What is SQL Server?

It is a software, developed by Microsoft, which is implemented from the

specification of RDBMS.

It is also an ORDBMS.

It is platform dependent.

It is both GUI and command based software.

It supports SQL (SEQUEL) language which is an IBM product, non-procedural,

common database and case insensitive language.

Usage of SQL Server

To create databases.

To maintain databases.

To analyze the data through SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS).

To generate reports through SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

To carry out ETL operations through SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS).

SQL Server Components

SQL Server works in client-server architecture, hence it supports two types
of components (a) Workstation and (b) Server.

Workstation components are installed in every device/SQL Server operators

machine. These are just interfaces to interact with Server components.
Example: SSMS, SSCM, Profiler, BIDS, SQLEM etc.

Server components are installed in centralized server. These are services.

Example: SQL Server, SQL Server Agent, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, SQL browser, SQL
Server full text search etc.

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Instance of SQL Server
An instance is an installation of SQL Server.

An instance is an exact copy of the same software.

If we install 'n' times, then 'n' instances will be created.

There are two types of instances in SQL Server a) Default b) Named.

Only one default instance will be supported in one Server.

Multiple named instances will be supported in one Server.

Default instance will take the server name as Instance name.

Default instance service name is MSSQLSERVER.

16 instances will be supported in 2000 version.

50 instances will supported in 2005 and later versions.

Advantages of Instances
To install different versions in one machine.

To reduce cost.

To maintain production, development, and test environments separately.

To reduce temporary database problems.

To separate security privileges.

To maintain standby server.

We have classified the architecture of SQL Server into the following parts for
easy understanding

General architecture

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 Memory architecture

Data file architecture

Log file architecture

General Architecture
Client Where the request initiated.

Query SQL query which is high level language.

Logical Units Keywords, expressions and operators, etc.

N/W Packets Network related code.

Protocols In SQL Server we have 4 protocols.

Shared memory (for local connections and troubleshooting purpose).

Named pipes (for connections which are in LAN connectivity).

TCP/IP (for connections which are in WAN connectivity).

VIA-Virtual Interface Adapter (requires special hardware to set up by vendor and

also deprecated from SQL 2012 version).

Server Where SQL Services got installed and databases reside.

Relational Engine This is where real execution will be done. It contains

Query parser, Query optimizer and Query executor.

Query Parser (Command Parser) and Compiler (Translator) This

will check syntax of the query and it will convert the query to machine
language.

Query Optimizer It will prepare the execution plan as output by taking

query, statistics and Algebrizer tree as input.

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Execution Plan It is like a roadmap, which contains the order of all the
steps to be performed as part of the query execution.

Query Executor This is where the query will be executed step by step
with the help of execution plan and also the storage engine will be
contacted.

Storage Engine It is responsible for storage and retrieval of data on the

storage system (disk, SAN, etc.,), data manipulation, locking and managing
transactions.

SQL OS This lies between the host machine (Windows OS) and SQL
Server. All the activities performed on database engine are taken care of by
SQL OS. SQL OS provides various operating system services, such as
memory management deals with buffer pool, log buffer and deadlock
detection using the blocking and locking structure.

Checkpoint Process Checkpoint is an internal process that writes all

dirty pages (modified pages) from Buffer Cache to Physical disk. Apart from
this, it also writes the log records from log buffer to physical file. Writing of
Dirty pages from buffer cache to data file is also known as Hardening of
dirty pages.

It is a dedicated process and runs automatically by SQL Server at specific

intervals. SQL Server runs checkpoint process for each database
individually. Checkpoint helps to reduce the recovery time for SQL Server in
the event of unexpected shutdown or system crash\Failure.

Checkpoints in SQL Server

In SQL Server 2012 there are four types of checkpoints

Automatic This is the most common checkpoint which runs as a process in

the background to make sure SQL Server Database can be recovered in the
time limit defined by the Recovery Interval Server Configuration Option.

