The sqlcmd utility gives users the ability to submit T-SQL statements of batches. The command-line tool can be used to submit to local and remote instances. Microsoft describes the tool at ideal for repetitive database tasks such as unit testing. Bcp is the second new tool. The bulk copy program utility copies data between instances of SQL Server and a data-file. With command-line tool, users can import larger numbers off rows into tables, or expert data from tables. The new tools are part of Microsoft’s push with SQL Server 2016, latest version database management software. Through a long development, Microsoft passed through public previews and release candidates. With the release of the 2016 build, Microsoft says it wanted to make database analytics easier to manage. “SQL Server 2016 has ground-breaking performance optimizations and efficiencies, leading to new levels of performance and scale. Modern servers can support a large number of cores with sophisticated vector instructions, can hold terabytes of memory, and provide very high I/O bandwidth with local flash storage. Optimizing for the concurrency and parallelism inherent within such servers can provide dramatic speedups at scale, and often outperform large distributed databases.”
Service Pack 1
Microsoft sent out Service Pack 1 second cumulative update for SQL Server 2016 in February. The release was the first that did not need users to be registered to get a cumulative update. This service pack cumulative platform bumped the platform to version 13.0.4422.0. As a cumulative release, Service Pack 1 did not come with any new features.
