Microsoft has released the next version of SQL Server (SQL Server v.Next) Community Technology Preview (CTP) 1.1 for Windows and Linux, and is now available for download.
According to Microsoft, this update includes improvements to several database engine and Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities which you can try in your development and test environments.
Key enhancements in SQL Server v.Next on Windows CTP 1.1 for Analysis Services tabular models include:
- New infrastructure for data connectivity and ingestion into tabular models with support for TOM APIs and TMSL scripting. This infrastructure enables:
- Support for additional data sources, such as MySQL. Additional data sources are planned in upcoming CTPs.
- Data transformation and data mashup capabilities.
- Support for BI tools such as Microsoft Excel enable drill-down to detailed data from an aggregated report. For example, when end-users view total sales for a region and month, they can view the associated order details.
- Support for ragged hierarchies in reports, such as organizational and account charts.
- Enhanced security for tabular models, including the ability to set permissions to help secure individual tables.
Key SQL Server v.Next on Windows and Linux CTP 1.1 database engine enhancements include:
- Language and performance enhancements to natively compiled T-SQL modules, including support for OPENJSON, FOR JSON, JSON built ins as well as memory-optimized tables support for computed columns.
- Improved the performance of updates to non-clustered columnstore indexes in the case when the row is in the delta store.
- Batch mode queries now support “memory grant feedback loops,” which learn from memory used during query execution and adjusts on subsequent query executions; this can allow more queries to run on systems that are otherwise blocking on memory.
- New T-SQL language features:
- Introducing three new string functions: TRIM, CONCAT_WS, and TRANSLATE
- BULK IMPORT supports CSV format and Azure Blob Storage as file source
- STRING_AGG supports WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY)s
In addition, Microsoft has added support for Red Hat 7.3 and Ubuntu 16.10 to SQL Server on Linux.
For more information, head to this page on What’s New in SQL Server v.Next, Release Notes and Linux documentation.
You can download the update from this page here
