💠🛠️SQL Server: Administration (End of Life for 2008 and 2008 R2 Versions)

SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 versions are heading with steep steps toward the end of support - July 9, 2019. Besides an upgrade to upper versions, it seems there is also the opportunity to migrate to an Azure SQL Server Managed Instance, which allows a near 100% compatibility with an on-premises SQL Server installation, or to a Azure VM (see Franck Mercier’s post).

If you aren’t sure which versions of SQL Server you have in your organization here’s a script that can be run on all SQL Server 2005+ installations via SQL Server Management Studio:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('ComputerNamePhysicalNetBIOS') ComputerName
 , SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') Edition
 , SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') ProductVersion
 , CASE Cast(SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') as nvarchar(20))
     WHEN '9.00.5000.00' THEN 'SQL Server 2005'
     WHEN '10.0.6000.29' THEN 'SQL Server 2008' 
     WHEN '10.50.6000.34' THEN 'SQL Server 2008 R2' 
     WHEN '11.0.7001.0' THEN 'SQL Server 2012' 
     WHEN '12.0.6024.0' THEN 'SQL Server 2014' 
     WHEN '13.0.5026.0' THEN 'SQL Server 2016'
     WHEN '14.0.2002.14' THEN 'SQL Server 2017'
     ELSE 'unknown'
   END Product 

Resources:
[1] Microsoft (2018) How to determine the version, edition, and update level of SQL Server and its components [Online] Available from: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/321185/how-to-determine-the-version-edition-and-update-level-of-sql-server-an
[2] Microsoft Blogs (2018) SQL Server 2008 end of support, by Franck Mercier [Online] Available from: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/franmer/2018/11/01/sql-server-2008-end-of-support-2/

💠🛠️ SQL Server: Learning Resources

During the past weeks I found several interesting learning resources on SQL Server 2008 topics, so here they are:

For those interest to upgrade their knowledge to SQL Server 2008 R2 Edition check the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Course videos on Channel9. They cover topics like Location Awareness, CLR Integration, StreamInsight, Reporting Services, Application and Multi-Server Management, improvements on BLOB, T-SQL and tools for Excel 2010 or SharePoint 2010.

The ER diagrams of SQL Server’s DMVs or DMFs are available for download as PDF at SQL Server 2008 Systems Views Map, and the same for SQL Server 2005, respectively SQL Server 2008 R2. Even if not all objects and possible relations are shown, they could still save you from lot of effort as the diagram depicts the relations between the most important entities and the cardinality existing between them, plus the additional constraints participating in the joins. The entities represented: Objects, Types and Indexes, Linked Servers, CLR, Database Mirroring, Service Broker, Resource Governor, Transactions, Databases and Storage, Traces and Events, Execution Environment, Server information.

There are several free SQL Server books on SQLServerCentral.com coming from Redgate: A. Kuznetsov’s Defensive Database Programming, B. McGehee’s SQL Server Maintenance Plans, How to become an Exceptional DBA, Mastering SQL Server Profiler and Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008, J. Magnabosco’s Protecting SQL Server Data, G. Fritchey’s SQL Server Execution Plans and SQL Server Crib Sheet Compendium (coauthor with A. Prasanna), R. Landrum’s SQL Server Tacklebox, plus several volumes of ‘Best of SQL Server Central’ authors in Vol. 1-4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6 and Vol. 7, and several other books to come.

It seems there are a few new books also on Scribd website: R. Colledge’s SQL Server Administration in Action, R. Vieira’s Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Programming, M. Lee and M. Mansfield’s SQL Server 2008 Administration Instant Reference, plus many other books that can be retrieved by searching SQL Server 2008 on the respective site.


There are several papers coming from Microsoft and several professionals. It worth to check them:
-   K. Lassen’s paper on Using Management Data Warehouse for Performance Monitoring, in which he provides several best practices for performance management of SQL Server 2008. Except the introduction in Management Data Warehouse features, he provides also an extension of the built-in functionality for indexes, plus several functions and queries.
-  D. Kiely's paper on SQL Server 2008 R2 Security Overview for Database Administrators covers some of the most important security features in SQL Server 2008. There is a similar paper targeting SQL Server 2005.
-  B. Beauchemin’s paper on SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices - Operational and Administrative Tasks describes the best practices for setting up and maintaining security in SQL Server 2005.
-  SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide a paper written to help organizations and individuals understand how to use the features of the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 database software to address their compliance need.
-  SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide essential phases, steps and best practices to upgrade existing instances of SQL Server 2000 and 2005 to SQL Server 2008.
-  Technet Wiki Checklists on Database Engine Security, Database Engine Security, Database Engine Connections and  Data Access. (probably more to come)
-   Also Microsoft maintains a list of White Papers on SQL Server 2008, respectively SQL Server 2005.