The main update is related to guest failover clustering, therefore when you create a SQL Server failover cluster inside a virtual machine where the nodes are running as a virtual machine.

In particular:

Guest Failover Clustering is supported for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 in a virtual machine for Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, and SVVP certified configurations provided both of the following requirements are met:

• The Operating System running in the virtual machine (the “Guest Operating System”) is Windows Server 2008 or higher

• The virtualization environment meets the requirements of Windows 2008 Failover Clustering as documented at The Microsoft Support Policy for Windows Server 2008 Failover Clusters, as documented in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
  943984  The Microsoft Support Policy for Windows Server 2008 Failover Clusters

- Beatrice Nicolini -

SQL Server - Speed up your Disks!

https://blogs.technet.com/beatrice/archive/2008/06/09/sql-server-speed-up-your-disks.aspx

Collection of SQL Server Storage Best Practices

https://blogs.technet.com/beatrice/archive/2008/04/07/collection-of-sql-server-storage-best-practices.aspx

Finally there's available directly from the SQL CAT Team a new whitepaper stating which are the  Microsoft guidelines concerning disk partition alignment.

"Disk partition alignment is a powerful tool for improving SQL Server performance. Configuring optimal disk performance is often viewed as much art as science. A best practice that is essential yet often overlooked is disk partition alignment. Windows Server 2008 attempts to align new partitions out-of-the-box, yet disk partition alignment remains a relevant technology for partitions created on prior versions of Windows.

This paper documents performance for aligned and nonaligned storage and why nonaligned partitions can negatively impact I/O performance; it explains disk partition alignment for storage configured on Windows Server 2003, including analysis, diagnosis, and remediation; and it describes how Windows Server 2008 attempts to remedy challenges related to partition alignment for new partitions yet does not correct the configuration of preexisting partitions.

The following topics are also included: background information, implementation, vendor considerations, two essential correlations, valid starting partition offsets, and the simple protocol to align partitions, define file allocation unit size, and assign drive letters. It includes results from tests that show how partition alignment can affect performance for SQL Server 2008"

You can find it here:

https://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2009/05/11/disk-partition-alignment-best-practices-for-sql-server.aspx

- Beatrice Nicolini -

Microsoft Product Support Reports

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CEBF3C7C-7CA5-408F-88B7-F9C79B7306C0&displaylang=en

Amongst the main differences:

• With the new MPS reports, there is only one download, based on your system architecture (x86 or x64). 
• The supported Operating Systems for the new tool are Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. 
• There are some prerequisites for running the new tool:
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
• Windows Powershell 1.0
• Windows Installer 3.1
• Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0

For specific information for running the new version, you can refer to this article form the

Ask The Performance Team:

Two Minute Drill: The New MPS Reports

https://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2009/05/01/two-minute-drill-the-new-mps-reports.aspx

If instead you prefer the old school way, and still like to run the old versions, refer to Tristank blog:

Old MPSReports

https://blogs.technet.com/tristank/archive/2009/05/12/old-mpsreports.aspx

- Beatrice Nicolini -

Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd672789.aspx

This documentation provides step-by-step guidelines for diagnosing and troubleshooting common performance problems by using publicly available tools such as:

• SQL Server Profiler
• System Monitor (in the Windows Server 2003 operating system) or Performance Monitor (in the Windows Vista operating system and Windows Server 2008), also known as Perfmon
• Dynamic management views (sometimes referred to as DMVs)
• SQL Server Extended Events (Extended Events) and the data collector, which are new in SQL Server 2008.

- Beatrice Nicolini -

It contains all the announced great new features that we were all looking forward to, especially the slipstream and uninstall ones, which could save a lot of time (and headhackes) at installation time.

So just to recap, new features are:

• Slipstream - You are now able to integrate the base installation with service packs (or Hotfixes) and install in a single step.
• Service Pack Uninstall - You are now able to uninstall only the Service Pack (without removing the whole instance)
• Report Builder 2.0 Click Once capability

A very good read to have before installing, is an article from CSS SQl Server Engineer which clears up a lot of questions which you might already have in your mind:

SQL Server 2008 SP1 and Cumulative Updates Explained.....

https://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/04/09/sql-server-2008-sp1-and-cumulative-updates-explained.aspx

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available at the following URL : https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=66ab3dbb-bf3e-4f46-9559-ccc6a4f9dc19

Enjoy!

- Beatrice Nicolini -

This time I have a good enough reason… which is my relocation back to… La Dolce Vita.

Yes, exactly, I am back in Italy, back to Milan, back to the place I grown up and where I have all of my family!

Working in Microsoft UK has been an amazing professional and personal experience. Great work, great people… not such a great weather :-) … but now I have a new brilliant challenge to start and I am very looking forward to it!

So you guess, I haven't left the family. I am still working in Microsoft, same role as a SQL server Premier Field Engineer. Just a bit more of sun, of good food and red wine.

Blogging is going on, hopefully with more and more posting … so stay tuned!

-Beatrice Nicolini-

With this release, there  are significant investments to ease deployment and management of Service Packs:

• Slipstream - You are now able to integrate the base installation with service packs (or Hotfixes) and install in a single step.
• Service Pack Uninstall - You are now able to uninstall only the Service Pack (without removing the whole instance)
• Report Builder 2.0 Click Once capability

To download please refer to: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6f26fc45-f0ca-49cf-a6ee-840c7e8bb8af&displaylang=en

Additional info: Microsoft SQL Server Release Services - https://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2009/02/23/sql-server-2008-service-pack-1-sp1-ctp.aspx

- Beatrice Nicolini -

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-004 – Important

https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS09-004.mspx

..and had a look to the known issues page...

You might have had a heart attack (as I did at first) in seeing the following:

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 is not successfully updated when you try to install or to uninstall a security update

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/957008

"When you try to install a security update for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is not successfully updated. This issue occurs because the rollback process for the security updates incorrectly removes the SQL Server 2005 service accounts from the respective local SQL Server service groups. "

You can guess my reaction when immediately I thought: "oh my, so not just this but all previous SQL Server 2005 SP2 Security Updates which I've applied were not successful" :-S!!!

Ok now, did I scare you off? :-)

You can just relax as the title and the description are a bit misleading. Nothing too bad out there (and in fact, title and description are in the process of being updated...)

This issue triggers if and only if for any reason the rollback process is started.

If the build was installed successfully without a rollback (which you can check by verifying the build number), then the security update was installed correctly.

If you check at the end of the process your instance build number (anyway, it is best practice to do so :)) and it matches the Security Update build number - then you are safe.

- Beatrice Nicolini -

"I have a DB, AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS option OFF (very bad idea, anyway :-)), I rebuild my indexes every week.  I do not have major changes in my database. As update statistics with fullscan is a side effect of DBCC DBREINDEX (aka INDEX REBUILD in 2005), can I say all my statistics are fine and up to date?"

Well... No :-(

In fact, statistics created from DBCC DBREINDEX (aka INDEX REBUILD in 2005) are only statistics over indexed columns. Statistics over non-indexed column (the ones named something like _WA_sys) are not managed from these operations. Therefore, if you want these to be up to date you need to turn AUTO_UPDATE_SATTISTICS  ON or to schedule their management in other way.

More info can be found at:

Is statistics over non-indexed columns updated by index rebuild?

https://sqlblog.com/blogs/tibor_karaszi/archive/2007/08/09/is-statistics-over-non-indexed-columns-updated-by-index-rebuild.aspx

- Beatrice Nicolini -