI capabilities and replication and security and developer stuff and ..... Draw me what you think the SKU matrix should look like for this product for the millions of people who use it and will evaluate what edition to buy based on it.”
Anyway, your feedback is needed because guess what, the SKU matrix is for you (and your purchasing folks who will ask you what advanced measures and dimensions are and should we buy the Enterprise Edition for them :) ). So, let't make it the best we can.
Tom
Charlie Barker kept me honest by reminding me that I said I would blog more often. Plus, he gave me an idea for my blog. He asked about source control integration in SQL Server 2005.
Charlie, we've tried to make it seamless. Since we built Management Studio on the VS shell, you get source control functionality built into SSMS. Of course, you need a source control system such as Visual SourceSafe. But you can check-in and check-out your SPROCS, Integration Services packages, etc, etc. Much better than what we had in SQL Server 2000.
I wish I could figure out how to post a graphic on this thing since I would post a screenshot. I guess I have to host it and link to it :) I can write VB or C# code but can't figure out how to get an image on my blog. . . . go figure!
Hopefully everyone is enjoying the Feb. CTP. Lots of good changes here for you to sink your teeth into!
Tom
Yes, you're sick of them but I can't resist! The February CTP for SQL Server 2005 is here. I should know since I had to wake up at 5:30 this morning (yes, 5:30AM!) to field reactive press calls around our announcement! Download it from the MSDN subscriber alias or if you're an official beta customer, from BetaPlace.
Anyway, I'm installing it on my Virtual Windows Server 2003 box as I'm typing this (separate blog entry coming on the coolness of Virtual PC and Server!)
Couple of interesting things I found from just the setup aspect:
1) Default configuration settings for RS. Pretty cool. I don't have to click OK through 3 screens since I always use the defaults anwyay!
2) SAC - Surface Area Configuration. This is new. Previously known as the super-sexy Off By Default. The methodology and the tool will help to protect your SQL Servers when you first install them. You can then go in and turn on services as needed or configure components using the SAC tool.
RS SP2 is almost here as well. SharePoint Web Parts, client-side printing control. . . it just keeps getting better and better. Lots of customers I'm talking with these days have either migrated to or are taking a long, hard look at RS.
Finally, check out Report Builder in the CTP and say hello to self-service, end-user ad-hoc reporting.
Enjoy and keep the feedback coming!
Tom
Lots of folks have emailed about the announcement we made wondering about the future of developer edition (or SQL CE now known as mobile edition). Well, Developer Edition is alive and kicking. We just didn't talk about it since it's our Enterprise Edition but licensed for only test and development. Mobile Edition is also part of the lineup and you'll hear more about that edition in a few months.
Some other comments/suggestions I've heard:
1) If you haven't seen the SKU Feature Matrix, check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.asp. If you have any questions, let me know. We didn't list every nitty-gritty product feature but tried to include the high-level buckets. Some folks have made comments about including everything but we didn't want a 20 page SKU matrix for folks to understand the key differences between editions. Books Online will have the nitty gritty list.
2) Take a look at my spotlight at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/spotlight/expandsqlserver.asp It goes through some of the feedback we got from customers and partners about our product line. We don't just throw darts at a board and actually do talk to our customers/partners to figure out how to build our product line to meet the broadest requirements that you ask for.
3) Lots of folks asked about what was next for SQL Server 2005. We're still tracking towards our summer release. This will depend on getting customers deployed in production on the bits and the feedback we get from the community. While you're anxiously waiting for the release, you can expect to see a bunch more CTPs over the next few months to keep you going and excited about SQL Server 2005.
Any comments, questions, let me know.
Tom