When SQL Server 2005 launched, it included a slew of dynamic management objects (DMOs) that were meant to replace the system tables from previous SQL Server versions.  As a stopgap, and part of the deprecation process, compatibility views for the system tables were provided. Their time is nearly up.  If left uninterrupted, these views should no longer be available in the next release of SQL Server (post SQL Server 2012).

If you haven’t switched yet, SQL Server 2012 is the time to break free from the compatibility views and start using the DMOs that were created to replace these views.  In this upcoming series of blog posts, each of the views will be described, and the data provided in them will be mapped to the DMO that represents the data that each contains.  With that information, additional information in the DMOs will also be identified, along with any continuing gaps to the information made available.

The list of deprecated compatibility views are (with the post publication date):

• sysaltfiles
• syscacheobjects
• syscolumns
• syscomments
• sysconfigures
• sysconstraints
• syscurconfigs
• sysdatabases
• sysdepends
• sysdevices
• sysfilegroups
• sysfiles
• sysforeignkeys
• sysfulltextcatalogs
• sysindexes
  • What Happened to rowmodctr from Sysindexes?
  • Decoding first, root, and FirstIAM in Sysindexes
  • Discovering Binary Pages In Sys.Indexes
• sysindexkeys
• syslockinfo
• syslogins
• sysmembers
• sysmessages
• sysobjects
• sysoledbusers
• sysopentapes
• sysperfinfo
  • Querying Performance Counters in SQL Server
• syspermissions
• sysprocesses
• sysprotects
• sysreferences
• sysremotelogins
• sysservers
• systypes
• sysusers

As you read through the posts, if you have any information to add or have questions, please leave a comment.  Some of the information in the system tables is a bit arcane and there may be holes in the information that I am able to research.