SQL Server code name "Katmai" CTP (June 11, 2007)

Chat Topic: SQL Server code name "Katmai" CTP
Date: Monday, June 11, 2007

Please note:Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

Grant [MSFT] (Moderator):
Welcome to the live chat about the first SQL Server "Katmai" CTP. We'll begin in a few minutes.

Grant [MSFT] (Moderator):
We are pleased to welcome our Experts for today’s chat. I will have them introduce themselves now.

Introductions

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Hi All - My name is Bill Ramos and I’m the Lead Program Manager for Relational Engine Manageability. I’ll be addressing any issues associated with SSMS.

Richard Waymire MSFT (Expert):
Hi, I'm Richard Waymire, a program manager on the management platform team.

Maria Balsamo [MSFT] (Expert):
My name is Maria Balsamo, I manage the TAP program for the SQL Server Development team. I work with the internal MSFT customers.

Jun Fang [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, I am Jun Fang, a development lead in engine programmability team.

Srini Acharya[MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, I am Srini Acharya. I am a senior Program manager in the relational Engine - Programmability team. I also own the Table-valued Parameters feature released in June CTP.

[Ed: More Experts joined the chat later after introductions had already been made.]

Start of Chat

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I saw on many forums many questions if in the sql serve 2008 it goes to be implemented the intellisense. It goes to be implemented on the next CTP?
A: We do plan to have T-SQL intellisense for the 2008 release. It won't be in the very next CTP - but in one later. Is there something in particular you want to make sure is in the product? I would like to know if there is a strong desire to have intellisense on DDL types of operations like CREATE TABLE or help in commands like BACKUP/RESTORE.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What are improvements to Analysis Services 2008? I saw new feature visual attribute relationship in Dimension Editor, and also I saw "Design warning" interface where you can enable/disable design warnings. Anything else we should check in SSAS 2008?
A: This CTP includes a redesigned dimension wizard, a new attribute relationship designer, and real-time design/best practice warnings. The warnings are implemented in AMO, exposed in the UI via blue squiggly lines, and can be dismissed individually (a single occurrence) or turned off all together.

Maria Balsamo [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any plans to add multiple mirrors to database mirroring?
A: There are no plans to add multiple mirrors (multiple secondary systems) to database mirroring. We realize this is a highly desirable request, however it will not be possible to deliver this feature in SQL Server 2008.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is the intellisense feature going to be optional? I mean is it possible to turn it off if needed?
A: We will have the option to turn off intellisense. We also want to make sure we can be performant enough to not interrupt typing.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Bill - If intellisense can be responsive than some ISVs implementations I would love to see it for those types of operations. Especially infrequently used ones requiring highlight + F1.
A: We will make sure that we can be more responsive than the others.

Gopal MSFT (Expert):
Q: When will change data capture appear in the CTP and will CDC be based on triggers?
A: CDC is currently available as part of the June CTP, the capture mechanism is log based.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Yes, strong desire to have intellisense on DDL types of operations.
A: Good to hear. We are thinking about replacing the existing View Designer with the intellisense feature on CREATE/ALTER VIEW statements. This would include auto completion of joins.

Michael Rys [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What about UDT (.NET) and FOR XML statement?
A: In order to use CLR UDTs and FOR XML, you have to write an explicit cast to XML for CLR UDTs that support XML serialization.

Gopal MSFT (Expert):
Q: Any improvements to peer to peer replication in Katmai?
A: Yes, we have added the ability to add nodes without quiescing the system, today if you have to add a new node to an existing topology and connect it to more than one peer, you need to quiesce the system. Also check out the new configuration wizard in CTP3. The wizard uses a topology viewer to help configure the topology. You will now be able to add and also delete nodes.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What new enhancement have you made for partition tables? I am very interested in any improvements with merge and splitting of partitions on VLDB's.
A: Are you looking for DDL improvements? Or - are you looking for help managing partitions using SSMS?

