You might think this will would make for a really short article post but actually there’s a huge amount of free tools and resource out there and I have had to restrict myself to a top ten across the server and client, based on what Simon and I have used. So please feel free to… Read more
I am being asked more and more often about how to move virtual machines onto Hyper-V and so I wanted to do a definitive post on the tools and techniques to do this. Whatever your reasons for doing this you’ll want to ensure your users have a good experience post migration and the secret to… Read more
Proper Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance I mention this because the process of working out how to make changes to your data centre can and should take longer than doing the actual work. For example if you are going to dive into virtualisation or do more with it, upgrade or migrate your database… Read more
It always nice to see historic aircraft , and vintage cars out and about rather than stuck in museums, the noise and even the smell of castor oil add to this nostalgia. However keeping them going requires a lot of effort and keeping them current with modern rules means that a Fokker triplane will need… Read more
I see Oracle have published a couple of papers recently on how easy it is install, configure and manage Oracle 11g vs SQL Server and DB2. The work was commissioned from the Edison Group and the paper on the Oracle / SQL Server comparison is available here. When I read this I was reminded of… Read more
There are occasions where you need multiple versions of SQL Server running at the same time and you may not have sufficient hardware to run them on separate machines. The traditional approach to this is to run an instance of each version, in fact I have one demo rig which has an instance of SQL… Read more
I am sure SQL Server is administered by many ‘accidental’ DBAs i.e. IT Professionals who get saddled with looking after databases, while performing a bunch of other infrastructure management tasks. One of my good friends Jonathan Noble at Newcastle University is one of these and so I thought it would be good to give him… Read more
I have a love hate relationship with Access for the same reason, it’s seductive simplicity. You can knock up an application in no time, which my wife did recently to learn the tool and to keep track of our extensive book collection. That quick start and get going appeal, starts to pail as the application… Read more
I knew that there was a toolkit to help move an application from Oracle to SQL Server, but I hadn’t appreciated that there was one for Sybase and Access these also now come in two flavours, one to move you to SQL Server 2005, and one for SQL Server 2008: SQL Server 2005 Migration Assistant… Read more
Microsoft will be turning off mainstream support for SQL server 2000 for most editions of the product in April 2008: Products Released General Availability Date Mainstream Support Retired Extended Support Retired SQL Server 2000 64-bit Edition 30/11/2000 08/04/2008 09/04/2013 SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition 30/11/2000 08/04/2008 09/04/2013 SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 30/11/2000 08/04/2008 09/04/2013… Read more