SQL Server 2008, the latest release of Microsoft SQL Server, provides a comprehensive data platform. Books Online is the primary documentation for SQL Server 2008. The May 2009 update of SQL Server 2008 Books Online is ready to download.
Books Online includes the following types of information:
- Setup and upgrade instructions.
- Information about new features and backward compatibility.
- Conceptual descriptions of the technologies and features in SQL Server 2008.
- Procedural topics describing how to use the various features in SQL Server 2008.
- Tutorials that guide you through common tasks.
- Reference documentation for the graphical tools, command prompt utilities, programming languages, and application programming interfaces (APIs) that are supported by SQL Server 2008.
Download Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Books Online
How I Read SQL Server 2008 Books Online Before an Upgrade
The part of the documentation I read most closely before any upgrade was the backward compatibility section. It lists four kinds of changes: features that are deprecated, features that are discontinued, breaking changes, and behavior changes. A breaking change can stop your code from running, while a behavior change can quietly return different results, which is worse.
My upgrade routine looked like this:
- Read the lists for the version you are moving to, and note anything your code uses.
- Search your stored procedures and scripts for those features.
- Check the
SQLServer:Deprecated Featuresperformance counter object, which counts how often deprecated features are used on a running server. - Test the main application on the new version before the real move.
Deprecated does not mean broken today. It means the feature still works but may be removed in a future version, so new code should avoid it.
To see which deprecated features a server is using right now, read the same counters with T-SQL: SELECT instance_name, cntr_value FROM sys.dm_os_performance_counters WHERE object_name LIKE '%Deprecated Features%' AND cntr_value > 0; The counts start again from zero when the service restarts, so run it after the server has been up through a normal business cycle.
This May 2009 download link may not work anymore. The same kind of lists exist in the current online documentation for each release, and reading them before an upgrade is still one of the best hours you can spend.
Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.
