SQL-Articles

In SQL Server 2008 Microsoft has introduced new date time data types and functions to help developers. Till SQL 2005 if you need to declare a column as date or time alone you need to use DATETIME data type which inputs both date and time and developers needs to convert or cast function to bring date or time alone. As you know using convert in a large column will slightly affect performance. Considering all these factors MS added the following data types in SQL 2008. Lets discuss on this

Data Types

Time:

This data type will allow you to insert only time, even if the input value contains date it will take only time. Precision is applicable to this data type to get NANO seconds. Maximum and default precision value is 7. Sample is shown in the image below and the precision value is the table

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SQL Server 2008 Data Type, SQL Server 2008, T-SQL

Designing \ Editing DTS packages in SSMS is one of the question I’m seeing in forums, this situation occurs when an upgrade happens from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005. When SQL server 2005 was released it doesn’t have a facility for editing \ designing DTS packages after upgrade. Even If you run upgrade advisor in that machine before upgrade you will be shown with a warning message as shown below.

SQL Server 2000 Meta Data Services packages are not supported
Existing Meta Data Services packages should be moved to SQL Server storage (in the msdb database) or to structured storage files before you upgrade. SQL Server 2005 does not install support for SQL Server 2000 Meta Data Services; therefore the Package Migration Wizard will be unable to access Meta Data Services packages after upgrade in the absence of the SQL Server 2000 Client Tools.

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SQL Server 2005 Administration, DTS, SQL Server 2005

SAC (Surface Area Configuration) is a new tool introduced in SQL Server 2005 to enable, disable, start, or stop the features, services, and remote connectivity of your SQL Server 2005 installations. You can use SQL Server Surface Area Configuration on local and remote servers. The two main operations are performed by SAC are as below

Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.

Use Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections to enable or disable Windows services and remote connectivity

Surface Area Configuration for Features.

Use Surface Area Configuration for Features to enable and disable features of the Database Engine, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services.

In SQL Server 2008 this tool has been moved under SSMS itself, you won’t be able to lauch this tool as a seperate applicaton or from start menu. Lets see how to open SAC in SQL Server 2008.

• Launch SSMS and connect to the server. (It can be local or remote server)

• Right click on the servername and selec facet as shown below

• In the window click on the drop down menu “Facet” and select “Surface Area Configuration” to view SAC.

Here in SQL 2008, SAC provides only feature configuration operation. To perform SQL services related tasks you need to go to SQL server Configuration Manager (SCM) only!

SQL Server 2008 Administration, SQL Server 2008