SQL with Manoj

 
On 16th Nov 2016 Microsoft announced the first Community Test Preview (CTP 1.0) of SQL Server vNext that will run both on Windows & Linux. Not only Linux, but it will be supported on Docker, and macOS (via Docker) too.

For now I’m calling the vNext version as SQL Server 2017. (2018 is not called officially, I’m calling it just to avoid any confusion 🙂 )
 

This announcement was along with the release of SQL Server 2016 SP1, and the vNext version also supports features added in SQL Server 2016 SP1.
 

–> Download vNext bits:

To download the SQL Server vNext you can Register and Download the Full version or Free evaluation version (180 days).

Or, directly download the ISO (~2 GB): SQLServerVnextCTP1-x64-ENU.iso
 

–> Check version and SQL build:

select @@version

Microsoft SQL Server vNext (CTP1) – 14.0.1.246 (X64)
Nov 1 2016 23:24:39
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation
Developer Edition (64-bit) on Windows 10 Enterprise 6.3 (Build 14393: ) (Hypervisor)
 

–> New Features & Enhancements:

>> Database Engine:

1. All new features in SQL Server 2016 SP1.

2. New compatibility level 140.

3. Improvements to the way incremental statistics update thresholds are computed.

4. New DMVs added:
   – sys.dm_exec_query_statistics_xml added, to get query execution plan for in-flight requests.
   – sys.dm_os_host_info, to provide operating system information for both Windows and Linux.

5. Enhancements to In-Memory Tables & SPs:
   – Can now use sp_spaceused, sp_rename, CASE, TOP (N) WITH TIES
   – More than 8 indexes

6. Clustered Columnstore Indexes now support LOB columns (nvarchar(max), varchar(max), varbinary(max)).

7. New STRING_AGG() aggregate function has been added.

8. Database roles are created with R Services for managing permissions associated with packages.

9. New Japanese collations are added.
 

– Features added in CTP 1.1

10. Memory-optimized tables and indexes now support computed columns
   – Full support for JSON functions
   – and CHECK constraints
   – Natively compiled modules now support the CROSS APPLY operator

12. New string functions CONCAT_WS, TRANSLATE, and TRIM are added.
   – and the WITHIN GROUP clause is now supported for the STRING_AGG function.
 

– Features added in CTP 1.2

13. Online index build and rebuild support for non-clustered Columnstore indexes.

14. Support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v12 SP2

15. SQL Server Early Adoption Program (EAP), msdn blog on EAP
 

– Features added in CTP 1.3

16. Full text search, now available for all supported Linux distros

17. Resumable online index rebuilds

18. Temporal Tables Retention Policy

19. Indirect checkpoint performance improvements

20. Online non-clustered columnstore index buill and rebuild support added

21. Availability Groups enhancements:
   – Cluster-less Availability Groups support added
   – Minimum Replica Commit Availability Groups setting
   – Availability Groups can now work across Windows-Linux to enable cross-OS migrations and testing

22. New DMV sys.dm_db_stats_histogram, for examining statistics

23. 5 new dynamic management views to return information about Linux process:
   – sys.dm_linux_proc_all_stat
   – sys.dm_linux_proc_cpuinfo
   – sys.dm_linux_proc_meminfo
   – sys.dm_linux_proc_sql_maps
   – sys.dm_linux_proc_sql_threads
 

>> SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS):

1. 1400 Compatibility level for tabular models.

2. Modern Get Data query and import data features for tabular models.

3. Support for ragged hierarchies with the new Hide Members property.

4. Support for drillthrough by using Detail Rows. This includes the Default Detail Rows expression property and DETAILROWS DAX function.

5. Table-level security, restricts user permissions on table data and table names.

6. New DAX IN function.

7. Encoding hints, an advanced feature used to optimize processing (data refresh) of large in-memory Tabular models.
 

>> SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS):

   – Support Scale Out of SSIS: to run SSIS on multiple machines. With Scale Out Master and Workers, packages can be distributed to execute on different Workers automatically. Check more details here in MSDN.

>> SQL Server R support: Check full details here in MSDN.
 

–> For new Features released in CTP 2.0 check here.
 

–> Download & Install SQL Server vNext & SSMS:

–> References:

>> MSDN Blog announcement

>> SQL Server vNext Release Notes