New features for Katmai

Question

 

Many of you are curious about the new features for Service Broker in Katmai.  Below is a list of the features a brief description:

 

Conversation Priority -  This feature allows the messages of a one conversation to be prioritized higher than the priority of another conversation.  The priority affects both the sending and the receiving side.  On the sending side it affects the order messages from different conversations are put on the wire as they are pulled out of the transmission queue. On the receiving side it affects the order in which the next conversation group is chosen via a RECEIVE call.  A priority only applies to one side of the conversation (i.e. priority does not travel across the wire).  Priority information is stored in a system table and DDL is used to create/alter the priority.  You can configure priority via local service name, remote service name, and contract.  The system uses these rules to set the priority of a conversation at the time it is created.  The priority level will not change for the lifetime of the conversation.

 

 

Diagnostic Tool - This is a command line tool that allows you to easily diagnose both configuration and runtime problems in your Service Broker application.  It reports the errors as it finds them along with recommendations on how to fix them.  Below are examples of the kinds of problems it can find:

- Service Broker is not enabled

- A route is missing

 

External Activation - Activation is the mechanism that launches business logic to process messages whenever there is an event on the queue (such as message arrival, queue enabled, timer, etc...).  In Yukon the business logic had to be a stored procedure.  This is what we call "internal activation" because the business logic runs inside the database.  In Katmai we are supporting "external activation" where the business logic can run outside the database.  This works by having an NT service,  that runs on the same machine as the database or a different machine, watch a queue for events. When a queue event happens it starts the associated process.  The executable file is bound to the queue via an XML configuration file deployed with the NT service.  The Service Broker team supported external activation as a sample for Yukon but it is being productized for Katmai.  The Katmai tool will support both Katmai and Yukon instances.

Management Studio Enhancements - Of course one of our top asks has been for better Management Studio enhancements for the Broker objects.  We will be adding additional actions, such as a Create and Alter on all the Service Broker objects in the Object Explorer.  We will also add custom actions like "Enable Activation".  There will also be a grid view of the contents of a queue and a property page.

 

If you have any questions about these features please let us know!

 

Rick Negrin

Program Manager

Sql Server Service Broker

Answer 1

Hi Rick!

 

Thanks for the information. Can you already tell us, in which CTP we will see these features?

What's about integrating Service Listing Manager into SQL Server Management Studio?

 

Thanks

 

Klaus Aschenbrenner

http://www.csharp.at

http://www.csharp.at/blog

Answer 2

 

We are not sure yet exactly what improvements will fall into what CTPs.    We will let you know when we know.  Unfortunately the Service Listing will not be integrated into Management Studio in this release.

 

Rick Negrin

Program Manager

Sql Server Service Broker

 

Answer 3

Are there any specific reasons why the Service Listing Manager isn't integrated? Because it's a tool that is completely accepted by the Service Broker community...

 

Thanks

 

-Klaus

Answer 4

Does anyone know if the External Activation functionality is included in the November CTP?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 5

It is not.

Answer 6

Does any of this feature is available in November CTP ??

 

Answer 7

Conversation Priority and the diagnostic tool are in the November CTP.

Answer 8

There's a video on the SQL Server 2008 webcasts and virtual labs site called New Features in SQL Server 2008 for Developers that you might want to check out.