Tag: SQL Server

Database

An Update to SQL Server Management Studio 18 is Available

on June 12, 2019

This week we see an update for SQL Server Management Studio, version 18.1. This release is the latest generation of SQL Server Management Studio and provides support for SQL Server 2017.

What’s New in this Release

  • Database diagrams – Database diagrams were added back into SSMS. If you did not know they removed this from the 18.0 release. For more details, see Database Diagrams.
  • SSBDIAGNOSE.EXE – The SQL Server Diagnose command line tool was added back into the SSMS package.
  • Integration Services (SSIS) – Support for scheduling SSIS package, located in SSIS Catalog in Azure or File System, in Azure. There are three entries for launching the New Schedule dialog, New Schedule… menu item shown when right-clicking the SSIS package in SSIS Catalog in Azure, Schedule SSIS Package in Azure menu item under Migrate to Azure menu item under Tools menu item and “Schedule SSIS in Azure” shown when right-clicking Jobs folder under SQL Server agent of Azure SQL Database Managed Instance.

For details about what’s new in this release, please see the SSMS release notes.

Getting the Update

Head over to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms and go to the Download SSMS 18.1 section.

Version Information

  • Release number: 18.1
  • Build number: 15.0.18131.0
  • Release date: June 11, 2019

NOTE: SSMS 18.1 is the latest general availability (GA) version of SSMS. If you have SSMS 18.0 (GA) installed, installing SSMS 18.1 upgrades it to 18.1. If you have an older preview version of SSMS 18.0 installed, you must uninstall it before installing SSMS 18.1.

Supported SQL Offerings

This version of SSMS works with all supported versions of SQL Server 2008 – SQL Server 2019 preview and provides the greatest level of support for working with the latest cloud features in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse.

Additionally, SSMS 18.x can be installed side by side with SSMS 17.x, SSMS 16.x, or SQL Server 2014 SSMS and earlier.

Enjoy!

References

Download SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

SQL Server Management Studio – Changelog (SSMS)

AzureDatabase

February release of Azure Data Studio is now available

on February 14, 2019

image

The February release of Azure Data Studio is now available to download and includes the following key highlights:

  • Introducing Admin pack for SQL Server
  • Auto-sizing columns in results
  • Notebook UI improvements
  • Added Profiler filtering
  • Added Save as XML
  • Added Data-Tier Application Wizard improvements
  • Updates to the SQL Server 2019 Preview extension
  • Turned on results streaming by default
  • Deploy scripts
  • Bug fixes

For a list of the complete updates, refer to the release notes.

Download Azure Data Studio now!

References

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2019/02/13/the-february-release-of-azure-data-studio-is-now-available/

Database

Installing Extensions in SQL Operations Studio

on June 5, 2018

Just like VS Code, extensions provide more functionality to SQL Operations Studio. These extensions can come from Microsoft or the community.

Adding Extensions to SQL Operations Studio

1. Open the Extensions manager by going to the View menu and selecting Extensions. After clicking on the Extensions menu item, the Extensions navigation icon shows up on the left side. I’m not sure why this isn’t always available like it is in VS Code.

image

2. Browse and select an available extension. At this time there are 9 extensions available to choose from. 

image

3. Click on the green button to install the desired extension. In my case I’m trying to install RedGate SQL Search which is a tool I use in SQL Server Management Studio. This will download the extension but if you try to double click and run it, the installation will fail. Instead you need to install it from SQL Operations Studio.

4. From SQL Operations Studio, press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+p, and type Extensions: Install from VSIX and then press enter.

image

5. You should then see a notification in the bottom right corner of SQL Operations Studio indicating the extension has successfully been installed.

image

Enjoy!

References

What is Microsoft SQL Operations Studio

Installing SQL Operations Studio

Extending the functionality of SQL Operations Studio

Database

Free ebook – SQL Server Internals: In-Memory OLTP, Inside the SQL Server 2016 Hekaton Engine

on December 20, 2017

SQL Server Internals: In-Memory OLTP eBook cover

A new free ebook by Kalen Delaney on the internals of SQL Server 2016 In-Memory OLTP has been published by Simple Talk (redgate), which introduces and explains how SQL Server 2016 In-Memory OLTP engine (a.k.a. Hekaton) works. This book goes into detail about the in-memory engine and will help you with migrate existing databases and tables over to Hekaton for beyond imaginable performance.

“The SQL Server 2016 In-Memory OLTP engine (a.k.a. Hekaton) is designed to exploit terabytes of available memory and high numbers of processing cores. It allows us to work with memory-optimized tables and indexes, and natively compiled stored procedures, in addition to the disk-based tables and indexes, and T-SQL stored procedures, that SQL Server has always provided.”