Richard Waymire MSFT (Expert):
Q: How is it decided where functionality goes SSMS or VSDBPro...is debugging SP's coming back into SSMS, or is SSMS just going to be pushed more towards configuration and analysis, while VSDBPro is going to be use for sp, udf, etc creation?
A: The two teams are working cooperatively yet have different goals. VSDBPro is all about the offline development experience, SSMS is an online development experience. So they will have many capabilities in common.VSDBPro is also focused on Visual Studio Team Suite integration. As to debugging, it's under active consideration to come back to SSMS in SQL Server 2008.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any Plans for additional Backup types. Like incremental backups (not backing up all changes since last full, just changes since last incr. backup)?
A: The only change planned is to support Compressed backups.

Richard Waymire MSFT (Expert):
Q: does Katmai support the load balancing Active Active?
A: This is not something that is planned for SQL Server 2008.

Maria Balsamo [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I'm not crazy, but I'd like to know if MS will put Sql Server to run on other platforms like Unix ?
A: No, MSFT does not have any plans to port SQL Server to any other operating system, like Unix.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In my opinion i'd like commands for all DDL, DCL and DML because many times we forget the all commands. principally for commands like XML,Symmetric Key,all commands for backup database for example,because we always need look the books online for write the commands and sometimes we don't have time for things like this.
A: Thanx for your feedback.

Maria Balsamo [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there any methods to add geometry to GEOMETRY COLLECTION data type in SQL Server Katmai Spatial.
A: No, you will not be able to do that directly. You will need to write your own method to do this.

Richard Waymire MSFT (Expert):
Q: Hello, I'm Wayne Gadberry, DBA at Viatech Consulting and was curious if we can expect any improved management tools around Service Broker? Thank you.
A: We are actively working on improving the management experience for Service Broker. Check back in future CTPs....

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I know the CTP SSMS will not work with 2005/2000. Will the RTM work? If so will some of the features (like intellisense) work with 2005 at RTM (or is the intellisense server driven)?
A: The CTP for SSMS should allow you to connect to SQL 2000 and 2005 servers. The plan is to make intellisense work across all SSMS supported versions of SQL Server.Q: Thanks bill.. I was confused :) Forgot you can connect to 2005 but can't put CTP SSMS on box with 2005 SSMS. That is what I wanted to see change in RTM. And great news about intellisense!

Richard Waymire MSFT (Expert):
Q: Hello ... will SQL2008 be making any inroads into the "grid computing" space (multiple servers handling one logical DB)?
A: We're certainly researching options there, but don't expect to deliver anything in the SQL Server 2008 timeframe.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: We would really like to put "notes" into the database properties (sys.databases?)... a database catalog, if you like with info like app server, web server, business unit, etc. Any chance of getting something like that? Seems simple.
A: You do have the ability to add extended properties for database objects with SQL 2005. That is the only form of annotation we will support for 2008.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What about the integration of the Dundas Charting... Will it be completely integrated when SQL 2008 will ship?
A: We are working on integrating an enhanced Dundas chart control so yes, there will be chart enhancement. Integration of other controls is still in planning.

Jun Fang [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What kind of spatial indexing will be in SQL Server 2008, and in which CTP will it appear?
A: We use a multi-level grid indexing scheme for spatial indexing. It will be in a future CTP later this year.

Richard Waymire MSFT (Expert):
Q: What news about Debug for Stored Procedures?
A: It's hopefully on the plate for SQL Server 2008 SSMS - we are working on it...

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: any compatibility concerns when migrating 2005 Analysis Service database to katmai?
A: Generally speaking, migration will be much more straightforward between 2005 --> 2008 than it was for 2000 --> 2005. As always, we'll be doing a lot of testing around both migration and backwards compatibility to make this process as smooth as possible.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any enhancements in SSRS report model. by means of creating a report model from an analysis service datasource, and not relational?
A: We don't have any currently on the schedule but will likely review this functionality in the next few months and determine what enhancements if any will be made. Please submit your feedback via Microsoft Connect so we can see the areas that you would like to see enhanced. Be as specific as possible, that would help us greatly.

