What the difference between ADO.NET Data Services and Sql Server Data Services

They are similiar but very different technologies. Astoria or what is now called at Microsoft ADO.NET Data Services is a programming library that will allow data to be passed through RESTful web services. You develop these web services to be run against data you have access to. ADO.NET Data Services is now included in the .NET 3.5 SP1 updates.

SQL Server Data Services is a new service provided by Microsoft. The following is a decription:

“SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) are highly scalable, on-demand data storage and query processing utility services. Built on robust SQL Server database and Windows Server technologies, these services provide high availability, security and support standards-based web interfaces for easy programming and quick provisioning.”

SQL Server Data Services is very similair to Amazon S3 service.

 

SQL Server remote access in “secure environment”

This is part of my latest experience on working at the client side with some sensible network security restrictions (most port are closed even in local area network, default proxy is set up for all machines etc.)

There is one problem here when you trying to connect SQL Server 2005 from another machine in network and in doesn’t connect without any good error raised. The problem is Windows Firewall restricts access to the SQL Server by default. As soon as you can’t switch firewall off you need to add exception for SQL Server process to allow remote connections to your SQL Server instance:

So your Firewall Exceptions list should contain sqlserver record after all:

 

Latest downloads from Microsoft

There are several interesting downloads currently available from Microsoft Download Center:

1. Microsoft SQL Server protocol documentation – technical specifications for protocols that are implemented and used in Microsoft SQL Server 2008

2. Microsoft Office File Format documentation – Microsoft Office 2007 file formats specifications

3. Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) specification

 

howto: Attach a database file to SQL Server Express

1. Open the command prompt on the server.
2. From the command prompt, connect to an instance of SQL Server by using the following sqlcmd command:

   sqlcmd -S Server\Instance

   Where Server is the name of the computer and Instance is the name of the instance.

3. When connected, type the following commands:

   USE [master]
   GO
   CREATE DATABASE [database_name] ON
   ( FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\<database name>.mdf' ),
   ( FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\<database name>.ldf' )
    FOR ATTACH ;
   GO

   Where database_name is the name of the database you want to attach, FileName is the path and file name of the database file and the log file, and FOR ATTACH specifies that the database is created by attaching an existing set of operating system files.

4. To verify that the database has been attached, type the following two commands:

   select name from sys.databases
   go

5. The sqlcmd tool displays the names of all databases attached to this instance of SQL Server Express. In the list, you should see the database name you provided in step 3.

(from here)

Notice: Don’t forget to run command prompt with administrative permissions.

Also, if you are interesting Microsoft has moved sample databases for SQL Server from MSDN to CodePlex, so now they available here. There is an MSI installation that by default will install Sample Database files into your SQL Server Data directory.

Here is some additional information about sample databases installation on Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave