Installing and configuring SQL Server Master Data Services (MDS) is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get. Recently I ran into some troubles (or woes) when configuring MDS at a client. The installation went smoothly, as well as the installation of other prerequisites (like IIS, PowerShell and so on). The […]
Category: SQL Server
Reporting Services redesign – it’s the little things
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is getting quite the overhaul in SQL Server 2016. Lot’s of things are changing: new look ‘n feel for Report Builder: Report Builder Changes in SQL Server 2016 new chart types (check out my sunburst, treemap and heatmap articles) a (somewhat) customizable parameter pane HTML 5 support and many, many […]
New SSRS features in SQL 2016 CTP 2.4
SQL Server 2016 CTP 2.4 hasn’t been released yet (any day now I guess), but someone was apparently very eager at Microsoft because some of the MSDN documentation pages are already updated. One of those pages is What’s New in Reporting Services. There we can see three new features will be added: PDF replaces ActiveX […]
Reblog: The Magic Alt Button
SQLKover update: I love this trick! I use it daily, no kidding (except in weekends). Want to see it in live action? You can watch my MSSQLTips.com webcast on-demand where I demonstrate this trick. Start watching at around minute 38. Lately I have been using more and more the awesomeness of the Alt-button in SQL Server […]
Webinar – SSIS Best Practices and Tuning Tips
I’ll be giving an SSIS webinar for MSSQLTips.com on Tuesday 15th September 2015. The title is SQL Server Integration Services Best Practices and Tuning Tips and its abstract goes like this: Did you ever inherited a slow running un-maintainable mess of an SSIS package? Or do you want to knock up your SSIS developing skills […]
Report Builder Changes in SQL Server 2016
As a lot of features, Report Builder will improve as well in SQL Server 2016. At the moment of writing CTP 2.3 has been released and Report Builder has the following changes: more up-to date look ‘n feel high dpi in the preview HTML5 support Screenshot of the look ‘n feel: That’s right: away with baby-blue and enter […]
SSIS – Unexpected Termination
I was toying around with the new SQL Server 2016 CTP release and I wanted to run a few SSIS packages to test out the new logging levels. However, everytime I ran a package in the SSIS catalog, it ended with the dreaded “unexpected termination” message. In such a case, nothing is logged to the catalog, so […]
SQL 2016 CTP 2.3 has been released
A new monthly release of the SQL Server 2016 preview has been released: CTP 2.3. You can find the download here (the official SQL Server 2016 page currently still links to CTP 2.2). There isn’t any official documentation out yet describing which features have been added or improved, but thanks to Dutch MVP Joost (blog | […]
Reblog: Force installation of 64-bit ACE OLE DB provider
Anyone working with SSIS and Excel probably had the following issue: you are creating an SSIS package using an Excel file in BIDS/SSDT – which is a 32-bit application – and when you try to run the package, it crashes. This is easily fixed by setting the project property Run64BitRuntime to False. The package now […]
Nesting Aggregates with Window Functions
Recenty I was writing an article for MSSQLTips where I had to create a treemap (it will be published soon). As sample data, I used the different folders containing the drafts for all the tips I ever wrote. As measures, I have the number of kilobytes and the number of items per folder. An example: […]