Gopal MSFT (Expert):
Q: Any Enhancements in replication?
A: We are making enhancements to the peer-peer replication feature. The ability to add a new node without having to take a topology wide outage and also a new topology viewer page in the configuration wizard to help configure the topology using a viewer. This will now enable administrators to do maintenance operations like deleting a node, delete a link between two nodes etc.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be better integration between database mirroring, log shipping and transactional replication?
A: re: integration of mirroring, log shipping, and replication, these technologies are separate, and each have their own tradeoffs, so they will continue to be separate solutions. We are making improvements to all of them, and the goal is to make them easier to use.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can you tell us a little bit more about integration of SoftArtisans technology in ReportingServices?
A: There are two main feature areas that we are working on integrating currently. The first is a render to Office Word feature that would allow users to export reports to Word format. The second feature area is authoring reports in Office applications (Word and Excel specifically). This feature by SoftArtisans currently allows you to install an addin to Word and Excel and generate RDL reports. We're still in planning for this integration so timing and exact feature set is not yet determined.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Were there any changes made to the storage engine and transaction logging, like row format and log record structure?
A: We do plan to change our storage format to expand on the data compression feature we started with VarDecimal Storage in SP2. This is not in this CTP.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are you planning any changes to Reporting Services MDX query builder? Any changes to how Reporting Services will work with MDX queries?
A: We currently don't have big changes planned for the MDX query builder but may make small enhancements. If there are specific issues or features you would like us to support, please provide that feedback through Microsoft Connect.

Gopal MSFT (Expert):
Q: Replication with pdas has a lot of troubles, are you making something with this?
A: We are not making any specific changes to merge replication for CE subscribers but there are some performance improvements that are planned which will help merge replication performance in general.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What about of load balance process on sql 2008?
A: We do plan to have a feature to having SQL Server classify workloads depending on CPU and memory comsumption. This is not in this CTP.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can you make better use of a mirrored database? I like database snapshots, but they have to be manually created. Is there a way to always read from the mirror?
A: A mirror secondary is logically always in recovering mode, which is why you can't directly attach to it. I understand the desire to use the secondary, but at this point reporting against a snapshot is the best you'll be able to do.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: any plans to extended the authentication of the analysis database connection to both windows authentication and SQL Server Authentication, it'll make a big difference especially for identifying the logged user privileges, than using impersonation.
A: No such plans for this release, but we've heard this request before and are looking into making enhancements to the security model for a future release.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: High Availability: Will there be a kind of "load balancing" (active/active) by using just one cluster instance to get more out of the hardware resources?
A: In mscs clustering, it is the instance that fails over, so you can't have both sides of an active/active cluster running the same instance at the same time. SQL Active/active clusters have different instances on each side.

