Apr 26, 2011 13:39 GMT  ·  By

Not only is the first taste of the upcoming upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 available for download, but Microsoft also released the seventh Cumulative Update Package for version 2008 R2 the data platform.

Customers can download and deploy SQL Server 2008 R2 Cumulative Update Package 7, although per the Redmond company’s recommendation, it might be the best course of action to first install the refresh package in a test environment and not directly into production.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Cumulative Update Package 7 is designed to resolve a range of problems, with the software giant providing a complete list in KB 2507770.

SQL Server 2008 R2 customers that have experienced issues especially around the data platform’s speed should turn to Cumulative Update Package 7 as a solution to glitches.

“The long waited Cumulative Update 7 for Reporting Services 2008 R2 is finally out. The product team has worked very hard to include some performance fixes related to the new inclusion of Ajax functionality in this version,” revealed Maria Esteban, Reporting Services Support Engineer.

Here are a couple of fixes that Esteban opted to highlight:

“Performance decreases after you move a report that contains a large multi-select drop-down parameter list to SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services.

“Performance decreases after you move a large report to SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services.”

Customers running SQL Server 2008 R2 that deployed just some if any of the Cumulative Update Packages released by Microsoft thus far can go straight to number 7.

The Redmond company doesn’t call these patch packages cumulative for nothing, and of course, the last bundle of refreshes contains all the fixes already offered since CUP1.

“SQL Server 2008 R2 hotfixes are now multilanguage. Therefore, there is only one cumulative hotfix package for all languages,” the company said.

“One cumulative hotfix package includes all the component packages. The cumulative update package updates only those components that are installed on the system.”

Microsoft released recently the first Community Technology Preview of SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1, which is now available for download and testing.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Community Technology Preview is available for download here.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Community Technology Preview - Express Edition is available for download here.