Eralper's Blog on Software Development

I have taken the 71-433 Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database Development certification exam

eralper — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:57:00 GMT

Hello MS SQL Server Database Developers,

I have taken the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (TS) exam Exam 71-433 TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development the day before yesterday.

If you are planning to be certificated with Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): SQL Server 2008, Database Development, you should take this 70-433 exam.

For registration and preperation guide of Microsoft certification exam 70-433 you can refer to my previous post Register for the Microsoft Certification Exam 71-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development.

As a sql developer I can say that I found most of the questions easy to answer for a database programmer who has some really hands on experience with the latest SQL Server version, MS SQL Server 2008.

If you really follow the recent improvements and T-SQL enhancements in SQL Server 2008, t-sql database developers can answer some of the questions by just knowing thw name of a new sql data type, or a new feature introduced in MS SQL Server 2008. But in some of the exam questions answers can be identified only by knowing the feature in detail and requires a real experience with the asked feature.

Here is a guide that will help you during your studies for the 70-433 from the Microsoft Learning site, list of Skills measured in the Microsoft Certification Exam 70-433 which you can download and print.
The questions are exactly from the topics covered in this list.

I hope you will find my reviews on 70-433 exam at Review and a Study Guide for Certification Exam 70-433

Results of Two SQL Server 2008 Certification Beta Exams 71-432 and 71-448 are informed to test takers

eralper — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:24:00 GMT

Hello certification exam takers,

Results of Two SQL Server 2008 Certification Beta Exams 71-432 and 71-448 are informed to test takers today.

I got happy news for the 71-432 and 71-448 results and I have earned the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance certification and Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification.

Exam 70-451 PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

eralper — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:05:00 GMT

Hello MS SQL Server Administrators and SQL Developers who are willing to take the 71-451 exam or 70-451 certification exam PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008,

I want to share with you my 71-451 exam experience.

First of all, everything was perfect except we have not downloaded my certification questions on the test computer. That was really o boring awful problem. That take nearly one hour to get the problem resolved by the Prometric support guys. We had to get in contact with the Nederland office of Prometric.

Any way, there was 75 questions to be answered in 180 minutes in the MS SQL Server 2008 beta certification exam 71-451.

The time period is enough even though the certification exam was a beta exam. Some of the questions were easily selected among others that they were simple when compared with others.

I can say that some questions were measuring detailed information on some topics. Sorry, I can not give more detail on which topic what is asked.

But I can say and encourage you to go on the list given in the Microsoft Learning site as the preperation guide for exam 70-451.

MS SQL Server 2008 components, choosing required components for specific tasks, basic information about SQL Server components like Service Broker, Full-Text Search, Analysis Services, Integrations Services, etc. is essential.

Database entities in the scope of designing a database model is important. But you can manage these questions if you read carefully.

To support SQL security, roles, permissions, execution context, ownership is one of the important topics in the exam.

Service Broker again as listed in the skills measured given in the preparation guide.

And building a Full-Text search strategy by selecting appropriate search function among CONTAINS, CONTAINSTABLE, FREETEXT, FREETEXTTABLE, etc.

New data types is also important if you really want to get the most from MS SQL2008. So geography, geometry, hierarchyid, date, time, datetime2, datetimeoffset and filestream data types should be well-known which can be gained by working with them.

Designing tables by sparse columns, computed columns, persisted computed columns and constraints on those columns should be well known by a database administrator or a database developer.

Programming stored procedures by using execution context (EXECUTE AS), table-valued parameters, determining appropriate way to return data, WITH RECOMPILE/OPTION (RECOMPILE), error handling, TRY/CATCH blocks is giving database sql developers and administrators very handy tools for solutions to daily problems.

CLR also is important since its first introduction to MS SQL Server data platform with SQL2005.

Designing transaction strategy with save points, try-catch blocks, etc. is giving sql programmers powerful tools.

XML capabilities in every way should be well studied.

Also new features like compression in both row compression and page compression is new with MS SQL Server 2008. So compression is important.
Again new features like Change Data Capture especially for ETL applications to carry altered data to warehouse applications, and MERGE statement which is also known as UPSERT functionality in SQL Server must be known. Again Grouping Sets is new in MS SQL Server 2008.

