Microsoft SQL Server is an application used to create computer databases for the Microsoft Windows family of server operating systems. It provides an environment used to generate databases that can be accessed from workstations, the web, or other media such as a personal digital assistant (PDA).

On this site, we provide lessons and other topics on how to use Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Before installing Microsoft SQL Server 2005, make sure you have installed all service packs on your operating system. Also install IIS:

In order to follow the lessons on this site, you must have access to a computer in which Microsoft SQL Server is installed. To start, you must have a computer that runs an appropriate operating system. If you are just learning, which is assumed for all lessons on this site, you can use a Microsoft Windows XP Professional (in this case, you must install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition) or Windows Server 2003.

To make it possible for you and other students to study databases and SQL, Microsoft made available a trial version of Microsoft SQL Server 2005. This full version is available from the Microsoft web site. This is something beneficial because most companies would not give such a long trial version of an important software product: for 120 days, you should be able to learn as must as possible and be able to move on, such as finding a job or starting a business.

To get the trial edition of Microsoft SQL Server, go to the Microsoft web site, do a search on "trial software" (normally, there is usually a Trial Software link on the home page), and follow the links to locate the trial edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (this is a very big file: 890.9 MB - 1050.0 MB).

If you purchased Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional, it may have come with the SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition DVD. To install it, put the DVD in the drive. A white window with links will come up. You can click the link under x86 to install. If you are downloading, click the X86 Executable link. When a dialog box comes up, click Save, locate a folder on your computer where to save the file and click OK. The download will start. Depending on your connection speed and your computer, this may take a while.

When the download is over, click Open

On the dialog box, click Next

The InstallShield Wizard will start copying files to your hard drive. When it has finished, click Finish. After the files have been copied, click Open.

If you have a DVD burner, from inside the SQLEVAL folder, create a DVD that contains the Servers folder, the Tools folder, and the autorun.inf file.

1. Start your computer or server if necessary.
   If you are using the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 DVD, put it the drive.
    
   
    
   If you had downloaded the Microsoft SQL Server 2005  Trial Software and created a DVD of it, put it in
   
2. If you are using the DVD, click the link that leads to type of processor your computer is using, such as x86-based operating system:
    
   
   
   Under the Install section, click Server Components:
    
   
    
3. A message box with the End User License Agreement will be presented to you. Read it. If you don't agree with the license, click Cancel. Otherwise, click the I Accept check box and click Next:
    
   
4. On the first page of the Welcome wizard, click Next
5. Read the Installing Prerequisites page of the wizard and click Install:
    
   
   
6. When this phase is over, click Next:
    
   
7. In the next dialog box, click Next
    
   
8. The next page of the wizard will check the availability of the various options that Microsoft SQL Server will need or will communicate with. When this phase is over, click Next:
    
   
9. In the next page, change or accept the pieces of information: Name (this name will not be the login name; it's just a name) and Company. Click Next
    
   
10. Accept not to install any options or select the options you want and click Next
     
    
11. In the next page, accept the default instance or specify one. Then click Next
     
    
12. The next step allows you to specify who is doing the installation. If you are an administrator, specify the account's password. If you have an account that can perform an installation on the server, enter its username, its password, and the domain it belongs to:
     
    
     
    Otherwise, you can click the Use The Built-In System Account radio button
13. Click Next
14. On the next step, you can accept to exclusively use Windows Authentication Mode with the first radio button. Otherwise, you can and should use this opportunity to allow different persons to log in to this SQL Server. In this case, you can select the second radio button and create a password for the SQL Server Authentication, which would create and setup the sa account:
     
    
     
15. Click Next
     
    
16. Accept the options in the next page of the wizard and click Next
     
    
     
    If you click Details, a dialog box would presented to you, showing how the server could be contacted from a browser:
     
    
17. To configure the server, accept or click the Install The Default Configuration radio button and click Next
     
    
18. The next page of the wizard allows you to specify whether to keep in touch Microsoft. After making your selections, click Next
     
    
19. Once Setup has enough information, on the last wizard page, click Install.
    The wizard will start installing all the selected components
     
    
20. Once the components have been installed, click Next
     
    
21. On the last page, click Finish

To use SQL Server, it must start as a service. You have two options. You can start it every time you want to use. You can also make it start whenever the computer comes up from booting:

• After installing Microsoft SQL Server, you can use. To perform an operation on a database server, you must establish a connection to it. To do this, you have to log on to the server. You have two options:

• You can start Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and a Connect To Server dialog box would come
• If you had clicked Cancel on the Connect To Server dialog box, to establish a connection, in the Object Explorer, click Connect -> Database Engine...
• If you had already established a connection to one server but you want to create a connection to another server, in the Object Explorer, you can click Connect -> Database Engine...

The Connect To Server dialog box allows you to identify yourself (or the account you will use) to establish a connection with a server that is running Microsoft SQL Server. You must provide the necessary credentials. You can uss Windows Authentication. Here is an example:

Alternatively, you can use an existing SQL Server account. To do this, select SQL Server Authentication from the Authentication combo box. Enter a username in the Login combo box and enter a password in the corresponding text box:

Once you are ready, click Connect.

• Define Microsoft SQL Server?
• What are the different ways you can get Microsoft SQL Server?
• What s the current version of Microsoft SQL Server?
• How do you connect to the server?

1. Check the Microsoft SQL Server help (Books Online) and look for the command that is used to connect to the server from the Command Prompt
2. Practice connecting to the server from the Command Prompt
3. Exit the Command Prompt