TechNet Event: Las Vegas, NV - September 1, 2005 (Answers)

Thanks for your patience while I researched the answers to the questions that arose from the TechNet Event in Las Vegas.  Here you go.

1. Since there were no changes in the Data Types between SQL 2000 and SQL 2005, they will move over seemlessly and therefore are not evaluated with Upgrade Advisor.
2. No, there is no similarity between HTTP Endpoints and MUMPS or CSP.
3. To allow handling of expired passwords, the SQL_COPT_SS_OLDPWD attribute has been added to enable the client to provide both the old and the new password for the connection.  Passwords can be changed programmatically by setting the new password as usual and providing the old password through the old password property.  Passwords can also be changed through a driver dialog box if the connection call is made with one of the prompt options.  You can also build your own by calling the following system procedure from a web page passing in the appropriate credentials.
   sp_password [ [ @old = ] 'old_password' , ]
     { [ @new =] 'new_password' }
     [ , [ @loginname = ] 'login' ]
4. Unfortunately, no.
5. If Read_Committed_Snapshot is set to ON for the database, then the default behavior for connections will be Read Committed.
6. If the Witness can no longer communicate with the Principal, it will assume the Principal is down and switch the Mirror to be Principal (provided it can still also see the Mirror).
7. Partitioning both the table and its indexes using the same function often optimizes performance. When the indexes and the table use the same partitioning function and columns in the same order, the table and index are aligned. If an index is created on an already partitioned table, SQL Server automatically aligns the new index with the table's partitioning scheme unless the index is explicitly partitioned differently. When a table and its indexes are aligned, then SQL Server can move partitions in and out of partitioned tables more effectively, because all related data and indexes are divided with the same algorithm.