Working with Hekaton in-memory data is very accessible using T-SQL and SSMS. However there are some limitations and this book goes into detail about what’s possible and what’s not and how to get around the issues.

Download your the free ebook here.

Enjoy!

References

https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/books/sql-books/sql-server-internals-in-memory-oltp/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-2016

DatabaseDevelopment

SQL Server Management Studio 17.0

on May 8, 2017

There is a new release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) now available – version 17.0. It feels like yesterday when SSMS 16 was released (June 2016). I’m not going to complain as it’s refreshing to see such the constant updates to SSMS now that it’s not tied in with the database engine installer.

To get the latest version, head to the download page and install the web-installer. SSMS 17 will install side-by side with previous versions of SSMS.

This latest release includes a lot of new functionality, namely with support for connecting to SQL Server on Linux. Please see the full SSMS changelog for a complete listing of enhancements and bug fixes. Sadly this release still doesn’t support the Dark theme. Hopefully this is something they add in a future release.

Installing SSMS 17:

sshot-280

Updated splash screen:

image

SSMS 17 icons have been updated to be consistent with VS Shell provided icons and support High DPI resolutions:

sshot-284

One of the nice additions to this release is the inclusion of “Presentation Mode”. There are 3 new tasks available via the Quick Launch (Ctr-Q):

  • PresentOn – Turns on presentation mode where the editor and environment fonts are larger
  • PresentEdit – Allows you to edit the presentation font sizes
  • RestoreDefaultFonts – Reverts back to the default settings

If you  are familiar with these commands in Visual Studio then you will  notice that there is currently no PresentOff command. Use RestoreDefaultFonts to turn off Presentation Mode.

Enjoy!

References

Download SSMS
Download SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
SSMS Changelog
SSMS Release Notes

DatabaseDevelopment

SQL Server Management Studio 2016: Quick Overview

on July 27, 2016

It’s been almost two months since SQL Server 2016 was released and today I’ll provide a quick overview of some of the benefits new with SQL Server Management Studio 2016 or also known as SSMS 2016.

New Installer

One of the first things I noticed when I installed SQL Server 2016 is that SSMS is no longer listed in the features for installation. This is because SQL Server Management Studio 2016 has become its own stand-alone installer that can easily be downloaded from the web. There is also a link in the SQL Server engine management tools which takes you to the web to download the separate installer for SSMS 2016.

By decoupling SSMS from the roughly two-year release cycle of the core product, the SSMS team is able to provide quicker releases for SSMS. In the two months since it’s released we’ve already seen two updates. From what I’ve read it looks like they’re on a monthly cadence – which is awesome!

sshot-301

Visual Studio Awesomeness

sshot-1

SSMS 2016 is now built upon the Visual Studio 2015 shell and unlike SSMS 2012 and SSMS 2014 that were based on Visual Studio 2010 this brings a number of improvements:

Performance

Now that SSMS 2016 is build upon the Visual Studio 2015 shell, it gets all the performance optimizations that came in versions of Visual Studio since Visual Studio  2010. This is something you’ll notice immediately when running SSMS 2016.

I don’t know why SSMS 2012 and SSMS 2014 weren’t updated to be based on the latest Visual Studio at the time. I guess timing was a factor and priority was probably put on the database engine and not the editor. Hopefully now that SSMS is decoupled from the database engine release cycle we will see SSMS be updated and based on newer versions of Visual Studio as they become available. 

Support for High-Resolution Displays

Anyone that is using a Microsoft Surface Pro or Surface Book will know the DPI issues that plagued previous versions of SSMS. SSMS 2016 finally provides first-class support for high-resolution displays. 

Removed dependency on .NET Framework 3.5

It’s always good to let go of dependencies on older frameworks like .NET Framework 3.5.

Automatic Updates

SSMS 2016 now automatically checks for updates on start-up and also provides a toast notifications within SSMS when a new release becomes available.

You also have the chance to manually check for updates rom the Tools menu as shown here:

check-for-updates

check-for-updates-dialog

Support for Themes

SSMS 2016 now comes with an additional them called Light. Any developer of Visual Studio will already recognize this theme and it’s a welcome addition. From what I’ve read online, the SSMS team is working on bringing a Dark theme to SSMS. Not sure when a Dark theme will be released but lets hope sooner than later. Everything just seems to run and look better in the Dark them.

themes

New Quick Launch and Find Dialogs

Another feature that comes with the Visual Studio 2015 shell is the new quick find dialog located in the upper right corner of the editor. SSMS 2016 also has the Quick Launch which is in the upper right corner of the window and allows you to quickly search for options, etc.

sshot-3

SSMS Azure Integration

The Table Designer is enabled for supporting Azure for SQL Database v12. The Database and Properties dialogs also work with Azure SQL Database v12.

