AdventureWorks 2008R2 November CTP is now live on CodePlex!

The AdventureWorks 2008R2 November CTP sample databases are now live on CodePlex at https://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=24854!   This is a beta quality release. We’re still addressing some relatively minor issues that came up during testing, but we feel that the sample databases will be very helpful to have now that SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP is available on MSDN, so we’re publishing what we have so far. We’ll be addressing some issues and looking carefully at feedback as we work our next update for SQL Server 2008R2.

Here are the key improvements we have delivered with this release compared with SQL Server 2008:

· All dates have been incremented by 4 years. This is a requested change and helps keep the data looking relevant.

· Product descriptions in the data warehouse have been localized into 73 new languages. A new table has been added to store this new localized content.

· Scripts have been updated to use new names for the databases (AdventureWorks2008R2, AdventureWorksDW2008R2, AdventureWorksLT2008R2) so that the updated databases can live side by side with the SQL Server 2008 sample databases.

· A new approach to installing the databases has been implemented. This approach provides more targeted feedback when issues (such as an incorrectly configured server) arise and provides links to detailed help. It addresses some issues folks have had with previous installers.

 Please let us know what you think of the new installer. If folks feel it is better than the previous installer then we can reissue the SQL Server 2008 sample databases using this same technology. Note that you can install the SQL Server 2008R2 sample databases on SQL Server 2008 if you wish.