Msg 3201, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Cannot open backup device ‘D:\Backup\SQLAuthority.bak’. Operating system error 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Solution:

Go to your drive and create the missing folder. In my case I went to Drive D and created Backup Folder there.

Additional Story:

If you read the first line of the blog post you will read there that I mentioned that I had frustrating experience. It was not frustrating that I do not know the solution – it was totally different reason. When I encountered the above error I quickly went and created the folder in my machine. Once I created the folder, I still keep on getting the error. After a while I realize what I was doing. I was creating the folder in the machine where I had installed SQL Server Management Studio. To resolve this error one has to create the folder in the machine where SQL Server is installed. Once I created the folder to the location where I was attempting to take backup the issue was resolved.

How many of you have been in the same situation as me as mentioned in additional story?

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

There are two common queries related to offline database:

1)      My hard drive is getting full and I deleted my ‘offline’ databases. After deleting my offline databases, my hard drive is still full and there is no empty space.

2)      I recently deleted the ‘offline’ database, and now, when I am attempting to create database with the same name, it is giving me error that the database file already exists.

I can see why these questions are coming up frequently. The common understanding that seems to prevail is that when any database is deleted, files associated with the database (.mdf, .ndf and .ldf) are deleted automatically. This is true for any database that is an ‘online’ database. However, the behavior is bit different in the case of the ‘offline’ database. When any ‘offline’ database is deleted, files associated with the database are not deleted automatically. All the files related to the ‘offline’ database need to be deleted manually after deleting the offline database.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Recently at one of the conferences I was attending in, a small accident happened – one of the speaker’s hard drives failed. The owner immediately panicked due to this and had no clue what to do. I suggested that he may not be able to show the demos but can still show a few things with the product. He accepted my suggestion and finished the presentation. Good thing everybody looked satisfied. Little did I know that a small accident was waiting for me later that day.

When I opened my SQL Server Denali, all my shortcuts were totally out of order. When I hit F5, instead of executing query, it was opening up some debugging screen for me. I was very much annoyed so I decided to surf the Internet for me to know how I could reset it to SQL Server 2012 default shortcut. There were so many different advices which further confused me. After reading 4-5 different methods, I used the following method to reset my SQL Server 2012 keyboard shortcuts:

Go to SSMS > Tools >> Import and Export Settings…

As I wanted to reset all the settings I selected the “Reset all settings” option, but you can select other options as per your need.

I suggest you save your current Settings; however, in my case, I did not like the current option so I just decided to overwrite my settings.

Here I have two options –  I can either set my shortcut to SQL Server 2012 settings or Visual Studio 2010. I went ahead with the SQL Server 2012 option.

Success!

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Here is the quick way to reach to the screen where we can change the startup parameters.

Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager >> SQL Server Services >> Right Click on the Server >> Properties >> Startup Parameters

Above screen steps will bring up the startup parameter screen where one can easily change.

Any other tricks are you aware of. If yes, I welcome your comments on the same.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Recently I pressed CTRL+ALT+R and suddenly a web browser opened in SSMS. I later realize that I can also access the same from SSMS >> View >> Other Windows >> Web Browser.

Click to Enlarge

Now user can open web browser and New Query editor and split them vertically (Go to Windows and click on New Vertical Tab Groups) and have both side by side. Very near feature. I am personally going to use it again and again.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

I have increased the font size to 400 percentage and for the same reason they are very large. You can adjust the font size which is convenient to you.

One more reason to go for next version of SQL Server.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

This is how it works.

Select Multiple object one by one using regular CTRL + X.

Now instead of pasting using CTRL+V use CTRL+SHIFT+V. Well, you will see that that pasted value is rotating based on what you have earlier selected in CTRL+V. I was really happy as I think this is one of the feature of VS, I really wanted SSMS to have.

Try it and let me know what you think of the same.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Recently when I was working with SQL Server 2011 ‘Denali’ CTP1, I dragged one of the windows by accident, and suddenly it magically appeared out of its ‘Shell’ of SSMS and was appearing on a separate monitor. I played around a bit and figured out that SSMS now supports multi-monitor (or multi screen) support with single SSMS instance. We can now drag out and drag in any window and resize them at any size. Fantastic!

