SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 2 (SP2) released !!!

The SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 2 (SP2) contains a rollup of released hotfixes as well as multiple improvements centered around performance, scalability, and supportability based on feedback from customers and the SQL community. These improvements enable SQL Server 2016 to perform faster and with expanded supportability and diagnostics. 

SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 2 includes:

• Performance and scale improvements for SQL Server, such as improved database backup performance on large memory machines and added backup compression support, which helps performance of almost all databases.
• Supportability and diagnostics enhancements, such as improved troubleshooting and additional information about statistics used during query plan optimization.

SSMS: Index was outside the bounds of the array. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)

We will see this when we connect to SQL Server 2012 from SQL Server 2008/2008 R2

Cause
This issue occurs because of an error in SSMS 2008 R2.

Solution
The problem is generated due to an error in SQL Server Management Studio 2008 & 2008 R2.

Fix
To solve this, apply the latest service pack available.

Quick Note: How to find out which Service Pack is installed on SQL Server?

-- SQL Server 2000/2005/2008/2008R2/2012
SELECT  SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')

-- SQL Server 6.5/7.0
SELECT @@VERSION

Difference between HTTP.SYS and WAS in IIS

HTTP.SYS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Stack) is the kernel level components of IIS. All client request comes from client hit the HTTP.Sys of Kernel level. HTTP.SYS then makes a queue for each and every request for each and individual application pool based on the request.

Whenever we create any application pool IIS automatically registers the pool with HTTP.SYS to identify the particular during request processing.

WAS(Windows Activation Service) is a new feature of IIS, that allows all the features of the Windows Communication Framework stack, like non-HTTP channels and other stuff.

IIS is the web server that hosts the services that are activated via WAS.

WAS - is the new process activation mechanism that ships with IIS 7.0. WAS builds on the existing IIS 6.0 but is more powerful because it provides support for other protocols besides HTTP, such as TCP and Named Pipes.

For more details, go through IIS architecture

Duplicate Menu Items in Visual Studio

Recently I had a situation with Visual Studio 2010 where menu items where duplicated like 3-4 times. Looks like some configuration file was corrupted. I have tried to restore current settings and setup new settings but none worked out.

To resolve this I ran the following from command line

devenv.exe /safemode /setup

Once this ran, I restarted Visual Studio I could able to see Visual studio with default factory settings.

PS: If you have any personal settings done before you have to redo those settings again.