SQL Server 2008 New Features Presentation brought to you by the SQL Server team at Remote DBA Experts.

1. New Features Presentation
The SQL Server Team
The SQL Server Team
RemoteDBA Experts

2. Agenda
• Introductions
• Top SQL 2008 new features
• How we can help
• Questions
• Wrap-up
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

3. Much More Than Just Great DBAs
• Focusing on world-class remote database support
for all major database products
• Over 60 customers and thousands of database
servers under our control
• Oracle Ace, Microsoft Certified DBA’s on staff
• Almost 70 years combined SQL DBA experience.
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

4. Top SQL 2008 New Features
• Management Studio Improvements
• Compression
• Resource Governor
• New Data Types
• Performance Data Collector
• Transparent Data Encryption
• SQL Server Audit
• Extended Events
• Change Data Capture
• Power Shell
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

5. Management Studio Improvements
• Activity Monitor
• Object Explorer Details
• Object Search
• Multi Server Queries
• Intellisense
• T-SQL Debugger
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

6. Activity Monitor
At a glance performance information
Automatically run a trace
• Graphs
• Processes
• Data File I/O
• Recent Expensive Queries
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

7. Activity Monitor - Graphs
• Percent Processor Time
• Waiting Tasks
• Database I/O
• Batch Requests per Second
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

8. Activity Monitor - Processes
• Provides metrics for key resources
• Identifies potential trouble spots
• Measures the time a worker thread has to wait gain
access to server resources
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

9. Activity Monitor – Resource Waits
• Provides metrics for key resources
• Identifies potential trouble spots
• Measures the time a worker thread has to wait gain
access to server resources
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

10. Activity Monitor – Data File I/O
• Quickly determine databases that have high disk
usage.
• Columns can be sorted and filtered
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

11. Activity Monitor – Recent Expensive Queries
• Displays the queries in cache that have consumed
the most resources.
• Right click to display execution plan
• Right click to display the entire query
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

12. Activity Monitor – Object Explorer Detail
• 36 possible columns of information about a database
• Views are automatically remembered
• CTRL-C copies the information to the clipboard in a
tab delimited format, past into Excel to create reports
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

13. Activity Monitor – Object Search
• Searches for all objects within the selected scope:
server, database, tables.
• Wild card characters can be used.
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

14. Activity Monitor – Multi-Server Queries
• Queries all registered servers within the server group.
• Returns results for each server.
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

15. Activity Monitor – Intellisense
• Highlights syntax errors.
– Keywords
– Object names
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

16. Activity Monitor – Intellisense
• Completes variables, commands, or object names
• Incremental as you type
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

17. Activity Monitor – Intellisense
• Displays parameters for procedures and functions.
• Can display a list of available objects for selection.
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

18. Activity Monitor – T-SQL Debugger
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

19. Activity Monitor – T-SQL Debugger
• Steps into and over T-SQL code.
• Developers will be more comfortable with features
that they have become accustomed to in .Net
• Displays the values of local variables and the call
stack.
• Start by hitting the F11 key.
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

20. Compression
• Data Compression
– This includes row and page level
compression and occurs within the .mdf
files.
• Backup Compression
– Occurs only when data is backed up
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

21. Data Compression
• Row Level = simplest method of
compression.
– Reduces the amount of metadata used to
store a row.
– Uses less CPU cycles to implement.
• Page Level = higher level of
compression
– Higher level of CPU usage
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

22. Data Compression - Implementation
• Implemented through SSMS
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

23. Data Compression - Implementation
• Wizard interface, estimates savings.
• Caution should be used when implementing in production
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

24. Resource Governor
• Implementation is
straightforward.
• Specific security account
(DAC) needs to be created.
• Implemented with T-SQL
• Improper configuration can
cause severe performance
issues.
• Takes effect when a
“Resource Contention”
occurs
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

25. New Data Types – Date and Time
• DATE - Stores date only in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• TIME -Stores time in hh:mm:ss.nnnnnnn format.
• DATETIME2 - More precision than existing DATETIME type.
• Format is YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss:nnnnnnnm
• DATETIMEOFFSET - Similar to DATETIME2, stores Time Zone
Information
New Data Types – FILESTREAM
• Stored in NTFS file system
• T-SQL Insert, Update, Deletes operations can be used on
datatypes.
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

26. New Data Types – Spatial
• Implemented as .Net CLR data type
• Conforms to Open Geospatial Consortium standards
• Indexes are spatial, stored as a grid based hierarchy
• GEOGRAPHY – Stores ellipsoidal data (Longitude and Latitude)
• GEOMETRY – Stores planar data (X, Y Coordinates)
New Data Types – HIERARCHYID
• Implemented as .Net CLR data type
• Represents node position in a hierarchical structure
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

27. Performance Data Collector
• Management Data Warehouse • Server Activities
acts as central repository • Performance Reports
• Data Collection Sets • Easy Wizard Configuration
• Disk Usage • Scheduled jobs run on regular
• Query Statistics basis
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

28. Performance Data Collector
• Different configurations
for each Data Collection
Set
• Built in reports for each
Data Collection Set
• Can be customized
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

29. Transparent Data Encryption
• Encrypted in both Memory and on Disk
• Key based, allowing for a finer level of
security
• Encrypts entire database
• Easy to administer
• Resource requirements are minimal
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

30. SQL Server Audit
• Granular, captures SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE,
REFERENCES and EXECUTE
• Uses Extended Events engine, increased speed
• Capture and view audit results
• Audits at the instance or database level
• Audits multiple activity types.
• Stores audit events to file
• Easy to implement using SSMS
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

31. SQL Server Audit
• Create a new audit with SSMS
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

32. SQL Server Audit
• Name the audit
• Choose items to be audited.
• Each audit appears in SSMS
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

33. Extended Events
• Generic event handling system
• Captures, stores and acts on troubleshooting SQL
Server, Windows, and applications.
• 254 events can be captured from SQL Server
• Correlates SQL, Windows, and Application events
• Supports SQL Auditing.
• Implemented with T-SQL
• Handled by the Event Engine
• Common format con be combined with different tools
• Less overhead than other tools
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

34. Change Data Capture
• Captures and records Insert,
Update, and Delete activity.
• Data is stored in a format that can
easily be consumed by an
application.
• Data can then be used to
synchronize an OLAP server.
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

35. PowerShell
• Part of Windows, SQL 2008 ships
with PowerShell snap-in
• Built on .Net framework 2.0
• Powerful scripting that replaces
Kix, Perl, VBScript
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

36. Questions?
For copies of the this presentation please email
Michael John mjohn@remotedbaexperts.com
Much More than Just Great DBA’s

37. References
• Brad McGehee ISBN: 978-1-906434-06-9
• Microsoft MSDN
• SQL Server Central
• http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/default.aspx
Much More than Just Great DBA’s