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 Getting SQL Server Assistance

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SQL Server 2008 Books Online (June 2009)
Getting SQL Server Assistance

There are three principal sources of information from Microsoft about SQL Server:

  • The documentation, tutorials, and samples installed with SQL Server.
  • The SQL Server sites on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet.
  • SQL Server information on additional Microsoft Web sites.

If you do not find the information you are looking for in these sources, you can either post questions in the SQL Server community forums and newsgroups, or you can open a support case with Microsoft.

When you install SQL Server, you can install the SQL Server documentation (SQL Server Books Online), sample applications, and tutorials. SQL Server Books Online, samples, and tutorials cover the concepts and procedures required to use SQL Server effectively. SQL Server Books Online also includes reference material for the languages and programming interfaces for storing, retrieving, reporting, and modifying data using SQL Server.

If you install the documentation and tutorials by using the SQL Server 2008 Setup program, you can access them in two ways:

  • Through the Documentation and Tutorials submenu on the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 program group.
  • Through F1 Help and Dynamic Help in the SQL Server tools and utilities.

SQL Server 2008 Books Online is also available on the Web. This gives you access to the documentation from a computer on which SQL Server is not installed:

  • A copy of SQL Server 2008 Books Online is published in both the MSDN Library and the TechNet Library. The topics in these copies of the SQL Server Books Online include comments from the community, such as additional information and code examples from other customers. TechNet searches for SQL Server information will return relevant topics from the TechNet Library version of SQL Server 2008 Books Online. All other Web searches for SQL Server information will return relevant topics from the MSDN Library version of SQL Server 2008 Books Online. You can view the MSDN Library copy at the SQL Server 2008 Books Online Web Page.
  • A downloadable copy of SQL Server 2008 Books Online is available on the Web. You can use the download to install SQL Server Books Online on computers that are not running SQL Server 2008. For more information, see Downloading and Updating Books Online.

Both the download file and the copy of SQL Server Books Online in the MSDN Library are refreshed when Microsoft publishes an update to SQL Server 2008 Books Online.

For more information about installing and accessing the sample applications and databases, see AdventureWorks Sample Databases.

The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) provides online and offline services that help developers write applications using Microsoft products and technologies. The Microsoft TechNet Program delivers comprehensive technical resources that help IT professionals efficiently evaluate, deploy, and support Microsoft solutions.

Several sites on MSDN and TechNet provide a specific audience with links to the SQL Server information most relevant to their jobs, including the information in the copies of the SQL Server Books Online on MSDN or TechNet. These sites also contain information that extends the information available in the Books Online.

The following table describes these resources and their intended audience.

Resource Audience

SQL Server Developer Center

Developers who are building SQL Server databases, reporting systems, and business intelligence solutions, and enabling their applications and Web sites to use these systems.

Data Access and Storage Developer Center

Developers who are enabling their applications and Web sites to use data stored using products such as SQL Server and Access.

XML Developer Center

Web site creators and application developers whose sites and applications utilize XML for data storage and manipulation.

SQL Server TechNet Site

Administrators and operators who plan, deploy, administer, and support systems that use SQL Server.

Additional SQL Server information is available from these Microsoft Web sites.

Resource Description

Microsoft SQL Server

Provides pre-sales information about evaluating SQL Server as a data storage and business intelligence tool.

Microsoft Knowledge Base

Provides a searchable repository of SQL Server articles written by Microsoft support.

Microsoft Learning

Describes Microsoft training and certifications for SQL Server.

Microsoft Press

Lists Microsoft Press books about SQL Server.

If you have not found the information you are looking for in the product documentation or on the Web you can ask a question in the SQL Server community forums and newsgroups. You can also request help from product support.

ms166016.note(en-us,SQL.100).gifNote:
Please do not post questions in the Community Comments section at the bottom of the SQL Server Books Online topics in the MSDN Library or TechNet Library. Those sections are not monitored for questions, and you will usually not receive an answer. Please post questions in the community forums and newsgroups, which are monitored by other customers who can answer your questions.

The following table links to and describes these resources.

Resource Description

SQL Server

Has links to newsgroups and forums monitored by the SQL Server community. It also lists community information sources, such as blogs and Web sites. The SQL Server community is very helpful in answering questions, although there is no guarantee of an answer.

SQL Server Developer Center Community

This site focuses on the newsgroups, forums, and other community resources that are useful to SQL Server developers.

Microsoft Help and Support

You can use this Web site to open a support case with a Microsoft support professional.

Microsoft products have a support lifecycle that defines how long support is available for each release. Microsoft support maintains a page that defines the Microsoft support lifecycle. The page contains links to other pages that specify the availability of support for Microsoft products. For more information, see Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

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Administration part of SQL Server 2005 / 2008 Express Edition      Mangipudi Srikanth ... tatiana115   |   Edit   |   Show History

Administration part of SQL Server 2005 / 2008 Express Edition

Greetings,
I am Srikanth Mangipudi.

Could anyone please let me know, about detailed documentation about Administration part of SQL Server 2005 / 2008 Express Edition.

Question: Can we create file groups / otherwise know as table spaces using Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 Edition?