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 Indirect This is new in SQL Server 2012. This also runs in the background
but to meet a user-specified target recovery time for the specific database
where the option has been configured. Once the Target_Recovery_Time for a
given database has been selected, this will override the Recovery Interval
specified for the server and avoid automatic checkpoint on such DB.

Manual This one runs just like any other T-SQL statement, once you issue
checkpoint command it will run to its completion. Manual checkpoint runs for
your current database only. You can also specify the Checkpoint_Duration which
is optional - this duration specifies the time in which you want your checkpoint
to complete.

Internal As a user you cant control internal checkpoint. Issued on specific

operations such as

o Shutdown initiates a checkpoint operation on all databases except when

shutdown is not clean (shutdown with nowait).

o If the recovery model gets changed from Full\Bulk-logged to Simple.

o While taking backup of the database.

o If your DB is in simple recovery model, checkpoint process executes

automatically either when the log becomes 70% full, or based on Server
option-Recovery Interval.

o Alter database command to add or remove a data\log file also initiates a

checkpoint.

o Checkpoint also takes place when the recovery model of the DB is bulk-
logged and a minimally logged operation is performed.

o DB Snapshot creation.

Lazy Writer Process Lazy writer will push dirty pages to disk for an entirely
different reason, because it needs to free up memory in the buffer pool. This
happens when SQL server comes under memory pressure. As far as I am
aware, this is controlled by an internal process and there is no setting for it.

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SQL server constantly monitors memory usage to assess resource
contention (or availability); its job is to make sure that there is a certain
amount of free space available at all times. As part of this process, when it
notices any such resource contention, it triggers Lazy Writer to free up
some pages in memory by writing out dirty pages to disk. It employs Least
Recently Used (LRU) algorithm to decide which pages are to be flushed to
the disk.

If Lazy Writer is always active, it could indicate memory bottleneck.

Memory Architecture
Following are some of the salient features of memory architecture.

One of the primary design goals of all database software is to minimize disk I/O
because disk reads and writes are among the most resource-intensive
operations.

Memory in windows can be called with Virtual Address Space, shared by Kernel
mode (OS mode) and User mode (Application like SQL Server).

SQL Server "User address space" is broken into two regions: MemToLeave and
Buffer Pool.

Size of MemToLeave (MTL) and Buffer Pool (BPool) is determined by SQL Server
during startup.

Buffer management is a key component in achieving I/O highly efficiency. The

buffer management component consists of two mechanisms: the buffer
manager to access and update database pages, and the buffer pool to reduce
database file I/O.

The buffer pool is further divided into multiple sections. The most important
ones being the buffer cache (also referred to as data cache) and procedure
cache. Buffer cache holds the data pages in memory so that frequently
accessed data can be retrieved from cache. The alternative would be reading
data pages from the disk. Reading data pages from cache optimizes

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 performance by minimizing the number of required I/O operations which are
inherently slower than retrieving data from the memory.

Procedure cache keeps the stored procedure and query execution plans to
minimize the number of times that query plans have to be generated. You can
find out information about the size and activity within the procedure cache using
DBCC PROCCACHE statement.

Other portions of buffer pool include

System level data structures Holds SQL Server instance level data about
databases and locks.

Log cache Reserved for reading and writing transaction log pages.

Connection context Each connection to the instance has a small area of

memory to record the current state of the connection. This information includes
stored procedure and user-defined function parameters, cursor positions and
more.

Stack space Windows allocates stack space for each thread started by SQL
Server.

Data File Architecture

Data File architecture has the following components

File Groups

Database files can be grouped together in file groups for allocation and
administration purposes. No file can be a member of more than one file
group. Log files are never part of a file group. Log space is managed
separately from data space.

There are two types of file groups in SQL Server, Primary and User-defined.
Primary file group contains the primary data file and any other files not
specifically assigned to another file group. All pages for the system tables
are allocated in the primary file group. User-defined file groups are any file
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groups specified using the file group keyword in create database or alter
database statement.

