Dinesh's Blog ::::::: Being Compiled :::::::: Blog

SQL Server 2008 Installation failed - error: SQL Express tools

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:46:50 GMT

I experienced an issue with SQL Server 2008 installation. The installation was not successful and the reason prompted was "SQL Express tools". And I have not installed any express tool :).

I searched the Internet and found out that the reason is "SQL Prompt" tool. Once uninstalled, the 2008 installation was successful.

Read this discussion for more info: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3457603&SiteID=17

18th SQL Server User Group Meeting took place

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:12:22 GMT

This time Gogula did a session regarding Views, not just about views but options, things we did not know, etc.. Next one was from Preethi. He did a presentation about trouble-shooting SQL Server that contained excellent information about trouble-shooting, performance info gathering and some real-world samples. Both did a very nice job.

The presentations and samples will be available soon at the http://sqlserveruniverse.com. Here are some of photos;

New article on TDE

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:37:15 GMT

My first article on SQL Server 2008 has been published at http://sql-server-performance.com. I wrote this article based on the tests I did regarding Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) that is newly introduced with SQL Server 2008. This articles covers;

What is Transparent Data Encryption?
Implementation of TDE.
Is my database secure now, as it says?
What needs to be considered before enabling TDE?
What is the impact when TDE is enabled?

You can read my article at http://sql-server-performance.com/articles/dba/Transparent_Data_Encryption_p1.aspx. Please let me know you thoughts on this, you can either add a comment to the article or send me an email to dinesh@sqlserveruniverse.com. I will writing two more articles on SQL Server 2008, will be publishing at http://sqlserveruniverse.com and http://sql-server-performance.com.

Analysis Services Browser Views Add-In

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:45:05 GMT

Yossi Elkayam has done a nice add-in to the BIDS that allows you to save views created for SSAS and run them as new requests. Seems this is very useful if you are currently working on a SSAS project.

Read more and download from here.

What kept me silent?

Fri, 30 May 2008 15:51:07 GMT

I am back. I did not write anything on my blog for last two months, I am not sure what kept me away from my favorite area, my blog. One reason would be, I guess, I was influenced by many things. Few things I want to make a note on;

My Personal life
Many things came and went, happiness, sadness, love, affection, success, failure... Most shattered my life with both green and red lines. I got sick again and had to hospitalized for couple of days. I was suffering from lot of sickness, some were known to me, and some were newly diagnosed. Many thanks go for Dr. Chandima de mel, my family, my friends and, Nawaloka hospital staff. Special thanks go to a person, who stayed with me in every possible minute, until I got recovered. I experienced a lot, with all of that, hereafter I will be singing a different tune.

My Msc :)
I have completed all my exams, assignments and, I am in last stage of the Msc, which is the project. I started doing the project, started with project proposal, project charter and finally poster session that gave me both good and bad comments :). I will be completing my Msc by end of August, hope I can get through without any complications.

My Database life
I started exploring SQL Server 2008 few months ago, gradually absorbing it. I recently did a session at SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group meeting on SQL Server 2008 - new features. Still I had no chance to use it with any commercial applications, hope will have a chance soon.

Our http://sqlserveruiniverse.com web site
It is growing and growing, spreading the word of SQL Server. Must thank Gogula for his dedication to the site, he has done a great job in my absence (even in my presence).


Doing my presentation.	Dinesh Asanka, Gogula and me, getting ready for the community launch.

That's about few things happened in last two months. I will be writing technical related things again in my blog, so, stay tune.

Presentation of first part of "Know before doing it" is published

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:58:14 GMT

We started a new series of sessions, called "Know before doing it" for SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group Meeting and the first part of it was presented at the last meeting. I did a the first part of it, demonstrating some of the internal process of SQL Server and feedback from the audience for the session of really good.

Use this link to get all the presentation we did at last meeting, including Preethi's great presentation about Performance of Stored Procedures.

SQL Server 2008 - The hierarchyid data type

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:47:21 GMT

Gogula has written, good, properly explained article on SQL Server 2008, one of the newest data types, hierarchyid and has been published at http://sqlserveruniverse.com . It is a very useful article, worth to read it.

Click here to read the article.

Nuggets from my SSIS experience

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:42:26 GMT

I have been doing lot of development on SSIS for last two, three months and I made this note on what I faced during the project. It may useful for your future SSIS development, or brush up your SSIS knowledge. Read and see.