Partitions, partition functions is frequently asked questions in MS SQL Server certification exams. Not only in SQL 2008 exams but also in SQL2005 certification exams too.

And last point I want to note is the indexes. Indexes, clustered, non-clustered, include columns, forcing indexes, table and query hints, etc.

So, please read the preparation guide. And follow the list if you really want to be successfull in the 71-451 beta exam or the final 70-451 exam PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Good luck!

Register for the Microsoft Certification Exam 71-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development

eralper — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:23:00 GMT

Hello all MS certification exam takers, Microsoft SQL Server administrators and especially SQL Server database developers who is looking for certification exam to pass and get his/her knowledge and experience confirmed about MS SQL Server database development

I assume that you have already installed and gained a hands-on experience on MS SQL Server 2008 by working with it on your development environments. If you have not yet downloaded and installed MS SQL Server 2008, you can get the released versions for trial purposes from Microsoft Downloads pages. Please have a look for more information at Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Downloads page.

If you are working with new features of MS SQL Server 2008, I hope you might want to take the beta version of Microsoft Certification Exam 71-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development.

You can register for 71-433 for free during the beta period using the promotional code F589G. And if get a successfull score in the end of beta evaluation period of 71-433, you will be granted with certification credits just as you have passed the final release version of 71-433, that is 70-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development exam.

If you decided to take 71-433 certification exam, you can find it useful to take a look at the Preparation Guide for Exam 70-433.

Register for the Microsoft Certification Exam 71-451 (70-451) PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

eralper — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:07:00 GMT

Hello all MS certification exam takers, Microsoft SQL Server administrators, SQL Server developers who is looking for an other beta certification exam :)

I hope you have installed and began working with MS SQL Server 2008. If you have not yet installed MS SQL Server 2008, you can get the released versions for trial from Microsoft Downloads pages. Check the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Downloads page.

If you have already tried and loved the new features of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, I believe you might want to take the beta version of Microsoft Certification Exam 71-451: PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

You can register for 71-451 for free during the beta period using the promotional code 14F65. And if get a successfull score in the end of beta evaluation period of 71-451, you will be granted with certification credits just as you have passed the final release version of 71-451, that is 70-451: PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 exam.

I have already registered for this beta certification exam. So if you have some hands-on experience on the new features of MS SQL Server 2008 as a database administrator or a database/sql developer, I believe you can give a try by taking this new SQL2008 certification exams, for a start for Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Database Developer 2008 certification track.

If you have already decided taking this new MS SQL Server 2008 database developer certification exam, you can find it useful to take a look at the Preparation Guide for Exam 70-451.

Here is the list of Skills measured in the Microsoft Certification Exam 70-451 which you can download and print. It will guide you while you are working for the 71-451 Beta exam.

I have completed my Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) Database Developer Certification Requirements

eralper — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:15:00 GMT

Hello all,

Nice to meet you on an other Microsoft certification and certification exams blog post.

Today I want to share with you that I have completed my Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) Database Developer certification requirements and succeeded in taking this database developer certification on Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

After taking 70-431, 70-441 and the last one 70-442 certification exams I finally succeeded in taking MS SQL Server 2005 Database Developer certification. Nice to be one of 2,241 all over the world. For list of certification numbers you can go to Number of Microsoft Certified Professionals Worldwide

I must say I found it interesting that number of database administrator certification holders is more than number of database developer certification holders. So I believe developers working on MS SQL Server are not so keen on taking exams on Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Can not Declare DYNAMIC Cursor in MS SQL Server 2008

eralper — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:46:00 GMT

Hello all SQL Server developers/administrators

I believe that I'm missing something but since I could not figure it out yet, so I wanted to share my problem with you about declaring and creating a dynamic cursor in Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

The create syntax for my sample dynamic cursor is as follows:

-- Declare DYNAMIC Cursor
DECLARE SampleDynamicCursor CURSOR DYNAMIC FOR
SELECT BrandId, Code, [Description] FROM samples.Brands ORDER BY [Description]

And after I have run the declare dynamic cursor t-sql statement, I called the Sys.dm_exec_cursors table-valued function to see the properties of the just created and declared cursor.

select * from Sys.dm_exec_cursors(0)

The displayed cursor properties returned by the sys.dm_exec_cursors() function is as TSQL | Snapshot | Read Only | Global (0)

But If I run the same cursor declare t-sql code on a MS SQL Server 2005 database, I got the following properties value in the returned result set of select * from Sys.dm_exec_cursors(0):

TSQL | Dynamic | Optimistic | Global (0)

Also on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database (RTM version Developer Edition), I could not get updated values in the sample dynamic cursor. So I believe the problem is not with the sys.dm_exec_cursors function.

