Microsoft’s SQL Server team yesterday(28 Nov 2011) announced the availability of a preview release of the SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux, which allows native developers to access Microsoft SQL Server from Linux operating systems.

For customers with native applications on multi-platform, the existing, reliable and enterprise-class ODBC for Windows driver (a.k.a. SQL Server Native Client, or SNAC) has been ported to the Linux platform.

You can download the driver here.

“In this release, the SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux will be a 64-bit driver for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. That will support SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 with this release of the driver. Notable driver features (in addition to what you would expect in an ODBC driver) include support for the Kerberos authentication protocol, SSL and client-side UTF-8 encoding. This release also brings proven and effective tools and the BCP and SQLCMD utilities to the Linux world.

You can read Shekhar’s( Senior Program Manager on the Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver For Linux team) full blog post here, while additional information on the first release of Microsoft ODBC Driver for Linux can be found here.

Use the StreamInsight CEP tool to monitor data from SQL Profiler.

http://www.sqlis.com/sqlis/post/Streaming-Profiler-Data-Through-StreamInsight.aspx

Microsoft today released Service Pack 1 for all seven editions of SQL Server 2008. he update is available in 32-bit, 64-bit, and ia64 flavors from the Microsoft Download Center.

Improvements:

• Slipstream allows administrators to install SQL Server 2008 and Service Pack 1 in a single instance. This decreases the total time for an installation, including a fewer number of reboots, thereby increasing productivity and deployment availability
• Service Pack Uninstall allows administrators to uninstall the service pack separately from the database release. This feature also improves DBA productivity, reduces the cost of deployment and improves overall supportability
• Report Builder 2.0 Click Once improves the existing SQL Server end-user report authoring application by easing deployment to business users

For more information about SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1, please review the Release Notes.