Click here to read the article.

Anyway, original name for the article was not this :), thanks for Gogula, naming it with nice title.

Data Comparison with Data Dude

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:59:48 GMT

My latest article, Data Comparison with Data Dude has been published at www.sql-server-performance.com. This talks about the way of comparing the data between two data sources and scripting the changes.

Read and see, click here to visit the site.

Faced another issue with SSIS

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:22:09 GMT

Had to spend few minutes on this, to resolve the issue but found no solution. The problem was really weird. It was with variable window;

Look at the variable window. All buttons are disabled, disallowing creating or modifying variables created. I made a search to see whether anyone has experienced this before but could not find anything related to this. However, closing and reopening the packed resolved the problem :).

Give something good on SQL 2008 and win great prizes

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:24:14 GMT

Here is a chance to show your colors and win very valuable prizes. All you have to do is, write some, creative, good code on SQL Server 2008 that will help to the community and send to CodePlex.

For more details, click on here.

Taking advantages of Instant File Initialization

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:20:13 GMT

Have you ever tried this and seen the speed of file allocation process? Though I had heard about it, I had not tried (I might have but I cannot remember :)). The default file allocation of SQL Server is zero initialization that takes long time when you try to create a database with a large sized data file or when you try to restore a fairly large database that is not exist. These two processes (not only these two, other processes like adding a new file...) can be speeded up by enabling Instant Initialization. You can enable the Instant Initialization by giving proper permission to the server that runs the SQL Server instance. Let me show you the simple test I did;

My SQL Server service runs with a account called SQLServerAccount that has just few user rights. It is not in the administrators group. I ran the code below and it took 13 seconds to create the "Test" database.

CREATE DATABASE [Test] ON PRIMARY
( NAME = N'Test', FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\Test.mdf' , SIZE = 200 , FILEGROWTH = 1000 )
LOG ON
( NAME = N'Test_log', FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\Test_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)
GO

I dropped the database and added the SQLServerAccount user account to "Perform volume maintenance tasks" policy. it is located under Administrative tasks -> Local security settings -> User right assignment. After restarting the SQL Server service, I ran the script again. Now SQL Server avoids zero initialization. It took only 1 second to create the database. This is a just a database with 200MB, so, think about a database with 10GB, or think about a restore process of 10GB database. Hope you can see the advantage.

This is not enabled by default because of security reason. Enabling this allows SQL Server administrator to see the recently deleted files that are not supposed to be seen by the SQL Server administrator.

This feature only available with SQL Server 2005 and it needs to be run with Windows 2003, XP or later. If the service account is already the local administrator, you already have the advantage. Note that this is not applicable to the log file.

11th SS SLUG meeting - Scheduled to 21st

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:57:12 GMT

Since the 20th is a Poyaday that is a mercantile holiday in Sri Lanka, we decided to have SS SLUG meeting on 21st, Thursday. Fiqri, ASP.NET MVP is going to join with us this time, showing his knowledge on SQL Server mobile edition. I am sure that Fiqri is going to deliver very valuable info for us because we have not discussed this topic before.

Gogula will be doing a session too; "Inmon vs. Kimbal - The great debate". This is a very interesting topic, and I am sure that people involve with BI know about this debate. Let's see what he is going to deliver us.

And I will be doing a session too; I will be showing another greatest redgate tool, SQL Multi Script.

Hope we have added enough things to the meeting. As usual, we have arranged few things for give-away items, including T-shirts, USB drives, Mugs, Pens. Come and join with us. Listen and grab both knowledge and prizes.

For more info, visit SQL Server Universe .Com

Another article at sql-server-performance

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:13:22 GMT

Another note of mine talks about "Schema Comparison with Data Dude" has been published at www.sql-server-performance.com. This shows the way of doing the schema comparison and how Data Dude addresses the changes.

Read it from here and let me know whether it is good enough for readers.

60th National Independence day celebration

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:39:32 GMT

We, Sri Lankans celebrated 60th National Independence day today. It held on a grand scale at Gall Face, Colombo and all the media channels showed the program live. I am proud of being Sri Lankan because of the greatest history we have and wonders our ancestors had done.

