SQL Server 2008

(Don Conrad, a.k.a. “Don SQL”, is Fpweb.net’s resident database wizard and expert in all things Microsoft SQL related. In this post he examines the next version of SQL Server. Missed an installment of The Next Byte? Check out Don’s complete Microsoft SharePoint and SQL Server series.) 

The Next Byte – Special Edition

Microsoft is busy promoting its next version of SQL Server, the database that powers the SharePoint platform. The RTM (“Release to Manufacturing”) edition of SQL Server 2012 is already available for download, and Microsoft will publicly unveil this new database technology before the end of March. As a result, SQL Server database administrators – and DBAs-in-training – are occupied studying up on the differences between SQL Server 2008 and this new version. For this “Special Edition” post, I’ve taken a break in my on-going talks about SQL Server to cover the highlights of new features in SQL Server 2012.

Perhaps the most pressing questions for SQL Server DBAs are:

1) What are the major enhancements?
2) What editions are available?
3) Did the pricing change?

Many of the feature updates in this version are truly significant and really enhance the usefulness of SQL Server. They are less about storing more, faster. Instead, they are more about how can I use my data quicker and better. They also directly address the massive increase in information that has been ongoing for 10+ years and is now threatening to be unmanageably large. How can we store, and access in a meaningful manner, the incredible quantities of data we already have stored and continue storing the increasing magnitude of data that we will have accumulated in the next few years?

…THE NEXT BYTE

The Next Byte is our series of posts about the relationship between SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft SharePoint, written by database administrator Don Conrad. Missed the last post? Please read “Microsoft SQL Server: The Database Behind SharePoint”.

Up for discussion:

• A high-level description of SQL Server
• What are the major components of SQL Server?
• What are the core functions of SQL Server?
• What do I have after installing SQL Server?

SQL Server is a database server product. It’s arguably one of the three most popular ones on the market (the other two being ORACLE, manufactured by the ORACLE corporation, and DB2 by IBM). All three provide very similar functions albeit on three different hardware platforms. SQL Server runs on Microsoft Windows servers, ORACLE primarily on Unix/Linux platforms and DB2 generally on IBM mainframes.

While all three perform mostly similar activities, Bill G. and I can probably agree that SQL Server is the premier product. After all, administering SQL Server has helped me pay most of my bills these past years!

… THE NEXT BYTE

A high-level overview of what databases are, and how SQL Server fits the mold.

What is a database?
Why do we need one?
How does SQL Server fit the mold?

In my last blog, I outlined the series of discussions I want to have about SharePoint and SQL Server. I said I would start at the beginning, which is ‘what is a database?’ (To complicate life,”Database” often refers both to the management program and to the data itself. Hopefully my usage will indicate which we’re referring to.)

The best generic definition of a database I’ve found is in Wikipedia. I’ll copy it here as it is succinct and spares me the trouble of trying to say in many of my own words what is already stated in fewer words:

(Meet Don Conrad, affectionately known as Don SQL in the office. This introduction into the SQL arena paves the way for further SQL content from Don.)

Hello, I’m Don Conrad. I’m the Database/Systems Architect for Fpweb.net, a dedicated SharePoint hosting company. Hosting SharePoint sites for customers around the globe is our only business. As a leader in our industry, we host thousands of sites– everything from small Foundation environments to some SharePoint Server Enterprise multi-server farms that demand literally terabytes of disk space.

Hosting for SharePoint, a Microsoft product, also requires SQL Server, another Microsoft product. The underlying architecture for SharePoint fundamentally relies upon- and resides within- SQL Server databases. Curious, that.

I take care of those database servers and have about 20 years of experience doing so. My main job is to help plan, configure, install and administer SQL Server database servers and databases for our various SharePoint hosting customers.

OData capabilities are appearing all over the place in recent Microsoft products like SharePoint Server 2010, Excel 2010 (using SQL PowerPivot), Windows Azure Storage, SQL Server 2008 R2 and others.

According to Microsoft, OData “… applies web technologies such as HTTP, Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub) and JSON to provide access to information from a variety of applications, services, and stores.”.

Recently I was working with OData for a Fpweb.net SharePoint Server 2010 hosting client, and encountered the following error:

"Could not load type
'System.Data.Services.Providers.IDataServiceUpdateProvider'
from assembly 'System.Data.Services, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'."

SQL PowerPivot adds some impressive SharePoint 2010 business intelligence capabilities for large multi-sourced datasets.  When you build these BI applications within Microsoft Excel 2010, you can now publish them to SharePoint 2010 for collaboration and visibility throughout your organization.

PowerPivot workbooks are Microsoft Excel files that contain large, related datasets that you build in a separate PowerPivot window in Excel, and use with PivotTables and PivotCharts in a worksheet. The “window” is provided through the PowerPivot for Excel add-in that you can download from the Web.

Hello everyone… It’s been a while, but I’m finally back with more words of CRM wisdom:

Here at Fpweb.net, we’re hard at work gearing up for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5.0 TAP program, and the most common question asked of the CRM Samurai (or Sammy to my friends):

“…will CRM 5.0 integrate more fluidly into SQL 2008?”

I figure you are all like me – and actually want your SQL 08 reporting services to work with the new SharePoint 2010 Access Services features.  I know how crazy that sounds, but that’s the kind of guy I am; I’m a dreamer!  In all seriousness though, I do have more than just sarcastic remarks for you in this post!

Issue:  Trying to run reports from SharePoint 2010 Access Services databases returns error statements.

Solution:  Use the SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP with Reporting Services in SharePoint Integration mode, then install the SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP Reporting Services add-in and follow the steps below.

As many of you know, I’ve been working on building some hosted SharePoint 2010. I’m also trying to determine exactly what each service account needs rights/permissions to. I’ll have more on the specifics of the service accounts in an upcoming post, but the main service accounts I currently have are:

1. Install account
2. Farm account

The Install service account is what I use to run the SharePoint 2010 installation and configuration wizard.

The Farm service account is the account I use for app pools and database connectivity.

When you setup the configuration wizard this way, your configuration database is created by the farm account you specify, while the admin database is created with the install account. This doesn’t cause problems… until you try to connect a second SharePoint Server to the farm.

This is the fourth post in the series Surfacing Company Data through Sharepoint 2007 and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. In the previous post titled Part 3 – Configuring SSRS on the SharePoint Web Servers, we walked through the installation and configuration of the Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint technologies. In this article we will get into the fun parts of the solution – building SQL Server reports and viewing them in SharePoint 2007.