I made available a small utility that allows you to script SQL Server data onto sql/txt files. It’s an old tool I used on several real world scenarios and it worked pretty well. It saved me a lot of time on many ocasions.

Although it isn’t finished, I thought of posting it so that you can save some time as well. Feel free to comment and don’t forget: use it at your own discretion.

Some of the features included are:

• SQL Server 2000 and 2005 support (2008 version’s new datatypes are yet to be added)
• Lists database tables, stored procedures and views
• Shows table schema info
• Dumps SQL Server table data onto configurable sql/txt files
• Set file size limit
• File per table option
• Maximum file size setting allows you to generate several, smaller, files
• View and Stored Procedure viewer and editor

From the PowerSQL homepage: “Keep in mind that this is a small utility I’ve made for my daily usage, and It’s still buggy, so use it at your discretion. I’ve used it successfully for several times in big production databases, but there’s allways room for error. Leave some feedback if you encounter urgent bugs, I’ll try to fix them. In the meantime I’ll try to get the time to make it a v1…”

Check out PowerSQL Homepage  to download, and don’t forget to leave some feedback.

Last night I loaded a massive ASP.NET 2.0 project I did some years ago in VB.NET. It used a SQL 2000 database for data storage, so I had to attach the mdf file to get it to work. So I opened SQL Server Management Studio, opened a connection to the server instance, and went for the Attach database option.

When I selected the file, the following error came up:

“Store.mdf is Compressed But Does not Reside in a Read-only Database or Filegroup. The File Must be Decompressed.”

So here’s a quick tip for anyone who faces a similar issue. It took a few seconds to understand the problem but then I remembered file compression options. Opened my mdf file properties dialog box, and in the advance tab the problem was revealed: the “compress content” checkbox was checked.

After unchecking and saving changes, SQL Server accepted the attach with no problem whatsoever.

Microsoft has provided us with a new release. This time is CTP2 of Microsoft StreamInsight, an event stream processor and optimizer, made available on the 18th:

“Microsoft® SQL Server® StreamInsight is a platform for the continuous and incremental processing of unending sequences of events (event streams) from multiple sources with near-zero latency. These requirements, shared by vertical markets such as manufacturing, oil and gas, utilities, financial services, health care, web analytics, and IT and data center monitoring, make traditional store and query techniques impractical for timely and relevant processing of data.
StreamInsight allows software developers to create innovative solutions in the domain of Complex Event Processing that satisfy these needs. It allows to monitor, mine, and develop insights from continuous unbounded data streams and correlate constantly changing events with rich payloads in near real time. Industry specific solution developers (ISVs) and developers of custom applications have the opportunity to innovate on and utilize proven, flexible, and familiar Microsoft technology and rely on existing development skills when using the StreamInsight platform.
Some of the key feature areas are:

• Derive meaningful and relevant information from data/events streams through complex patterns. These patterns can be defined using a declarative query paradigm based on well-defined streaming semantics with LINQ as query language.
• For the development of applications, adapters, and analytics, the user can rely on well-established and powerful development frameworks and tools such as .NET, LINQ, and Microsoft Visual Studio.
• The platform integrates with various data sources and sinks through input and output adapters. The framework to build domain-specific adapters utilizes a .NET API to make adoption of the platform easy. Independence between adapters and queries facilitates seamless integration of real-time and historical analysis.
• The platform architecture supports a variety of deployment options, from scenarios with a low-footprint embedded option to high-end server deployments.
• A rich set of manageability features such as a management interface, a diagnostic interface and a debugging tool are provided as part of the platform.

The Microsoft® SQL Server® StreamInsight CTP2 has two different methods to complete the installation process:

• Attended Installation – an interactive user interface will guide you through the set-up process and obtain all of the information and consent required to complete the installation. This includes the displaying, acknowledgement, and archiving of the applicable SQL Server license terms.
• Un-attend Installation – this is a DOS command line set-up process that does not have an interactive user interface to guide you through the set-up process. In this case, you will be required to enter a parameter during installation that indicates your acceptance of the license terms.”

Source: MSDN