Though we celebrate our independence like this, the LTTE terrorists are slowly sweeping it away from us. They keep on killing innocents and destroying the country. They targeted some innocents people today too, at Colombo Railway Station, killing 12 including two school children. When we can see the peace? When we can live happily? Will they let our children live happily in this country?

Two new articles published

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:04:19 GMT

Two of my articles have been published; one at http://sql-server-performance.com and http://sqlserveruniverse.com.

Test Data Generation with Data Dude
This article explains the usage of Data Dude for test data generation. It is published at http://sqlserveruniverse.com.

SSIS: Usage of Checkpoint File
I wrote this few months back and it was in the queue. I made this note based on the experience I had when checkpoint files are used with SSIS.

Read both and see whether they are useful.

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (January 2008)

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:47:13 GMT

The latest version is available with new stuff; with new rules, enhanced facilities for documentation, more support for SSAS. I did not test anything yet but you ca start testing, using it.

Download the BPA from here.

MVP title renewed

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:06:20 GMT

My MVP title has been renewed, for the third year. I believe that I have done a fair community service last two years and thanks for Microsoft for evaluating and awarding me the title again.

Two new MVPs have been introduced but I expected the count as three. Hope that third one is being reviewed by Microsoft. Two new MVPs are, Gogula Aryalingam and Joy Pradeep. Congratulation guys!

Another new year starts

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 04:04:32 GMT

Another year started with full of hopes and plans. I just went through the checklist of plans I had for year 2007 and found, wow, I have achieved almost all plans.

Now it is time to list out plans for the new year, 2008. I am thinking of launching a new thing; it has already been started and is being accelerated, which is one of my major plans. Hope future has stored good things for me.

Again, just like the last year, my wish is peace for the country. Still the war is going on and on, at least, let's hope that war will be ended by this year. Wish you all my friends to very happy new year and May all hearts fill with love, peace and happiness!

9th Consecutive SS SLUG meeting - with Christmas Eve

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:47:27 GMT

SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group meeting is happening today (19th) and yes, it is the last meeting for this year. Gogula will be doing a session regarding SQL Server 2005 Service Broker that we really wanted cover with previous meetings and Dinesh Asanka will be doing a session about one of the red-gate products; SQL Data Compare.

We decided to give out lots of prizes this time, including mugs, t-shirts, USB pen drives, so pay attention and grab them all. All these give-away items are sponsored by red-gate, Microsoft Sri Lanka, Virtusa-eCollege and SQL Server Universe.Com.

New Article at SQL Server Universe

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:27:13 GMT

I published a new article regarding log shipping with SQL Server 2005. I have added details as much as possible and the way of implementation.

Read and see whether it is worthwhile.

Data Dude Presentation

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:22:32 GMT

I have uploaded the presentation I did at SS SLUG meeting. You can download the presentation from here.


Doing my presentation - part of the audience	Prize grabbers

The one Dinesh Asanka did will be uploading by Monday. See some pictures of the meeting here.

Windows Live Messenger and Live Writer 2008

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:02:47 GMT

The latest versions of Live Messenger and Writer have been released. Both releases have cool features such as facility to add video into blog posts and Offline editing on Live Writer, and new emoticons with new look on Messenger.

Download the LiveInstaller from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7A1AAE73-48CC-4F7A-B445-0487BD5E84EF&displaylang=en

SS SLUG meeting - Nov '07

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:44:20 GMT

We will be doing the SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group November meeting tomorrow (21st) at Microsoft Sri Lanka.

Dinesh Asanka will be doing a session related to Integration Services; discussing the ways of loading poorly formatted / corrupted data into SQL Server. I will be doing the next session, exploring the Data Dude, Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professional. I will be showing the features of it and how useful them to both Database administrators and Database developers.

Black box in data type property

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:55:54 GMT

I found this with one of my Script Component. See the image;

If I click on it, the entire window goes off. Im trying to find a solution for this because this has blocked editing the type of the output. If anyone has seen this before and has found a solution, please let me know.

Data Mining presentation at SS SLUG meeting

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:46:23 GMT

The 7th SQL Server User Group meeting was held at Microsoft Sri Lanka, on last Wednesday. Gogula started the first session, delivered valuable info about new policy management in SQL Server 2008. Next was our special segment, demonstrating one of red-gate products. Dinesh Asanka did the session, exploring the value of SQLCompare. I did the last one, I talked about Data Mining with SQL Server 2005. It was an introductory session for Data Mining, talked about data mining algorithms and algorithms introduced by Microsoft for SQL Server.