One file group in each database operates as the default file group. When
SQL Server allocates a page to a table or index for which no file group was
specified when they were created, the pages are allocated from default file
group. To switch the default file group from one file group to another file
group, it should have db_owner fixed db role.

By default, primary file group is the default file group. User should have
db_owner fixed database role in order to take backup of files and file groups
individually.

Files

Databases have three types of files - Primary data file, Secondary data file,
and Log file. Primary data file is the starting point of the database and
points to the other files in the database.

Every database has one primary data file. We can give any extension for the
primary data file but the recommended extension is .mdf. Secondary data
file is a file other than the primary data file in that database. Some
databases may have multiple secondary data files. Some databases may
not have a single secondary data file. Recommended extension for
secondary data file is .ndf.

Log files hold all of the log information used to recover the database.
Database must have at least one log file. We can have multiple log files for
one database. The recommended extension for log file is .ldf.

The location of all the files in a database are recorded in both master
database and the primary file for the database. Most of the time, the
database engine uses the file location from the master database.

Files have two names Logical and Physical. Logical name is used to refer
to the file in all T-SQL statements. Physical name is the OS_file_name, it
must follow the rules of OS. Data and Log files can be placed on either FAT

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or NTFS file systems, but cannot be placed on compressed file systems.
There can be up to 32,767 files in one database.

Extents

Extents are basic unit in which space is allocated to tables and indexes. An
extent is 8 contiguous pages or 64KB. SQL Server has two types of extents
- Uniform and Mixed. Uniform extents are made up of only single object.
Mixed extents are shared by up to eight objects.

Pages

It is the fundamental unit of data storage in MS SQL Server. The size of the
page is 8KB. The start of each page is 96 byte header used to store system
information such as type of page, amount of free space on the page and
object id of the object owning the page. There are 9 types of data pages in
SQL Server.

Data Data rows with all data except text, ntext and image data.

Index Index entries.

Tex\Image Text, image and ntext data.

GAM Information about allocated extents.

SGAM Information about allocated extents at system level.

Page Free Space (PFS) Information about free space available on pages.

Index Allocation Map (IAM) Information about extents used by a table or

index.

Bulk Changed Map (BCM) Information about extents modified by bulk

operations since the last backup log statement.

Differential Changed Map (DCM) Information about extents that have

changed since the last backup database statement.

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Log File Architecture
The SQL Server transaction log operates logically as if the transaction log is
a string of log records. Each log record is identified by Log Sequence
Number (LSN). Each log record contains the ID of the transaction that it
belongs to.

Log records for data modifications record either the logical operation
performed or they record the before and after images of the modified data.
The before image is a copy of the data before the operation is performed;
the after image is a copy of the data after the operation has been
performed.

The steps to recover an operation depend on the type of log record

Logical operation logged.

o To roll the logical operation forward, the operation is performed again.

o To roll the logical operation back, the reverse logical operation is

performed.

Before and after image logged.

o To roll the operation forward, the after image is applied.

o To roll the operation back, the before image is applied.

Different types of operations are recorded in the transaction log. These

operations include

The start and end of each transaction.

Every data modification (insert, update, or delete). This includes changes by

system stored procedures or data definition language (DDL) statements to any
table, including system tables.

Every extent and page allocation or de allocation.

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 Creating or dropping a table or index.

Rollback operations are also logged. Each transaction reserves space on the
transaction log to make sure that enough log space exists to support a
rollback that is caused by either an explicit rollback statement or if an error
is encountered. This reserved space is freed when the transaction is
completed.

The section of the log file from the first log record that must be present for
a successful database-wide rollback to the last-written log record is called
the active part of the log, or the active log. This is the section of the log
required to a full recovery of the database. No part of the active log can
ever be truncated. LSN of this first log record is known as the minimum
recovery LSN (Min LSN).

