Round up for 2006

Happy New Year! I am sorry I have not blogged in awhile. It’s largely due to a house we are building in Auckland. Building a house is very similar to building a data warehouse, best left to the experts.

What a year 2006 it has been. I have to say Business Intelligence on SQL server has definitely seen some big changes this year. After the release of SQL Server 2005, big things had to happen to top the release and what a year it has been.

Service Pack 1 Was not long in coming after the November release of SQL, helped a lot of companies to get of over the ‘not until SP1’ issue. The release was not without controversy. The removal of the ‘Select All Parameter’ caused some developers concern. Microsoft removed it due to performance issues. At the same time MS released the feature pack with a series of great free add-ons. Such as a SAP .Net OLE DB driver and data mining viewer controls. Check out:

Rather Ripped (Select All in Service Pack 1)

Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005


The acquisition of Proclarity has shown Microsoft continued commitment to build its BI platform. Seeing the direction and integration of Proclarity, Balance Scorecard Manager, etc into Performance Point is very exciting and will start to give some of the Analytical BI vendors a run for their money. Check Out:

Performance-Point-Screenshots

Performance Point Home

Office 2007 was shown off at TechEd and is very exciting from a BI point of view. The new excel features are going to continue Excels front-end dominance. Although the new Excel front-end may take some getting use to for some users the new BI features are well worth the upgrade. Check out:
Business Intelligence in Excel 2007

Service pack 2 CTP is going to continue to enhance the BI features of SQL 2005. Report builder will now support Oracle as a data source. The ‘Select All’ parameter is now back in en-vogue. Of course there will be the standard bug fixes. So best get to testing and seeing the new fixes/enhancements. Check out:

A list of the bugs that are fixed in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Community Technology Preview (CTP)

How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2005

Microsoft have just release SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 CTP. Check out: How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2005

MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer

Microsoft has just released an update to the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) with the creation of Business Intelligence Developer credential. It looks like you only need to sit two exams to become a Business Intelligence Developer.

This qualification is a step up from the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialists in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence (MCTS: SQL Server 2005 BI).

The training material is available but the exams are not available until early 2007. It might be a good time to start looking into getting this certification.

Check out:
MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer
MCTS: SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence

Tips, Tricks, and Advice from the SQL Server Query Optimization Team

A colleague of mine has just introduced me to one of the best blogs I have seen in along while. The Tips, Tricks, and Advice is brought to you by the SQL Server Query Optimization Team.

Here are some of my favourite posts on the performance features of SQL 2005 Query Optimizer. Check out the following:

• Why should I create an index?
  
• I Smell a Parameter!
  
• Fun for the day - Automated Auto-Indexing!

SQL Server 2005 Skill Assessments

Microsoft has released a series of free skill tests that are well worth trying. There are tests covering most Microsoft products. There are two categories that I have given a go.

• Introduction to SQL Server 2005 (DBA, Developer, BI): SQL 2005
• Introduction to SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services: RS 2000

This Months Book Recommendation: Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit

After TechEd I realised that in my slide deck I did not recommend The Microsoft Data Warehouse ToolKit by Joy Mundy and Warren Thornthwaite as required reading before starting a BI project.

If you are new to BI or new to the SQL Server 2005 BI platform this book is a great starting point. This book covers an end to end BI solution on the SQL server 2005 platform. The book covers a Reference Architecture for implementing a Microsoft BI Solution.

The book also includes a case study using the Adventure works example database as the source for an end to end BI solution. All the sample code can be downloaded from www.msftdwtoolkit.com

My TechEd session Ready for download

My TechEd session on Delivering an End to End Business Intelligence is now up on Microsoft for download.

Check out: BIN213.ppt

Project REAL Reference Implementation

I have just come across a new download from project real. It’s a complete business intelligence reference implementation. I am currently downloading the 238.2 mb sample. It looks like it a good example of an end to end solution.

Check out: Reference Implementation

New Zealand TechEd Is Finally Here!

TechEd 06 has been a sold out event for a number of weeks now. It sold out in record time. For those you that are not aware, Microsoft NZ TechEd is the largest annual IT conference in New Zealand with over 2000 delegates attending.

This year I am presenting again. I am lucky enough to have one very comprehensive session on Business Intelligence.

BIN213 - Delivering an End to End Business Intelligence Solution on Monday 21st Aug 2:00:00 p.m. to 3:15:00 p.m.

My session is going to cover a detailed overview of implementing Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions. I am covering topics such as SQL Server 2005, SSIS, Analysis Services 2005, Reporting Services 2005, Office 2007 and ProClarity.

I am also looking at the business reasons behind BI projects. In the demonstrations I will show an integrated architecture for a Microsoft BI platform.

Ok it’s a lot to cover. So I will also be about on the HP stand this year to go through any questions or demos you would like to discuss in detail.

If you have registered for TechEd you need to login to CommNet and book your session schedule.

For complete schedule information see Nigel Parkers Blog

SQL Server Versions

I have lost count the number of times I go searching for the patch level or version number in SQL.

This was something I did all the time with SQL 2000. It all started when SP 2 came out. We started to get issues with dts packages that were developed on SP1 and then run SP2. The problem was the package format changed between versions. Hence the question what version I am really running?

Why have I brought this up you may ask? Because now that we have SP1 for SQL Server 2005 and the rollup hotfix. We now have three versions of SQL Server 2005 that are in support by Microsoft.

How Do I get the Version of SQL Server?
The easiest and most reliable is the T-SQL Statement below:

SELECT @@Version

There are of course lots of other methods but I prefer T-SQL. This works for SQL 7 and above. The statement returns the SQL Server edition, version, OS and OS Patch number, and the most important the SQL Build Number for Sqlservr.exe.

The build number will tell you the patch level of your SQL Server.

Build Numbers for SQL Server 2005

• 2005.90.1399 - RTM first commercial release of SQL Server 2005


• 2005.90.2047 - Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2005 see: How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2005
  
• 2005.9.0.2153 - Rollup hotfix for SQL Server 2005 see: Cumulative hotfix package (build 2153) for SQL Server 2005

Other Build versions
There are heaps of sources for this information. Listed below are some helpful links for earlier versions of SQL Server and software update naming conventions.

How to identify your SQL Server version and edition

New naming schema for Microsoft SQL Server software update packages