Microsoft SQL Server offers tight integration with the Back Office series of server products. Check out this collection of SQL Server links about migrating to SQL Server, performance tuning, development and more!
SQL Server's auditing capabilities were significantly upgraded with the release of SQL Server 2008, to the great relief of database administrators and security professionals alike. The new auditing capabilities allow you to track user and system activity in a manner that is compliant with recently enacted security regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HI…
SQL Server's snapshot replication technology allows you to automatically transfer information between multiple SQL Server databases. This technology is a great way to improve the performance and/or reliability of your databases.
Once you've configured a distributor and created a publication, the last step in configuring SQL Server replication is to create a subscriber who will receive publication updates from the publisher. In this tutorial, we walk through the process of subscribing to a publication, step-by-step.
Once you've created a published/distributor, you can then use SQL Server Management Studio to create publications that subscribing servers may receive. Each publication contains a collection of database objects that will be replicated to all subscriber servers.
SQL Server's snapshot replication technology allows you to automatically transfer information between databases to keep them synchronized. In this article, we look at the first step of the snapshot replication process: creating the replication distributor.
SQL Server provides three methods you can use when you need to insert large quantities of data into a SQL Server database. These automated techniques will help you insert data from the results of a SQL query, a text file or another database.
Database Maintenance Plans allow you to automate many database administration tasks in Microsoft SQL Server. You can create maintenance plans using an easy wizard-based process without any knowledge of Transact-SQL.
Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DETA) allows you to optimize your SQL Server database configuration based upon the unique business requirements of your organization. It analyzes your database workload and uses that information to make recommendations about hte physical structure of your database and then allows you to actually implement the recommendations within DETA.
SQL Server Agent allows you to automate a variety of administrative tasks. In this tutorial, we walk through the process of using SQL Server Agent to create and schedule a job that automates database administration.
The bulk copy (bcp) command of Microsoft SQL Server provides you with the ability to insert large numbers of records directly from the command line. In addition to being a great tool for command-line aficionados, bcp is a powerful tool for those seeking to insert data into a SQL Server database from within a batch file or other programmatic method.
You may often need to create a SQL Server query that performs inexact pattern matching through the use of wildcard characters. The use of wildcards allows you to find data that fits a certain pattern, rather than specifying it exactly. For example, you can use the wildcard "C%" to match any string beginning with a capital C.
SQL Server constraints allow you to enforce rules in your database. These rules may affect business logic, database integrity and/or table structures. Each one plays an important role in your database architecture.
NOT NULL constraints in Microsoft SQL Server allow you to specify that a column may not contain NULL values. When you create a new NOT NULL constraint on a database column, SQL Server checks the column’s current contents for any NULL values. If the column currently contains NULL values, the constraint creation fails. Otherwise, SQL Server adds the NOT NULL constraint and any future INSERT or UPDATE commands that would cause the existence of a NULL value fail.
UNIQUE constraints allow SQL Server administrators to specify that a column may not contain duplicate values. When you create a new UNIQUE constraint, SQL Server checks the column in question to determine whether it contains any duplicate values. If the table contains preexisting duplicates, the constraint creation command fails. Similarly, once you have a UNIQUE constraint on a column, attempts to add or modify data that would cause duplicates to exist also fail.
DEFAULT constraints allow you to specify a value that the database will use to populate fields that are left blank in the input source.
CHECK constraints allow you to limit the types of data that users may insert in a database. They go beyond data types and allow you to define the specific values that may be included in a column.
Microsoft SQL Server provides users with a variety of rich graphical user interfaces to retrieve and manipulate data and configure SQL Server databases. However, sometimes it’s just easier to work from the old-fashioned command line. Whether you’re looking for a quick-and-dirty way to execute a SQL query or wish to include SQL statements in a Windows script file, SQLCMD allows you to meet your goal.
SQL Server is an enterprise-class relational database, but that doesn't mean it has to blow your budget. In this article, we take a look at two low cost options that let you get up and running with SQL Server 2008 for free or under $50.
SQL Server 2008 is the latest release in Microsoft’s enterprise relational database platform series. In this substantial upgrade, they've packed the new database engine full of new features, but fortunately it doesn’t pack any additional punch in your wallet: SQL Server 2008 is available at the same price points used by SQL Server 2005.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 offers administrators two choices of performing user authentication: Windows authentication mode and mixed authentication mode. Making the proper choice affects both the security and maintenance of your organizationÂ’s databases.
The TRY…CATCH statement in Transact-SQL allows you to detect and handle error conditions gracefully within your database applications. This statement is the cornerstone of SQL Server error handling and is an extremely important part of developing robust database applications.
Traces allow you to track the specific actions performed against a SQL Server databases. They provide valuable information for troubleshooting database issues and tuning database engine performance. In this tutorial, we walk through the process of creating a SQL Server Trace with SQL Server Profiler, step-by-step.
Microsoft provides the SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor to help you detect upgrade issues before they occur. This tool examines your SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 databases and checks for any potential conflicts.
