SQL Server Management Tools

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A quick scan of the SQL Server program group reveals that many tools are installed to assist the SQL Server administrator in maintaining the server running SQL. Unless you’re the SQL Server administrator as well as the SMS administrator or you get the necessary education to fully understand and appreciate the product, you’ll probably use only two or three of these tools. The SQL Server 2000 program tools are described in Table 19.1.

Table 19.1: SQL Server 2000 program tools

Tool	Description
Analysis Services	A folder that provides access to the Analysis Manager, another link to Books Online and MDX Sample Application. The Analysis Manager is a console application that provides an interface for accessing and managing analysis servers. For more information about Analysis Services, please refer to Books Online.
Books Online	Provides an online version of the documentation set SQL Server Books Online with full searching capabilities.
Client Network Utility	Used to set the custom server connection, DB- Library, and Net-Library configuration for clients.
Configure SQL XML Support In IIS	Used to define and register a new virtual directory in Internet Information Services (IIS) so that HTTP can be used to access a SQL Server 2000 database.
Enterprise Manager	MMC snap-in that facilitates the configuration of the server running SQL and the management of SQL Server databases, including devices and databases, space usage, backups and restores, permissions, data import and export, and so on, through object-level folders.
Import And Export Data	Starts the Data Transformation Service Import/ Export Wizard, designed to facilitate the import, export, and conversion of data from various data formats.
Profiler	Used to monitor server events, procedure calls, and other real-time server activity; Profiler can also filter events and direct output to the screen, file, or table.
Query Analyzer	Graphical query interface used to execute maintenance tasks such as Transact-SQL statements or stored procedures.
Server Network Utility	Used to configure SQL Server to use Net-Libraries and to specify the network protocol stacks on which the server will listen for SQL Server clients’ requests.
Service Manager	Starts, stops, and pauses the SQL Server, SQL Server Agent, and MS DTC services. Also implemented as a taskbar program.

Many SQL Server maintenance tasks specific to the SMS database can be configured and scheduled to run through the SMS Administrator Console, including a complete site server backup (see Chapter 18, “Disaster Recovery,” for more information). You can also effect database backups by using a third-party backup program capable of including SQL Server databases as part of its backup routine. Consequently, as an SMS administrator, you’re most likely to use Enterprise Manager to perform any additional or advanced maintenance tasks. Through this interface you can create database devices, manage space usage, configure the server, schedule events, back up and restore the database, and so on. You can also use the SQL Server Query Analyzer to execute maintenance tasks such as those described in Chapter 18.

As with most Microsoft BackOffice applications, when you install SQL Server several performance objects and counters are included to assist you in evaluating the ongoing performance and resource use of your server running SQL as well as to facilitate the troubleshooting of specific performance-related problems. To view the available SQL Server performance objects and counters, you can start the Windows System Monitor utility, accessible through the Performance Console. For example, the SQL Server:Database object has a counter called Data File(s) Size (KB) that will help you monitor the cumulative size of your databases, such as Tempdb.

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