If you are multi-monitor user, I am sure you will like this feature.

This leads me to ask you question? Do you use multi-monitor system while working with SQL Server? Leave a quick comment.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

1. Download the AdventureWorks from here.
2. Run following script (replace your path of mdf file.

CREATE DATABASE AdventureWorks2008R2
ON (FILENAME = 'C:\SQL 11 CTP1\CTP1\AdventureWorks2008R2_Data.mdf')
FOR ATTACH_REBUILD_LOG ;


When you run above script it will give you following message and you are DONE!

File activation failure. The physical file name "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\AdventureWorks2008R2_Log.ldf" may be incorrect.
New log file 'C:\SQL 11 CTP1\CTP1\AdventureWorks2008R2_log.ldf' was created.
Converting database 'AdventureWorks2008R2' from version 679 to the current version 684.
Database 'AdventureWorks2008R2' running the upgrade step from version 679 to version 680.
Database 'AdventureWorks2008R2' running the upgrade step from version 680 to version 681.
Database 'AdventureWorks2008R2' running the upgrade step from version 681 to version 682.
Database 'AdventureWorks2008R2' running the upgrade step from version 682 to version 683.
Database 'AdventureWorks2008R2' running the upgrade step from version 683 to version 684.

I will soon write my experience about Denali. However, SQL Server Management Studio more started to look a like Visual Studio.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

I was recently asked if the same can be done using SQL Server Management Studio.

Yes!

You can do it from database property (Write click on database and select database property) and follow image.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

I am not the guy who go crazy for formatting but I do appreciate proper coding. I like if the code was formatted like below.

SELECT *
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail
WHERE ProductID > 777

The fastest way one can do this in SSMS is either search and replace or using SSMS short cut to covert keywords to upper case.

What I do is I select the word and hit CTRL+SHIFT+U and it SSMS immediately changes the case of the selected word. Similar way if one want to convert cases to lower case, another short cut CTRL+SHIFT+L is also available.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2010/07/07/sql-server-upper-case-shortcut-sql-server-management-studio/feed/ 21 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2010/07/03/sql-server-view-xml-query-plans-in-ssms-as-graphical-execution-plan/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2010/07/03/sql-server-view-xml-query-plans-in-ssms-as-graphical-execution-plan/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:30:02 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=9427 ]]> Earlier I wrote a blog post on SQL SERVER – Parallelism – Row per Processor – Row per Thread, where I mentioned the XML Plan. As a follow up on the blog post, I received the request to send the same execution plan so that the blog readers can also use the same and reproduce it on their machine. I realized that I have actually never written on how one can send a graphical execution plan to another user so that they can reproduce the same exact details without all the actual tables, indexes and objects.

Here is very simple method on how one can do that.

Right Click on Execution Plan and click on “Save Execution Plan As…”.

You can save the plan with the extension .sqlplan. The same plan can be sent to another user via email or a USB drive. Another user can just double click on the file and open the execution plan at another local computer without physically having any underlying object.

This is very simple trick; you can also send the execution plan in text format as well. We will talk about it in some other post.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

“When SQL Server executes any query on multiple processors, do all processors process equal numbers of rows?”

I find this one very interesting. I quickly wrote down a query which can run on multiple CPU in my machine. My laptop has a Core 2 Duo processor and has two CPUs. When I ran the query, I found out from the execution plan that there is a parallelism operator, which runs my query in both CPUs.

I pressed F4 to see the Properties of the execution plan. You can open the Properties window by clicking on Tool bar >> View >> Properties Window. Check the Version property of Actual Number of Rows and expand it. You will see details for Thread 1 and Thread 2, including the numbers of rows they processed individually. You can see that the numbers of rows are not the same.

You can also check the same thing in XML Plan. Right click on Execution Plan and click on “Show Execution Plan XML” to see the XML Plan. Here you can check the node RunTimeInformation and find details on numbers of rows that were executed.

Now I have a question for all of you:

If you look carefully in the Properties window or XML Plan, there is “Thread 0″. What does this “Thread 0” indicate?

