There is sometimes confusion between what is and isn't supported of Visual Basic 6.  What happens with Vista given it has the VB Runtime built in - how does support for that work?  These are common sorts of questions.

There are two very good locations to check up on with VB6 support.  One is this one which has a solid Q&A on VB6 and Visual Studio 6 support for VB.  It covers the most frequently asked questions on VB6.

The other one is this one which outlines and answers most questions about the VB6 Runtime on Vista.  If you are running VB6 you should look through these pages.

If you are looking at migrating or extending your VB6 application, a site that has lots of useful information is http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun.

A few years back we had the SQL Server Code Camp.  This year the community is putting on the same thing in a different guise - the SQL PASS Community Connection.

This is a weekend of SQL Server oriented sessions that will cover a variety of topics relevant to anyone working with SQL Server in their day jobs.

When: December 6-7 (Saturday/Sunday)
Where: Whitireia Polytechnic, Porirua, Wellington

Turn up from 8am on Saturday morning.  First sessions start at 9am and go till 6pm followed by an optional dinner.  Sunday is from 9am-5pm.

Topics covered include:

• Managing Data warehouses
• Building a business case for SQL Server (by me)
• Top 15 SQL Server DBA Tasks
• DTS to SSIS migration
• Troubleshooting SQL Server
• Upgrading from SQL Server 2000
• Reporting Services Architecture
• Monitoring with DMV's
• Business Continuity
• Linq to SQL
• Security
• SQL Server Data Services
• And more...

There are also some top speakers going to be there including:

• Greg Low
• Adam Cogan
• Peter Ward
• Chris Auld
• and a bunch of gurus from around NZ

This looks like a great event, so I encourage you to be there.

Registration and more information is available on the .Net Website.

While the rest of the world has been able to purchase and renew Visual Studio and MSDN online for some time, we have for some reason lagged behind.  But now that lag is behind us and we can now order a new subscription or renew your MSDN subscription online.

If you are a small business, this is good news as you don't need to go through a LAR to purchase Visual Studio - all you need is a credit card and an Internet connection (and a Live ID).

To purchase MSDN/Visual Studio, click here and follow the "wizard" (for want of something better to call it).  The pricing on the online store represents about a 10% discount on the standard price, so its not a bad way to purchase.

Do you have an opinion about what we are doing well or badly in the Developer space?  Here is your chance to have your say.

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you love and hate about Microsoft! Every year we use your feedback to improve our products and services. This year, in addition to the annual online survey, we are planning to hold focus groups around the country and are looking for NZ developers to have their say.

Scott Wylie, the Director of the Developer and Platform Strategy Team for Microsoft NZ, will be facilitating these sessions. Scott’s role is to listen and understand your feedback which will enable his team to provide better support and resources for NZ developers.

If you would like to participate, please email your interest to nzeditor@microsoft.com with your contact details and preferred focus group (by session number as listed below) you would like to attend. We will confirm you attendance shortly after via email and phone. You can be assured that all information shared will be kept confidential.

Christchurch Convention Centre / Tuesday 11^th November 2008
Kilmore Street, Christchurch

Session 1: 8:30 -10:00
Session 2: 11:00 -12:30

Microsoft New Zealand Wellington Office / Thursday 13^th November 2008
Level 12, Vodafone on the Park, Lambton Quay, Wellington

Session 3: 8:30 -10:00
Session 4: 11:00 -12:30

Microsoft New Zealand Auckland Office / Wednesday 19^th November 2008
Level 5, 22 Viaduct Harbour Avenue, Auckland

Session 5: 8:30 -10:00
Session 6: 11:00 -12:30

Refreshments and a token of our appreciation will be provided for your participation.  We look forward to hearing from those of you who are interested to participate in the focus groups. Please note that there are limited spaces available so please respond early to secure your space for the focus group.

This is a good opportunity to have a candid chat with Scott (my manager until recently).

If you've got SQL Server 2000 servers and you are looking to migrate to SQL Server 2008, it is possible that you've got a number of SQL Server DTS packages to convert.  For some customers DTS migration is the key reason behind taking a long time to migrate.  SQL Server 2008 includes some tools for aiding the migration process, and there is some good documentation on how to approach and complete the migration too.  I want to highlight some of this here.

Before you start though, you'll want to take a look at the considerations for upgrading DTS Packages to SSIS. Once you've done that you'll be pleased to know that there is a SQL Server Upgrade Advisor that will look at your DTS packages and advise you if you are likely to expect upgrade issues.  For the most part, DTS packages that contain functionality with a directly equivalent in SSIS will have no problems.  If there is no direct equivalent, you'll need to wrap components of a package.  Notes to help you with this are also available in SQL Books online here.