I think, I should set some option for a dynamic cursor declaration in MS SQL Server 2008.
Do you have any idea for a solution?
Thanks, a lot

The SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) service terminated with service-specific error 17051 (0x429B)

eralper — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:10:00 GMT

Hello MSSQL2008 users

I have installed CTP versions and RC0 (Release Candidate) versions of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 before it is released for RTM version.

Since I'm running about 3 or 4 SQL Server database instances on my development computer, although their services are stopped, I began sufferring from performance on my computer. So I decided uninstalling the CTP and RC0 editions of MS SQL Server 2008 (Katmai).

When I tried to start the service of the MS SQL Server 2008 CTP6 version, I got the following error message:

Windows could not start the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code 17051.

As the error message is directing me to the System Event Logs, I opened the Event Viewer application and found the following entry in the System Event logs:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7024
Date: 8/27/2008
Time: 9:59:13 AM
User: N/A
Computer: ISTW1849
Description:
The SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) service terminated with service-specific error 17051 (0x429B).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I then checked the installation folder for the service in order to find out any clue for the error in the ERRORLOG file.

I found my database instance ERRORLOG file in folder "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server CTP6\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVERCTP6\MSSQL\LOG".

Be ready for the shocking :) situation. What I found about the error in the ERRORLOG file is :

2008-08-27 09:59:12.89 Server Microsoft SQL Server code name "Katmai" (CTP) - 10.0.1300.13 (Intel X86)
Feb 8 2008 00:06:52
Copyright (c) 1988-2007 Microsoft Corporation
Developer Edition on Windows NT 5.1 (Build 2600: Service Pack 2)

2008-08-27 09:59:12.89 Server (c) 2005 Microsoft Corporation.
2008-08-27 09:59:12.89 Server All rights reserved.
2008-08-27 09:59:12.89 Server Server process ID is 4104. 2008-08-27 09:59:12.89 Server Authentication mode is MIXED.
2008-08-27 09:59:12.89 Server Logging SQL Server messages in file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server CTP6\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVERCTP6\MSSQL\LOG\ERRORLOG'.
2008-08-27 09:59:12.95 Server Error: 17051, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2008-08-27 09:59:12.95 Server SQL Server evaluation period has expired.

So the reason for the error 17051 is just beacuse of the SQL Server evaluation period has expired.

Exposing .NET Web Services to Client Script using Microsoft AJAX and using Inline Script property

eralper — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:00:00 GMT

Hello,

I want to share with you a small piece of knowledge which I found it tricky about exposing .NET web services for use from client side javascript codes.

You know if you are developing AJAX enabled web pages in your web projects, it is very simple to make .NET web services enable for consume of client side javascript method calls.

All you have to do is adding a Script Manager object in your web page and giving the path of the web service you have published as ServiceReference in the ScriptManager object.

ServiceReference in ScriptManager object will enable the code, actually the methods you have created in the web service .asmx page to be available for use from client-side scripts.

If you have implemented such a solution for your web project, you might have experienced the case that the javascript source file can not be downloaded by the client browser just because of the application shield, firewall or protection applications filtering the request and eliminating the request for the javascript file just because of the url path is not a very common file address.

In such a case where the javascript file produced by the server side application is not downloadable the application will fail as you have desired.

When you reference a .NET web service the client browser will make request to the server for the javascript file as using a url address like "http://www.kodyaz.com/client-enabled-web-service-sample.asmx/js". This syntax I mean using the servicename.asmx/js is very like making a request for listing a web folder. Some applications may block such requests.

In such a case you may use just adding the InlineScript="true" option configuration setting in the ServiceReference element. The default value for InlineScript is false. A "true" value for InlineScript will enable embedding the required javascript code block within the web page itself. In this case a seperate javascript file is useless and will not be created. Instead the contents of the javascript code file will be placed in the .aspx file itself. This javascript statements will include the necessary javascript methods for an AJAX web service method call. Since the browser will not make a request for a url like sample-client-web-service.asmx/js file, the applications will not block the requests and the client will successfully run and render the AJAX enabled aspx files that are making web method calls from client-side.

