SQL Denali CTP available for download

The first CTP of the successor of SQL Server 2008 R2, codename SQL 'Denali' is available for download. It contains a lot new stuff. Keep in mind SQL server isn't just a database, it is an entire information platform by making use of SharePoint server. The need for a SharePoint installation can be a challenge for the companies with do not have or a very small ICT department.

Here is a short list of new high level topics:

• Project codename “Crescent”, a web-based, data visualization and presentation solution, and follow-on to the PowerPivot technology that is part of SQL Server 2008 R2
• Project codename “Apollo”, new column-store database technology aiming to provide greater query performance
• SQL Server AlwaysOn, a new high-availability “solution that will deliver “increased application availability, lower TCO (total cost of ownership) and ease of use
• Project codename “Juneau”, a single development environment for developing database, business intelligence (BI) and web solutions
• SQL Server Data Quality Services (based on technology from Microsoft’s 2008 Zoomix acquisition)
• Other data integration and management tools

My personal favorites are:

• Project codename 'Crescent'. This will help the people in the board room to easily analyze and play with the data they are looking at.
• Project codename 'Apollo'. Performance is one of my specialties in SQL Server. For every new SQL version I look forward to the improvements on performance. This new column-store database technology will indeed improve the performance of your datawarehouse significantly.

Another important thing to mention: No big compatibility issues are expected as we have had in the past from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005. This will make it easy to upgrade to a the new version with you current SQL Server databases.
If you are interested to look around in the CTP version, you can download it here

Enjoy testing this new version.

Announcement of SQL Azure Reporting CTP

Microsoft has announced SQL Azure Reporting service. Microsoft SQL Azure Reporting lets you use the familiar on-premises tools you’re comfortable with to develop and deploy operational reports to the cloud. There’s no need to manage or maintain a separate reporting infrastructure, which leads to the added benefit of lower costs (and less complexity). Your customers can easily access the reports from the Windows SQL Azure portal, through a web browser, or directly from your applications. SQL Azure Reporting enables developers to enhance their applications by embedding cloud based reports on information stored in a SQL Azure database. By using the SQL Data Sync CTP, you can upload data from your on premise database to a SQL Azure database. This SQL Azure database can be used by SQL Azure Reporting CTP.
You create your reports in the same way as your are doing it for an on premise SQL Reporting Server. The only difference is that you deploy your reports to the SQL Azure Reporting services.

Take a look at next video about SQL Azure Reporting services.
If you are interested sign up here for the SQL Azure Reporting CTP.

More detailed information about SQL Azure Reporting see:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazure/reporting.aspx
Enjoy creating your dashboards in the cloud.

SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP November with some nice visualization features.

The feature complete build of SQL 2008 R2 is available for download. This November CTP build fixes the issue I blogged in the past: The report definition has an invalid target namespace 'http://schema.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/ 2009/01/reportdefinition' which cannot be upgraded.

Now it is possible to install SQL 2008 R2 Reporting Server on a machine which you uses to build and deployed SQL 2008 reports. Please read the details about how you can use an installation of SQL 2008 R2 on a machine with SQL 2008:

- RDL files: In the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of Business Intelligence Development Studio, you can work with both SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 versions of report definitions and Report Server projects.


If you open, update, and then save a SQL Server 2008 report definition, it is saved as SQL Server 2008 report definition unless you added features that are new SQL Server 2008 R2.

- SSRS projects: You can add and open SQL Server 2008 Report Server projects to solutions that you create using the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of Business Intelligence Development Studio.

However , if you save the SQL Server 2008 Report Server project it saved as SQL Server 2008 R2 Report Server project and you can no longer open it in the of Business Intelligence Development Studio

 
Enjoy using SQl 2008 R2 with next nice data visualization features:

Maps to visualize of for instance your customers. Read: How to enrich your account data with longitude, latitude and geography data.











Indicators

 
 
 













Sparklines

Data bars

The report definition has an invalid target namespace 'http://schema.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2009/01/reportdefinition' which cannot be upgraded.

This week I installed the CTP version of SQL Server 2008 R2 as a seperate instance on my laptop to test. This laptop is also used to build and deploy reports to SQL 2008 reporting servers. The installation can be done without any problem, however the tools can't be installed seperate. The SQL 2008 R2 tools make use of the same components as the tools of SQL Server 2008. After having installed these SQL 2008 R2 tools you are able to open, modify and save your SQL 2008 reports. However after saving these reports you can't deploy them anymore to a SQL 2008 reporting server. If you try to do this you will get next error:

 The report definition has an invalid target namespace 'http://schema.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2009/01/reportdefinition' which cannot be upgraded.

To be able to deploy reports to SQL 2008 on my laptop, I have unstalled the tools of SQL 2008 R2 and reinstalled the SQL 2008 tools. After that I restored a backup of my SQL 2008 reports.

Microsoft it would be nice if these tools do not have shared components with previous releases. This will make testing of these products much easier.  Now I need to install a seperate machine to test the CTP version of SQL 2008 R2. Or does anybody have another solution for this?