Thursday, September 29, 2011

Working with SQL Server System Databases

This post will brief about the SQL Server system databases.
SQL Server System Databses:
  •  master
The master database records all of the system level information for a SQL Server system. It records all login accounts and all system configuration settings. master is the database that records the existence of all other databases, including the location of the database files. master records the initialization information for SQL Server.
  • tempdb
The tempdb holds all temporary tables and temporary stored procedures. It also fills any other temporary storage needs such as work tables generated by SQL Server. It is used to hold the temporary user objects that are explicitly created, such as: global or local temporary tables, temporary stored procedures, table variables, or cursors and internal objects that are created by the SQL Server Database Engine, for example, work tables to store intermediate results for spools or sorting.
Operations within tempdb are minimally logged. This enables transactions to be rolled back. tempdb is re-created every time SQL Server is started so that the system always starts with a clean copy of the database.
  • model
The model database is used as the template for all databases created on an instance of SQL Server. Because tempdb is created every time SQL Server is started, the model database must always exist on a SQL Server system.
  • msdb
The msdb database is used by SQL Server Agent for scheduling alerts and jobs and by other features such as Service Broker and Database Mail.

Restrictions on these databases:


master

tempdb

model

msdb

Adding filegroups





Backing up or restoring the database




Changing collation. The default collation is the server collation





Changing the database owner (owned by dbo)




Creating a full-text catalog or full-text index





Creating triggers on system tables in the database





Creating a database snapshot




Dropping the database





Dropping the guest user from the database





Enabling change data capture





Participating in database mirroring





Removing the primary filegroup, primary data file, or log file





Renaming the database or primary filegroup





Running DBCC CHECKALLOC





Running DBCC CHECKCATALOG




Setting the database to OFFLINE





Setting the database or primary filegroup to READ_ONLY





Creating procedures, views, or triggers using the WITH ENCRYPTION option





NOTE : The encryption key is tied to the database in which the object is created. Encrypted objects created in the model database can only be used in model.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

SharePoint 2010

SharePoint is a rich framework for developing business collaboration solutions. In fact, from developer’s perspective, SharePoint is simply a rich set of tools, classes, libraries, controls, and so on that are useful for building custom solutions that are focused on making business collaboration possible. SharePoint is a platform for building websites, and of course, it can target intranet and extranet sites. But it is more than just that; you can use it to build any kind of web solution, including Internet publishing sites, by taking advantage of a well-defined and ready-to-use set of tools, based on a secure, scalable, and maintainable architecture. You can think of SharePoint as a superset of ASP.NET, with a broad set of services that can speed up the development of collaboration solutions.

Main Capabilities
Microsoft grouped the features and services in SharePoint 2010 into six main categories: Sites, Communities, Content, Search, Insights, and Composites. Figure shows these capabilities along with their main characteristics.