Road To Vista: SQL Server SP2 Hits

On Tuesday, the company made an early release of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 available. That was a day after a phalanx of other Microsoft tools and frameworks hit the web.

SP 2 is important because SQL Server 2005 users, as reported by CRN in August, must deploy it in order to be fully supported on the upcoming Windows Vista client.

At that time solution providers said not to underestimate the issue. They especially stressed that many applications rely on older MSDE code. The Microsoft Desktop Engine, is an embeddable version of older SQL Server releases. Many customers may be running it without even knowing it and those implementations could break, VARs said.

According to Microsoft, SP 2 will include the new SQL Server Express Edition which, in turn, manages the newer SQL Server Compact Edition (SQL Server Everywhere) databases. The old MSDE applications will likely need to be rewritten, VARs said.

This code drop is a "Community Technical Preview" or CTP. The "final" SP2 is slated to ship in the first quarter of 2007, sometime after Vista itself.

Also included are data mining add=ins for Office 2007; Oracle database support in the Report Builder; and SQL Server Analysis Services support for the new Excel 2007. In addition, SQL Server Reporting services will work with Hyperion Essbase cubes.