Please leave your comments, and I will post the correct answer in this blog with due credit.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Here is a quick recap on how one can use SSMS and out-of-the-box reports which can help many developers.

Please note that they can be resource-intensive as well, so please use SSMS carefully.

SQL SERVER – Generate Report for Index Physical Statistics – SSMS

SQL SERVER – Out of the Box – Activity and Performance Reports from SSSMS

SQL SERVER – Configure Management Data Collection in Quick Steps – T-SQL Tuesday #005

Junior developers and DBA can use these reports right away and can also start learning and exploring most database performance issues with the help of Sr. DBAs.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

• Disk Usage
• Disk Usage by Top Tables
• Disk Usage by Table
• Disk Usage by Partition
• Backup and Restore Events
• All Transactions
• All Blocking Transactions
• Top Transactions by Age
• Top Transactions by Blocked Transactions Count
• Top Transactions by Locks Count
• Resource Locking Statistics by Objects
• Object Execute Statistics
• Database Consistency history
• Index Usage Statistics
• Index Physical Statistics
• Schema Change history
• User Statistics

Select the Reports with name Index Physical Statistics. Once click, a report containing all the index names along with other information related to index will be visible, e.g. Index Type and number of partitions.

One column that caught my interest was Operation Recommended. In some place, it suggested that index needs to be rebuilt. It is also possible to click and expand the column of partitions and see additional details about index as well. DBA and Developers who just want to have idea about how your index is and its physical statistics can use this tool.

Note: Please note that I will rebuild my indexes just because this report is recommending it. There are many other parameters you need to consider before rebuilding indexes.

However, this tool gives you the accurate stats of your index and it can be right away exported to Excel or PDF writing by clicking on the report.

Update: As Per Paul Randal this is un-killable and lots of IO, be careful about using it.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Let us see how we can access these standard reports.

Connect to SQL Server Node >> Right Click on it >> Go to Reports >> Click on Standard Reports >> Pick Any Report.

You can see there are many reports, which an average users needs right away, are available there. Let me list all the reports available.

• Server Dashboard
• Configuration Changes History
• Schema Changes History
• Scheduler Health
• Memory Consumption
• Activity – All Blocking Transactions
• Activity – All Cursors
• Activity – All Sessions
• Activity – Top Sessions
• Activity – Dormant Sessions
• Activity -  Top Connections
• Top Transactions by Age
• Top Transactions by Blocked Transactions Count
• Top Transactions by Locks Count
• Performance – Batch Execution Statistics
• Performance – Object Execution Statistics
• Performance – Top Queries by Average CPU Time
• Performance – Top Queries by Average IO
• Performance – Top Queries by Total CPU Time
• Performance – Top Queries by Total IO
• Service Broker Statistics
• Transactions Log Shipping Status

In fact, when you look at the above list, it is fairly clear that they are very thought out and commonly needed reports that are available in SQL Server 2008. Let us run a couple of reports and observe their result.

Performance – Top Queries by Total CPU Time

Memory Consumption

There are options for custom reports as well, which we can configure. We will learn about them in some other post. Additionally, you can right click on the reports and export in Excel or PDF. I think this tool can really help those who are just looking for some quick details. Does any of you use this feature, or this feature has some limitations and You would like to see more features?

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2010/03/25/sql-server-default-activty-and-performance-reports-from-sssms/feed/ 5 pinaldave Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/10/01/sql-server-sql-server-management-studio-and-client-statistics/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/10/01/sql-server-sql-server-management-studio-and-client-statistics/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:30:24 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=6938 ]]> Client Statistics is very important. Many a time, people relate queries execution plan with query cost. This is not a good comparison. Both are different parameters, and they are not always related. It is possible that the query cost of any statement is less, but the amount of the data returned is considerably large, which is causing any query to run slow. How do we know if any query is retrieving a large amount data or very little data? In one way, it is quite easy to figure this out by just looking at the result set; however, this method cannot be relied upon all the time as it is difficult to reach a conclusion when there are many columns and many rows.

To measure how much data is retrieved from server to client side is very simple. SQL Server Management Studio has feature that can measure client statistics. There are three different ways to enable client statistics.