We gave out few great prizes, including SQLCompare licensed copy that is worth more than US$ 500, 1GB USB pen drives, mugs and t-shirts. Prizes were sponsored by red-gate and Microsoft Sri Lanka.

Presentations related to these sessions will be published at www.sqlserveruniverse.com by end of week.

Lesson from a cartoon: SQL Injection

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:38:11 GMT

One of my friends had sent me this link, nice cartoon about SQL injection :)

http://xkcd.com/327/

Another article at sql-server-performance.com

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:12:08 GMT

The second note of Index Related DMVs and DMFs series has been published at www.sql-server-performance.com. This article shows the usage of sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats dynamic management view. Read the article and see.

Two new articles at sqlserveruniverse.com

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:13:40 GMT

We have added two new articles at www.sqlserveruniverse.com, one is written by Gogula and other from me. Here are the links;

Populating Dimension Tables with the SCD Task by Gogula G. Aryalingam
ETLing dimensions through SQL Server 2000 DTS, has more or less been quite a a hassle, what with the lengthy ActiveX scripts and lookups that have to be performed. Enter SQL Server 2005 Integration Services: The Slowly Changing Dimension task has made it much simpler. As simple as a few clicks and minutes. This article talks about how a slowly changing dimension table can be populated using the Slowly Changing Dimension transformation task, which comes with Integration Services.

Reporting Services Data Regions: Table Data Region by Dinesh Priyankara
Organizing data with a combination of different data visualizations is a rather complicated yet important task in report authoring. SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 includes more than three data regions that allow us to organize data easily. This article talks about one of the data regions; Table Data Region.

Read them and see how worth they are; and dont forget to rate and comment.

sys.sysprocesses shows as "runnable" but sys.dm_exec_requests shows as "running"

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:59:54 GMT

The sys.dm_exec_requests is the replacement (or new implementation) of sys.sysprocesses system table. These two allow us to see the queries currently run under the instance of SQL Server. I noticed that the these two objects give different status for same execution; sys.sysprocesses give "runnable" while sys.dm_exec_requests give "running". You can simply test this one by running a batch and monitor via these two objects. I googled and tried to find a explanation for this but nothing found.

Any comment on this?

Add regions to your SQL codes

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:14:28 GMT

www.ssmstoolspack.com offers set of add-ins for SSMS that gives some great features. Since this is still in beta, not all functions are properly worked. One thing I really like is the feature that allows us to add regions in the code just like Visual Studio.

Since the region is added as a comment, saved scripts can be open with any SSMS and can execute without any problem. If the tool pack is not installed, it will be just a commented line without collapse/expand facility.

Download the toolspack and see. Since it is still in beta, better not to install in production environment.

Property QuotedIdentifierStatus is not available for UserDefinedFunction

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:23:48 GMT

I faced for this error today when I was trying to modify a SQL 2000 table-valued function using SQL 2005 management studio. You may have already seen/faced, yes it is a bug, not a problem with security or anything but it has been fixed with SP1; if you face, make sure you install the latest service pack.

Here is the link for it: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=126099

Gecko in action

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:29:20 GMT

Thought to capture as soon as I saw the battle; Gecko was trying to catch the butterfly, somehow it did.

Index related DMVs and DMFs

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:29:03 GMT

Another articles of mine is published at www.sql-server-performance.com. This explores output of sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats function. I have added examples as much as possible; to show the actual usage of the function.

Read the article: http://www.sql-server-performance.com/articles/per/index_dmv_dmf_p1.aspx

SS SLUG Meeting - Sep - 2007

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:36:58 GMT

The September SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group meeting is scheduled to today, will be held at Microsoft Sri Lanka. Gogula will be delivering the first presentation regarding SQL Server 2008 - Declarative Management Framework and the next is something new; Open Tech Forum - that everybody brings their questions in and everybody gives solutions for them. See more info here.

Temporary URL for SQL Server Universe .Com

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:24:09 GMT

We managed to set a temporary URL for SQL Server Universe site; http://sqlserveruniverse-com.inzeekhosting.com/. We are trying to set the original URL back with godaddy, hope it will be okay within next few days.

The site was initially registered with registerFly that is out of business it seems.

