• Fast Compression Backups – Fast Compression is Quest’s patent-pending backup technology which significantly reduces backup times, improves database recoverable, and automatically reduces a database’s backup footprint by up to 85 percent over and above the backup compression algorithms already in the product.
• Network Resiliency – Backups will still succeed after network interruptions. User can also customize the number of retries and wait period for a finer level of control.
• Easier Restores with Point in Time selection – Restore wizard’s time slider lets user choose exact point in time to recover data.
• Improved Double-Click Restore – 4GB limitation eliminated.
• OLR (object-level recovery) and Log Reader support more funky SQL Server 2008 data types – DATETIMEOFFSET, DATETIME2, DATE, TIME, HIERARCHYID, GEOMETRY, and GEOGRAPHY are now supported.
• SmartCleanup – Intelligently remove backups according to a user-supplied retention policy without affecting backup set integrity.
• Maintenance Plans reinforced – Import/Export Plans, Copy/Paste Tasks and Sub-Plans, Wildcards and Regular Expressions supported for easier database selections.
• New Maintenance Plan Cleanup History Task – Options to delete backup history, log shipping history, job and maintenance plan history, and more…
• Updated documentation – New Install and Log Shipping Guides and references to online video content.

Fightin’ For Fast Compression Feedback!

LiteSpeed for SQL Server’s patent-pending Fast Compression (formerly SmartDiff) technology reduces backup size substantially for huge storage savings. It also decreases backup times significantly—from hours to minutes. Are you familiar with this technology? Are you taking full advantage of it?

We’d like your feedback. Tell how much disk space you’re saving and how much faster your backups are when using Fast Compression. Please share your comments with us in the LiteSpeed Forum at our SQL Server community.

We’d like to offer you the latest information to help you get the most out of your investment in LiteSpeed® for SQL Server. Most of these resources are also available through SupportLink, our customer support portal.

LiteSpeed Video Tutorials

Learn LiteSpeed for SQL Server tips and tricks by viewing our free recorded videos online. You’ll see the solution in action and discover how to:

• Determine the most appropriate backup options for you
• Query backup files without a full restore
• Recover just one table or repair a dropped procedure
• And much more!

Go to LiteSpeed tutorials.

LiteSpeed for SQL Server – Key Documentation

LiteSpeed’s latest product resources can be found via the links below:

• Installation Guide 6.0 – New
• Configure Log Shipping 6.0 – New
• New SupportLink Product Information page
• Product Lifecycle
• Installation Guide 5.2
• SmartDiff Quick Start Guide 5.2

And just an FYI, but you’ll need to register on the Support website to reach most of those resources.

SQL Server Community Sites

Please join our SQL Server communities today to get the latest product information and find helpful resources. You can also participate in discussions with other community members as well as the Quest product team.

• SQLServer.Quest.com: LiteSpeed forum
• SQL Server Blog
• SQLServerPedia

Questions or Comments

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about this information, contact us.

A support case can be logged using our case management tool or see the Contact Support page for other contact methods available on SupportLink.

Please do not respond directly to this e-mail notification. You can elect to stop receiving product notifications by changing the ”Product Notification” setting under Edit User Profile on SupportLink.

Toad and I go way back.  I first started with Toad as a user on the Oracle DBMS back in the early 1990′s.  When I started at Quest Software back on January 2nd of 2002, one of the first products I tackled as a SQL Server product architect was Toad.  How do we make this very popular Oracle product one that users in the SQL Server world will love too?  And this challenge was made that much harder by the fact that Microsoft SQL Server ships with fantastic tools right there in the box.  I haven’t worked directly on Toad for many years now, but the tool marches on with new features and capabilities that push the envelop with each new release.

I want to applaud the product manager, David Gugick (center below), the developers and testers, and the active and supportive community who loves and embraces Toad.  It’s always a thrill when your hard work and efforts are recognized.

L to R: Jason Hall, Qsft head of SC's; David Gugick, director of Architecture; and me

Want to try Toad for SQL Server for free?

