SQL Server "Denali" CTP and a number of announcements from the PASS 2010 conference are available for download.

Yesterday, during the PASS Summit 2010 conference, a preliminary version of the next generation SQL Server codenamed Denali was announced and made available for download.

In addition to the announcement of the new version of SQL Server, a number of other announcements were made:

• announced a new edition of SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse designed for high-loaded parallel computing and information processing;
• announced a partnership with HP to create the HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance platform based on the new edition of SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse;
• Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) for SQL Server announced;
• announced the new cloud service Atlanta , which allows you to centrally monitor instances of SQL Server and identify problems with configuration, performance, security, as well as manage servers through the cloud.

The new version of SQL Server Denali introduces a huge number of innovations. Their listing will take a lot of time, only the most important are listed here:
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deployment

• Windows Server Core support;
• support for organizing a SQL Server cluster failover cluster on different subnets ;
• A new solution called HADR (high-availability and disaster recovery) designed to increase the availability of SQL Server instances;

control

• Multiple improvements in SQL Server Management Studio: support for IntelliSense for databases from SQL Server 2005 SP2, many improvements when debugging TSQL;
• The new functionality of Contained Databases , which simplifies the migration of databases from one instance of SQL Server to another. Users in such a database are not tied to logins; there are no other links to a specific instance of SQL Server, which facilitates database transfer;
• SQL Server startup options management is available through SQL Server Configuration Manager;

development

• improvements in full-text search: searching for individual properties of documents through the IFilter mechanism, the new NEAR option allowing you to specify the maximum number of words between parts of the search and the order of the searched words;
• UTF-16 support Supplementary Characters Collations;
• OFFSET and FETCH support to limit the number of rows returned in the request ;
• Three new types of spatial data have been added: CircularString , CompoundCurve and CurvePolygon ;
• Added new methods for working with spatial data: OGC Methods on Geography Instances , OGC Methods on Geometry Instances , Extended Methods on Geography Instances , Extended Methods on Geometry Instances and SQL MM Methods on Geography Instances ;
• Added static methods for working with spatial data: Extended Static Geography Methods and Extended Static Geometry Methods ;
• support for new command SEQUENCE , which allows you to create automatic sequences of integer values. This functionality can be used to insert identifiers without using autogeneration in the column.

security

• Added new GRANT, REVOKE and DENY permissions for SEARCH PROPERTY LIST, CREATE SERVER ROLE and ALTER ANY SERVER ROLE;
• The user server roles mechanism has been added; the mechanism is controlled using the new CREATE SERVER ROLE , ALTER SERVER ROLE and DROP SERVER ROLE commands ;
• the HASHBYTES function now supports SHA2_256 and SHA2_512 algorithms ;
• for the new mechanism of Contained Databases introduced its own security rules that need to know the administrator. The necessary information is in these two articles: Designing and Implementing a Contained Database and Threats Against Contained Databases .

Integration services

• Many changes have been made to Integration Services services that can be found at this link .

parts of SQL Server unchanged

The following parts of SQL Server Denali have not changed since SQL Server 2008 R2 was released: Analysys Services, Data Quality Services, Reporting Services, Replication, Service Broker.

useful links

• Microsoft Official Press Release ;
• official announcement in the blog of SQL Server Team Blog;
• SQL Server Denali CTP download page
  
• information on changes in Denali on MSDN;
  
• unofficial announcement on the site GotDotNet.ru in Russian;
  
• PASS Summit 2010 conference .
  

PS: a small video demonstration of the updated SQL Server Management Studio