Yahoo to replace search with Bing:)

Looks like they have finally reached a partial agreement after months of negotiating.  So in about 3 to 6 months Yahoo will be utilizing Bing search behind the scenes.  Guess they are trying to cut into Google’s search which handles more than 70% of the searches on the web.  According to this article Google actually handles close to 90% of the searches.

Microsoft and Yahoo Agree on Search Deal

PASSMN SQL Summit 2009 Session Submission Now Open

I am pleased to announce that PASSMN SQL Summit 2009 presenter sessions and topic suggestions are now being accepted.

On Friday, September 25, 2009 PASSMN will be hosting its first (and FREE) SQL Server Summit event and we are currently looking for speakers to talk about SQL Server related topics in regards to Administration and Maintenance, Development, and Business Intelligence.  This includes topics such as upgrades, best practices, tips/tricks, etc.  We are also looking for case study related presentations, so if you have implemented a SQL Server solution that you would like to share with the group we are very interested in hearing your story.

To submit a session, use the Call for Presenters survey.  The survey will be open until August 17th at 9 AM.  Sessions should be approximately 40-50 minutes.

Call for Presenters survey

In an effort to create the type of event that the PASSMN community is looking for, we are also taking suggestions on topics.  If you aren’t interested in presenting but know a topic you are very interested in hearing about, please complete the following survey.  We do ask for some contact information with it so that we can contact you if we need clarity.

Topic Suggestion Survey

BIDS Helper 1.4.2.0 has been released

Today I was notified that a new release was available for BIDS Helper with the newly added Version Notification that was included with version 1.4.1.0 (BIDS Helper 1.4.1.0 available).

So what is new and what has been fixed?  Good question.  The new functionality that has been added is an SSIS Design Warnings Scanner which is similar to the SSAS AMO Warnings (Best Practice Alerts) that are part of BIDS 2008.  So now you can get Best Practice alerts with SSIS development.  Really cool 

This new release also includes fixes for:

• Change Variable Scope in Event Handler
• Dimension Health Check Fails with GUID Keys

So go out and download the latest version – http://bidshelper.codeplex.com and start leveraging all of the features that the BIDS Helper add-in provides for developing SSAS, SSIS, and SSRS solutions with BIDS.

Goodbye GeoCities, Popfly, and now Soapbox

Earlier this year I setup Google Ads on my Windows Live Spaces site.

That was pretty cool, but since it involved using javascript I had to find another means to get this to display on Live Spaces.  By setting up a GeoCities web site I was able to create the web page with the javascript that was needed within GeoCities and then reference this page by adding an HTML Sandbox item to my Live Spaces.

I was notified earlier this year that later this year the GeoCities service would be closing on October 26, 2009.

So this will no longer be an option for me.  Now you can have Yahoo host your site for $4.99/mo for the first 12 months and then it will be $9.95/mo.  You could do something similar to what I used GeoCities for with Popfly, which was a beta program that Microsoft setup where you could create games and mashups of content.  But once again a couple of months back I received an email stating that this was also shutting down on August 24, 2009.

This is starting to become a reoccurring theme now.  Then this past week I received a notice that MSN was shutting down its online user video service Soapbox. 

MSN Soapbox Shutdown FAQ

So as of July 29, 2009 you will no longer be able to upload videos and users will have to download and remove their videos by August 31, 2009.  The MSN video service will still be available, but the user generated content will no longer be an option.  So I will have to find another spot to put my videos that are longer than 10 minutes on if I want to continue to share this content since YouTube has added this limit.  I believe I only have a couple of videos that don’t meet this requirement, so not too big of a deal.

I was getting some viewings though on these items, so I will have to update my blog postings to point the videos to a new location.

Clearly I get more viewings on YouTube though.

It is sad to see that these services are being discontinued, but it is understandable.  Everyone has to do a little trimming these days to stay afloat.

Win a free trip to National SQL PASS 2009 Conference

This past week I received an email from a colleague and also read about it on Thomas LaRock’s blog, the SQLRockstar, ‘Want a Free Trip to PASS?’ that MSSQLTips.com and Idera are teaming up and sponsoring an all expenses paid trip to this year’s National SQL PASS Conference this November.

The details can be found here Win a FREE trip to SQL PASS! All expenses paid!.

The SQL PASS Summit is the largest conference for SQL Server and BI professionals in the world and will be held in Seattle November 2 – 5, 2009.

Hope to see you there

Windows Server 2008 Kerberos Bug Patch – resolves SSAS connection issues

Yesterday I was notified by a colleague that Microsoft had released the patch to fix the AES Kerberos issues that had been discovered earlier this year – Windows Server 2008 Kerberos Bug – Transport Connection Issues with SSAS data.  I had not been notified of this yet, but I checked out the blog posting by Dr. John Tunnicliffe SSAS: Microsoft release fix for “Kerberos killing MDX” issue and he provided a link to the downloads

UPDATED (8/23/2009) *** This has been updated and is the official release for this fix now *** :

A Kerberos authentication fails together with the error code 0X80090302 or 0x8009030f on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista when the AES algorithm is used

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/969083

*** This has been updated and is the official release for this fix now ***

So for those of you who have had to put the upgrade to Windows Server 2008 on hold because of this you can now download the patch and continue on with your infrastructure upgrades.  Just make sure that you properly test the patch before deploying this into your production environments.

