In late July, we released SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP3, the first public Community Technology Preview (CTP) for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1, which contained compatibility features for SQL Server 2012 to support self-service BI capabilities in Office and SharePoint 2013 Preview. Today, we are excited to release SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP4 which contains additional supportability improvements that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms. The following highlights a few key enhancements in CTP4:

  • A solution to migrate AlwaysOn Availability Group from a lower version of Windows Server cluster to a higher version of Windows Server cluster.
  • Selective XML Index which will improve querying performance over data stored as XML
  • For SQL Server 2012 Express users, SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express Edition will ship the SQL Server Management Studio with functionality that existed with the SQL Server Management Studio from SQL Server premium editions

For a more detailed list of improvements and fixes please read here.

Customers running SQL Server 2012 can download and test the SP1 CTP4 and send feedback to Microsoft for continuous product improvement. We look forward to your feedback!

SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP4

SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP4 Express

SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP4 Feature Pack