With DBAs now coming to grips with having to support SQL Server on Linux, following configuration best practices is key.
Using setup defaults will likely get introduce your SQL Server to the OOM Killer, an unexpected outage and potential questions about your DBA skills.
SQL Server 2017 RTM’d
It is available for download from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads
Kiss Service Packs Goodbye Starting With SQL 2017
Yep, further info can be found here on the SQL Server Release Services announcement.
One of the key extracts is:
The only baseline will be RTM, and it will receive CUs for 5 years.
The patches (CUs) will still continue to be supplied in both GDR and CU flavours depending on how risk averse you would like to be.
New SQL August patches released
The following patches have just been released and all have an associated security update so they may have already been applied. The security update appears to be due to Dimension security being ignored by Power BI Desktop in SQL Server Analysis Services (Multidimensional model).
SQL Server 2016
SP1_CU4
RTM_CU7
SQL Server 2014
SP2_CU6
SP1_CU13
SQL Server 2012
SP3_CU10
SQL Server Management Studio 17.2
SQL Server 2017 RC2 is now available
Details on this release can be found here.
July 2017 SQL newsletter
Fany Carolina Vargas sure does a great roundup newsletter and Julys can be found here.
SQL Server 2012 Mainstream Support Ended
That went quick and without much fuss.
Mainstream support has now ended for SQL Server 2012.
In an unusual turn of events Microsoft has advised that the final SP4 is expected to be released in September.
Currently, any new installs of SQL Server should be 2016 to which allows non-Enterprise editions to take advantage of some Enterprise features which were introduced in SP1. Software Assurance is also a growing ‘must have’ to allow for DR, use of ever increasing new SQL releases etc.
SQL Server 2017 is due for release, but unless you want the pain of bugs for several months, it will likely not be worth considering until later next year when it should be more stable.
SQL Server 2017 Reporting Services (RC) now available
The download can be found here.
SQL Server 2017 RC1 now available
Details on this release can be found here.