In the Services window, check the status of the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER), the SQL Server Agent (MSSQLSERVER), and the SQL Server Browser:
If the MSSQLSERVER service is stopped, you should start it. To do this, you can right-click it and click Start. If it fails to start, check the account with which you logged in:
Once the service has started, it should be labeled Started:
To launch Microsoft SQL Server, you can click Start -> (All) Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 -> SQL Server Management Studio
When it starts, it would present a dialog box that expects you to log in.
There are many tools you will use in Microsoft SQL server. One of them is called Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. To access it, you can click Start -> (All) Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 -> SQL Server Management Studio. A dialog box would come up but you can click Cancel on it:
The top section of the SQL Server Management Studio displays the classic title bar of a regular window, with an icon on the left, followed by the title of the application, and the system buttons on the right side.
Under the title bar, the menu bar displays categories of menus that you will use to perform the various necessary operations.
The Standard toolbar displays under the main menu:
The Standard toolbar is just one of the available ones. Eventually, when you perform an action that would benefit from another toolbar, the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio would display that toolbar. Still, if you want to show any toolbar, you can right-click any menu item on the main menu or any button on a toolbar.
The left side of the interface displays, by default, the Object Explorer window, with its title bar labeled Object Explorer. If you don't see it, on the main menu, you can click View -> Object Explorer. The Object Explorer is a dockable window, meaning you can move it from the left side to another side on the interface. To do this, you can click and drag its title bar to a location of your choice. When you start dragging, small boxes that represent the possible placeholders would come up:
You can drag and drop to one of those placeholders. The Object Explorer is also floatable, which means you can place it somewhere in the middle of the interface:
To place the window back to its previous position, you can double-click its title bar. The window can also be tabbed. This means that the window can be positioned either vertically or horizontally. At any time, if you do not want the Object Explorer, you can close or hide it. To close the Object Explorer, click its close button. On the right side of the Object Explorer title, there are three buttons. If you click the first button that points down, a menu would appear:
The menu allows you to specify whether you want the window to be floated, docked, or tabbed. The right side of the window is made of an empty window. This area will be used to display either the contents of what is selected in the Object Explorer, or to show a result of some operation. As you will see later on, many other windows will occupy the right section but they will share the same area. To make each known it will be represented with a tab and the tab shows the name (or caption) of a window.
After using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, you can close it. To do this:
In order to do anything significant in Microsoft SQL Server, you will have to establish a connection to it. This depends on whether Microsoft SQL Server is installed on the computer you are using or you are connecting to an external server using a client/workstation. If you start Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio from the Start button, the Connect To Server dialog box would come up:
If you had started from the Start button but clicked Cancel, to connect to a server:
Any of these actions would display the Connect to Server dialog box.
In the previous lesson, we saw two types of installations: on a lone computer or with a client tools. We also saw that the simplest way to use Microsoft SQL Server was with one computer. In this case, after starting the computer and logging in, especially if you log in with the same account you used to install Microsoft SQL Server, on the Connect to Server dialog box, the Database Engine option would be selected in the Server Type combo box. The name of the computer should be selected in the Server Name combo box. In this case also, the easiest way to connect is to select Windows Authentication in the Authentication combo box. The User Name combo box should have the name of the computer, followed by a back slash, and followed by the user name of the account that is currently logged in. You don't have to enter a password (this is because you are using Windows Authentication and because you are logged in already):
Before being able to connect, you must prepare the server. Once the server can receive external connections, you can either connect to it when you launch SQL Server Management Studio or change the connection after starting Microsoft SQL Server.
In most cases, the default installation of Microsoft SQL Server doesn't allow clients to connect to it. Sometimes, if you try establishing a connection to the server (in this and the next lessons, we will see how that connection is established), you may receive an error as "A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server.":
There are a few actions you must first perform, from the operating system's firewall to Microsoft SQL Server's own configuration. One of the actions you should take care of for client connectivity is to dig/create a hole in the firewall. To do this, click Start -> Control Panel. Double-click Firewall. Using the Exceptions tab, create a firewall. Besides taking care of the firewall, you should configure TCP/IP connectivity and create an alias. |
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Practical
Learning: Launching Microsoft SQL Server
