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Lesson 1

SQL Configuration and Monitoring

This course introduces you to monitoring and configuring SQL Server.
This course will enable you to monitor and configure SQL Server. Taken in conjunction with the other courses in this series, this course will also prepare you to pass the
Microsoft Technology Associate

Course Goals

  1. completing the course, you will be able to:
  2. Load data and extract data
  3. Monitor SQL Server
  4. Monitor SQL Server using Windows Server Administration tools
  5. Monitor SQL-Server Databases
  6. Use SQL Server Profiler
  7. Automate administration tasks
  8. Configure SQL Server
  9. Set SQL Server Advanced Options

History of SQL-Server

SQL Server 1.0 was jointly released in 1989 by Microsoft, Sybase, and Ashton-Tate. The product was based on Sybase SQL Server 3.0 for Unix and VMS.
SQL Server 4.2.1 for Windows NT was released in 1993. Microsoft began making changes to the code.
SQL Server 6.0 (code-named SQL 95) was released in 1995. In 1996, the 6.5 upgrade (Hydra) was released. It included the first version of Enterprise Manager (StarFighter I) and SQL Server Agent (StarFighter II).
SQL Server 7.0 (Sphinx) was released in 1999, and was a full rewrite of the Database Engine by Microsoft. From a code perspective, this was the first Microsoft SQL Server. SQL Server 7 also included English Query (Argo), OLAP Services (Plato), replication, Database Design and Query tools (DaVinci) and Full-Text Search (aptly code-named Babylon.) Data Transformation Services (DTS) is also introduced.


Data Transformation Services (DTS)

SQL Server 2000 (Shiloh) 32-bit, version 8, introduced SQL Server to the enterprise with clustering, much better performance, and real OLAP. It supported XML though three different XML add-on packs. It added userdefined functions, indexed views, clustering support, Distributed Partition Views, and improved replication. SQL Server 2000 64-bit version for Intel Itanium (Liberty) was released in 2003, along with the first version of Reporting Services (Rosetta) and Data Mining tools (Aurum). DTS became more powerful and gained in popularity. Northwind joined Pubs as the sample database.

SQL Server 2005 (Yukon), version 9, was another rewrite of the Database Engine and pushed SQL Server further into the enterprise space. 2005 added a ton of new features and technologies, including Service Broker, Notification Services, CLR, XQuery and XML data types, and SQLOS. T-SQL gained try-catch and the system tables were replaced with Dynamic Management Views (DMVs). Management Studio replaced EnterpriseManager and Query Analyzer. DTS is replaced by Integration Services. English Query was removed, and stored procedure debugging was moved from the DBA interface to Visual Studio. AdventureWorks and AdventureWorksDW replaced Northwind and Pubs as the sample databases. SQL Server 2005 supported 32-bit, 64x, and Itanium CPUs. Steve Ballmer publically vowed to never again make customers wait five years between releases, and to return to a 2–3 year release cycle. My favorite new features? T-SQL Try-Catch, Index Include columns, VarChar(max), windowing/ranking functions, and DMVs.

SQL Server 2008 (Katmai), version 10, is a natural evolution of SQL Server, adding Policy-BasedManagement, data compression, Resource Governor, and new beyond relational data types. Notification Services go the way of English Query. T-SQL finally gets date and time data types and table-valued parameters, the debugger returns, and Management Studio gets IntelliSense. My favorite new features? Table-valued parameters and policy-based management.

Learning Methodology

You will learn and practice SQL Server system administration skills with the assistance of interactive tools.

The Series

Configuration and Monitoring is the last of three courses in the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 System Administration. The next lesson discusses the prerequisites for the course.