Method 1

Press SHIFT+ALT+S together.

Method 2

Go to Menu >> Query >> Include Client Statistics

Method 3

Once you enable the client statistics, it will display another tab in the result span; when clicked, we obtain the following:

As shown in the image, it will capture details for different trials and they are compared with each other. Green arrows indicate improved statistics and red arrows indicate degrading statistics. Please note that here an increase does not always imply a good result; sometimes some statistics when marked as “up” can imply a bad result as well. For the same reason, they are colored in green and red, signifying good and bad results, respectively.

A maximum of 10 trials are averaged in the display window. When the11th trial comes into the result, the very first trial is dropped, keeping total average of latest 10 trials. There are many other aspects about client statistics; these shall be discussed in other articles.

Do you use this particular feature of SQL Server? If you do, what do you use it for?

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Statistics ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/10/01/sql-server-sql-server-management-studio-and-client-statistics/feed/ 15 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/09/14/sql-server-plan-caching-and-schema-change-an-interesting-observation/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/09/14/sql-server-plan-caching-and-schema-change-an-interesting-observation/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:30:10 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=6756 ]]> Last week, I had published details regarding SQL SERVER – Plan Caching in SQL Server 2008 by Greg Low on this blog. Similar to any other white paper, I have read this paper very carefully and enjoyed reading it. One particular topic in the white paper that caught my attention is definition of schema change. I was well aware of this definition, but I have often found that users are not familiar with what exactly does a schema change mean.

Many people assume that a change in the table structure is schema change. In fact, creating or dropping index on any table also qualifies as schema change.

As per the white paper, “Schema change” is defined as follows:

• Adding or dropping columns to a table or view.
• Adding or dropping constraints, defaults, or rules to/from a table.
• Adding an index to a table or an indexed view.
• Dropping an index defined on a table or an indexed view (only if the index is used by the query plan in question).
• Dropping a statistic (not creating or updating!) defined on a table will cause a correctness-related recompilation of any query plans that use that table. Such recompilations occur at that instant when the query plan in question begins execution. Updating a statistic (both manual and auto-update) will cause an optimality-related (data related) recompilation of any query plans that uses this statistic.

As per the above definition, I decided to experiment with schema change. In white paper, it was mentioned that schema change will recompile the execution batch. I decided to test this out. I created a small script (given below) and decided to test it.

As per the script, I created a large table and stored the procedure that was accessing that table. I created another object that was an index to the table; when SP was ran with index on table, it showed a plan different from that without the index on table. It was evident that the batch was recompiled when the index on the table was modified.

The script is available here to download.

Without Index execution plan:

With Index execution plan:

It is clear from the execution plan that it is different, and this proves the point that schema change recompiles the execution plan.

There is one more script provided in the white paper, which gets data from DMV related to cached plan. When I ran the following SP, it did not give me very interesting results.

SELECT cp.objtype AS PlanType,
OBJECT_NAME(st.objectid,st.dbid) AS ObjectName,
cp.refcounts AS ReferenceCounts,
cp.usecounts AS UseCounts,
st.TEXT AS SQLBatch,
qp.query_plan AS QueryPlan
FROM sys.dm_exec_cached_plans AS cp
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_query_plan(cp.plan_handle) AS qp
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(cp.plan_handle) AS st;

When I ran the above script, I found that the UseCount column did not reset when QueryPlan is changed. This was very surprising as I was expecting UseCount to reset on changing the query plan. I sent an email to Dr. Greg Low, who is author of this white paper. He was very kind to respond back within minutes with a proper answer, which is as follows:

You’ll notice in Profiler when you run the sproc after creating the index that it does in fact cause a recompile. However, in SQL Server 2008 (and 2005), these are statement level recompiles not proc level recompiles. I imagine that’s why they’re not reflected in the UseCount values ie: the plan itself isn’t recompiled and that’s what the counts are based on.

Well, this simple explanation clarified my doubts. Let me know what you think, and I strongly suggest you all to read the white paper written by Dr. Greg Low.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Resetting the password of SA is a breeze!

