In my last post on SQL Server 2005 I mentioned that SQL Server 6.5, 7.0 and 2000 are no more supported on Longhorn and Vista and I recommend to prepare for an upgrade to SQL Server 2005 with SP2.

And now a good news for all of them who are running on earlier versions. Microsoft has published a technical whitepaper on "SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide" which could be used as a reference to successfully upgrade from earlier versions. This 360 pages lengthy document covers the Backward compatibility issues to Clustering to Security considerations.

A must read.

Related link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3D5E96D9-0074-46C4-BD4F-C3EB2ABF4B66&displaylang=en

Cheers,

Are you interested working in the capacity of Information Worker Lead Architect with industry leading vendor (Windows Server System, Sharepoint Portal Server, Office Live,Windows Live) where your ideas get respect and you will get a chance to show your technical expertise without limits. This vacancy is in various locations including Turkey, Bahrain, Israel,South Africa, Egypt and Lebanon and there is a stong chance of relocation in Turkey or Bahrain, if interested.

Your experience and eductional requirements much met before applying.

•Degree in Computer Science / Engineering
•8+ years experience implementing IT solutions  
•Experience across the full IT systems life-cycle, including: envisioning, design, planning, development, deployment, operations and maintenance
•Experience working in, consulting to and technically leading large scale IT implementation teams
•Broad across-the-board knowledge of Microsoft products, technologies and architecture
•Deep knowledge and understanding of the base Microsoft technologies underlying specialist subject area the Windows Server System
•Deep knowledge and understanding of the Microsoft Office system technologies with new Office Live and windows Live experience
•Deep knowledge of Information Worker scenarios that is achievable by Microsoft technologies
•Deep knowledge on Microsoft Sharepoint portal server server at expert level, with necessary certifications in place, which can architect high available, redundant, reliable, complex database systems
•.NET development knowledge of Microsoft Office System as a platform including Sharepoint server access
•Proven ability to engage with customers, understand their business problems, craft technology solutions to solve their needs and guide them to the right course of action.
•Proven ability in solution selling, proposal development and bid response

COMPETENCIES REQUIRED:

•Representing Microsoft
•Dealing with Ambiguity
•Strategic Thinking
•Strategic Leadership
•Planning, Organizing & Coordinating
•Making others great
•Developing people
•Communication Skills
 Negotiation and Conflict Management

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Key MEA Services opportunities / projects
• Business Development and Proposal: Lead the technical response to key MEA Services opportunities - by reviewing RFIs/RFPs and other proposals, investigating and work-shopping context and requirements with customers, formulating appropriate best practice technical solutions, creating the necessary technical proposals, and presenting / evangelising these to back customers. This will be done in a supportive capacity to the subsidiary resources assigned to these opportunities.
 Architecture and Technical Leadership: Lead the formulation and implementation of the technical solution on key MEA Services projects - through high level architecture, detailed design, establishment of best-practice guidelines, creation of core solution elements, Proof-of-Concept of key aspects, troubleshooting of critical blockages and mentoring of the technical team.
•Quality Assurance and Troubleshooting: Increase the success rate and customer satisfaction on key MEA Services projects - by reviewing technical proposals and designs, and by troubleshooting challenged implementations.
Intellectual property and best practices
•IP Reuse: Evangelize and drive the use by MEA of worldwide technical assets - such as SDSs and SKUs, WW Offerings, ICE content, MSDM and MS@Work, Reference Architectures, standard Patterns and Practices, and Solution Accelerators - especially in area of technical specialisation.
•Best Practice establishment: Gather, create and share best practices across MEA in area of specialisation.
Architect and technical community
•Community leadership: Lead MEA community in area of technical specialisation, through active participation on Campus, acting as Subject Matter Expert on technical queries, mentoring of community members, and forming communications bridge and representation between worldwide and MEA communities.
•Development of Technical skills base: Assist to grow and mature the MEA consulting pool in area of specialization - through interviewing during recruitment, assessment of skills for critical projects, identification and (as needs be) delivery of training, and mentoring of individuals.
Solutions Strategy
•Market demand: Represent MEA Services to sister teams in area of specialisation - by working with MEA HQ vertical and functional leads, sector leads and technical specialists to understand market demand and possible joint offerings and approaches.
•Services capacity: Work with MEA subsidiary Services teams to understand capacity and capability in area of specialization.
•Services mix: Assist MEA MCS Lead to appropriately include area of specialisation in services mix - by combining market demand with Services capacity to formulate the right go-to-market strategy.

