What is SQL Server
What is SQL Server
SQL Server is
a relational database management system, or RDBMS, developed and marketed by
Microsoft.
Similar to other RDBMS
software, SQL Server is built on top of SQL, a standard programming language
for interacting with the relational databases. SQL server is tied to
Transact-SQL, or T-SQL, the Microsoft’s implementation of SQL that adds a set
of proprietary programming constructs.
SQL Server works exclusively on
Windows environment for more than 20 years. In 2016, Microsoft made it
available on Linux. SQL Server 2017 became generally available in October 2016
that ran on both Windows and Linux.
SQL Server
consists of two main components:
1. Database
Engine
2. SQLOS
Database Engine
The core
component of the SQL Server is the Database Engine. The Database Engine
consists of a relational engine that processes queries and a storage engine
that manages database files, pages, index, etc. The database objects such as
stored procedures, views, and triggers are also created and executed by the
Database Engine.
Relational Engine
The Relational
Engine contains the components that determine the best way to execute a query.
The relational engine is also known as the query processor.
The relational engine requests
data from the storage engine based on the input query and processed the
results.
Some tasks of the relational
engine include querying processing, memory management, thread and task
management, buffer management, and distributed query processing.
Storage Engine
The storage
engine is in charge of storage and retrieval of data from the storage systems
such as disks and SAN.
SQLOS
Under the
relational engine and storage engine is the SQL Server Operating System or
SQLOS.
SQLOS provides many operating
system services such as memory and I/O management. Other services include
exception handling and synchronization services.
SQL Server Services and Tools
Microsoft
provides both data management and business intelligence (BI) tools and services
together with SQL Server.
For data
management, SQL Server includes SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL
Server Data Quality Services, and SQL Server Master Data Services. To develop
databases, SQL Server provides SQL Server Data tools; and to manage, deploy,
and monitor databases SQL Server has SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
For data
analysis, SQL Server offers SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). SQL Server
Reporting Services (SSRS) provides reports and visualization of data. The
Machine Learning Services technology appeared first in SQL Server 2016 which
was renamed from the R Services.
SQL Server Editions
SQL Server has
four primary editions that have different bundled services and tools. Two
editions are available free of charge:
SQL Server Developer edition
for use in database development and testing.
SQL Server Expression for small
databases with the size up to 10 GB of disk storage capacity.
For larger and more critical
applications, SQL Server offers the Enterprise edition that includes all SQL
server’s features.
SQL Server Standard Edition has
partial feature sets of the Enterprise Edition and limits on the Server
regarding the numbers of processor core and memory that can be configured.
For the detailed information on
the SQL Editions, check it out the available Server Server 2017 Editions.
In this tutorial, you have a
brief overview of the SQL Servers including its architecture, services, tools,
and editions.
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