The SQL Server Database Engine divides each physical log file internally
into a number of virtual log files. Virtual log files have no fixed size, and
there is no fixed number of virtual log files for a physical log file.

The Database Engine chooses the size of the virtual log files dynamically
while it is creating or extending log files. The Database Engine tries to
maintain a small number of virtual files. The size or number of virtual log
files cannot be configured or set by administrators. The only time virtual log
files affect system performance is if the physical log files are defined by
small size and growth_increment values.

The size value is the initial size for the log file and the growth_increment
value is the amount of space added to the file every time new space is
required. If the log files grow to a large size because of many small
increments, they will have many virtual log files. This can slow down
database startup and also log backup and restore operations.

We recommend that you assign log files a size value close to the final size
required, and also have a relatively large growth_increment value. SQL
Server uses a write-ahead log (WAL), which guarantees that no data
modifications are written to disk before the associated log record is written
to disk. This maintains the ACID properties for a transaction.

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SQL Server Management Studio is a workstation component\client tool that
will be installed if we select workstation component in installation steps.
This allows you to connect to and manage your SQL Server from a graphical
interface instead of having to use the command line.

In order to connect to a remote instance of an SQL Server, you will need

this or similar software. It is used by Administrators, Developers, Testers,
etc.

The following methods are used to open SQL Server Management Studio.

First Method
Start All Programs MS SQL Server 2012 SQL Server Management
Studio

Second Method
Go to Run and type SQLWB (For 2005 Version) SSMS (For 2008 and Later
Versions). Then click Enter.

SQL Server Management Studio will be open up as shown in the following

snapshot in either of the above method.

A login is a simple credential for accessing SQL Server. For example, you
provide your username and password when logging on to Windows or even
your e-mail account. This username and password builds up the credentials.
Therefore, credentials are simply a username and a password.

SQL Server allows four types of logins

A login based on Windows credentials.

A login specific to SQL Server.

A login mapped to a certificate.

A login mapped to asymmetric key.

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In this tutorial, we are interested in logins based on Windows Credentials
and logins specific to SQL Server.

Logins based on Windows credentials allow you to log in to SQL Server

using a Windows username and password. If you need to create your own
credentials (username and password,) you can create a login specific to SQL
Server.

To create, alter, or remove a SQL Server login, you can take one of two
approaches

Using SQL Server Management Studio.

Using T-SQL statements.

Following methods are used to create Login

First Method Using SQL Server Management

Studio
Step 1 After connecting to SQL Server Instance, expand logins folder as
shown in the following snapshot.

Step 2 Right-click on Logins, then click Newlogin and the following screen
will open.

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Step 3 Fill the Login name, Password and Confirm password columns as
shown in the above screen and then click OK.

Login will be created as shown in the following image.

Second Method Using T-SQL Script

Create login yourloginname with password='yourpassword'

To create login name with TestLogin and password P@ssword run below
the following query.

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Create login TestLogin with password='P@ssword'

Database is a collection of objects such as table, view, stored procedure,

function, trigger, etc.

In MS SQL Server, two types of databases are available.

System databases

User Databases

System Databases
System databases are created automatically when we install MS SQL
Server. Following is a list of system databases

Master

Model

MSDB

Tempdb

Resource (Introduced in 2005 version)

Distribution (Its for Replication feature only)

User Databases
User databases are created by users (Administrators, developers, and
testers who have access to create databases).

Following methods are used to create user database.

Method 1 Using T-SQL Script or Restore

Database
Following is the basic syntax for creating database in MS SQL Server.

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Create database <yourdatabasename>

OR

Restore Database <Your database name> from disk = '<Backup file location + file name>

Example

To create database called Testdb, run the following query.