Srini Acharya[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any support for compressing a resultset before sending it back to the client?
A: We are adding support for NULL compression in the TDS protocol layer as part of implementing sparse columns in SQL Server 2008. This will result in some amount of compression in the result set. But, there are no plans for a generic result set compression.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What are the major enhancements in the reporting services?
A: We are working on several big areas for Reporting Services: scalability and performance, a server independent of IIS, support for new report structures (some significant enhancements/changes to RDL), integrating Dundas and SoftArtisans technology. We also have a raft of customer-requested improvements that we are reviewing, prioritizing and scheduling currently.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any tools for refactoring t-sql code into "better" code? Or help on how to write more optimized code?
A: We have no immediate plans for refactoring code into better code for 2008 - we'll start with basic intellisense.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How extensible is katmai for the ad-hoc reporting of microsoft (Excel services). and is there is a library of controls for excel services to customize?
A: Excel Services is owned by the Office Excel team. They are on a different ship schedule from us so are not part of the Katmai release. Reporting Services ships Report Builder for ad-hoc reporting. You can find documentation online for Report Builder with SQL Books online. Search for Report Builder or ad hoc reporting.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will Dundas Charting be available on MSDN download?
A: We are reviewing the plan for availability of Dundas controls. There's currently no plan in place to make them available on MSDN.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will you make it easier to failover from a database mirroring configuration to a log shipping secondary, and then failback?
A: Mirroring and log shipping describe relationships between the two machines.So, it doesn't make sense to talk about failing from a mirroring primary to a log shipping secondary.It's not the individual machine that is "mirroring" or "log shipping", it is the pair as a whole.What may happen in the future is to make it easier to migrate between availability solutions, but this is not a Katmai feature.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is the SSAS actions tab will not be in the future release, if no, Is there is any tight integration between notification services & analysis service actions.
A: I'm not sure if I understood the question correctly, but there are no plans to remove the Actions tab, nor are there any plans to add tighter integration with Notification Services.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I heard that Dundas Charting is going to be integrated with SQL Katmai. is it true.
A: Yes. Reporting Services will offer enhanced charting with Dundas charts in Katmai. We are also reviewing support for other Dundas controls.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How does the new "transparent failover" mechanism in database mirroring work? Does SQL Server automatically reconnect you to the new principal? What if the application had just issued a statement within a transaction, or just issued a commit?
A: Mirroring failovers have not significantly changed in Katmai except that the client-side caching of the connection configuration is now persisted, rather than being lost between app restarts. We're trying to track down who inserted the term transparent failover into the presentations and what they had in mind.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there a Major Issues between the performance Point server 2007 and Katmai?
A: I'm not aware of any major issues at present. Both the SQL and Performance Point teams will do a fair amount of compatibility testing prior to release.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What news about front end in business intelligence suite?
A: What front ends are you asking about? Microsoft ships several "front end" tools for BI. Reporting Services has several of them, Excel has BI support, as does PerformancePoint for scorecard applications and ProClarity. I guess the big news is that Microsoft has a variety of tools depending on your needs.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any enhancements concerning monitoring of SQL Server?
A: Yes - we do have additional support for monitoring. The new Declarative Management Framework will provide monitoring against policies that you define. You can try this out with this CTP. In future CTPs we will ship BPA rules. In future CTPs we will also have enhanced performance monitoring that allows you to collect data over time - not server side traces - to collect anything you desire and then report against it. We also plan to incorporate many of the reports found in the SP2 Performance Dashboard.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: We have a number of large customers that want a mirrored pair at one site, and a log shipping standby at a remote site for disaster recovery. If we lose the main site, we want it to be easy to failover to the log shipping standby.
A: That's an interesting scenario. I'll bring it up and see what we can do. It won't likely be a Katmai feature, but it may make it onto the map for a future release.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: There was some UI-Bugs like unlocking Accounts in SSMS (2005) will they be fixed in katmai?
A: This particular issue is high on our list of things to fix in a later CTP.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: what CTP will have backup compression available?
A: It's looking like a later CTP which should ship towards the end of the summer.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: what enhancements are you planning with Data Mining?
A: Key improvements planned: Enhanced time series algorithm with ARIMA; support for holdout and cross-validation; models built on filtered subsets of the mining structure data. Note: none of the preceding are in this CTP.

Jun Fang [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Which standards will Spatial comply with?
A: Katmai Spatial complies with OPENGIS.

Torsten Grabs (Expert):
Q: Are there any improvement with doing index maintenance on individual partitions with the ONLINE option?
A: We are considering improvements to indexed views such that a subset of indexable queries can be partition aligned. This is supposed to address the current limitation where indexed views need to be re-created when partitions are switched.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be enhancements for the DAC in katmai?
A: There are not planned changes to DAC. Is there something in particular that you have in mind?

Eddie Fong (Expert):
Q: When do you plan to release next CTP?
A: July is when we plan to release our next CTP.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How will the files you store with the FILESTREAM datatype be accessible without connecting to SQL Server (in other words via the filesystem), read/write, read or not at all?
A: Not at all. The whole concept of FILESTREAM (as opposed to WinFS) is that this is a database column with a unique storage attribute. Thus access is controlled via SQL. The pattern is that you make TSQL calls to obtain the transaction context (you must be in a transaction), and to obtain a logical path for the cell in the database. you then hand both of these items to a new API (which is a wrapper around ntCreateFile with Extended Attributes) to do the open.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be more reports like performance dashboard? And maybe some documentation?
A: The answer is yes and yes. We will likely consolidate the reports that we have and definitely provide documentation. These are not in this CTP.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: to DAC: it's nice to see, that you can get info like ssf sysdbreg but in helptext from sys.databases you can see commands that normaly don't work like has_access(db, uid)
A: I see - we'll look into this. It would be helpful for you to post this request through our Connect web site.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How about a new datatype such as array?
A: We've added a Table Valued Parameter data type used for passing in array like values into stored procedures and functions. This is better than arrays since type values are typed. You can check out the feature in this CTP.

