What’s
new in SQL Server 2008:
Hot
Add CPU —If your hardware or software environment
supports it, SQL Server 2008 will
allow
you to dynamically add one or more CPUs to a running system. These CPUs can be
physical,
logical,
or virtual.
Option
to Optimize for Ad Hoc Workloads — SQL
Server 2008 includes a new feature that
allows
administrators to configure the server to improve plan cache efficiency for ad
hoc batches.
With
this feature enabled, the Database Engine no longer needs to store fully
compiled plans that
will
not be reused. Instead, the plan cache stores a stub of the ad hoc workload.
SQL
Server Extended Events — SQL Server 2005
introduced the ability to associate SQL Profiler
traces
with Windows Performance Log counters. This was extremely helpful in
identifying
poorly
performing queries or the lack of sufficient resources in the system to handle
certain
events.
SQL Server 2008 takes this a step further by introducing SQL Server Extended
Events.
Extended
events allow database administrators to get a better understanding of the
system
behavior
by correlating SQL Server data to the operating system or database
applications. This
is
handled by directing output from extended events to Event Tracing forWindows
(ETW).
Resource
Governor — The Resource Governor is a new feature
that allows administrators to
specify
configuration options that limit the amount of CPU and memory available to
incoming
requests.
This can help prevent applications or queries from consuming 100 percent of the
CPU
or
all available memory. The Resource Governor uses configurable workload groups,
which
define
what the CPU and memory limits are for any session that is classified as being
a member
of
that group. Classification can be performed based on a number of system
functions or
user-defined
functions.
Policy-Based
Management— SQL Server 2008 includes features that
allow administrators
greater
control over their server environments by enforcing behaviors or constraints
through a
policy-based
mechanism. In addition to using the included policies, administrators can
create
their
own policies to configure servers to meet compliance requirements and
standardize
naming
conventions, thereby simplifying administration.
Centralized
Management— Central Management servers are SQL
Servers that can be configured
to
manage multiple servers as part of a group. You can also execute queries
against a SQL
Server
group that can return results to either a combined set or a separate pane per
server. A
Central
Management server can also be used to enforce management policies against
multiple
target
servers simultaneously.
Query
Editor IntelliSense — SQL Server Management Studio now
provides IntelliSense functionality
in
the Query Editor. The IntelliSense functionality provides auto-completion
ability,
error
underlining, quick info help, syntax pair matching, and parameter help.
PowerShell
Provider — SQL Server 2008 includes new features
that integrate with Windows
PowerShell
to help administrators automate many SQL Server 2008 tasks. PowerShell is an
administrative
command-line shell and scripting language that can make it easier to perform
many
common tasks through automation. The PowerShell provider in SQL Server 2008
exposes
SQL
Server Management Objects (SMO) in a structure similar to file system paths.
SQL Server
PowerShell
also includes several SQL Server cmdlets for running scripts and other common
tasks.
Compressed
Indexes and Tables— Compression is now supported for tables,
indexes, and
indexed
views on either rows or pages. Compression operations will have an effect on
performance.
Because
of this, row and page compression can be configured on a per-partition basis.
For
example, you could choose to compress a Read Only partition, but leave a
Write-intensive
partition
uncompressed to minimize impact on the CPU.
FILESTREAM
— FILESTREAM is a new storage mechanism
for storing data on the file system,
rather
than in the database itself. SQL Server 2008 applications can use FILESTREAM to
take
advantage
of the storage and performance benefits of the NTFS file system while
maintaining
transactional
consistency with the files themselves. Developers can leverage FILESTREAM as
a
mechanism for allowing large files to be maintained by the application
database, without
causing
the database to become unnecessarily bloated. (Although this is just
speculation on
my
part, I would be surprised if future releases of SharePoint didn’t leverage
FILESTREAM
storage.)
Partition
Switching —Simply put, Partition Switching enables
you to move data between partitions
for
a table or index. Data can be transferred between partitions without disrupting
the
integrity
of the table or index.
Spatial
Data Types — Two new data types have been created for
storing planar, or ‘‘flat-earth’’
data
as well as ellipsoidal, or ‘‘round-earth’’ data. These data types are known as
the geometry
data
type and geography data type, respectively.
MERGE
Statement—
Transact-SQL includes a new MERGE statement that, based on the results of a
join
with a source table, can perform INSERT, UPDATE,
or DELETE operations
against a target table.
For
example, you can use MERGE to
incrementally update a destination table by comparing the
differences from a source table.
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