Setting the InlineScript option to TRUE will increase the size of the web page, and will not let using a downloaded and shared javascript file, it may increase the overall request bandwith. But for our case we have experienced today, using InlineScript=true saved our day!

Register for the Microsoft Certification Exam 71-450: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution

eralper — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Hello all Microsoft SQL Server administrators and SQL Server developers,

If you have installed and worked with MS SQL Server 2008 or if you are willing to learn and use the new version of Microsoft SQL Server, MS SQL Server 2008, you may find it useful and interesting entering the Microsoft Certification Exam 71-450: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution.

71-450 Exam is a so called beta certification exam. This means that registering for the beta exam 71-450 will cost you nothing. You can register for 71-450 for free using the promo code 239F4. And if you are successfull in the end of evaluation period with your score in the exam, you will be granted with certification credits just as you have passed the final release version of 71-450, that is 70-450: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution exam.

The beta exam period ends by September 16, 2008. I have registered for this exam. So if you loved the new features of MS SQL Server 2008 as a database administrator especially, I can encourage you for taking this new SQL2008 certification exams, for a start for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Administrator certification track.

If you have already decided taking this new MS SQL Server 2008 administrative certification exam, you can find it useful to take a look at the Preparation Guide for Exam 70-450.

Register 71-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Exam free using Promotional Code

eralper — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:06:00 GMT

Hello all,

Register for SQL Server 2008 Certification Beta Exam: 71-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

You can register for the 71-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certification beta exam for free using the promotional code 3568C.
For preparation guide of the exam 71-452 (beta version of 70-452), you can refer to Preparation Guide for Exam 70-452 - PRO: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

71-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification exam review

eralper — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:32:00 GMT

Hello MS SQL Server Business Intelligence (BI) Developers,

You know Microsoft is giving great importance to Business Intelligence.
And in the MS Certification tracks we have been introduced with the BI Certification track with the MS SQL Server 2005 Edition.
Probably you have heard the 70-445 and the 70-446 certification exams and probably taken those exams.
If you are tracking the news about the BI Certification track, you might know that the BI Developer certification world-wide has been granted less than 400 people.
So you can imagine how valuable the Microsoft Business Intelligence Certifications are.

With the new release of SQL Server 2008, the Business Intelligence is refreshing itself with the improvements and enhancements in the BI components of Microsoft SQL Server 2008.
Also the BI exams are renewing for the MS SQL2008 database server. You know the MS SQL Server 2008 RC0 was released recently.
And also candidates world-wide are invited to take the beta versions of the SQL2008 certification exams, 71-448; 71-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification exam

I take the 71-448 a few days ago. And I think I can share some of my exam experience as a review of the 70-448 certification exam.
First of all, there were 70 questions asked to the exam candidates. And the total time was more than 3 hours.
I think this is quite enough time if you have some hands-on experience and did some reading on topics you have not worked on yet.

In the exam, first 11 questions were from MS Integration Services (SSIS), following 26 questions were from MS Analysis Services (SSAS) and the following 13 questions were from MS Reporting Services (SSRS).
The last 20 questions were a mix and not grouped. I guess the distribution of the questions were very much like the one in the first 50 questions.

SQL Server Integration Services is mainly used for data importing and exporting so especially importing data from outside SQL Server is an important point to be covered before taking the exam.
Also deployment of the SSIS packages is an other important topic since you should probably run them on the production servers not on your development IDE BIDS (Business Intelligence Development Studio).
SSIS package XML configuration file specifications should be considered well.
You should also work with dataflow controls and FTP task controls.
Usage and scope of SSIS variables is also an important topic in the Integration Services questions.

Microsoft has added a new data mining methodology in the MS SQL Server 2005, Microsoft-Time-Series data-mining analysis method.
XAML commands should be well-understood for a successfull result in the SSAS section.
SSAS roles and permissions with allow and deny properties should be considered for a well designed security for MS Analysis Services design.