Torsten Grabs (Expert):
Q: When should we use the $PARTITION function? We have started including the $PARTITION function in most of join and where statements to help the optimizer filter on a single partition and have seen improved query performance.
A: Tommy, using the partition function in clauses can help you to achieve partition elimination. If you can express a partition-eliminating predicate w/o the partition function over the fact table, this would be my preferred approach. This makes the queries more readable and easier to maintain.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: We'd love to see >2 mirrors: one synchronous mirror at the same site for HA, and one or more asynchronous mirrors offsite for DR. Log shipping is the only way we can get a third, async standby, but the failover story isn't clean,and it is mins behind.
A: Yes, we recognize the value of this scenario, however it will take significant work to make it happen. It is on the roadmap for a future release, but not Katmai.

Richard Waymire MSFT (Expert):
Q: I heard that multiple instances of SQL server have been depreciated for sql 2008. Is this correct?
A: No, that's not correct. They're still going strong...Q: this was in BOL for 2008... Multiple instances of SQL 2008 are not supported on a single computer, within 64-bit platform Katmai only supports x64 in this release and there is no IA64 supported is enabled.
A: Hmm, sounds like a mistake. Can you email me the exact navigation link and I'll investigate? rwaymi@microsoft.com

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: once again to DAC: I would like to have this connection as a really troubleshooting interface e.g. with help to DBCC page etc.
A: Understood.

Jun Fang [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In the new spatial engine, will there be the ability to "import" spatial boundary information from the popular formats (ESRI shp files, MapInfo, etc)? Will there be "save as" functionality to extract to these formats?
A: We support importing and exporting data in the "well-known-text" and "well-known-binary" formats. I don't think we support importing ESRI files directly, though I am not 100% sure. I can double check it later. I think all these popular formats support conversion to and from "well-known-text" and "well-known-binary" formats, so there shouldn't be a problem importing the data.

Torsten Grabs (Expert):
Q: Any improvement with implementing partition tables on existing tables? We need a much better way to migrate large tables into a partition structure without taking downtime. Partition tables are great, but very hard to implement on existing tables.
A: Could you please explain in a bit more detail what you want to do when migrating an existing table into a partitioned one and what issues you are facing?

Jun Fang [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What type of spatial indexing support does Katmai Spatial have? Any R-Tree support as of now?
A: Katmai uses a multi-level grid indexing scheme. We don't support R-Tree as of now, though we compared our performance against Oracle which uses R-Tree, and in most cases we tried our performance is better.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Linked-server (especially with Oracle) improvements or enhancements?
A: We have no additional improvements planned for linked servers other than bug fixes. Everything hinges on the OLEDB providers that you use. Was there something in particular you were looking for?

Fernlope [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Do you plan add support of new languages (Russian, Ukrainian) for full-text search?
A: Yes, Russian and Ukrainian (among others) will be included and enabled by default in full-Text Search for our next release.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Log stream compression in database mirroring: is that optional? How much CPU overhead is there? What compression rates are obtained?
A: I'll have to check, but my understanding is that it's not optional. Compression rates will as always depend on the contents being sent. If you have text data, you'll see very significant compression. If you're updating JPG images in blobs, you won't see much, as they are already compressed.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any Cube building enhancements?
A: Not in this CTP, but we're actively working on this for a future CTP.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: With the advent of SP2 and running Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode, you lose the Data Driven Subscriptions feature of Reporting Services. Are there any plans to bring Data Driven Subscriptions back into Katmai Reporting Services?
A: Yes, we would like to add this feature back in for Katmai. It's on the list, but no guarantees.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be enhancements in SQLDIAG. For example a more userfrinedly output - maybe some reports based on collected data/traces?
A: We have no planned changes to SQLDIAG - other than supporting connections to Katami. We have work planned for you to collect your own data/traces and write reports against them in a future CTP.

Srini Acharya[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is the conflict detection supported in this CTP?
A: We will be supporting change tracking of data in a table in an upcoming CTP. This can be used for detecting change conflicts.

Carolyn [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: recalling "reviewing support for other Dundas controls" The support is for Dundas controls for reporting services only? or plans for .NET Dundas MAP OLAP Services as well?
A: We are currently looking at Dundas support in Reporting Services. Additional support by other SQL/Microsoft teams will be determined.

