Following are the some major differences between the two versions(Comparing to SQL Server 2000 SQL Server 2005 ):- √(PG) The most significant change is the .NET integration with SQL SERVER 2005. Stored procedures, User-defined functions, triggers, aggregates, and user76 defined types can now be written using your own favorite .NET language (VB.NET, C#, J# etc .). This support was not there in SQL SERVER 2000 where the only language was T-SQL. In SQL 2005 you have support for two languages T-SQL and .NET. √(PG) SQL SERVER 2005 has reporting services for reports which is a newly added feature and does not exist for SQL SERVER 2000.It was a seperate installation for SQL Server 2000 √(PG) SQL SERVER 2005 has introduced two new data types varbinary (max) and XML. If you remember in SQL SERVER 2000 we had image and text data types. Problem with image and text data types is that they assign same amount of storage irrespective of what the actual data size is. This problem is solved using varbinary (max) which acts depending on amount of data. One more new data type is included "XML" which enables you to store XML documents and also does schema verification. In SQL SERVER 2000 developers used varchar or text data type and all validation had to be done programmatically. √(PG) SQL SERVER 2005 can now process direct incoming HTTP request with out IIS web server. Also stored procedure invocation is enabled using the SOAP protocol. √(PG) Asynchronous mechanism is introduced using server events. In Server event model the server posts an event to the SQL Broker service, later the client can come and retrieve the status by querying the broker. √For huge databases SQLSERVER has provided a cool feature called as ?Data partitioning?. In data partitioning you break a single database object such as a table or an index into multiple pieces. But for the client application accessing the single data base object ?partitioning? is transparent. √In SQL SERVER 2000 if you rebuilt clustered indexes even the non-clustered indexes where rebuilt. But in SQL SERVER 2005 building the clustered indexes does not built the non-clustered indexes. √Bulk data uploading in SQL SERVER 2000 was done using BCP (Bulk copy program?s) format files. But now in SQL SERVER 2005 bulk data uploading uses XML file format. 77 √In SQL SERVER 2000 there where maximum 16 instances, but in 2005 you can have up to 50 instances. √SQL SERVER 2005 has support of ?Multiple Active Result Sets? also called as ?MARS?. In previous versions of SQL SERVER 2000 in one connection you can only have one result set. But now in one SQL connection you can query and have multiple results set. √In previous versions of SQL SERVER 2000, system catalog was stored in master database. In SQL SERVER 2005 it?s stored in resource database which is stored as sys object , you can not access the sys object directly as in older version wewhere accessing master database. √This is one of hardware benefits which SQL SERVER 2005 has over SQL SERVER 2000 ? support of hyper threading. WINDOWS 2003 supports hyper threading; SQL SERVER 2005 can take the advantage of the feature unlike SQL SERVER 2000 which did not support hyper threading. Note: - Hyper threading is a technology developed by INTEL which creates two logical processors on a single physical hardware processor. √SMO will be used for SQL Server Management. √AMO (Analysis Management Objects) to manage Analysis Services servers, data sources, cubes, dimensions, measures, and data mining models. You can map AMO in old SQL SERVER with DSO (Decision Support Objects). √Replication is now managed by RMO (Replication Management Objects). Note: - SMO, AMO and RMO are all using .NET Framework. √SQL SERVER 2005 uses current user execution context to check rights rather than ownership link chain, which was done in SQL SERVER 2000. Note: - There is a question on this later see for execution context questions. √In previous versions of SQL SERVER the schema and the user name was same, but in current the schema is separated from the user. Now the user owns schema. Note: - There are questions on this, refer ? ?Schema? later. Note:-Ok below are some GUI changes. 78 √Query analyzer is now replaced by query editor. √Business Intelligence development studio will be used to create Business intelligence solutions. √OSQL and ISQL command line utility is replaced by SQLCMD utility. √SQL SERVER Enterprise manager is now replaced by SQL SERVER Management studio. √SERVER Manager which was running in system tray is now replaced by SQL Computer manager. √Database mirror concept supported in SQL SERVER 2005 which was not present in SQL SERVER 2000. √In SQL SERVER 2005 Indexes can be rebuild online when the database is in actual production. If you look back in SQL SERVER 2000 you can not do insert, update and delete operations when you are building indexes. √(PG) Other than Serializable, Repeatable Read, Read Committed and Read Uncommitted isolation level there is one more new isolation level ?Snapshot Isolation level?.
Notification Services is a new platform for building highly-scaled applications that send and receive notifications. Notification Services can send timely, personalized messages to thousands or millions of subscribers using a wide variety of devices.
Reporting Services Enhancements
Reporting Services is a new server-based reporting platform that supports report authoring, distribution, management, and end-user access.
New Service Broker
Service Broker is a new technology for building database-intensive applications that are secure, reliable, and scalable. Service Broker provides message queues the applications use to communicate requests and responses.
Database Engine Enhancements
The Database Engine introduces new programmability enhancements such as integration with the Microsoft .NET Framework and Transact-SQL enhancements, new XML functionality, and new data types. It also includes improvements to the scalability and availability of databases.
Data Access Interfaces Enhancements
SQL Server 2005 introduces improvements in the programming interfaces used to access data in SQL Server databases. For example, the SQL Native Client data access technology is new, and the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server, also referred to as SqlClient, is enhanced.
Analysis Services Enhancements (SSAS)
Analysis Services introduces new management tools, an integrated development environment and integration with the .NET Framework. Many new features extend the data mining and analysis capabilities of Analysis Services.
Integration Services Enhancements
Integration Services introduces a new extensible architecture and a new designer that separates job flow from data flow and provides a rich set of control flow semantics. Integration Services also provides improvements to package management and deployment, along with many new packaged tasks and transformations.
Full-Text Search Enhancements
This section describes the programmability enhancements that have been made to Full-Text Search. These enhancements include the data definition language for Full-Text Search and the ability to specify languages in queries other than the default language, and the manageability enhancements, such as side-by-side installs, backup and restore full-text catalogs, and attach and detach full-text catalogs.
Replication Enhancements
Replication offers improvements in manageability, availability, programmability, mobility, scalability, and performance.
Tools and Utilities Enhancements
SQL Server 2005 introduces an integrated suite of management and development tools that improve the ease-of-use, manageability, and operations support for large scale SQL Server systems.