Option 1 :

If there is any other SQL Server Login that is a member of sysadmin role, you can log in using that account and reset the password of SQL Server. Change the password of SA account as described here :  SQL SERVER – Change Password of SA Login Using Management Studio.

Option 2 :

If there is any other Windows Login that is a member of Windows Admin Group, log in using that account. Start SQL Server in Single User Mode as described here :  SQL SERVER – Start SQL Server Instance in Single User Mode.
Create a new login and give it sysadmin permission.

Note : If you have SQL Server Agent enabled, it starts before SQL Server service. If you have enabled SQL Server in a single user mode, it will connect it first, so it is recommended to turn that off before attempting any of the above options.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

I had explained the following two different methods:

1) Open Results in Separate Tab

This is a very interesting method as result pan shows up in a different tab instead of the splitting screen horizontally.

To enable this, first go to Tools >> Options >> Query Results >> Result to Grid (or Text) >> Enable Display results in a separate tab.

If you want to switch to a result set after the results are generated enable additional check box of ‘Switch to results tab after the query executes’. I do not find this option comfortable, as while working on query my focus on the working windows suddenly shifts to new windows.

2) Open SSMS in Full Screen

This works always and to its best. Not many people are aware of this method; hence, very few people use it to enhance performance.

Press Shift + Alter + Enter to enable full screen on computer.

In my opinion, by using the above both the options running together one can certainly increase more work area on computer screen. Are you using any of these options? Please share me with by leaving your comments here.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/07/24/sql-server-maximizing-view-of-sql-server-management-studio-full-screen-new-screen/feed/ 6 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/06/28/sql-server-2008-management-studio-new-features-2/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/06/28/sql-server-2008-management-studio-new-features-2/#comments Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:30:57 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=5706 ]]> This article describes the top 5 features of SQL Server Management Studio 2008. With the release of SQL Server 2008 Microsoft has upgraded SSMS with many new features as well as added tons of new functionalities requested by DBAs for long time.

SQL Server 2008 has been released for a year now. In SQL Server 2000, DBA had to use two different tools to maintain the database as well as the query database, specifically SQL Server Enterprise Manager and SQL Server Query Analyzer. With the release of SQL Server 2005 both of these tools are combined into one tool: SQL Server Management Studio. For a while DBA who were fan of Query Analyzer requested to bring it back but as they keep on using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) they realized that it was much more convenient if every task related to SQL Server could be accomplished using SSMS. With the release of SQL Server 2008 Microsoft has upgraded SSMS with many new features as well as added tons of new functionalities requested by DBAs for long time.

Let us go over a few of the important new features of the SSMS 2008. The list of SQL Server 2008 SSMS improvements is very long. I have selected my favorite 5 features and we will go over them.

1. IntelliSense for Query Editing
2. Multi Server Query
3. Query Editor Regions
4. Object Explorer Enhancements
5. Activity Monitors

IntelliSense for Query Editing

This is my favorite feature so far. If you have used Visual Studio before, this feature may not be new to you. Implementation of IntelliSense is not as advanced as in Visual Studio but it is still very useful and well implemented.

After implementing IntelliSense, DBAs and developers will not have to remember all the syntax or browse online references. IntelliSense offers a few additional features besides just completing the world. You can see those option from SSMS Menu >> Edit >> IntelliSense >> (See the available options)

There are a total of five options available in Edit Menu. I suggest to experiment with all of them while playing with IntelliSense.

1. List Members
2. Parameter Info
3. Quick Info
4. Complete Word
5. Refresh Local Cache

If your IntelliSense does not bring up recently created objects, try “Refresh Local Cache” as described above, or press CTRL + SHIFT + R.

IntelliSense is a new feature and it will take some time to get adjusted to it. If any developer does not like this option, it can be turned off from Menu >> Query >> (deselect) Enable IntelliSense.

MultiServer Query

Usually DBA don’t manage only one database; they have many servers to manage. There are cases when DBA has to check the status of all the servers. I have seen one of the DBA who used to manage 400 servers, writing query using XML_CMDSHELL where he wanted to find out what the status of fullback up on all the servers was. In one of the recent consultancy job, when I had to find out if all the three servers were upgraded with Services Packs (SP), I ran a query to find version information on all the three instance separately in three windows.