Boris B (Expert):
Q: Multiple instances of SQL 2008 are not supported on a single computer, within 64-bit platform Katmai only supports x64 in this release and there is no IA64 supported is enabled.
A: If you are reading this from a Readme file, this should be a temporary limitation of CTP3. Multiple instances and side-by-side installations will be supported.

Kevin [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will we see any additional functionality in the restore area (e.g. object level restore)?
A: Table level restore is not a Katmai feature. The biggest change in the backup/restore area is backup compression.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: will new performance monitoring features have any intelligence? - highlighting root causes rather than symptoms?
A: Our goal is to identify the root causes as much as possible.

Torsten Grabs (Expert):
Q: We are partitioning tables with millions of records with over 600 clients data. I want a better way to make an existing table a partition table and partition by client ID. I know I can do a metadata move to get it in a partition structure on 1 partition.
A: As I understand you are not trying to switch new data into an already existing partitioned table, right? If you want to my recommendation would be to do a partition-wise SELECT INTO.

Gopal MSFT (Expert):
Q: Any new Replication functionalities to other databases like DB2, similar to the Oracle Publishing feature in SQL 2005?
A: No we are not adding any heterogeneous publication support in Katmai.

Srini Acharya[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I noticed that, for array emulation, the new Table Valued Parameters perform much slower than splitting delimited strings into table variables. Is the optimization of this feature complete?
A: TVP optimizations are complete and we see significant performance improvements when you are sending large number of rows from client to server (anything more than 100 rows) as opposed to sending them as parameter arrays. But the main purpose of TVPs are for ease of programming as well as provide strong type checking at the parameter layer. So, custom solutions to send the values as CSV and splitting them into table variables may perform similarly or better, but will increase the code complexity in the SP.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Could you please share what changes (if any) are planned regarding MDX language?
A: No major changes are currently planned. We will be extending the CREATE MEMBER syntax to support defining caption, display folders and associated measure group. CREATE SET will be enhanced to allow support for captions and display folders, as well as, the ability to define dynamic named sets. Also, a CREATE KPI command will be added.

Rob Zare [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: are there enhancements planned in MDX / XMLA and the GUI for the rights management in AS?
A: Currently not.

Jun Fang [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In the new spatial engine, does it integrate with SSAS. like defining a geographic visual dimension?
A: This is not planned for Katmai.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any efforts to make DBAs a more scalable resource in the future? There's never enough staff. 8-|
A: Absolutely. Intellisense will help application developers write better SQL so the DBA doesn't have to train them as much. The Declarative Management feature will help identify servers and objects that fall out of policy and make it easy to put them back into policy.

Bill Ramos[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: in my current project we're planning to partition a 1 billion row table in 40 Mio partitions (1 month) are there a short way to help handling a lot (60) partitions in one table?
A: Not really - You'll have to rely on TSQL for the scenario.

Boris B (Expert):
Q: Issues skipping 2000 to 2005 migration going from 2000 to 2008?
A: You should be able to do it. However, you are likely to have a more complicated process. There are inevitable breaking changes (while we are trying to keep them at minimum) which may require app modifications plus normal deprecation process.

[Ed: A number of questions were left open at the end of the chat. Answers to these questions are provided below.]

Grant Dickinson (Expert):
Q: What is the major enhancements in SSIS beside the data capture engine?
A: CDC is actually built by the SQL Replication team, but SSIS worked closely with them to ensure their design would fit with expected SSIS use cases. Other features SSIS is working on include performance, connectivity, C# scripting support, Lookup Transform improvements and some of the cross-box work such as the new DateTime types.

Peter Saddow (Expert):
Q: Will it be possible to script the installation process in more detail? For example, not only the datapath for the system databases but also the logpath for the logfiles. Or the path for the errorlogs. At this point we have to change it after install.
A: You will have more flexibility to set the location of the data & log files over what SQL 2005 supported.

Peter Saddow (Expert):
Q: I would like to see the option to choose domain groups vs local groups during installation, just like the cluster installation. Is this possible?
A: Is this for service accounts? Currently we are thinking domain/local accounts and built-in.

