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SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU7

Valentino Vranken — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:00:37 +0000

I usually don’t post about a Cumulative Update being released but this time I went over the list of fixes and noted some as being interesting to keep in mind. So this post is more a "reminder to self" note than anything else.

Since a couple of weeks, CU7 for SQL Server 2008 SP1 is available for request on this Microsoft Support page.

Here’s the list of fixes that caught my attention:

978839 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978839/ )
FIX: A backup operation on a SQL Server 2008 database fails if you enable change tracking on this database

979777 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979777/ )
FIX: You experience some problems when you perform a grouping members operation on an Excel pivot table whose data source is an SSAS 2005 cube

976412 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976412/ )
FIX: An MDX query resets to a blank query when you click the Data tab in Business Intelligence Development Studio 2005 Report Designer

978930 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978930/ )
A parameter value is replaced by its default value when the parameter is hidden and in a snapshot report in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

979379 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979379/ )
FIX: Charts that are in a tablix of an SSRS 2008 report display incorrect data

979496 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979496/ )
FIX: Log entries are missing for the OnPreExecute event and the OnPostExecute event in SQL Server 2008 Integration Services

980925 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980925/ )
The result of a MDX query to query a calculated member on a attribute hierarchy lose the formatting you define on the calculated member in SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services

980949 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980949/ )
FIX: Header rows of a tablix do not always appear at the top of pages in an SSRS 2008 report

That’s it, have fun!

FIX: Visual Studio crashes after playing around with its windows

Valentino Vranken — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:13:49 +0000

Lately I had been getting annoyed by Visual Studio crashing on me while working on ETL packages. The crashes seemed somehow related to debugging a package because they usually occurred after I clicked the “Package execution completed. Click here to switch to design mode, or select Stop Debugging from the Debug menu.” link. But I couldn’t really pinpoint why or when exactly they occurred. Now I’ve got an explanation, and a solution!

How did I get to the solution? Well, today I decided to click the “Send to Microsoft” button on the infamous crash pop-up window. And from it I actually got a link to a fix for the issue. Apparently the issue is not related to Integration Services in particular, it is a much broader Visual Studio shell issue that occurs in Visual Studio 2008 with SP1 when you’ve got a combination of undocking windows and changing window layout. And that is indeed what I usually do when debugging a package! When the package stops executing I often execute the following scenario:

double-click the title bar on the Output window to undock it
enlarge the undocked Output window to almost full-screen so I can have a good look at the errors
double-click the title bar to dock the window back to its original place
click the “Package execution completed.” link (or hit the Stop Debugging button)

And that’s exactly the second scenario described in this Microsoft Support article because when you stop debugging, the IDE switches the window layout back from debug to design.

I have now installed the hotfix and the issue is gone. Beware though if you also use WPF, better read through the whole article and comments on the download page first.

Hmm, this may also explain some other unexplicable crashes I’ve seen lately. Makes you wonder doesn’t it