SQL Server 2005 SP2 Cumulative Hotfix 3175

We're at build 3175 with KB936305, the hotfix is not publicly available though.
For an overview of the hotfixes released after SP2 check out KB937137, it contains the list of fixes per build.

So what's up with all the SP2 post fixes?

It's getting quite cumbersome to understand all the releases after SP2 for SQL Server 2005. Bob Ward from PSS decided to clarify this on his blog.

Aaron Bertrand also clarifies the differences between a GDR and a QFE here.

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2

It was very close indeed :-)

Download here - fixlist here

I/O counters in Task Manager

One of my freaky habits is to check the I/O counters in the task manager. Whenever I'm doing I/O intensive stuff I like to quickly look at the MBs processed.

Whether these counters are updated or not is controlled by a registry setting (see below). You can set the value to 0 to disable it or 1 to enable it. Disabling it gives a little performance boost since Windows doesn't have to take care of the counters but on test systems I like to enable it. SQLIOSim also requires it to be enabled to get some of it's results.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\I/O System\CountOperations

By the way, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (fixlist) is getting very close. Keep an eye out for it because it contains fixes to improve performance of SQL Server 2005 under heavy load. More details will follow.