Eric Hanson (Expert):
Q: What can you say about scale out solutions in Sql Server 2008?
A: The main focus in performance improvement in SQL Server 2008 is on better query optimization and execution on a single SMP system. Given the rapid advances in multi-core processor technology, we think this will satisfy the performance needs of the bulk of our customers. Take a look at our “Scalable Shared Database” feature from SQL Server 2005, a read-only shared-disk scale out feature that is very effective for scaling out data warehouse query workloads. Also, some of the largest web properties in the world use application-level scaleout, with the app directing the request to the right SQL Server instance. One has over 270 TB and tens of millions of users. Distributed Partitioned Views are a useful scale out option for many users as well.

Pablo Castro (Expert):
Q: Sql2008 will support databases over network or better over internet through http (like virtual directories)?
A: We are working on a new project to expose data over HTTP interfaces in a way that is natural for the web environment. The project is still in its early stages, and it is available in CTP form. More information at http://astoria.mslivelabs.com.

Shishir Mehrotra (Expert):
Q: Will we get some benefit from the Stratature aquisition in SQL 2008?
A: From the Stratature acquisition Q/A:
How do these products relate to SQL Server?MDM capabilities will be delivered through Microsoft Office System applications and servers on top of an infrastructure provided from SQL Server. Stratature’s products are currently implemented using SQL Server.

Grant Dickinson (Expert):
Q: Is there going to be support in SSIS to translate lineageIDs in which errors have occurred to column names in the error log output? Currently all we can get is the ErrorDescription by using Component Metadata and the column LineageIDs.
A: We have this on our list of things we want to attend to when we complete our ‘major feature’ work, however it depends on time and resources whether this will make it or not.

Eric Hanson (Expert):
Q: Any enhancements / improvements to linked servers in the works?
A: We don’t have any major enhancements to linked servers planned right now. We’re reviewing our strategy this summer.

Lance Olson (Expert):
Q: LINQ and SQL2k8, any enhancement on that front, some kind of integration or ... ?
A: Developers will be able to use LINQ to DataSet, LINQ to SQL, or LINQ to Entities program against SQL 2k8 from LINQ. See http://blogs.msdn.com/data/archive/2007/04/28/microsoft-s-data-access-strategy.aspx for details on what to use for your particular scenario.

Grant Culbertson (Expert):
Q: What prevision for show CTPs? For Month? Weeks?
A: I'll assume this question is really asking about how often we plan to release CTPs. The current plan is to release a new CTP about every 60 days for the rest of the year.

Sethu Kalavakur (Expert):
Q: Do you have any metrics on performance and storage penalties when encrypting the entire database or specific data or log files?
A: We will have numbers on performance penalties with database encryption by the time we release the feature in a future CTP.

Michael Rys (Expert):
Q: in SQL 2005 we can't update or do anything to a record in a table with nText field in the table view, is this still exists so we have to filter out the nText column to be able to update or delete this row?
A: This is probably still there in 2008. You should migrate from NTEXT to NVARCHAR(Max). The ALTER TABLE statement is only affecting meta-data and is quick. Note that Textpointers are not supported (or needed) on nvarchar(max)).

Grant Dickinson (Expert):
Q: There were some issues in SSIS designer with Containers... The Precedence arrows again and again got invisible unless you move the tasks around... This is still in SP2... Will there be a fix for that in SQL 2008?
A: We have seen this issue and it is under investigation.

Grant Dickinson (Expert):
Q: Does Katmai SSIS provide 2 dataflow components as an input to another dataflow component (ie multiple dataflow inputs)?
A: It sounds like you want to do the equivalent of a relational JOIN, in which case the MergeJoin component should do the trick. Alternatively if it is the equivalent of a UNION you are looking for then a Merge component should do the job. In both cases, two transforms can simultaneously feed another transform as per your request.

Isaac Kunen (Expert):
Q: Will coordinate systems be supported in Spatial?
A: It depends on what you mean. We will not support transformation between coordinate systems in the engine, although we will store an SRID for each object so that users can distinguish between coordinate systems. We are working to ensure that solutions for ETL exist that will allow spatial projection transformations on load.

Michael Rys (Expert):
Q: Is there any design change to support larger SQLMXL Updategrams data?
A: Not at the moment.

Michael Rys (Expert):
Q: Do you plan improve xml data type support? Maybe replace one node by another node in XQuery DML or one insert into few nodes?
A: This is not planned for Katmai/2008, mainly since the standard is still in development. We will look at this for a future release.