SSMS 2008 has a feature to run a query on different servers from one query editor window. First of all make sure that you registered all the servers under your registered server. Once they are registered Right Click on server group name and click New Query as shown in the image below.

Now in the opened query window run the following query (you can find it in the sample code for this article):

SELECT
SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') AS Edition,
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductLevel') AS ProductLevel,
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') AS ProductVersion

Query above will give the result shown in the image below. Note that we have only three columns in the SELECT but our output contains four columns. The very first column is the “Server Name” and it is added by SQL Server to indentify rows belonging to a specific server.

If all of the above servers are registered with “central server” – the option which is right below it, other administrators can also register to those entire servers by simple registering one central server.

Query Editor Regions

This feature exists in many programming languages already but now it is newly introduced in SSMS 2008. The reason I am highlighting this feature is because there are cases when T-SQL code is longer than hundreds of lines and after a while it keeps on getting confusing.

The regions are defined by the following hierarchy:

1. From first GO command to next GO command.
2. Statements between BEGIN – END, BEGIN TRY – END TRY, BEGIN CATCH – END CATCH
3. Multiline statements

In the following code snippet I have reported an example which has five coding regions (you can find it in the sample code for this article). I have made small comment besides them describing their region type.

CREATE PROCEDURE MyTest -- Region Type 1
AS
BEGIN -- Region Type 2
SELECT 1
BEGIN -- Region Type 2
SELECT 2;
SELECT * -- Region Type 3
FROM sys.objects;
SELECT * -- Region Type 3
FROM sys.columns;
SELECT 3;
END
END
GO


Regions can be collapsed as well as expanded by clicking the small sign of ‘-’ or ‘+’ besides them. The following image shows a fully expanded region code snippet and a fully collapsed code snippet.

If there is any single-line statement, it does not qualify for a coding region.

Object Explorer Enhancements

Object Explorer Detail initially looks the same as the previous version but when right clicked on the bar with labels it reveals what it can do. This feature looks the same as the Vista OS folder option but when looked at how it is implemented for SQL Server data, it is really amazing. Object Explorer Detail view can be enabled by either going to Menu >> View >> Object Explorer Detail or pressing F7.

In Object Explorer Detail the new feature is Object Search. Enter any object name in the object search box and the searched result will be displayed in the same window as Object Explorer Detail.

Additionally, there are new wizards which help you perform several tasks, from policy management to disk monitoring. One cool thing is that everything displayed in the object explorer details screen can be right away copied and pasted to Excel without any formatting issue.

Activity Monitors

This feature is totally revamped in SSMS 2008. When opening “Activity Monitor” it shows a screen similar to the following image.

There are four graphs 1) % Processor Time, 2) Waiting Tasks, 3) Database I/O, 4) Batch Requests/Sec

Additionally, there are four tabs which also reflect some statistics of the above four graphs 1) Processes, 2) Resource Waits, 3) Data File I/O, 4) Recent Expensive Queries. Clicking on the tables will expand the tabs as shown in the following image.

All the four tabs provide very important information, however the one which I refer most is ‘Recent Expensive Queries’. Whenever I find my server running slow or having any performance related issues my first reaction is to open this tab and see which query is running slow. I usually look at the query with the highest number for Average Duration. The Recent Expensive Queries monitors only show queries which are in the SQL Server cache at that moment.

Summary

There are lots of new features of SSMS 2008. The ones I have listed today are the most prominent and my personal favorites.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com), dotnetslackers

Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) DBAs can now query multiple servers from one window. It is quite common for DBAs with large amount of servers to maintain and gather information from multiple SQL Servers and create report. This feature is a blessing for the DBAs, as they can now assemble all the information instantaneously without going anywhere.

Prior to running a multi-server query, it is mandatory to first create a Registered SQL Server Group with the desired servers.

Create Registered Servers Group:

Go to Toolbar >> Views >> Registered Servers

In the opened window, Right Click on Local Server Groups and add a new server.

After all the desired servers are added run the following query in Query Editor. It will produce the result from all the registered servers. Make sure that when Queries are run on the left side the entire group of servers is selected. In the following example, Local Server Groups node is selected.

