Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Goodies

In case you did not realise I am on Holiday, well from work anyway. It’s been great I have spent a whole five days away from my laptop.

Today I have managed to catch up on a few things, checked out what’s new for SQL 2005. I came across a couple of things that are worth a look.

• Get Ready for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  
  Microsoft has put out a series of free training courses that can be downloaded and done in your own time. The great thing about the nine courses is they are free until November 2006. Plenty of time to get your head round Administration, Programming and Business Intelligence features checkout:
  
  Get Ready for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  
  
• Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - November 2005
  
  This is a major release of add ons for SQL server 2005 from Microsoft. It includes handy free database drivers for SAP (preview) and IBM DB2. The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DTS Designer Components for SSIS, and Datamining Viewer Controls are also included, the list goes on. Checkout:
  
  Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  
  
• SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Add ons
  
  This is an excellent start on a for SSIS metadata reporting framework. There are two downloads containing SSRS reports and report model that reports against the SSIS log table. There is a dependency analyser for SSAS and SSIS. Checkout:
  
  SQL Server Integration Services Log provider reports using SQL Server Reporting Services
  
  SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Metadata Samples Toolkit