Create database Testdb

OR

Restore database Testdb from disk = 'D:\Backup\Testdb_full_backup.bak'

Note D:\backup is location of backup file and Testdb_full_backup.bak is

the backup file name

Method 2 Using SQL Server Management

Studio
Connect to SQL Server instance and right-click on the databases folder.
Click on new database and the following screen will appear.

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Enter the database name field with your database name (example: to
create database with the name Testdb) and click OK. Testdb database will
be created as shown in the following snapshot.

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Select your database based on your action before going ahead with any of
the following methods.

Method 1 Using SQL Server Management

Studio
Example

To run a query to select backup history on database called msdb, select the
msdb database as shown in the following snapshot.

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Method 2 Using T-SQL Script
Use <your database name>

Example

To run your query to select backup history on database called msdb, select
the msdb database by executing the following query.

Exec use msdb

The query will open msdb database. You can execute the following query to
select backup history.

Select * from backupset

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To remove your database from MS SQL Server, use drop database
command. Following two methods can be used for this purpose.

Method 1 Using T-SQL Script

Following is the basic syntax for removing database from MS SQL Server.

Drop database <your database name>

Example

To remove database name Testdb, run the following query.

Drop database Testdb

Method 2 Using MS SQL Server Management

Studio
Connect to SQL Server and right-click the database you want to remove.
Click delete command and the following screen will appear.

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Click OK to remove the database (in this example, the name is Testdb as
shown in the above screen) from MS SQL Server.

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 MS SQL Server - Create Users

User refers to an account in MS SQL Server database which is used to

access database.

Users can be created using either of the following two methods.

Method 1 Using T-SQL

Syntax
Create user <username> for login <loginname>

Example

To create user name 'TestUser' with mapping to Login name 'TestLogin' in

TestDB database, run the following query.

create user TestUser for login TestLogin

Where 'TestLogin' is the login name which was created as part of the Login
creation

Method 2 Using SSMS (SQL Server

Management Studio)
Note First we have to create Login with any name before creating a user
account.

Lets use Login name called 'TestLogin'.

Step 1 Connect SQL Server and expand databases folder. Then expand
database called 'TestDB' where we are going to create the user account and
expand the security folder. Right-click on users and click on the new user to
see the following screen.

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Step 2 Enter 'TestUser' in the user name field and click on ellipse to
select the Login name called 'TestLogin' as shown in the following snapshot.

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Step 3 Click OK to display login name. Again click OK to create 'TestUser'
user as shown in the following snapshot.

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25
 MS SQL Server - Creating Backups

Backup is a copy of data/database, etc. Backing up MS SQL Server

database is essential for protecting data. MS SQL Server backups are
mainly three types Full or Database, Differential or Incremental, and
Transactional Log or Log.

Backup database can be done using either of the following two methods.

Method 1 Using T-SQL

Full Type
Backup database <Your database name> to disk = '<Backup file location + file name>'

Differential Type
Backup database <Your database name> to
disk = '<Backup file location + file name>' with differential

Log Type
Backup log <Your database name> to disk = '<Backup file location + file name>'

Example

The following command is used for full backup database called 'TestDB' to
the location 'D:\' with backup file name 'TestDB_Full.bak'

Backup database TestDB to disk = 'D:\TestDB_Full.bak'

The following command is used for differential backup database called

'TestDB' to the location 'D:\' with backup file name 'TestDB_diff.bak'

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Backup database TestDB to disk = 'D:\TestDB_diff.bak' with differential

The following command is used for Log backup database called 'TestDB' to
the location 'D:\' with backup file name 'TestDB_log.trn'

Backup log TestDB to disk = 'D:\TestDB_log.trn'

Method 2 Using SSMS (SQL SERVER

Management Studio)
Step 1 Connect to database instance named 'TESTINSTANCE' and expand
databases folder as shown in the following snapshot.

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Step 2 Right-click on 'TestDB' database and select tasks. Click Backup
and the following screen will appear.

