SSWUG TV – Interviews with Bob Zurek from Endeca and SSWUG.ORG Presenter Laura Rose. We also have the latest news on SQL Server 2012, product features from Sanbolic and insights on cloud computing from SQL Server MVP Stephen Wynkoop.
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SSWUG TV – Interview with Denny Cherry, SQL Server MVP and SSWUG.ORG Class Presenter. We also have the latest news on Silverlight 5 and insights on Big Data from MVP Stephen Wynkoop.
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Featured Article(s)
Troubleshooting SQL Server 2008 Database Engine Tuning Advisor
In this article, Alexander Chigrik explains some problems that you can have with SQL Server 2008 Database Engine Tuning Advisor. He also tells you how you can resolve these problems.
Featured White Paper(s)
MAXIMIZING SQL SERVER AVAILABILITY
Written by Stratus Technologies Michael Otey, Technical Editor, SQL Server M… (read more)
Has Dot Net Remoting Been Replaced by WCF?
In response to the editorial of last Monday on the topic of Remoting Javier writes:
I just saw your reply regarding how to communicate processes across network boundaries and, although you are correct mentioning Remoting, I must say that any .NET developer would not take that road at all.
Remoting has been improved, revamped, reworked and enhanced with WCF (Windows Communication Foundation).
You can use (and you should use!) WCF to communicate processes on the same machine or over a network, and you can do that using different types of protocols.
WCF is a vast and non-trivial subject though, but the learning curve pays off when you put the solution into production and need to maintain it afterwards 🙂
Javier definitely brings up a point you should consider. It follows the current Microsoft strategy for remote data and process interactions. It is similar to the difference between using ADO.Net and using Entity Framework. Entity Framework provides consistent framework for doing the heavy lifting while releasing the developer to focus on the objects they wish to manipulate.
WCF is short for Windows Communication Foundation. It was designed originally to be the glue to all your different communication needs. Some applications have many different sources for data and/or processing, each with its own distinct protocols for communication and implementation. For example, you may wish to handle remote data using FTP, HTTP, SOAP, TCP/IP, Named Pipes, etc. The remote data may be manipulated using TD streams, XML, JSON, binary streams, etc.
WCF allows you to define your connection points with Communication Protocols and Data Types, wrapped with higher level objects defined in WCF. Those objects are common to all connection points. The Connection points are responsible to translate the data and method calls to the appropriate requirements of the Connection Points.
There is a two paragraph overview of WCF, and not enough for you to make any kind of architectural decision. If you are new to WCF, at least the discussion should encourage you to dive deeper to find out what it is all about.
- Here is a link to WCF at Microsoft where you will find lots of resources to help you evaluate, understand and implement WCF.
- Here is a nice article regarding the bleeding edge of WCF, where a RESTful api is built using WCF, written by Zoiner Tejada. This builds the application such that it may be deployed directly to the Windows Azure platform.
Peter Writes:
We use WCF based web services for remoting. Each of our customers has a set of databases in our SAAS data center in Tampa. The customers use the web to enter and calculate data. But they are accountants and need to work with this data in Excel. We have an Excel Add in that they install on their desktop computer. It uses web services to pull and push data between Excel on the desktop through the Internet to our servers. Customers love it.
Does WCF completely eliminate the need to learn Dot Net Remoting? Are there times when you would use Remoting over WCF? Share your opinion by sending your Email response tobtaylor@sswug.org.
Adding new Reports to SSMS
One of our readers directed me to some report utilities providing visibility into your SQL Server. Feodor has written a tool he calls a SSRS Performance Dashboard which may be found athttp://sqlconcept.com/tools/
In order to help you build your own reports, Feodor has published an article about how he created this utility.
Cheers,
Ben