Navigating Enterprise Manager

The Enterprise Manager is a graphical interface tool used to administer your SQL Servers. You
can use the Enterprise Manager to configure SQL Server options, create/edit/view databases,
perform maintenance and backups, and do quite a few more tasks that we will look at over the
next few weeks.
Back a couple of articles we saw that the SQL Server 2000 setup creates a program group on the
Start Menu named "Microsoft SQL Server." To launch the Enterprise Manager Click Start >
Programs > Microsoft SQL Server > Enterprise Manager

If you have ever used the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) you will notice that the
Enterprise Manager looks familiar. This is because the Enterprise Manager is a MMC snap-in like
many of the tools provided with Windows 2000. If you would like more information on using the
Microsoft Management Console have a look at the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/howitworks/management/mmcover.asp
By expanding "Microsoft SQL Server" and then expanding "SQL Server Group" you can locate
the SQL Server you have installed on your local system. Expanding the tree further allows you to
manage databases, security, replication, etc.
Right clicking the SQL Servers icon in the tree view will also popup a menu with options that
allows you to start/stop the server, view the server messages, access the server's properties, etc.

Enterprise Manager also provides you with a quick look at the status of your SQL Servers.
Depending on the icon displayed in the tree view you can tell if SQL Server is running, stopped,
paused, or if you are currently connected to the server. Use the following table to check the status
of your SQL Servers:
Server Running, You are currently connected
Server Running, You are not currently connected
Server Paused
Server Stopped

SQL Server Groups and Registrations

In many cases you will want to reorganize how your SQL Servers (or Instances) are listed in
Enterprise Manager. To make organizing your SQL Servers simpler, Enterprise Manager allows
you to create Server Groups. Creating a new group is not complicated; start by right clicking
"Microsoft SQL Server" on the Enterprise Manager tree.
Select "New SQL Server Group" from the popup menu.

The Server Groups screen allows you to create new groups as Top level (under "Microsoft SQL
Server") or as a Sub-group under an existing group.
Enter a name for the group in the "Name:" textbox and click OK.

You can continue to add Groups and Sub-groups until you have the ideal layout for your
organization.

Modifying Server Registrations

To access an instance of SQL Server in Enterprise Manager you must first register the server.
When you install SQL Server, setup automatically registers the instance in Enterprise Manager. If
you need to move a SQL Server Registration to another group in Enterprise Manager, or if you
need to update the authentication information, you can simply right click the server in the
Enterprise Manager tree and select "Edit SQL Server Registration Properties..."

Click to Enlarge
To change the group the server is listed under, select another group name from the "Server
Group:" drop-down list.
The "Display SQL Server state in console" checkbox allows you to enable or disable the
automatic display of status icons. If you disable this option the server's icon will appear without a
status indicator when you open Enterprise Manager:
The "Show system databases and system objects" checkbox will allow you to hide system
objects. System objects include system databases, tables, stored procedures, etc... (more on
system databases later in this article)
Finally, the "Automatically start SQL Server when connecting" checkbox will automatically start
the SQL Server service if the server is stopped when you try connecting.
Once you have made your changes click OK.

Adding SQL Server Registrations

If you need to register a new SQL Server right click any server group and select "New SQL
Server Registration..."

Unless you have previously run the wizard and disabled it, you are greeted with the Register SQL
Server Wizard welcome screen. Click Next to continue.

Next select the SQL Server(s) you would like to add from the left list-box and click "Add." If
your server is not on the list, enter the name of the server in the text-box provided and then click
"Add." If your server is already registered in Enterprise Manager the server will not appear in the
list of servers. Once you have selected all the servers you would like to add, click Next.

Select the appropriate type of authentication for your server and click Next. Note if you select
SQL Server Authentication you will then be prompted for the account and password Information.
SQL Server Authentication also gives you the option to prompt you for authentication
information each time you connect to the server with Enterprise Manager. Windows
Authentication uses the credentials of the user that is currently logged on when you connect to a
server using Enterprise Manager.

Next, select the group you would like to add your SQL Server under. You can also create a new
top-level group if one does not currently exist. After you select the Server Group, click Next.

Click Finish to add the Server(s) to Enterprise Manager.

The Server(s) is (are) then registered and you are given a status of the registration process. If any

registrations fail you can select the server in the status window and click Properties. From the
properties screen you can then confirm that your login information is correct. When your servers
have been registered, click Close. Your new server(s) now appear(s) in Enterprise Manager under
the group name you selected in the wizard.

System Databases
When you install SQL Server several databases are created automatically. Two of the databases
(Northwind and pubs) are sample user databases and can be used as examples, or you can safely
delete them (but they don't take up a lot of hard disk space). The other four special system
databases (master, model, msdb, and tempdb) are used by the system and should not be removed.
To view the databases that are on your SQL Server, in Enterprise Manager expand the group your
server is located in, then expand the server, and last expand the Databases folder. Remember, if
you have the "Show system databases and system objects" checkbox unchecked in the SQL
Server's registration properties, you will be unable to see the system databases in Enterprise
Manager.

Click to Enlarge

master Database -- Contains information about the server overall and all databases
created. The information in this database includes: file allocations, disk space usage,
system-wide settings, user accounts, and the existence of other databases and other
SQL Servers.
model Database -- This database provides a template for all newly created databases. If
you ever need to add a table or stored procedures to all the new databases you create,
simply modify the model database.
msdb Database -- Used by the SQL Server Agent service.
tempdb Database -- Is a workspace used for holding temporary information.
How to create a database (Enterprise Manager)
SQL Server 2000
How to create a database (Enterprise Manager)
To create a database
1. Expand a server group, and then expand a server.
2. Right-click Databases, and then click New Database.
3. Enter a name for the new database.
The primary database and transaction log files are created using the database name you
specified as the prefix, for example newdb_Data.mdf and newwdb_Log.ldf. The initial
sizes of the database and transaction log files are the same as the default sizes specified
for the model database. The primary file contains the system tables for the database.
4. To change the default values for the new primary database file, click the General tab. To
change the defaults for the new transaction log file, click the Transaction Log tab.
5. To change the default values provided in the File name, Location, Initial size (MB), and
File group (not applicable for the transaction log) columns, click the appropriate cell to
change and enter the new value.
6. To specify how the file should grow, select from these options:
To allow the currently selected file to grow as more data space is needed, select
Automatically grow file.
To specify that the file should grow by fixed increments, select In megabytes
and specify a value.
To specify that the file should grow by a percentage of the current file size, select
By percent and specify a value.
7. To specify the file size limit, select from these options:
To allow the file to grow as much as necessary, select Unrestricted filegrowth.
To specify the maximum size the file should be allowed to grow to, select
Restrict filegrowth (MB) and specify a value.

Note The maximum database size is determined by the amount of disk space available and the
licensing limits determined by the version of Microsoft SQL Server you are using.
See Also