I finally carved out some time in my day to try and get the August CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2 installed.  I really decided to get this done after a read the short blurb in the latest eWeek Magazine titled, First Look At Microsoft SQL Server’s Future, which led me here http://tinyurl.com/lsx9qn.  The slide show provided screen shots of SQL Azure, new Reporting Builder Features and my favorite, the Utility Control Point (UTP).  UTP provides new feature that helps DBAs deal with the challenge of managing a multi-server environment.  After the installation complete I could not wait to get started testing the UTP out on some servers in my environment. 

I am always looking for a great tool that provides centralized server monitoring and data collection.  We have owned licenses to a couple, but recently discontinued them.  I have been running the Data Collector, but it still requires me to go to every server and enable and configure data collection.  The UTP allows you to Enroll an Instance of SQL from the Control Point.  So, if you haven’t installed SQL Server 2008 R2, give a try and look at the UTP.  There is one known bug that I encountered.  When you open the Storage Utilization for a Managed Instance the Utility throws and exception.  You can find the Workaround here:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlkjappmsmgmt/thread/03506a9b-e9b1-4d77-a3e1-28627e8f4867

Talk to you soon

Patrick LeBlanc, Founder TSQLScripts.com and SQLLunch

SQL Down South