The 5.0 version of Toad for SQL Server that we showed at TechEd is the latest beta, available at ToadWorld.com (build 387 at the time of this writing). It can coexist with Toad for SQL Server version 4.6, if you’re already using it. The beta is quite stable and has a bevy of new features, including:

• SQL Azure support for most modules including data compare and schema compare, including comparing regular SQL Servers to SQL Azure and back, also with Firewall management (under Server Security properties panel).
• Much improved code completion that’s faster and allows for column selection, multi-table selection, with tooltips for parameters.  Don’t forget, all of these features work on SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2.
• Updated Schema Compare with better exposed snapshots.
• Group Execute enhancements that include database-level selection so you can execute across databases, an option to only show selected servers/databases, option to merge results (or not), improved merging, etc.
• New Idle Connection Timeout – to close connections after a period of inactivity.
• Result Set Pinning.
• Improved Trace support with features like Import Trace File to Table and Open in Profiler capabilities.
• New Debug Trace – traces all activity occurring inside of Toad, including storing all variable info in a replayable file.
• Twitter Integration (under the View – Collaboration panel) with Yammer integration coming in a future beta release.

You can also see a lot more details about the tool here.  And my long-standing offer still stands.  If you want to try Toad for SQL Server or its brethren (such as Toad for Data Analysts, Toad Data Modeler, or Benchmark Factory), drop me an email and I’ll get a long-term license key straight over to you.

But wait, there’s more!

There are so many great resources for you to tap into.  And best of all, they’re all free!  Check these out:

White Paper: How Managers Can Help Their Developers Write Excellent Code

In this white paper, renowned Oracle PL/SQL expert and fellow O’Reilly author Steven Feuerstein provides dev managers with guidance on how to help developers write the best software possible.

Live Product Demo: Toad® Data Modeler
Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET

Modern Analyst Webinar: Stress-free SQL Queries for the Analyst
Date: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST

Live Product Demo:  Toad® for Data Analysts
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET

Live Product Demo: Benchmark Factory® for Databases
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET

I look forward to hearing from you.  Enjoy!

-Kevin

Check it out at http://www.sqlmag.com/blogs/tool-time.aspx.  Be sure to let me know what you think and if you have your own unique methods for automating the control of Windows services!

Many thanks,

-Kevin
-Twitter @kekline

"Richard, wasn't that an awesome interview?!?" "Carl, I could've danced, er, talked all night!"

In addition, I’m honored and amazed that the team at RunAsRadio invited me to participate in interview #143.  These are the same guys who also put together one of the best and longest running IT podcasting shows – .NETRocks.  Unlike a lot of interviews, it seems like we had too little time to cover all the topics.  I’d love to hear your feedback!

Thanks,

-Kev

Twitter @kekline

So I spent a little time over the holidays cleaning up my file system by scripting a backup routine using the very cool and very free ROBOCOPY utility.  Now, I’ve got a regularly scheduled job that, after the first run which captured all my files, only backs up new or changed files (and directories) while keeping all of their NTFS attributes.  Boo-Yah!

Read all about it on my Tool Time Blog at SQLMag. I’ll also show you how to use some other free and powerful alternatives in future entries.

Enjoy!

-Kev

Twitter @kekline

In addition, I’d like to point out a free utility called PowerGUI.  If you’re like me, the last thing you have time for is learning a new code like PowerShell.  So I copped out and got the next best alternative to real code, the fancy and pretty drag-n-drop interface of PowerGUI.  (Full disclosure: PowerGUI is made by Quest Software, my employer, but by an unrelated business unit.)  Notice that the hyperlink is to a .ORG website.  That’s because PowerGUI is not only free, it’s also community-supported.  There are tons of free scripts for all sorts of Windows-related technologies like Exchange, Active Directory, and of course SQL Server.  Give a look and let me know what you think of it.

Thanks,

-Kev

Twitter @KEKline

Thanks,

-Kev
Twitter @kekline
More content at http://KevinEKline.com/

I’m a big fan of Bill Graziano’s ClearTrace tool, but perhaps you’ll like the new tool from DBSophic, called TraceAnalyzer, even better?  Compare the two and let me know here.

Cheers,

-Kevin

Twitter @kekline

Read the article here:

http://www.sqlmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/102837/102837.html?Ad=1

Take a look at the two tools and let me know which you like better and why.  Inquiring minds want to know!

Cheers,

-Kev

Cheers,

-Kev

Twitter @ kekline