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Step 3 Select backup type (Full\diff\log) and make sure to check
destination path which is where the backup file will be created. Select
options at the top left corner to see the following screen.

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Step 4 Click OK to create 'TestDB' database full backup as shown in the
following snapshot.

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31
 MS SQL Server - Restoring Databases

Restoring is the process of copying data from a backup and applying

logged transactions to the data. Restore is what you do with backups. Take
the backup file and turn it back into a database.

The Restore database option can be done using either of the following two
methods.

Method 1 T-SQL
Syntax
Restore database <Your database name> from disk = '<Backup file location + file name>'

Example

The following command is used to restore database called 'TestDB' with

backup file name 'TestDB_Full.bak' which is available in 'D:\' location if you
are overwriting the existed database.

Restore database TestDB from disk = ' D:\TestDB_Full.bak' with replace

If you are creating a new database with this restore command and there is
no similar path of data, log files in target server, then use move option like
the following command.

Make sure the D:\Data path exists as used in the following command for
data and log files.

RESTORE DATABASE TestDB FROM DISK = 'D:\ TestDB_Full.bak' WITH MOVE 'TestDB' TO
'D:\Data\TestDB.mdf', MOVE 'TestDB_Log' TO 'D:\Data\TestDB_Log.ldf'

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Method 2 SSMS (SQL SERVER Management
Studio)
Step 1 Connect to database instance named 'TESTINSTANCE' and right-
click on databases folder. Click Restore database as shown in the following
snapshot.

Step 2 Select device radio button and click on ellipse to select the backup
file as shown in the following snapshot.

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Step 3 Click OK and the following screen pops up.

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Step 4 Select Files option which is on the top left corner as shown in the
following snapshot.

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Step 5 Select Options which is on the top left corner and click OK to
restore 'TestDB' database as shown in the following snapshot.

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37
 MS SQL Server - Assign Permissions

Permissions refer to the rules governing the levels of access that

principals have to securables. You can grant, revoke and deny permissions
in MS SQL Server.

To assign permissions either of the following two methods can be used.

Method 1 Using T-SQL

Syntax
Use <database name>
Grant <permission name> on <object name> to <username\principle>

Example

To assign select permission to a user called 'TestUser' on object called

'TestTable' in 'TestDB' database, run the following query.

USE TestDB
GO
Grant select on TestTable to TestUser

Method 2 Using SSMS (SQL Server

Management Studio)
Step 1 Connect to instance and expand folders as shown in the following
snapshot.

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Step 2 Right-click on TestUser and click Properties. The following screen
appears.

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Step 3 Click Search and select specific options. Click Object types, select
tables and click browse. Select 'TestTable' and click OK. The following screen
appears.

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Step 4 Select checkbox for Grant column under Select permission and click
OK as shown in the above snapshot.

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Step 5 Select permission on 'TestTable' of TestDB database granted to
'TestUser'. Click OK.

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 MS SQL Server - Reporting services

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Report is a displayable component.

Usage
Report is basically used for two purposes - Company Internal Operations
and Company External Operations.

Reporting Services
This is a service which is used to create and publish various kinds of
reports.

Following are the three requirements necessary to develop any report.

Business process

Layout

Query\Procedure\View

The BIDS (Business Intelligence Studio till 2008 R2) and SSDT (SQL Server
Data Tools from 2012) are environment to develop reports.

Following are the steps to open BIDS\SSDT environment to develop reports.

Step 1 Open either BIDS\SSDT based on the version from the Microsoft
SQL Server programs group. The following screen will appear. In this case,
SSDT has opened.

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Step 2 Go to file at the top left corner in the above screenshot. Click New
and select project. The following screen will open.

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Step 3 In the above screen, select reporting services under business
intelligence at the top left corner as shown in the following screenshot.

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Step 4 In the above screen, select either report server project wizard (it
will guide you step by step through wizards) or report server project (it will
be used to select customized settings) based on your requirement to
develop the report.

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