Would be grateful, if anyone sends quick reply on this

Best regards
Srikanth Mangipudi

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Hi, the best way to get questions answered is to post in the Microsoft Community Forum. The SQL Server Forums are located here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=19&SiteID=1. You may want to post this to the SQL Server Express forum.
Can not connect to Analysis Services 2008 Web Service      KimSarkin111 ... Thomas Lee   |   Edit   |   Show History
We are busy on a project where we need to connect to an SSAS 2008 DB via a Web Service but we can not get this working.

The following has been tried so far:

1. Installed XMLA (we were not sure if this the recommened way for 2008)
2. Installed IIS and created a virtual directory
3. Try to connect to the web service with the following http://localhost/xmla/msxisapi.dll - which does not work!!

Please we need help!
Regards,
Kim.

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Hi, the best way to get questions answered is to post in the Microsoft Community Forum. The SQL Server Forums are located here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=19&SiteID=1. You will want to post this to the Analysis Services forum.

ReportingServices dll for 2008      BenAlicea ... Thomas Lee   |   Edit   |   Show History
Are there new SQL Server 2008 ReportingServices dll for use in Visual Studio 2008? If yes, can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

Ben

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Hi, the best way to get questions answered is to post in the Microsoft Community Forum. The SQL Server Forums are located here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=19&SiteID=1. You will want to post to the Reporting Services forum.
Help?      labrardin ... Thomas Lee   |   Edit   |   Show History
I need to work on my SQL programs for class and I am receiving the following error. "A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified) (.Net SqlClient Data Provider)"

The User Action is below:
To resolve this error, try one of the following actions:

Make sure that you have configured the firewall on the server instance of SQL Server to open the SQL Server Browser port.--nothing has changed

Make sure that the SQL Server Browser service is started on the server.--not sure what this means??


Check the spelling of the SQL Server instance name that is specified in the connection string.--this looks the same


Use the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool to enable SQL Server to accept remote connections. For more information about the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration Tool, see Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.--I am trying to locate the 2008 Installation Media but I am not sure which file this is in I see all the files.

If the best thing is to uninstall this program and reisntall please let me know for this is the way I am leaning towards.

Any help is needed, please!!!!

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Hi, the best way to get questions answered is to post in the Microsoft Community Forum. The SQL Server Forums are located here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=19&SiteID=1.

Transactional Replication Help?!!      Muhannad7 ... Thomas Lee   |   Edit   |   Show History
i have created a distributor and a publisher on the same machine using this example:


and then i have tried to use this example to create a transactional Replication:

but it failed to create the publication, when i searched about the error it said that i have to create an article before trying to do that as this statement says:

"This example enables the AdventureWorks database for transactional publishing, defines a Log Reader Agent job, and creates the AdvWorksProductTran publication. An article must be defined for this publication. The Windows account credentials that are needed to create the Log Reader Agent job and the Snapshot Agent job are passed at runtime. To learn how to use RMO to define snapshot and transactional articles, see How to: Define an Article (RMO Programming)."

but when and where i have to apply the article and how i can create it before creating the publication because the article should be assigned to a publication....

this is the error i am getting when trying to create the publication:

(Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'pubid', table 'publisher.dbo.IHpublications'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails.
Could not create the publication.
Changed database context to 'publisher'.
The statement has been terminated.)


please help me ASAP

with regards
Muhannad

[tfl - 07 05 09] Hi - and thanks for your post. You should post questions like this to the MSDN Forums at http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn or the MSDN Newsgroups at http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/. You are much more likely get a quicker response using the forums than through the Community Content. For specific help about:
Visual Studio : http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=usenet%3Dmicrosoft.public.vstudio%2C&
.NET Framework : http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=usenet%3Dmicrosoft.public.dotnet.framework
All Public : http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=usenet%3Dmicrosoft.public%2C&
SSRS 2008      SSRS 2008 ... Tai Yee - MSFT   |   Edit   |   Show History
Please would anyone indicate what the procedure is for configuring SSRS 2008 for SSL access only. Once I have made all relevant changes in the Reporting services Config Manager in terms of the Report Server and Web services section to include SSL access and exclude TCP 80, I am able to securely browe to the report server, but by hovering over other links such as HOME, it defaults back to http access??

Thank You in advance!

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Hi, the best way to get questions answered is to post in the Microsoft Community Forum. The SQL Server Forums are located here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/sqlserver/. You will want to post this to the Reporting Services forum. 7/1/2009
Importing images      xmonkey ... Tai Yee - MSFT   |   Edit   |   Show History
Hello,

Can anyone please help me with importing images into my SQL database? I have a lot of images to import, but I just want to import the link to where the file is located not the actual image. Thanks!

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Hi, the best way to get questions answered is to post in the Microsoft Community Forum. The SQL Server Forums are located here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/sqlserver/. 7/6/2009
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Replication from Oracle (as Publisher) to MS SQL 2008      spx123   |   Edit   |   Show History
We tried setting up Replication from an Oracle 11g server to our MS SQL 2008 Standard server and we get a message saying we need to have enterprise edition to do this. Is this true? What about if we replicated to MS SQL 2005 standard instead? Any way to buy this capabilitiy without going to enterprise ed? I am trying to get way from using crystal reports with the oracle server but if I cant resolve this then I will probally go this route instead so any help is much appreciated.
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