Jose Blakeley (Expert):
Q: What is the vision for Entity Data Model (EDM) with Katmai; 1. Will SQL Server include tools to maintain EDM's or will this be part of Visual Studio, 2. Are EDM's always stored seperate from SQL Server, or will it be possible to include them with the db?
A: The EDM is an extended relational model with Entity-Relationship concepts and is part of the Data Platform Strategy in the SQL Server Division to manage all types of data from birth to archival. The EDM works in conjunction with an Entity SQL query language – a SQL dialect over EDM instances extended with concepts for type construction, property getters/setters, type interrogation, relationship navigation, nest and unnest operations. The vision of the EDM is articulated in more detail in this paper. The EDM and Entity SQL abstractions are implemented by the Entity Framework runtime, an extension to the ADO.NET framework, which will ship in the Katmai time frame.
1. The EDM will include design-time modeling and mapping tools. They will ship as part of the ADO.NET framework and will be accessible as add-ins in Visual Studio.
2. Currently, EDM models and mapping files are artifacts stored as files that work with the application. Storing them in the database is being considered, but we don’t have concrete dates when this feature will become available.

Denise Draper (Expert):
Q: Cluster-aware SSIS?
A: No, our recommendation is not to cluster SSIS.

Brian Welcker (Expert):
Q: I've tried to install the CRM titan CTP with SQL server 2008 ,the reporting services failed to be authenticated with the CRM generating this error "Version string portion was too short or too long ", Is there major issues between them both?
A: I believe CRM is designed for SSRS 2005. I doubt they have tried this on SSRS 2008. You might want to follow up with the CRM team.

Grant Dickinson (Expert):
Q: Will you improve the Import/Export wizard to make it easier to import many tables from Oracle? I don't need the full blown migration assistant- I just want to import 200- 300 tables without getting errors.
A: It is hard to know exactly what you are asking for without knowing the details of the ‘errors’ you are seeing. However we have made many improvements to the IE Wizard which will be shipped in a later CTP, hopefully you will like what we have done!

Debra Dove (Expert):
Q: Maybe a bit besides Katmai, but in terms of driver support to other datasource (linked server, openrowset) on x64, any improvements?
A: At this time, we have no improvements in flight to update or increase our driver support story to other data sources. The Feature Pack (via HIS) includes a Microsoft OLE DB provider for DB2. We definitely would love to hear from customers if the support via the other database vendors is not providing the level of functionality or support they need to plug into SQL Server.

Chris Hays (Expert):
Q: any enhancements in SSRS parameters & customizing them as well?
A: The only change in parameters is: Parameter prompts are now allowed to be expressions - Needed for autolocalized reports.

Isaac Kunen (Expert):
Q: Is there a list of the projection systems supported by Katmai Spatial?
A: We will support any planar data, but will not have built-in support for transformation between them. For geodetic systems, we are planning to support all commonly used systems, but will again not have inherent support to transform between systems.

Brian Welcker (Expert):
Q: will sql RS be able to append reports? make multiple reports print together with pagnination?
A: Other than the subreport support in SSRS 2005, there are no new capabilities planned for this area.

Paul Randal (Expert):
Q: How about a temporary index such as a temporary table?
A: Not in Katmai.

Eric Hanson (Expert):
Q: what about bitmap indexing?
A: We’re not adding bitmap indexing in Katmai because it provides marginal benefit compared to other performance enhancements. Bitmap indexes give you a few of things: non-clustered index compression, fast operations to count # of rows that meet a criteria, and fast row id set union/intersection operations. But the main cost of a bitmap index query tends to be seeking to find qualifying rows, and bitmaps don’t help with that. We support index intersection-based star join plans very similar to competitor’s bitmap plans, with similar performance characteristics. To benefit from this, use non-clustered indexes on the dimension key columns of data warehouse fact tables in Katmai, and compress them.

Brian Welcker (Expert):
Q: will RS have "keep together" functionality for grouping?
A: Yes, keep together properties have been added to groups.

Grant Dickinson (Expert):
Q: is there is any features for SSIS Testing Data warehousing as well?
A: Not at this stage.