Wasps attack at Sigiriya

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:56:35 GMT

Thought make a post on it since two days ago, I was there. There were about 8 wasps nests visible there (there will be more) but they do not attack as long as they are not disturbed. When we were climbing, few people started shouting and I saw wasps coming out from their nests (Zoom the picture and see green area). Immediately one person warned them, so they kept their mouth shut. We were lucky enough to escape from wasp attack. But wasps were disturbed by people yesterday, they attacked people, resulting hospitalizing more than 100 visitors including 20 children.

One thing I noticed is, there are no signs indicates about this danger. At least authorities should set some signs about this danger and visitors must be educated about it. Unfortunately, getting information from authorities at the site is very difficult.

Made a journey to heretical place: Sigiriya and Dambulla

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:10:37 GMT

After long time, I took my family and went on a trip; to Sigiriya, which is part of our national heritage. We spent two days there, visiting three different heretical places; Sigiriya rock, Pidurangala Temple and Dambulla Temple.

Sigiriya is a rock where a King called Kashyapa built his castle on it. This is one of 10 wonders in the world. Climbing to the top of the hill reminded me that my body really needs daily workout, however I made it. The paintings inside the castle are fully covered now only few can be seen.


Sigiriya rock	Top of the rock; part of the King's palace

Narrow path to climb up	Nests of wasps. They shouldn't be disturbed.

Pidurangala is a temple that is built before the castle. According the person I spoke there, this has been built by the king and given to monks in order to take permission and blessing from monks. Since it was dark and no electricity at the top, we were not permitted to go the top but there were enough of things excavated to watch. It is believed that more than 100 Rahath monks were there.


Buddha statue at first level	Places used by monks for meditation

Dambulla is another temple that has been built inside a rock. We had to climb up bit but not hard as Sigiriya. There are more than 100 Buddha statues inside the rock and one of the strange things inside is, a water line comes from the top. Still the technology used for it is uncovered.


Temple inside the rock

Buddha's statues inside the temple

These places are built by our ancestors showing there loyalty to the country and paying respect to the Budda. I am proud of being a Sri Lankan.

The place we stayed is Sigiriya Village that is nice place and service is provided by very nice people; very close the Sigiriya rock. The surroundings of the hotel are really beautiful and peaceful.

What does DBCC stand for?

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:10:13 GMT

Does it stand for Database Consistency Checker? That's how I had interpreted it but found it was wrong. It had been an acronym for Database Consistency Checker but because of the enhancement integrated with it from SQL Server 2000 onwards, a new meaning has been given; Database Console Command. It gives more than consistency checking features. So, make sure that you refer DBCC as Database Console Command from SQL Server 2000 onwards.

Another article at SQL Server Central

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:09:45 GMT

This note was made regarding .NET assemblies and SSIS. It is a short, simple note that explains the way of accessing .NET assemblies in SSIS and problems we might be facing. Read this and see whether it is useful.

Note on Isolation Levels at SQL-Server-Performance.com

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:20:07 GMT

I made a bit lengthy note on Isolation Levels and it has been published at www.sql-server-performance.com. It explains all isolation levels in SQL Server 2005 and I have added samples as much as possible to make them clear.

Here is the direct link if you are interested: http://www.sql-server-performance.com/articles/dba/isolation_levels_2005_p1.aspx

SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group Meeting - August 2007

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:21:14 GMT

We will be doing the SS SLUG August meeting tomorrow at Microsoft. The first session will be done by a new speaker, Preethiraj who is a DBA at Virtusa. He will be doing a session regarding Data Partitioning, one of most wanted. Gogula will be doing the second one, great topic, UDM more than OLAP. I will be doing a one too, introducing SQLPromt, one of great red-gate tools.

For more info, visit http://sqlserveruniverse.com.

Did two presentations for StechLine

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:18:32 GMT

Last week, two presentations were done for a company called Stretch Line (MAS) at Microsoft. One was regarding Reporting Services, focusing on authoring and formatting reports. Almost all data regions were covered including formatting and expressions. The second was regarding Integration Services. I showed them couple of Flow Control Transform that they found very useful for their operations. I'll be doing two more presentations for them regarding Configuration and deployment on both Reporting Services and Integration Services.

