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)

Late last night, the SQL Server Release Services team announced new cumulative updates for both SQL Server 2008 RTM and SQL Server 2008 SP1. There are too many fixes to mention, but I once again notice the trend that the ''newer'' branch (SP1) has more...(read more)

Last week Microsoft snuck in some updates for the SQL Server 2005 product line. Cumulative Update #7 for Service Pack 3 brings you to build # 9.00.4273, while Cumulative Update #17 for Service Pack 2 brings you to 9.00.3356. The only fix for the latter...(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)

For those of you watching over the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed an out-of-band, mid-CU-cycle update to SQL Server 2008 SP1 . The fix to a cluster issue was available only for the SP1 branch; RTM users had to employ a kludgy workaround (see...(read more)

If you are using SQL Server 2005 or 2008 Analysis Services, and have been keeping up to date with hotfixes cumulative updates, you may have been adversely affected by a previous round (and your users might not have even noticed). Essentially you can get...(read more)

Cart before the horse Last week, a fix for SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU #4 was quietly slipped into the CU4 download page. CU4 was build 10.0.2734, but you could have easily grabbed 10.0.2740 from the same download page without realizing it. Out-of-band public...(read more)

Back on September 21/22, Microsoft released its most recent cumulative updates for SQL Server 2008. For RTM, this was Cumulative Update #7 (10.00.1818), and for SP1, this was Cumulative Update #4 (10.00.2734). However, if you have requested the SP1 CU...(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)