Import and Export wizards also support Azure Database service tiers.

Next Steps

Download SSMS 2016: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt238290.aspx
Download SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt204009.aspx
Download new World-Wide Importers sample database

DatabaseDevelopment

Announcing SQL Server Data Tools – June 2013

on June 28, 2013

This week we saw another update to the SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). This release introduces several new features.

What’s New

  • Data Compare
  • Extensibility
  • Build and Deployment Contributors
  • Schema Model Navigation and Extensibility API
  • Updated Date-Tier Application Framework

Download it Now

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027

References

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/archive/2013/06/24/announcing-sql-server-data-tools-june-2013.aspx

DatabaseDevelopment

Using SQL Server Data Tools for Connected Database Development

on March 1, 2013

Great post on doing connected database development with SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). Please see my previous post on getting started with SSDT.

Read more…

Enjoy!

DatabaseDevelopment

Getting Started with SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)

on March 1, 2013

Great post on getting started with SQL Server Data Tools.

Read more…

Enjoy!

DatabaseDevelopment

SQL Server Data Tools–December 2012 Update is now available

on January 8, 2013

New updates are now available for SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). The latest update is called SQL Server Data Tools – December 2012. You can get the update from here:

SSDT for Visual Studio 2012: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/jj650015

SSDT for Visual Studio 2010: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/jj650014

As posted on the following blog post, here is a recap of what’s new:

“What’s New?
Database Unit Testing

We have received an overwhelming amount of feedback that database unit testing is a critical feature for customers, so SSDT- December 2012 adds support for this feature. Database Unit Testing in SSDT will look familiar to many of you as it is based on the equivalent capability in the Visual Studio 2010 DB Pro tools. Some highlights:

  • Installs in Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012:
    • Requires Visual Studio Professional or higher edition to support database unit testing functionality.
    • Installs side-by-side with existing Visual Studio 2010 DB Pro tools in Visual Studio Premium and Ultimate editions.
  • Supports client-side testing based on MSTest with the same built-in test conditions as DB Pro.
  • Allows desktop development and execution of tests as well as execution from the command line or as part of a build on a build server.
  • Upgrades existing VS 2010 test projects without change to the database unit test scripts or code.
  • Integrates with SSDT SQL Server database projects:
    • Automates deployment of the database project on test initialization.
    • Generates skeleton test scripts for stored procedures, functions and triggers via SQL Server Object Explorer.
    • Applies changes to test scripts when refactoring objects in database projects.
  • Supports custom test conditions (existing custom test conditions need to be modified before they can be used).

Stay tuned for a follow-up post on getting started with SQL Server database unit testing.

Integration of SSDT Power Tools

The SSDT team started releasing SSDT Power Tools last April as a mechanism to deliver new and experimental features with each release. Since then, the Power Tools have been downloaded over 24,500 times.

We received a great deal of positive feedback on the Power Tools and as a response, this release integrates the functionality previously delivered via Power Tools into the core SSDT product. The advantage of product inclusion is that a separate install will no longer be needed and that features are now fully supported and available to users in all languages. The following features are now included in SSDT’s SQL Server Object Explorer:

Projects node adds the equivalent of Schema View to SSDT. You can use this node to browse the logical schema of your project and to edit, refactor, and add new objects.

Script As support in SSOX enables you to generate Create, Alter, Drop, and Drop and Create-To scripts for objects in your connected database.

DAC actions allow you to perform similar DAC-based tasks in SSDT to those available in SSMS. You can extract a dacpac from a live database, publish a dacpac to a database, register a database as a DAC, or remove the registration metadata for a database registered as a DAC. These actions are supported for both on-premises SQL Server databases as well as Windows Azure SQL Databases.

clip_image003

We recommend that you uninstall the SSDT Power Tools extension if you had it previously installed.

Updated Data-Tier Application Framework

This release includes the November 2012 release of SQL Server Data-Tier Application Framework (DACFx), which contains several feature enhancements and bug fixes. You can learn more about the latest release of DACFx here.

Bug fixes

SSDT – December 2012 contains over 50 bug fixes, including fixes for customer-reported issues from SSDT – November 2012 and SSDT Power Tools releases.”

1 2