If you want to use Microsoft's geometry or geography spatial types with ArcGIS 9.3.1, you should install the SQL Server 2008 Native Client on your ArcGIS client computers.   Not everyone will run into a problem when querying the geometry and geography types in SQL Server 2008 from ESRI software; it depends on how up-to-date your Windows ...

The Geodatabase Toolset (GDBT) for ArcCatalog is now available for 9.3 and 9.3.1. Download the toolset for free off of the ESRI products page. The GDBT is an unsupported extension to ArcGIS Desktop which provides a collection of tools that you can use to troubleshoot, monitor, and investigate ArcSDE geodatabases.The GDBT works with geodatabases ...

A new instructional series podcast is available called Migrating from Single-user Geodatabases to Multiuser Geodatabases. The podcast provides reasons to migrate from MS Access personal or file geodatabases to multiuser geodatabases. It also highlights some key concepts to be aware of before migrating as well as GIS data migration methods. Read ...

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There is a series of 3 podcasts by Olena Smith worth checking out on the ESRI Instructional Series Podcasts site dealing with implementing and maintaining desktop and workgroup geodatabases. Desktop (aka personal ArcSDE geodatabase) and workgroup are both ArcSDE geodatabases implemented on SQL Server Express. The power of these types of ...

ArcSDE 9.3 64-bit support has been announced on the ESRI support page. Here are the details: ESRI is pleased to announce the availability of ArcSDE 9.3 with new native 64-bit support for Oracle® 10g & 11g, and Microsoft® SQL Server® on the following platforms: Windows, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 4 & 5, and SUSE® 10 Enterprise Linux ...

There is new documentation available which talks about some best practices when using the compress command while also employing geodatabase replication. Compress is a process run periodically by an ArcSDE administrator to reduce the size of the geodatabase and improve performance. Replicas in the ArcSDE geodatabase can affect the compress process. ...

ArcGIS 9.3 does not provide a geoprocessing tool for creating ArcSDE connection files (.sde files). Some of you have requested such a tool for security reasons - typically because you do not want .sde connection files hanging around on machines. Rather, you want to automatically create a connection file in a temporary location, use it ...