I would really appreciate if you send me your CV's at sami_danish@hotmail.com ASAP, selected candidates will be contacted shortly.

Thanks and Cheers,

I'll be there at Microsoft Booth.

Come and discuss. If you've great ideas and or having questions or suggestions feel free to share.

Will shortly post the interviews with the Microsoft employees.

Cheers,

Are you experiencing any problem, found any bug or have any suggestion, launch http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer and submit.

Follow the instructions on main page and nothing else.

Cheers,

I hope this is what you are looking for but what?

Instant access to Announcements, Documents, Utilities, Whitepapers

Point your browser to http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer, signin with your passport and get SQL Server valuable resources.

Thanks.

SQL Server 2005 comes with enhanced security features to make administrator life more easier and manageable at the same time some of the features provides developers flexibility to develop applications with the privileges they need without compromising the security. Code execution inside SQL Server can now be managed through a mix of Windows, native SQL Server security and .Net Code Access Security. A good news: now SQL Server users could be mapped with Windows credentials, means SQL Server can now access file and network resources, cool. Well, SQL Server is following the "Trustworthy Computing" so the features that requires more attention will be disable by default, no worries if you are a beginner and say - thanks to Microsoft. For example HTTP ENDPOINTS - a feature which enables SQL Server to expose stored procedures as WebService, disables by default.

A good new which I like the most, there is no more SQL only users in SQL Server 2005. What does it mean? it means SQL Server 2005 allows not only its local users but also Windows users to access the database. Not only this but you can also configure either SQL Server or Windows (local or Active Directory) or both can access.

If the administrator has applied security by configuring the Windows Authentication, then who ever loggedin to the database goes through the same credential policies as Windows users, it means all those rules which are part of Windows Authentication will be applied to the SQL Server users.

There is a lot more on Security inside SQL Server 2005 and will come up with them in the coming posts.

Cheers. 

Get expert architectural insights for building and maintaining robust databases.

Take an in-depth look at the internals of the SQL Server Storage Engine—with advice from a popular author and SQL Server expert. Database developers and administrators get best practices, pragmatic advice, and code samples to help master the intricacies of creating and maintaining enterprise relational databases.

• Upgrade or migrate to SQL Server 2005 and choose configuration options
• Control space allocation for databases and files manually or automatically
• Manage transaction logs to maximize efficient restore operations and data consistency
• Observe the internal structures of clustered and nonclustered indexes
• Build and partition relational indexes and tables
• Explore internal storage issues and compare fixed- and variable-length datatypes
• Detect and correct index fragmentation
• Implement and manage an appropriate concurrency model using locking or row versioning

Topics are really jiucy I mean mouth watering, rush for your copy.

Let me know your views on this book.

Related link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735621055/sr=1-1/qid=1156801743/ref=sr_1_1/104-6313703-3867159?ie=UTF8&s=books

Cheers,

Error: SQL linked server query failed "Login failed for user NT Authority\Anonymous"

Cause: This error usuall comes when the linked servers configured using delegation were not configured properly.

Solution:  If machine A is acting as a middle server, machine B is acting as a linked server and machine C is a client in the linked server scenario then Kerberos must be configured from machine A to B and C to A to flow the client credentials from A to B. Because in linked server configuration the client and linked server uses the NT authentication (impersonated token) instead of SQL login.

If you like to know how to configure leave a message in the comments.

Cheers,