Specifications

4 CHAPTER 1 SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements
Microsoft has made major investments in the SQL Server product as a whole; however,
the new features and breakthrough capabilities that should interest DBAs the most are the
advancements in application and multi-server administration. This section introduces some of
the new features and capabilities.
Application and Multi-Server Administration Enhancements
The SQL Server product group has made sizeable investments in improving application and
multi-server management capabilities. Some of the main application and multi-server admin-
istration enhancements that allow organizations to better manage their SQL Server environ-
ments include
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The SQL Server Utility This is a new manageability feature used to centrally
monitor and manage database applications and SQL Server instances from a single
management interface known as a Utility Control Point (UCP). Instances of SQL Server,
data-tier applications, database les, and volumes are managed and viewed within the
SQL Server Utility.
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The Utility Control Point (UCP) As the central reasoning point for the SQL Server
Utility, the Utility Control Point collects conguration and performance information
from managed instances of SQL Server every 15 minutes. After data has been collected
from the managed instances, the SQL Server Utility dashboard and viewpoints in SQL
Server Management Studio (SSMS) provide DBAs with a health summary of SQL Server
resources through policy evaluation and historical analysis. For more information on
the SQL Server Utility, Utility Control Points, and managing instances of SQL Server, see
Chapter 2, “Multi-Server Administration.”
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Data-tier applications A data-tier application (DAC) is a single unit of deployment
containing all of the database’s schema, dependant objects, and deployment require-
ments used by an application. A DAC can be deployed in one of two ways: it can be
authored by using the SQL Server data-tier application project in Visual Studio 2010,
or it can be created by extracting a DAC denition from an existing database with the
Extract Data-Tier Application Wizard in SSMS. Through the use of DACs, the deploy-
ment of data applications and the collaboration between data-tier developers and
DBAs is signicantly improved. For more information on authoring, deploying, and
managing data-tier applications, see Chapter 3, “Data-Tier Applications.”
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Utility Explorer dashboards The dashboards in the SQL Server Utility offer DBAs
tremendous insight into resource utilization and health state for managed instances of
SQL Server and deployed data-tier applications across the enterprise. Before the intro-
duction of the SQL Server Utility, DBAs did not have a powerful tool included with SQL
Server to assist them in monitoring resource utilization and health state. Most organi-
zations purchased third-party tools, which resulted in additional costs associated with