Sql-Server

Cumulative Update 3 for SP1 for SQL Server 2012 caused a number of problems with SSIS packages. This also applies to database maintenance plans as they are also SSIS packages.

After applying the update, you could get this error when opening an SSIS package:

The type initializer for ‘Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.Design.SharedIcons’ threw an exception.
Value of ’null’ is not valid for ‘stream’. (System.Drawing)

If you edit a maintenance plan, you could get this error:

2013-04-06

In Melbourne, it was the coldest morning of the year so far but I didn’t mind getting up at 5:30AM to record an interview with Marco Russo. Marco is well-known in the SQL BI community for his writing and presentations.

SQL Down Under show 58 is now online: https://podcast.sqldownunder.com

In this show, Marco discusses concepts and experiences from working with tabular data models in SQL Server Analysis Services.

Enjoy!

2013-04-01

I was one of the speakers today at the 6 Weeks of Azure bootcamp event in Sydney today. During the day, as well as speaking, we have an “unconference”. There’s a lot of discussion on whatever the attendees want to discuss.

One of the offline questions I got today though was about how to hook up Azure Mobile Services to an existing Windows Azure SQL Database rather than using the one that Mobile Services can auto-create. While getting that to work, we learned a few things:

2013-03-23

Hi Folks,

I posted a day or so back about the whitepaper on plan caching and recompilation being published.

Today I had a query from a reader and found that the editor has messed up an example.

For example, I had this example of a query that’s almost identical but where the query plan would be different:

SELECT ProductID  
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail  
GROUP BY ProductID  
HAVING AVG(OrderQty) > 5  
ORDER BY ProductID;

SELECT productid  
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail  
GROUP BY ProductID  
HAVING AVG(OrderQty) > 5  
ORDER BY ProductId;

“Helpfully” the editor changed it to:

2013-03-19

Hi Folks,

Over the last year, I’ve been working on an update to the whitepaper Plan Caching in SQL Server 2008 as a background task.

A great group of reviewers have been involved at various stages during the process. Thank you to Paul White, Andrew Kelly, Kalen Delaney, and Rubén Garrigós from the SQL community, along with Leigh Stewart and Jack Li from the SQL Server product team for sharing your knowledge and ideas.

2013-03-16

Hi Folks,

I got to record another podcast today. Show 57 features guest SQL Server MVP Karen López. Karen is well-known in the SQL Community, on her blog and is prolific on Twitter.

In the show, Karen discusses her experiences related to data modelling, including tools, round-tripping, traceability, and model-driven development. She also covers some common mistakes she encounters in this area. Later in the show Karen discusses the challenges in database refactoring, her interest in all things to do with space, and her interest in the open data movement.

2013-03-12

This is really exciting. One of the complaints from those using the BI tools (SQL Server Data Tools) has been that they were tied to the Visual Studio 2010 shell, when the rest of their development work had moved to Visual Studio 2012.

The SQL Server BI team has now released the VS2012 versions of these project templates. You’ll find details the download here:

(NOTE: no longer available)

The Reporting Services team blog about it is here:

2013-03-07

Scott Guthrie blogged yesterday about a raft of new changes to the Azure platform.

Of interest to SQL folk are really three main changes:

* SQL Reporting has made its way into the new portal (ie: you no longer have to flip back to the old portal to work with it. Hopefully Data Sync will do the same soon).

* Better options now exist for downloading blobs from Azure Storage. (This could include, for example, SQL Server backups made using BACKUP TO URL).

2013-03-06

I recorded another podcast today with Thomas LaRock, aka SQL Rock Star.

In this show, Tom and I discussed the migration of many DBAs into architect roles, the challenges in constant learning (and useful resources for doing so), the hype around big data, the role of Windows Azure in our future, and upcoming PASS events.

It’s online now: https://podcast.sqldownunder.com

Enjoy!

2013-03-02

One aspect of SQL Server related development that I see done quite badly when visiting client sites is source code control. So many sites have almost nothing in place for this important aspect of development. By comparison, it’s rare now that I visit an application development organisation that doesn’t have at least reasonable source code control in place. Many DBAs seem to have grown up in environments where source code control systems weren’t in use.

2013-02-23