The transaction log plays a critical role in a SQL Server database: it maintains an ongoing record of database activity crucial for the restoration of recent data in the event of a disaster. However, this benefit comes at a cost: the transaction log can consume a substantial amount of space in an active database. SQL Server provides two actions designed to counterbalance these large space requirements: transaction log truncation and log file shrinking.
SQL Server provides three different recovery models that allow you to specify the way SQL Server manages log files and prepares your enterprise for a disaster. Each of these models represents a different approach to balancing the tradeoff between conserving disk space and providing for granular disaster recovery options.
SQL Server allows you to automatically notify database administrators when unusual circumstances occur. This powerful alerting mechanism enables 24-hour monitoring of your database performance without staffing a 24-hour operations center.
One of the major advantages that enterprise-class databases offer over their desktop counterparts is a robust backup and recovery feature set. Microsoft SQL Server provides database administrators with the ability to customize a database backup and recovery plan to the business and technical requirements of an organization.
Looking to optimize the performance of your SQL Server database? If your database contains very large tables, you may benefit from partitioning those tables onto separate filegroups. This technology, introduced in SQL Server 2005, allows you to spread data onto different physical disks, leveraging the concurrent performance of those disks to optimize query performance.
Normally, it's best to allow SQL Server to enforce isolation between transactions in its default manner; after all, isolation is one of the basic tenets of the ACID model. However, sometimes business requirements force database administrators to stray from the default behavior and adopt a less rigid approach to transaction isolation. To assist in such cases, SQL Server offers five different transaction isolation models.
SQL Server user-defined functions and stored procedures offer similar functionality. Both allow you to create bundles of SQL statements that are stored on the server for future use. This offers you a tremendous efficiency benefit, as you can save programming time by...
Other SQL Server data types allow for the storage of unique identifiers, cursors, tables and XML
Binary data types allow you to store any type of binary data, including entire files of up to 2GB. They include binary, varbinary, image and bit.
Character string data types are used to store text values in Microsoft SQL Server databases.
The date and time SQL Server data types are used to store calendar information. They include the datetime, smalldatetime and timestamp variables.
The approximate numeric data types are not as commonly used as other SQL Server data types used to store numeric information. The exact numeric data types provide more precision and are more commonly used.
The exact numeric data types are the most common SQL Server data types used to store numeric information. They include integers (int), big integers (bigint), tiny integers (tinyint), small integers (smallint), decimal and numeric values.
Selecting appropriate data types is one of the most important considerations when designing a SQL Server database. Choices you make in the database design phase may have a significant impact on the efficiency, performance and storage requirements of your database down the road.
SQL Server databases rely upon tables to store data. In this tutorial, we'll explore the process of designing and implementing a database table in Microsoft SQL Server.
What is Transact-SQL? Find out in the About Databases glossary!
Microsoft SQL Server provides the stored procedure mechanism to simplify the database development process by grouping Transact-SQL statements into manageable blocks.
After a long gap in the release of SQL Server databases, Microsoft recently released SQL Server 2005. In this substantial upgrade, they've packed the new database engine full of features.
Looking to squeeze that last bit of performance out of your SQL Server database? The Index Tuning Wizard can help!
English Query makes it possible to pose natural language questions to any OLE DB data source
There are numerous threats to your data -- disk corruption, natural disaster, human error and server failure, among others. Is your disaster recovery plan sufficient to ensure your organization's interests are protected?
SQL Server offers full-featured relational database functionality in a user-oriented package. Learn about the various components of SQL Server in this article.
Would you like to give users of your database the ability to pose queries in plain English? EQ makes it possible!
Stored procedures offer great performance, security and abstraction benefits to SQL Server developers.
There are numerous threats to your data -- disk corruption, natural disaster, human error and server failure, among others. Is your disaster recovery plan sufficient to ensure your organization's interests are protected?
Looking to squeeze that last bit of performance out of your SQL Server database? The Index Tuning Wizard can help!
Microsoft SQL Server provides a robust replication facility to distribute and update data in a decentralized fashion.
Robert Pfeiff and Ted Daley of SQL Server Magazine provide a "behind the scenes" look at SQL Server's replication capabilities. This easy-to-read description is great for the novice.
Visit the official Microsoft product site to get the latest news, patches and information on SQL Server 7.0 and the new SQL Server 2000 products!
Microsoft's TechNet provides a series of white papers detailing the security features of SQL Server with recommendations for database administrators.
Microsoft's guide to performance tuning SQL Server installations. This article provides quick tips with comprehensive explanations.
If you're looking for a distributed database solution, this white paper from Microsoft describes the replication capabilities present in SQL Server.
This Microsoft white paper provides answers to frequently asked questions on SQL Server's backup and restore functionality.
Microsoft's product support engineers explain how to implement clustering services with SQL Server. This comprehensive white paper provides screen snapshots and detailed instructions.
This security checklist is a "must read" for all SQL Server database administrators. Chip Andrews provides a detailed review of potential vulnerabilities and countermeasures.
Jeffery Rogers of SQL Server Magazine discusses common problems with SQL Server replication and describes the proper implementation of validation techniques to ensure proper data synchronization.
