Beginning SQL Server™ 2005 Administration

Introduction

I feel kind of like Sid in the movie Toy Story when his rocket came in the mail—"It came it finally came!" I remember anticipating SQL Server 7 when working with SQL Server 6.5 and hoping for an improvement. I wasn't disappointed. SQL Server 7 left far behind all the baggage of OS/2 and the UNIX environment from which SQL Server initially emerged. It was truly a new and innovative release. When SQL Server 2000 was announced, I was hoping for some even more dramatic improvements, and I wasn't disappointed. Although the changes in the product from SQL Server 7.0 to SQL Server 2000 were not of the magnitude of the changes between SQL Server 6.5 and SQL Server 7.0, they were still impressive. SQL Server was easier to program against, and easier than ever to manage. That was five long years ago.

Shortly after the release of SQL Server 2000, I heard about a new database system, code-named "Yukon," that was in development at Microsoft. The information I received made it sound like it was going to be the most significant release ever, and I became "cautiously optimistic."

The company I was working with was invited to join Microsoft's Yukon Ascend program when the product was in its Beta 1 stage. The Ascend program was designed to get Microsoft partners and key customers up on the product before it shipped in order to help spread early adoption. The Microsoft Developer Evangelists and Technical Evangelists were gearing up to spread the news about this new release, and my company ...