Microsoft Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2000 review

Many of us are waiting for the day when we can move to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, but in the meantime we need to keep SQL Server 2000 installations ticking along.

Microsoft is offering a beta version of Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2000, which you can download for testing. Using beta software on production systems is not recommended, but the list of fixes is substantial so you may be tempted. More importantly, the beta enables you to run your current SQL Server applications on 64-bit AMD and Intel systems.

You can sign up for the beta program at https://beta.microsoft.com. You'll need a Microsoft Passport account. To find out how to get the beta, visit http://support. microsoft.com/kb/290211/EN-US/. You'll be asked to fill in and submit a survey before you can get the beta files. To access the survey - which essentially consists of your name, address and email address -type s2ksp4 as the Guest ID. Then under the prompt 'You are Enrolled in the Following Beta Programs', choose SQL Server 2000 SP4. Finally, expand the Survey option in the left pane, click SQL Server 2000 SP4 Nomination and complete the survey.

Once you have done that you should receive an email telling you how to access the Beta files and submit bug reports. Other beta programs include SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services SP2 and SQL Server 2005 Express SP2. Reporting Services SP2 is particularly useful and features additions and improvements such as SharePoint Web parts that let you view reports from your Report Server within your SharePoint sites.

So what does the SQL Server 2000 service pack do? For a start, it fixes problems involving joins and large queries, as well as several problems that occur on machines with the Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) system enabled. AWE is useful on systems that have a large number of user tables. If you have a particular problem and you want to know if the service pack fixes it, check out the list at http://support. microsoft.com/kb/888799.

SP4 isn't just about fixing problems, though. If you want to run SQL Server on 64-bit computers, this pack adds support for AMD64 and Intel Extended Platforms in Windows on Windows (WOW). WOW is an emulation subsystem in Windows 2003 that allows 32-bit applications to run on the 64-bit platform. It's worth mentioning that WOW is a subset of Windows and not all facilities are available. As it is an emulation of a different instruction set, it is also considerably slower than a native 64-bit program. However, it's a good way to start your migration to 64-bit computing.