I got the news this morning that another of the free SQL Server 2008 R2 eClinics that we’ve been building for Microsoft Learning has been published.
The eClinic for StreamInsight has been rev’d to RTM and is now available.
Enjoy!
2010-07-13
Hi Folks,
We’ve been updating the free eClinics for SQL Server 2008 R2 for the released version of the product. Three of these clinics are now published:
Master Data Services
(no longer available)
Application and Multi-server Management (Data-tier applications, SQL Server Utility)
(no longer available)
Managed Self-Service BI (PowerPivot for Excel, Reporting Services in R2, Report Builder 3.0 and PowerPivot for SharePoint)
(no longer available)
Enjoy!
2010-07-03
While building some maps today in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services, I kept coming up with an error that said:
A generic error occurred in GDI+
I was struggling to think what I’d done wrong. After much nashing of teeth and removal of hair, I finally worked out what the error was. When I got to the “Choose Color Scheme and Visualization” page of the map wizard for building a color analytical map, I hadn’t picked the correct value for the “Field to Visualize” drop-down. I’m guessing that because it had defaulted to my GEOMETRY column, instead of the field that I actually wanted to use for analysis, it must get itself into some sort of stack overflow or nesting problem.
2010-06-11
Our buddy Buck Woody made an interesting post about a common question: “How do I back up a single table in SQL Server?”
That got me thinking about what a backup of a table really is. BCP is often used to get the data but you want the schema as well.
For reasonable-sized tables, the easiest way to do this now is to create a script using SQL Server Management Studio. To do this, you:
2010-06-07
A question came up on the SQL Down Under mailing list today about how to add an included column to an index using SMO. A quick search of the documentation didn’t seem to reveal any clues but a little investigation turned up what’s needed: the IndexedColumn class has an IsIncluded property.
Index i = new Index();
IndexedColumn ic = new IndexedColumn(i, “somecolumn”);
ic.IsIncluded = true;
2010-05-28
Great to see that our friend Ola Hallengren has updated his maintenance utility scripts to deal with SQL Server 2008 R2.
These scripts are highly regarded, particularly given the price: free !
You’ll find them here:
http://ola.hallengren.com/Versions.html
Ola noted that the main change from 2008 is that backup compression is now supported in Standard Edition of SQL Server. That in itself is good news.
2010-05-17
I’d briefly played around with user-defined aggregates in StreamInsight with CTP3 but when I started working with the new Count Windows, I found I had to have one working. I learned a few things along the way that I hope will help someone.
The first thing you have to do is define a class:
public class IntegerAverage: CepAggregate<int, int>
{
public override int GenerateOutput(IEnumerable<int> eventData)
{
if (eventData.Count() == 0)
{
return 0;
}
else
{
return eventData.Sum() / eventData.Count();
}
}
}
In this case, I’ve defined an IntegerAverage class that inherits from CepAggregate. CepAggregate is then declared as a generic type taking an int input parameter and providing an int output. The GenerateOutput method is overriden and called when it’s time to process the input. In this case, I’ve just checked if there are any values, returned zero if not and returned an integer average if there are values.
2010-05-08
One of the problems that existed in the CTP3 edition of StreamInsight was an error that occurred if you tried to access the grouping key from within your projection expression. That was a real issue as you always need access to the key. It’s a bit like using a GROUP BY in TSQL and then not including the columns you’re grouping by in the SELECT clause. You’d see the results but not be able to know which results are which. Look at the following code:
2010-05-08
For those that have worked with the earlier versions of the simulator that Bill Chesnut and I constructed for the Metro content (the Highway Simulator), changes are also required to how AdvanceTimeSettings are specified.
The AdapterAdvanceTimeSettings value is now generated by binding an AdvanceTimeGenerationSettings (that is based on your adapter configuration) with an AdvanceTimePolicy setting.
public class TollPointInputFactory :
ITypedInputAdapterFactory<TollPointInputConfig>,
ITypedDeclareAdvanceTimeProperties<TollPointInputConfig>
{
public InputAdapterBase Create<TollPointEvent>
(TollPointInputConfig configInfo,
EventShape eventShape)
{
return new TollPointInput<TollPointEvent>(configInfo);
}
public void Dispose()
{
}
public AdapterAdvanceTimeSettings DeclareAdvanceTimeProperties<TPayload>
(TollPointInputConfig configInfo,
EventShape eventShape)
{
var atgs = new AdvanceTimeGenerationSettings
(configInfo.CtiFrequency,
TimeSpan.FromSeconds(0),
true);
var ats = new AdapterAdvanceTimeSettings
(atgs,
AdvanceTimePolicy.Drop);
return ats;
}
}
In this case, I’ve specified the Drop policy. An alternate policy is Adjust. The documention suggested that Adjust causes the event to be moved back into the window that you’re using. For the events we were using, we found that wasn’t what happened. It turns out that that was because we were using Point events. What Adjust actually does is clip an event to lie wholly within the CTI period as long as the event overlaps the CTI. This would only then work with Interval or Edge events, not with Point events.
2010-05-08
Another interesting change in the RTM version of StreamInsight is the addition of a new window type. Count Windows aren’t time based but are based on counting a number of events. The window type provided in this release is called CountByStartTimeWindow. Based on that name, you’d have to presume we might get other types of count windows in the future.
This new window type takes two parameters. The first is the number of events. The second is an output policy, similar to the policies now required for the previous window types. The CountWindowOutputPolicy currently only offers one policy type as PointAlignToWindowEnd.
2010-05-08