Friday, March 31, 2006
TechNet Webcast Series for the ITPro - Part 4 of 11

And another one bites the dust! Wow - what a great group today... soooooo many questions! For those of you that weren't there - the lecture was 80 minutes and the additional Q&A went on for another 45 minutes. So - as a result, there were *a lot* of additional resources needed. Let me get started with all of those right away.

To prepare for moving to SQL Server 2005 there are a few EXCELLENT resources with which you should start:

Phase 1 - Prepare to Upgrade/Migrate

Phase 2 - Database-level Testing

  • Copy Database Wizard or
  • Backup/Restore or
  • Detach/Attach

Phase 3 - Server-level Testing

  • Consider upgrade in-place or
  • Make sure that you manually migrate all EXTERNAL objects, logins, jobs, error messages, etc.

Phase 4 - Testing/Updating after the upgrade/migration

  • Update statistics immediately
  • Test application code, database compatibility modes, session settings
  • Check for "broken code" in terms of system table changes
  • MOST of this should have already been done and assessed in Phase 1 but better to be safe!

And - finally - the other things we talked about and the rest of the links are here:

And - that's it for this week. See you next Friday when we chat about the new Management Tools and how to effectively use them!

Thanks for listening/watching and asking GREAT questions,
kt

Events | Resources | SQL Server 2005 | TechNet 11-part Series | Tips
Friday, March 31, 2006 5:58:15 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [2]  | 
Sunday, March 26, 2006
TechNet Webcast Series for the ITPro - Part 3 of 11

OK - so Bob Beachemin delivered Part 2 and I was back for Part 3. We had lots of folks on board with this session (more than 400) and as a result, I had a lot of questions. More than anything it seems like a lot of you wanted to know which versions of which came with what and could go with what (in terms of OS)... so, even getting started - and probably installing at home to play around ;). I was expecting tons of questions on the technical tidbits of installation options so you sure kept me on my toes!! Here are probably two very useful MSDN Links to SQL Server BOL Topics:

Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2005 - In fact, this has a GREAT matrix of all the different platforms and which versions can be installed where!

Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2005 - The BOL topic is very detailed.

And - in addition to those, there were quite a few more topics discussed during the webcast. The rest of the blog entry focuses on those questions! I hope this helps... enjoy!

Resource Links for all On-demand TechNet Sessions in our series for the ITPro

Part 1 - A Fast-Paced Feature Overview and Series Introduction
   On-demand link
   My blog entry for the session

Part 2 - Security
   On-demand link
   Bob's Blog Entry for the session

Part 3 - Understanding Installation Options and Initial Configuration (Level 200)
   On-demand link
   Blog entry link (well, you're already here ;)

Session 3 Resource Links as discussed during the session:

Submitting Product Feedback

  • Tips for Submitting Feedback on the Feedback Center (tips were related to Visual Studio but there are some great general tips about how to file useful feedback!): http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=138235&SiteID=1
  • Add the Help Toolbar and connect to Product Feedback from within the SQL Server 2005 Tools. In SQL Server Management Studio, select View, Toolbars, add Help. Once the Help toolbar is visable, select the Send Feeback button which should be in the "Ask a Question" section at the end of the toolbar.

If you're thinking about downloading - check out the newly bundled SP1 downloads:

SQL Server 2005 RTM Enterprise Eval Edition
SQL Server 2005 RTM Express Edition

SQL Server Express Edition with SP1 (SQLEXPR.EXE)
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with SP1

SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services (SQLEXPR_ADV.EXE)
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with SP1 + Advanced Services includes SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE), support for full-text catalogs, and support for viewing reports via report server.

SQL Server Express Edition Toolkit (SQLEXPR_TOOLKIT.EXE)
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Toolkit (SQL Server Express Toolkit) provides tools and resources to manage SQL Server Express and SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services. It also allows creating reports by using SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS).

SQL Server Management Studio Express (SQLServer2005_SSMSEE.msi)
SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) provides a graphical management tool for managing SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services instances. SSMSE can also manage relational engine instances created by any edition of SQL Server 2005. SSMSE cannot manage Analysis Services, Integration Services, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, Notification Services, Reporting Services, or SQL Server Agent.

And - that's it for this week. See you on Friday, March 31 when we'll chat more about Upgrade and Migration. Here's the link to register for this upcoming session: http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032290477&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

See you soon,
kt

Events | Resources | SQL Server 2005 | TechNet 11-part Series
Sunday, March 26, 2006 6:03:43 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Friday, March 10, 2006
TechNet Webcast Series for the ITPro - Part 1 of 11

Hey there everyone - Well there was lots of excitement around our first session...so much so that apparently a Live Meeting server went down and caused MANY of you to get booted-out or even blocked-from attending (figures, right!).... Ugh (talk about the irony here - a series on high availability that isn't available because a server crashes...hhmmm, I think I know where to go for my next potential customers ;) ;). Regardless, I'm glad that at least a couple hundred of you did get in. For the more than 1000 others that were registered but unable to get in - I truly want to apologize!

The good news is that we now have the on-demand link available and for all of you who registered, it should have been sent to you via email. Also, as promised, I've attached the resources and demo scripts we talked about today.

Partial Database Availability Demo Scripts: PartialDBAvail-DemoScripts.zip (4.19 KB)
Database Mirroring Demo Scripts: DatabaseMirroring-DemoScripts.zip (3.74 KB)
Replication Demo Scripts - Since this demo was completed through the UI, here are some useful references on Replication:

Other Resources:

SQLCMD Resources: My blog entry after Michiel Worries' Webcast (includes links to webcast, etc.)
TechNet Resource Center: SQL Server 2005 Mission Critical High Availability
Demo: Windows Server System Reference Architecture Design Considerations for SQL Server 2005 High Availability
Whitepaper: Choosing a Database for High Availability: An Analysis of SQL Server and Oracle

Also, to get you ready for SQL Server 2005 - check out the Upgrade/Migration Resource Center: Upgrading to SQL Server 2005

And... that should keep you busy between now and next week!

Have fun,
kt

Events | Resources | SQL Server 2005 | TechNet 11-part Series | Tips
Friday, March 10, 2006 1:01:57 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [10]  | 

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