Enjoy

PASSMN July Ask the Experts Panel Follow-up

We repeated the topic last year and had an Ask the Experts panel discussion last night at the monthly PASSMN meeting.  I want to thank everyone that showed up and we had some good questions that were asked in regards to Reporting Services, Virtualization, Data Compression, and SQL Server 2008 R2.

I have uploaded my tips & tricks from last night that I shared along with the ones from last year since I noticed that they were never uploaded to the PASSMN site.  You can find them in the Article Exchange area within the Message Boards on the site here or I have also uploaded them to my SkyDrive and are included below.

If anyone has any additional questions don’t forget to leverage the forums that are available like the MSDN SQL Server Forums and/or SQL Server Central.  I monitor the PerformancePoint Monitoring & Analytics forum and then I also look at the MSDN Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services along with the Business Intelligence forum on SQL Server Central.  These forum areas are an excellent knowledge base area to look at to help solve your questions.

Hope everyone enjoyed the session last night and we are currently working on organizing a PASSMN SQL Event that will be on Friday, September 25 at the Microsoft office in Bloomington.  This will be a free all day event and we are currently working on the format and we will be sending out a request for speakers soon.  Just mark this day on your calendar and get ready for a full day of learning, sharing, and networking

http://cid-cd3e77e793df6178.skydrive.live.com/embedrowdetail.aspx/Public/Presentations/PASSMN/AskExperts/MNPASSSQLServerUserGroupDanEnglishTipsTricks20080715.pdfhttp://cid-cd3e77e793df6178.skydrive.live.com/embedrowdetail.aspx/Public/Presentations/PASSMN/AskExperts/MNPASSSQLServerUserGroupDanEnglishTipsTricks20090714.pdf

If you have any questions about anything that I talked about last night (or from last year) please feel free to leave a comment here or send me a message.

PASSMN July 14, 2009 Monthly Meeting

The next PASSMN meeting is coming up next week.  The meeting is on Tuesday, July 14 from 3:00 PM to 5:15 PM.  You can visit the local site to get registered at http://www.mnssug.org or click the link to Register Here.

This month we are going to be doing an ‘Ask the Experts’ panel like we did last year.  Put together your list of questions in regards to the SQL Server platform and come and discuss them. 

Speakers:

• Lara Rubbelke, Microsoft

• Sanjay Kaul, Microsoft

• Dan English, Magenic

• Jason Strate, Digineer

After the popularity of last years "Ask the Experts", we decided to bring back the forum this year. PASS members will have the opportunity to pose any burning questions they might have about SQL Server to our expert panel. We will round things out with a couple tips or tricks about SQL Server from each of our panel experts.

The Panel

Lara Rubbelke brings her passion for architecting, implementing and improving SQL Server solutions to the community as a Technology Specialist for Microsoft. Her expertise involves both OLTP and OLAP systems, data management, performance tuning, encryption, ETL, and the Business Intelligence lifecycle. She is an active board member of the local PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) chapter and regularly delivers technical presentations at local, regional and national conferences, user groups and webcasts. Lara authored the Microsoft whitepaper detailing SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition features and was a contributing author of "Expert SQL Server 2005 Development". Prior to joining Microsoft, Lara was a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).

Sanjay Kaul is a database professional with over 15 years of experience in various database technologies. In his current position as a SQL Server Technology Specialist, he spends his day as an ambassador for Microsoft – promoting, evangelizing, and assisting customer realize their potential using SQL Server Technologies, and evenings furthering his culinary skills.

Dan English – Dan is a Principal Consultant with Magenic and has been developing with Microsoft technologies for over 12 years and has over 5 years experience with Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. He has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5 and now with 2008 looking towards the Kilimanjaro release. Dan has screencasts of SQL Server 2008 and PerformancePoint Server on YouTube and Soapbox ( keyword search – Magenic) and is an avid blogger (http://denglishbi.spaces.livecom/). Dan is fully certified with MS SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Business Intelligence. He enjoys keeping in contact with the community at large responding to forum postings on the Microsoft forums and SQL Server Central areas. Dan is also part of the PASSMN 2009 Executive Board.

Jason Strate, Digineer Inc, has been a Database Architect for over ten years. His experiences include designing and implementing both OLAP and OLTP solutions involving clustering servers, database monitoring and tuning, analysis services, DTS/Integration Services, Reporting Services, and Notification Services. Jason is actively involved with the local PASS chapter (SQL Server User Group); he is currently serving on the Executive Board and has presented at monthly meetings. Jason contributed to Microsoft’s published white paper "Empowering Enterprise Solutions with SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition" and actively blogs about SQL Server and related technologies. Also this year, Jason participated in the development of Microsoft Certification exams for SQL Server 2008, presented at the SSWUG SQL Server Launch Event and is presenting in upcoming SSWUG SQL Server Conference