I will be speaking on SQL 2008 at SQL Connections in Orlando.  If you will be there please stop by and see me.  My 2008 session is entitled "SQL 2008 Goes Enterprise"  the majority of session will be on DMF.

Yesterday I talked about how the ability to query mulitple servers was my favorite feature in SQL 2008.  Today, I thought I would tell you how it work and it could not be simpler.  

From the View menu on the menubar, open Registered Servers

Perhaps it is the old librarian in me, but I have always liked to classify things.   I have always used Server Groups.  I have noticed though that a lot of other dbas do not seem to use them very often.   Anyway.  

There is a lot to love about SQL 2008 and while I will be upgrading as much as possble to 2008 for the Policy Based Management functionality which will make my life so much better, I think my most favorite thing about 2008 is a small thing.  The ability to query multiple servers from Studio Manager.   When you manage a number of servers, looking up simple things can take a time.  For instance, everyday I want to know how many databases do I have on the beta servers so that I can plan for our hardware needs.  In previous versions, I would need to write a little app that would use linked servers to connect to each server and pull back this information and then aggregate myself.   Once you write this not a big deal, but it is a hassle and I would prefer to not to have to deal with linked servers whenever possible,  Now I simply query ...

Welcome the SQL Server Beta.  I am Sarah Barela the Senior Database Administrator at Maximum ASP.  My colleague Ryan Jones and I are responsible for keeping the SQL 2008 Beta Servers up and running.  We hope that you enjoy playing with SQL Server2008, but please bear with us as we are learning along with you about all the new features and functionality in each CTP release.