Posts Tagged ‘Enterprise’

How to Identify your SQL Server Version and Edition

I was just updating the Software Asset Register at my company and to do so I had to look at all of the SQL Servers in the business and find out the version and importantly the edition (Standard vs. Enterprise).   

I’d always used:  SELECT @@VERSION but I came across a Microsoft article showing an alternative:  How to Identify your SQL Server Version and Edition that shows another method using the SERVERPROPERTY() function.  As an example, I used the following: 

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(‘MachineName’)    AS MachineName,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘ServerName’)     AS ServerName,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘ProductVersion’) AS Version,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘ProductLevel’)   AS Level,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘Edition’)        AS Edition,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘IsClustered’)    AS IsClustered,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘Collation’)      AS DefaultCollation,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘LicenseType’)    AS LicenseType,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘NumLicenses’)    AS NumLicenses 

You can read more about the possibilities of that on the MSDN SERVERPROPERTY() page.

What’s New in Windows Server 2008 R2

I’ve never been much of a server admin but in order to install a fresh copy of SQL Server 2008 R2 (November CTP) I decided to install a fresh copy of Windows Server 2008 R2.  I downloaded the install from Microsoft’s site and because I’ve been primarily running on Windows Server 2003 I ran through one of their e-Learning sessions to fill in the blanks of what’s new in both R2 and Server 2008.

The main versions are:

• Foundation (up to 8GB RAM, 1 Socket, no VMs)
• Standard (up to 32GB RAM, 4 Sockets, Host + 1VM),
• Web Server (up to 32GB RAM, 4 Sockets, no VMs)
• Enterprise (up to 2TB RAM, 8 Sockets, Host + 4VMs)
• Data Centre (up to 2TB RAM, 64 Sockets, unlimited VMs)

As always there are lots of new features on the list but the biggies seem to be Hyper-V, Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).  The most stark break from the past here is that 2008 R2 will only run on 64-bit processors, existing users of Server 2008 32-bit installs on 64-bit processors will not be able to perform an upgrade and will have to do a clean install.

Hyper-V is Microsoft’s new virtualisation technology which on paper seems like a good challenger to VMWare ESX and it comes with R2 as standard although you’ll need Enterprise or Datacenter  to make the most of it.  By far the coolest feature of Hyper-V is the Live Migration (similar to VMWare’s VMotion), this allows you to move a guest system from one host server to another without any interruption to the users of the guest, that’s it – zero downtime.

RDS and VDI represent an enhancement of Terminal Services, along with Hyper-V you can now host virtual desktops on a virtual host and permit access from approved devices over the web or via the network, remote desktop now supports multiple monitors and Aero-Glass.

The session mentioned a number of other features, most noteworthy wew BranchCache (WAN optimisation), DirectAccess (seamless and interventionlessVPN replacement) and PowerShell 2.0 (command-line server admin) an there was an incremental 7.5 release of IIS.

Well, I hope you got something from this post, more details and a link to the e-Learning session can be found on Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 R2 microsite.