Jumping To SQL Server 2005 - 3161

Microsoft released yet another cummulative patch for SP2 . After applying this patch you will be running on build 3161. Full details and downloads are available here.

SQL Server 2005 SP2 - Wrap-ups

Confused by the various post fixes and re-rereales of SP2? Bob Ward from Microsoft PSS SQL Support wrote an excellent blog post: "SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Re-release and post fixes explained". Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral compiled a nice list of all SQL 2005 build numbers and corresponding KB articles.

Next SQLUG evening: Replication with SQL Mobile

With the use of mobile devices becoming more and more mainstream, it is likely that we will see an increased need to integrate the data stored on these devices with other databases. Replicating data from and to mobile devices is probably one of the more technically challenging parts of mobile database development and management. On Thursday, April 19th Erik Bollen will be walking us through replication with SQL Server Mobile and point out some of the common pitfalls.

This event will take place in the offices of Info Shelf  in Asse-Zellik.

Driving directions can be found here.

Registration is open.

One more year of SQL Server 2000

Still running on SQL Server 2000? Time to move on!! Exactly over 365 days Microsoft will end the main stream support for SQL Server 2000. Extended (payed) support stops in 2013. Check out SQL Server 2000 Support Lifecycle.

SQL Server 2005 SP2 - To Continue, Click Next

There are quite a few issues with SQL Server SP2. Many people have blogged about it and MS is releasing post SP2 hotfixes every now and than ;-)

One of my colleagues encountered this funny dialog box while installing SP2.

Estimating backup/restore duration

How many times have you been watching the progress bar during a SQL Server Backup or restore operation? And how times have you answered "Wel, I guess ... " when people asked you "Hey mister DBA, how much more time will it take before the restore has completed?".

I have been doing quite some backup/restore operations during recent upgrading and migration projects. The sys.dm_exec_requests DMV contains one row for every running command on a SQL Server instance. Two interesting columns (estimated_completion_time, percent_complete) help you answering the "when" and "how much longer" questions.

The SELECT statement below will give you a time estimation for every running "BACKUP DATABASE" or "RESTORE DATABASE" statement. Play around with the WHERE clause to monitor other long running operations.

/* Created by free online sql formatter */


SELECT command, 'EstimatedEndTime' = Dateadd(ms,estimated_completion_time,Getdate()),
'EstimatedSecondsToEnd' = estimated_completion_time / 1000,
'EstimatedMinutesToEnd' = estimated_completion_time / 1000 / 60,
'BackupStartTime' = start_time,
'PercentComplete' = percent_complete
FROM sys.dm_exec_requests
WHERE command IN ('BACKUP DATABASE','RESTORE DATABASE')