Once you've got your head around what will and wont convert, you can have a crack at using the DTS migration wizard (also included in SQL Server 2008 Standard and Enterprise).

There is a list of known package migration issues available.  More detailed “how to” information about running the package migration wizard is available here. 

Of course, this will all be covered in some detail at the SQL Server DBA Training Forum in November (dont forget to register).

At the Microsoft BI conference this week we announced some of our internal projects.  The two of interest are:

• Microsoft SQL Server v.Next code named "Kilimanjaro"
• Project "Madison"

SQL Server "Kilimanjaro" is focused specifically around BI (hence it's announcement at the BI Conference) and "Madison" is the integration of the DATAllegro technologies with Windows and SQL Server.

CTP drops will start over the next 12 months with RTM (currently) expected in 2010.

For more information on these, read the press release or watch the BI Conference day 1 keynote (Low, Medium, High)

Slow off the mark on this one (Hillary beat me to it).

SQL Server 2008 Enterprise has been supported on Hyper-V since RTM, but the announcement today is that from today:

• SQL Server 2008 and 2005 are both supported on Hyper-V and Hyper-V Server
• SQL Server 2008 and 2005 are both supported on selected third party products

The list of supported third party products is located here and currently includes:

• Cisco WAAS Virtual Blades 4.1.1
• Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2
• VMWare ESX 3.5 Update 2
• XenServer 5

The official landing page for the support policy around SQL on Virtual hardware is here and will be updates if/as things change.

I recently heard of someone who moved their SQL 2005 Server from physical hardware to Hyper-V and saw significantly improved performance. 

The virtualisation story is certainly getting interesting.

Click here to skip to Registration

On November 4-6 we are running three one day training courses aimed at DBA's which are designed to jumpstart your knowledge of SQL Server 2008 planning and deployment.

If you design solutions on SQL Server, maintain SQL Server databases or are evaluating SQL Server for deployment, this training will prove useful.

The training will be run by Jeremy Boyd (SQL Server MVP and all round nice guy).

Agenda/Content

You'll want to be there at around 8:15 for a 8:30am sharp start.  The day will be over at 4:30pm after which you can either hang around for a bit to talk further or head home before the traffic gets really nasty. 

Here is what the day will look like:

8:30-10am – Overview of SQL Server 2008

What is new in SQL Server 2008 that makes it worth seriously considering? What is the difference between Web, Standard and Enterprise?  All these things are covered in this introduction to SQL Server 2008.  This is a 200 level session intended to give you a overview of what the new capabilities and tools are in the product and where they will be useful to you.

10:15-11:30 – Migrating from SQL Server 2000/2005 to SQL Server 2008

There are many new changes in SQL Server 2008, particularly when upgrading from SQL Server 2000.  Is it worth migrating?  If so, where do you start?  How can you approach this?  What about DTS to SSIS migrations?  This session will give you some considerations and approaches to take away with you to help you make the right decisions and the migration to SQL 2008 whether it be from SQL 2000 or SQL 2005.

11:45-1pm – SQL Server Architecture

Architecture is about ensuring that solutions are available and scalable.  This includes thinking through how to allow other stakeholders get the most from the solution.  This session will explore how much developers can do with SQL Server 2008 and how DBA’s should architect their implementation to provide the key features developers will build into their applications without compromising the service the database server provides. We will also look at and discuss the various architectures that you can consider when using SQL Server 2008 technologies.

-- lunch –-

1:45-3pm – High availability and resilience

Mirroring, clustering and replication have come a long way in SQL Server 2008.  In addition there are new features such as the Resource Governor that will ensure that your mission critical applications never suffer from contention with other applications. This session will give you a solid understanding of these technologies and when to use them.

3:15-4:30 – SQL Server Management

Managing SQL Server 2008 servers is easier than ever before. Check out how policy based management in SQL Server 2008 will reduce risks, how configuration servers allow you to group servers together for easier management and get an introduction into SQL PowerShell to really jump start your management framework.

Throughout the day there will be opportunities to ask questions and get expert answers and talk to your peers and see how they've done things.

Registration

To register, click one of the links below.  There is no charge for this training - although no-shows will get the special benefit of being shamed publicly before their peers :-)

Tuesday, November 4 - Wellington - The Brewery Bar (upstairs conference room) (Register)
Wednesday, November 5 - Auckland - The Duxton Hotel (Register)
Thursday, November 6 - Christchurch - Christchurch Convention Centre (Register)