Query shortcut key for SELECT * FROM

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:16:43 GMT

I rarely use query shortcut keys. The reason behind for that is, I have not added any new query shortcut keys :), only default keys are set. Recently there was a blog post about query shortcut keys in the SqlAdvice and it opened by eyes for using query shortcut keys. One cool setting is, you can set a part of a statement for one shortcut key. Then highlighting a word in the query editor and hitting the shortcut key will complete the statement defined in the shortcut key with the highlighted word and execute. Check this;

Open SQL Server Management Studio and open Options dialog box. Expand Environment node in the left pane and click on Keyboard. You can see default shortcut keys set for some built-in SPs. Select one of unused shortcut keys (eg. Ctrl+0) and write SELECT * FROM in the Stored Procedure column. Click OK to save the setting. Now open a new query window and write a table name (or drag a table from Object Explorer). Highlight it and hit Ctrl+0. Query window will execute a statement like SELECT * FROM {yourtable}. How easy? You can set different types of statement for other query shortcut keys. For more info, read this post.

Download SQL Server 2008 July CTP and samples

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:19:25 GMT

SQL Server 2008 July CTP is now available for download. Visit here for downloading. Some sample codes have been added to codeplex; download samples from here.

IMPLICIT Transaction mode

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:59:53 GMT

One of the things I noticed at the last SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group meeting was, unawareness of IMPLICIT Transaction mode. Almost all were knew about AutoCommit and EXPLICIT modes but very few were aware of IMPLICIT mode. Are you aware of it? Then how often you use it?

The Difference between IMPLICT and EXPLICT is simple. EXPLICIT mode allows us to start the transaction wherever we want by using BEGIN TRAN statement. In IMPLICIT mode, the transaction automatically starts base on some T-SQL statements. Some of the statements are CREATE, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER TABLE. See the BOL for whole list. As EXPLICIT mode, either COMMIT or ROLLBACK is required to complete the transaction.

   1: USE Northwind   2: GO   3:     4: SET IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS ON   5: SET XACT_ABORT ON   6:     7: CREATE TABLE dbo.EmployeeAllowances   8:     (EmployeeId int REFERENCES dbo.Employees(EmployeeID) NOT NULL,   9:     MonthAndYear datetime NOT NULL,  10:     Allowance money NOT NULL)  11:    12:    13: INSERT INTO dbo.EmployeeAllowances  14:     (EmployeeId, MonthAndYear, Allowance)  15: VALUES  16:     (100, getdate(), 450.00)  17:    18:    19: COMMIT TRAN

The SET IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS ON tells the system to set the transaction mode to IMPLICIT. In above code, transaction starts with CREATE TABLE statement. Since I have turned XACT_ABORT on, transaction rolls back at any run-time error. If no run-time error, transaction is committed at COMMIT statement. In this case, everything is rolled back since INSERT statement raises an error.

SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group meeting - July 2007

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:00:39 GMT

It went okay. Chamindu's session was quite impressive. Though I have done some testing about SSIS custom components, I had no chance to implement a one for one of our applications. One thing I noted is, it is simple and very powerful.

In my presentation, one of my samples didn't work, because of the funny reason :(. I think that I have used a open-connection that had set to different isolation level, and tried to get a result-set related to another isolation level. I couldn't figure it out at that time, time might be reason because I had taken extra 15 minutes (according to Gogula :)). My presentation and samples (updated) are available for download, whoever wish to see Implementing Transaction with SQL Server 2005, visit this url.

Coding with java

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:56:50 GMT

It was part of my MSc stuff. I had had to write a bit-complex module using Java for one of the subjects and I spent couple of sleepless nights for completing it. I have not done any programming with either .NET or java for long time and unfortunately I had to use something called "BlueJ" was coding, that is not rich enough like Visual Studio :). In a way, it was fun, writing code without help from the system, (assume you are coding without intelli-scene) but only thing was, it took time that I expected.

SS SLUG Meeting - July '07

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:22:21 GMT

SQL Server Sri Lanka User Group meeting will be held on 18th (tomorrow) at Microsoft Sri Lanka. As usual, there are two sessions; Once will be done by a new speaker, Chamindu Munasinghe who is a tech-lead at Eurocentre DDC. Chamindu will be demonstrating one of the important areas in the SSIS; Custom Components. I will be doing the second one that will be focused on "SQL Transactions". For more info, please visit SQL Server Universe.

I believe that these two topics are really important to both DBAs and DBEs. Hope you will be joining with us, for learning and for sharing.