MSSQLCity.Com - All about MS SQL
     
About Us  
SSWUG Articles  
Articles  
Administering  
Comparison  
General  
Know How  
Replication  
Tuning  
Undocumented  
UDF  
SQL 6.5  
FAQ  
Scripts  
Tips  
Test Exams  
Advertise  
Download  
History  
Search  
Traffic  
Related Links  
     
Your button logo
Add to Favorites
 
     
 

The comparison of SQL Server 7.0 with SQL Server 2000

Sergey A. Vartanyan
svartany@yahoo.com

Hardware and Software Requirements

To install SQL Server 7.0, you should have the following hardware:

  • Alpha AXP, Intel or compatible platform
  • Pentium 166 MHz or higher (Pentium Pro, Pentium II and compatible)
  • 32MB RAM (minimum), 64MB RAM and more (recommended)
  • 180MB (full installation), 170MB (typical), 65MB (minimum), 90MB (management tools only) plus 50MB for OLAP Services and 12MB for the English Query
SQL Server 7.0 can work under Windows 95, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows NT Server/Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 4 and Windows 2000 (all editions).

SQL Server 7.0 also requires Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 or later, or Internet Explorer 5.0 or later.

To install SQL Server 2000, you should have the following hardware:

  • Intel or compatible platform
  • Pentium 166 MHz or higher (Pentium II, Pentium III and compatible)
  • 32MB RAM (minimum for Desktop Engine), 64MB RAM (minimum for all other editions) 128 MB RAM or more recommended
  • 270MB (full installation), 250MB (typical), 95MB (minimum), 44 MB (Desktop Engine) plus Analysis Services: 50 MB minimum and 130 MB typical and 80MB for the English Query
SQL Server 2000 will run under Windows 98, Windows NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or later, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or later and Windows 2000 (all editions).

SQL Server 2000 also requires Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, as it is required for Microsoft Management Console and HTML Help. Internet Explorer is not required to be the default browser and a minimal install is sufficient.

SQL Server 7.0 advantages

SQL Server 7.0 can work on the more poor hardware.

There are many books and web resources about SQL Server 7.0.

There are many people who work with SQL Server 7.0.

Many bugs was fixed.

Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 7.0 is now available.
SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 3

SQL Server 7.0 can work on the Alpha AXP platform.

SQL Server 7.0 has some features, that are not supported in SQL Server 2000.

These server configuration options are not supported in SQL Server 2000:

  • default sortorder id
  • resource timeout
  • extended memory size
  • spin counter
  • language in cache
  • time slice
  • language neutral full-text
  • unicode comparison style
  • max async IO
  • unicode locale id


    • SQL Profiler extended stored procedures, such as xp_trace_addnewqueue and xp_trace_generate_event, are not supported in SQL Server 2000.

    The SQL-SCM (Service Control Manager) API has been removed and is no longer supported in SQL Server 2000.

    So, if you work with SQL Server 7.0 without any problems and not needed in the new SQL Server 2000 features, it's not necessary to upgrade to the new version.

    SQL Server 2000 advantages

    User-Defined Functions.

    User-Defined Functions (UDFs) - one or more Transact-SQL statements that can be used to encapsulate code for reuse. User-defined functions cannot make a permanent changes to the data or modify database tables. UDF can change only local objects for this UDF, such as local cursors or variables.

    Distributed partitioned views.

    Distributed partitioned views allow you to partition tables horizontally across multiple servers. So, you can scale out one database server to a group of database servers that cooperate to provide the same performance levels as a cluster of database servers.

    Due to distributed partitioned views, SQL Server 2000 now on the first place in the tpc-c tests. See this link for more details: TPC-C tests

    New data types.

    There are new data types:

  • bigint data type
  • sql_variant data type
  • table data type


    • bigint data type is an 8-byte integer type.

    sql_variant data type is a type that allows the storage of data values of different data types.

    table data type is a type that allows applications to store results temporarily for later use.

    INSTEAD OF and AFTER Triggers.

    There are INSTEAD OF and AFTER Triggers in SQL Server 2000. INSTEAD OF triggers are executed instead of the INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE triggering action.
    AFTER triggers are executed after the triggering action.

    Cascading Referential Integrity Constraints.

    There are new ON DELETE and ON UPDATE clauses in the REFERENCES clause of the CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements.

    The ON DELETE clause controls what actions are taken if you attempt to delete a row to which existing foreign keys point. The ON UPDATE clause defines the actions that are taken if you attempt to update a candidate key value to which existing foreign keys point.

    The ON DELETE and ON UPDATE clauses have two options:

  • NO ACTION
  • CASCADE


    • NO ACTION specifies that the deletion/updation fail with an error.

    CASCADE specifies that all the rows with foreign keys pointing to the deleted/updated row are also deleted/updated.

    32 CPU and 64GB Memory Support.

    SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition on the Windows 2000 DataCenter can support up to 32 CPU and up to 64GB physical memory (RAM) on a computer.

    XML Support.

    SQL Server 2000 can use XML to insert, update, and delete values in the database, and database engine can return data as Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents.

    Look at here for more information about new SQL Server 2000 features:
    Relational Database Enhancements
     

    		 
    Visit The SQL Server Worldwide User's Group for all the latest news and information about SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and XML for developers and administrators.

    (c) 1997, 2005 Bits on the Wire, Inc