Last week, Microsoft released Cumulative Update #8 for SQL Server 2005 SP3. The build # is 9.00.4285. You can read the blog post from the Release Services team here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2010/02/15/cumulative-update-8-for-sql-server-2005-service-pack-3.aspx...(read more)

It used to be very difficult to obtain hotfixes for SQL Server (sometimes even to learn about their existence), and they were often unsupported. They have made extremely great strides in this area, and in general, I find the new procedure much more convenient...(read more)

In our environment, we run the task scheduler as a cluster resource, so that scheduled tasks always run on the active node. (In ancient history, we would have scheduled tasks that weren't cluster aware - in the event of a failover, we'd have to manually...(read more)

Some new updates just posted by SQL Server Release Services: For SQL Server 2005 SP2, build 9.0.3355: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974647 For SQL Server 2005 SP3, build 9.00.4266: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974648 On first glance, it does not...(read more)

Sleeping at the wheel again, I missed some big updates for SQL Server 2005 this past Monday. Cumulative Update #5 for SP3 brings you up to 9.00.4230 (the previous update was 9.00.4226). http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972511 Cumulative Update #15 for...(read more)

OK, for years I've been saying that SQL Server doesn't care about the order in which you define the columns of your table because internally SQL Server will re-arrange your columns to store all of the fixed width columns first and the variable columns last. In both the fixed-width portion of the row as well as the variable-width portion ...

I've always been concerned with security and I've always stressed the importance of auditing the REAL user context not just the current user (see this post on EXECUTE AS and auditing). So, I generally try to avoid using dynamic string execution and if necessary create well tested/protected parameters (fyi - using QUOTENAME can be a ...

Microsoft quietly released another cumulative update for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 this week. So quietly, in fact, that it took me 5 days to catch onto it. You can read about the release here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2009/06/15/cumulative-update-4-for-sql-server-2005-service-pack-3.aspx...(read more)

OK, I'll definitely take a beating from all of you for having gone so long between my survey posts and now. I won't even go into the details but between some crazy work schedules, multiple sinus problems and even migraines... well, I've been a bit behind. Let's just say that April/May were rough at best. I'm feeling better ...

It seems this came out on April 20th, but I did not catch it at the time.  Better late than never, I guess.  As Sean Nolan pointed out in a previous post, CU#3 includes many of the fixes that were available in SP2 CU#13 and not in SP3 CU#2.  You can download the hotfix (which puts you to 9.0.4220) ...