Hands-On Busines Intelligence workshop with Brian Knight
Taught by the master, this seriously hands-on workshop will take you from start to finish with practical creation of a data warehouse solution. You’ll learn the real-world things you need to know, and you’ll be learning them from the master of BI, Brian Knight. The workshop will be held in the SSWUG.ORG offices, with team and individual tasks.
Due to the hands-on nature of this workshop,
SEATING IS EXTREMELY LIMITED.
Find out more here, and register ASAP to save your seat or seats for your entire team.
Accidental DBA Intro to SQL Server Databases
Today I just wanted to provide a little SQL Server background to our Accidental DBA readers. I was looking at SQL Server Management Studio as if I was seeing it for the first time. I just installed SQL Server, and it already has a number of databases…what are these for?
The Master database is the backbone of SQL Server. It contains the catalog of all users and databases hosted by your SQL Server instance. It knows where the databases are stored, what users have been defined, and what databases and overall permissions (role) each user has in each database.
The Model database is a template for every database created in this instance of SQL Server. Any new database is copied from the Model database. So, if you want to have a specific table in every database you create, adding that table into the Model database will assure that any new database created on that instance will have that table.
TempDB is essential to the operation of SQL Server. In short, it is temporary working storage. You can use it explicitly. SQL Server will also use it for breaking work down into smaller pieces, and storing work in process in TempDB until it is needed.
Another significant database is the MSDB database (Microsoft Database). This database is used by the SQL Server Agent utility which is a built in scheduling tool for SQL Server. The MSDB database stores definitions, and can also store history, for jobs you have scheduled.
Master and MSDB should be backed up frequently. Model should be backed up when you modify it. It is not necessary to backup TempDB. TempDB is created from scratch each time you start the SQL Server service. Just like all other databases, TempDB is created by cloning the Model database.
So, there is a very high level overview of the standard SQL Server databases. As an accidental DBA, you should become familiar with these databases, and learn how to manage them well.
Feel free to send your questions or comments on this or other newsletter editorials to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
SSWUGtv
With Stephen Wynkoop
Watch this episode of SSWUGtv to learn how to you manage without micro-managing. Laura Rose is here with some helpful tips.
Watch the Show
$$SWYNK$$
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