Microsoft SQL Server
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!
Creating a Table with SQL Server 2014
Tables serve as the basic unit of organization for any database, including those managed by SQL Server 2014. Designing appropriate tables to store your data is an essential responsibility of a database developer and both designers and administrators must be familiar with the process of creating new SQL Server database tables. In this article, we explore the process in detail.
Creating a Table with SQL Server 2012
Tables serve as the basic unit of organization for any database, including those managed by SQL Server 2012. Designing appropriate tables to store your data is an essential responsibility of a database developer and both designers and administrators must be familiar with the process of creating new SQL Server database tables. In this article, we explore the process in detail.
Database Engine Tuning Advisor in SQL Server 2012
SQL Server 2012’s Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DETA) provides database administrators with a powerful way to tune your database for your specific environment. DETA allows you to design a customized workload that mimics your operational environment and then analyze that workload to determine the optimal configuration settings for your SQL Server instance. DETA’s recommendations include adding normal and clustered indexes to your database, partitioning tables and creating indexed views, where appropriate.
Creating Traces with SQL Server 2012
SQL Profiler is a diagnostic tool included with Microsoft SQL Server 2012. It allows you to create SQL traces that track the specific actions performed against a SQL Server databases. SQL traces provide valuable information for troubleshooting database issues and tuning database engine performance. For example, administrators might use a trace to identify a bottleneck in a query and develop optimizations that might improve database performance.
Microsoft SQL Azure: SQL Server in the Cloud
With the release of SQL Azure, Microsoft is now offering serious database users the ability to put their databases in the cloud. SQL Azure is a relational database that supports Transact-SQL using Microsoft SQL Server Technology but allowing you to place all of the server and operating system administration tasks in the hands of Microsoft Engineers.
Importing and Exporting Data With SQL Server 2014
The SQL Server Import and Export Wizard is a component of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) that facilitates the transfer of information between your SQL Server databases and other data sources, including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and flat files.
Importing and Exporting Data with SQL Server 2012
The SQL Server Import and Export Wizard is a component of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) that facilitates the transfer of information between your SQL Server databases and other data sources, including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and flat files.
Foreign Keys in Microsoft SQL Server
One of the most important concepts in databases is creating relationships between database tables. These relationships provide a mechanism for linking data stored in multiple tables and retrieving it in an efficient fashion. In order to create a link between two tables, you must specify a foreign key in one table that references a column in another table.
How to Use Pattern Matching in SQL Queries with Wildcards
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.
NOT NULL Constraints in Microsoft SQL Server
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.
A Quick Guide to Using "UNIQUE" Constraints in Microsoft SQL Server
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.
Choosing the Right SQL Server 2008 Edition for Your Project
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.
A Simple Guide to Using the Command Line Utility in MS SQL
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.How to Choose an SQL Server Authentication Mode
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 organization’s databases.
How to Use 'TRY...CATCH' to Fix SQL Server Errors
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.
How To Create a Trace with SQL Server Profiler
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.
Why Log Shrinking and Truncation is Crucial to Your Database
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.
A Quick Guide to Using Recovery Models in SQL Server
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 2012 Backup Types and Scopes
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.SQL Server Backup Types and Scopes
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.Partitioning a SQL Server Database Table
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.SQL Server Transaction Isolation Models
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.Stored Procedures vs. User Defined Functions in Microsoft SQL Server
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...Microsoft SQL Server Data Types
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.Primary Keys in SQL Server 2012
Every database table should have a primary key that uniquely identifies each row in the table. This key is used to locate records in your database and plays an essential role in indexing and maintaining your data. You may either choose your own primary key using attribute(s) of your table that you know will be unique or allow the database to automatically generate a primary key column that will be populated with sequential integer values.Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2: Choosing the Correct Edition
SQL Server 2008 R2 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.SQL Server 2008 R2: What's New?
With the May 2010 release of SQL Server 2008 R2, many database professionals wondered why Microsoft didn’t increment the product’s name to SQL Server 2010. Indeed, there is a quite a bit of new functionality in this latest release of SQL Server which, among other things, allows advanced interaction with Office 2010.Encrypting SQL Server Database Connections
Encryption helps you prevent unauthorized access to information when individuals try to bypass your database security controls. For example, someone with a computer on your network might try to use a packet sniffer to monitor connections made by users to a database. Fortunately, database encryption allows you to protect the data sent over those connections from prying eyes.Encrypting SQL Server Database Connections
Encryption helps you prevent unauthorized access to information when individuals try to bypass your database security controls. For example, someone with a computer on your network might try to use a packet sniffer to monitor connections made by users to a database. Fortunately, database encryption allows you to protect the data sent over those connections from prying eyes.SQL Server Resource Governor
SQL Server’s Resource Governor feature, first available in SQL Server 2008, provides the ability to limit the resources consumed by SQL Server database connections. This functionality permits database administrators to regulate the CPU usage and memory consumption of various workloads.Creating SQL Server 2012 User Accounts
SQL Server 2012 provides a wide range of security features designed to help you protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data stored in your enterprise databases. One of the most important tasks that database administrators perform is the implementation of role-based access control that limits the ability of users to retrieve...Creating a SQL Server 2008 Database Account
SQL Server 2008 provides two methods for creating database user accounts - Windows authentication or SQL Server authentication. In Windows authentication mode, you assign all database permissions to Windows accounts. This has the advantage of providing a single sign-on experience for users and simplifying security management. In SQL Server...Creating SQL Server 2012 User Accounts
SQL Server 2012 provides a wide range of security features designed to help you protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data stored in your enterprise databases. One of the most important tasks that database administrators perform is the implementation of role-based access control that limits the ability of users to retrieve...
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