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') AS Edition,
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductLevel') AS ProductLevel,
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') AS ProductVersion
GO

In my local machine, two different SQL Server 2008 are installed: SQL Server Dev Enterprise and SQL Server Express. These queries bring back two rows with expected results. Another thing to notice is that even though we have not selected, this result has brought back additional column of Server Name. This additional column has been added to differentiate our resultset and indicate which row belongs to which server.

In my case, I have only two registered servers, but it is absolutely possible to have hundreds of SQL Servers registered as group. If user wants to query few selected servers, it is presently not possible to make selection from server groups. User will have to create a new server group and the registered selected servers all over again. This is possible as one SQL Server can belong to multiple SQL Servers.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Developers were extremely happy with “return of debugger”, however, it issued forth a new problem. The button of debugger is similar to a play button and is used to run debugging commands of Visual Studio. For SQL Server, the button to execute code is exclamation mark (!).  Both these buttons are placed very close to each other, which confuses developers. Developers want to debug code in Visual Studio but the same debugging is completely different in SQL Server. Developers want to execute the code in SQL Server Management Studio.

Because of this reason, it gets very much infuriating for developers when they are developing on both – Visual Studio and SSMS. However, there is a very simple solution to this perplexing problem. Simply remove the button of debugger from tool bar. Customization of toolbar is a very helpful feature. Developers have the option to add many more buttons and remove any desired button from SSMS.

Let us now see how we can remove debugging button from SQL Server Management Studio.

Click on a small arrow on the extreme right side of the toolbar. It will bring down menu -”Add or Remove Buttons”. Next, go to “Customization”.

Click on the button at the bottom of the screen with label “Rearrange Commands…”.

On the screen of “Rearrange Commands” select the radio button of “Toolbar”. Once that is selected, on the right side of the drop down bring up “SQL Editor”. After that, click on “Debug” and remove by clicking “Delete”.

Now, your toolbar will not have debug button anymore. If you have ever customized your SSMS, I am interested to learn the reason behind it and the benefits you gained upon customization.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

The question is – How to create multiple filegroup for any database?

To find solution to this query, we will go through the following four cases.

1) Creating New Database

a) Using T-SQL
b) Using SSMS

2) Updating Existing Database and Adding Filegroup

a) Using T-SQL
b) Using SSMS

Let us go over each of the cases one by one.

1) Creating New Database
a) Using T-SQL

CREATE DATABASE [FGTest] ON  PRIMARY
( NAME = N'FGTest',
FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\FGTest.mdf' ,
SIZE = 3072KB , FILEGROWTH = 1024KB ),
FILEGROUP [Secondary]
( NAME = N'FGTest_2',
FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\FGTest_2.ndf' ,
SIZE = 3072KB , FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )
LOG ON
( NAME = N'FGTest_log',
FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\FGTest_log.ldf' ,
SIZE = 1024KB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)
GO

b) Using SSMS

2) Updating Existing Database and Adding Filegroup

Updating existing database is much simpler compared with adding filegroup to new database. Let us take a look at how quickly it can be completed in a few simple steps.

a) Using T-SQL
We will add a Third filegroup to the same database where we added secondary filegroup in the above example.

USE [master]
GO
ALTER DATABASE [FGTest] ADD FILEGROUP [Third]
GO

b) Using SSMS
Right click on the database and go to properties and filegroup. Add new filegroup by simply adding name.

I encourage all my readers to keep mailing me send in your questions and doubts. I will certainly take them up at some point of time.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Let us look at few of the common errors received:

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server.

(provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 5)

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server.  When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 1326)

I eventually found the resolution to this error on this blog itself; so I was saved from hunting for the solution. I am sure there are a number of developers who had previously fixed this error while installing SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 but in due course forgot the right solution to this error. This is just a quick refresher. Make sure to bookmark this as you never know when you would need this solution.

Let us check into the steps to resolve this error.

1) SQL Server should be up and running.

Go to All Programs >> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 >> Configuration Tools >> SQL Server Configuration Manager >> SQL Server Services, and check if SQL Server service status is “Running”.

