Execution Plan Stability

SQL Server
I’ve talked before about one of the primary things that the Query Optimizer team at Microsoft tries to avoid, regressions. Basically, they want a plan that worked well in SQL Server 2005 to work well in SQL Server 2008 R2. What’s more, they want everything to work well between service packs, updates and cumulative updates. Ever wonder how they do it? Well, they cheat. OK, that’s mean and not entirely accurate, but it gets the idea across. No, what they do is, identify when they have a breaking change, when they’ve got a special cumulative update or service pack that fixes some bad behavior, but that can cause plans to “break,” they wall it off. Note, in most cases, this “breakage” is actually a question of plans working correctly, but…
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SQL Server 2005 SP3

SQL Server
It looks like it's on schedule for an RSN release (Real Soon Now). For those who can't wait, the latest cumulative update, #10, is available for SQL Server 2005. If you don't know, the cumulative updates are a collection of all the small hot fixes and patches that have been issued by Microsoft over a period of time. Instead of tracking them all down individually, you can get the cumulative update and install it.
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SQL Server 2005 SP3

SQL Server
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Microsoft Connect really works. There has been a campaign going throughout the SQL Server community to get a new service pack out for SQL Server 2005. Microsoft had, at the very least, suggested that they were not going to release any more service packs for 2005. That's all changed now. I saw the announcement in Kalen Delaney's editorial from SQL Sever Magazine UPDATE. That's worth a read all on it's own. And consider this, 704 votes made this happen. That's 704 people who took the time & trouble to click their mouse a few times. If that's all it takes to influence Redmond, then you should all be over there using Connect as often as possible to get the fixes, changes or…
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