SQL Server Reporting Services is widely used since its first released with SQL Server 2000.
If you are a Reporting Services developer, you can easily solve at least half of the RS questions.
Report design, using reporting services functions, properties, report server controls and data binding with data sources.
Other questions include report deployment topics and especially report server database initialization, restoring reportserver database.
Such topics on cases where a restoration of the Reporting Services application is required.
One last note, Report Server configuration over configuration files should be kept in mind.

I wish success to all exam takers.

71-432 TS: MS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance Certification Exam experience

eralper — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:07:00 GMT

Hello all,

I finally take the beta exam 71-432 TS: MS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance Certification Exam

The 71-432 exam is actually the beta of coming released version of 70-432 TS: MS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance Certification Exam.

My experience from 71-432 was it was not an easy exam. But you can do alot if you are especially working as an SQL Server database administrator with MS SQL Server 2005 database servers.

You know mirroring was introduced with SQL2005 database servers, and MS SQL Server 2008 is a about to make the mirroring solution better. So there was a quite number of questions on high availability topics. Especially mirroring, fail over clustering, etc.

I know from MS SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database administration exams that backup, back-up types, restoring from different backup plans and recovery models have great importance in those exams. So nothing has changed for MS SQL Server 2008 70-432 certification exam. So be sure you know at your most on database backups and restoring from those backups according to your recovery plan.

You know partitioned tables are introduced first to SQL Server database administrators and sql developers with the release of MS SQL Server 2005. So partitioning tables is important.

You know one of the newest enhancements in Microsoft SQL Server is policy based management (PBM). You can manage multiple servers with policy based management.

You can also define policies to take control of your sql server instances and the databases within those instances.

Auditing has perhaps an important improvement among the other database topics in SQL2008.

DBCC CHECKDB is one of the most important commands that a SQL Administrator should know.

New data types like spatial types, new features like Transparent Database Encryption (TDE), data compression, redesigned components like Fulltext Search should be taken into care with this new certification exam for new SQL Server edition MS SQL Server 2008.

But as a summary, although 70-432 is a certification exam for MS SQL Server 2008 implementation and maintenance, it is not focusing only what is new with SQL Server 2008. So if you are working on SQL Server frequently covering different aspects and features of the SQL Server, you can feel free to take the 70-432 certification exam.

I feel good luck from now on to whom planning to take Microsoft Certification Exam 70-432.

Microsoft Certified in ASP.NET Framework 3.5 with 70-562

eralper — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:20:00 GMT

Hello all,

I have post a blog about Exam 71-562 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development about 3 months ago. And I was lucky to realize that the results of this beta certification exam was announced recently.

On the Prometric site I saw that I had passed the beta exam 71-562 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development and I checked my Microsoft Certified Professional Transcript from Microsoft Learning MCP site.

I'm happy to see that I had been certified with Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist - .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Applications

Actually, for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist - .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Applications certifications, 70-536 certification exam is a requirement. But since I had fullfilled this requirement by passing the 70-552 UPGRADE: MCAD Skills to MCPD Windows® Developer by Using the Microsoft® .NET Framework exam.

You can get more information about Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 certification tracks.

Register Certification Beta Exam 71-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring for free

eralper — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:43:00 GMT

If you have hands-on experience on Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 virtualization environments, then you are probably the best person to take this certification beta exam "Exam 71-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring" from Microsoft.

You can register for free for the beta certification exam 71-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring by using the promotion code 652HV on the Prometric web site during the exam registration. Note that the beta period ends at June 23, 2008.

Since you are going to get the exam for fee by using the promo code, you will have the chance to see what type of questions are asked the 70-652 certification exam. Of course if you get a score enough for pass the beta exam, you will be granted the certification credits for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration certification just as you pass the 70-652 released exam.

Here is a link from Microsoft Learning where you can find more information about the content and the preparation guide for exam 70-652 (or 71-652) TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring

Note that if you pass the 71-652 or the released version of this beta exam 70-652, you will complete the requirements for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration certification.

As a candidate you will be asked questions about Windows Server Virtualization and Configuration on the following topics:

Skills measured by Exam 71-652 (or 70-652)
Installing Hyper-V (14%)
Configuring and Optimizing Hyper-V (20%)
Deployment of Virtual Machines (30%)
Management and Monitoring of Virtual Machines (36%)