In addition, ensure that your remote server is in the same network. Run “sqlcmd -L” in your command prompt to ascertain if your server is included in your network list. You can even find tutorial for the same here SQL SERVER – Find All Servers From Local Network – Using sqlcmd – Detect Installed SQL Server on Network.

I have confronted numerous situations when these nerve-wracking errors crop up, and most of the time when I try to troubleshoot I notice that SQL Server services are neither running nor installed. If SQL Server is not installed as default instance SQL Server Browser should be running together with it; we will explore this further in Topic 5.

2) Enable TCP/IP in SQL Server Configuration

When two or more SQL Servers are connected across network they do all communication using TCP/IP. The default port of SQL Server installation is 1433. This port can be changed through SQL Server Configuration Manager. TCP/IP should be enabled for SQL Server to be connected.

Go to All Programs >> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 >> Configuration Tools >> SQL Server Configuration Manager >> Select TCP/IP

Right Click on TCP/IP >> Click on Enable

You must restart SQL Server Services for all the changes to take effect. Right click and go to menu properties to select location where default port of SQL Server can be changed.

3) Open Port in Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall is very efficacious in protecting the Operating system from all sorts of malicious attacks. By default, many of the ports and services are refrained from running by firewall. Time and again, SQL Server ports are not open in firewall as well. All the ports on which SQL Server is running should be added to exception and firewall should filter all the traffic from those ports. As described, by default SQL Server runs on port 1433, but if default port is changed then the new port should be added to exception. If SQL Server has named instance (another instance besides default instance) is installed, SQL Server browser should also be added to the exception, as described in Step 7.

Go to Control Panel >> Windows Firewall >> Change Settings >> Exceptions  >> Add Port

Make the following entries in popup “Add a Port” and click OK.
Name : SQL
Port Number: 1433
Protocol: Select TCP

4) Enable Remote Connection

Enabling remote connection is another important, yet oft-neglected step that is frequently missed by database administrators while setting up SQL Server. If this feature is turned off SQL Server will function smoothly on local machine, but it will let another server connect to it remotely. By default this feature is ON in SQL Server 2008.

Right click on the server node and select Properties.

Go to Left Tab of Connections and check “Allow remote connections to this server”

5) Enable SQL Server Browser Service

If SQL Server is not installed as default instance but instead installed as named instance and also if there is no specific TCP/IP port configured, it will give rise to the error that is being discussed in this article. If SQL Server Browser service is enabled, it will allow the server to be connected through dynamic TCP/IP port. Enabling this service is a one-time process, as on enabling it once it will apply to all the instances installed on the same server.

Go to All Programs >> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 >> Configuration Tools >> SQL Server Configuration Manager >> SQL Server Browser

Right Click on SQL Server Browser >> Click on Enable

6) Create exception of sqlbrowser.exe in Firewall

As elucidated in Step 6, sqlbrowser service needs to be enabled for named instance. Windows Firewall may prevent sqlbrowser.exe to execute. So, it is imperative to add exception for the same in windows firewall.

Search for sqlbrowser.exe on your local drive where SQL Server is installed. Copy the path of the sqlbrowser.exe like C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe and create the exception of the file in Firewall, as delineated in Step 3.

7) Recreate Alias

It is getting quite common to create alias of SQL Server and use it in application. This will ensure that in future if any physical SQL Server has to be moved, it will not be required to change any code or connection string. You can simply create alias with the same name pointing to different SQL Server and it will start working instantaneously. I have observed that a couple of times due to internal error while recreating alias this error was fixed.

Go to All Programs >> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 >> Configuration Tools >> SQL Native Client 10.0 Configuration >> Aliases

Delete the alias that is giving problem and recreate it with identical parameters.

I have tried my best to include all the methods of fixing this error and if I have missed any, please leave a comment and I will be very glad to include them here. I have put in my effort to encompass this issue in one article that needs to be refereed when any connection error comes up.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/05/21/sql-server-fix-error-provider-named-pipes-provider-error-40-could-not-open-a-connection-to-sql-server-microsoft-sql-server-error/feed/ 358 pinaldave