Module 1

SQL Server Components

Module Overview

• Introduction to the SQL Server Platform

• Overview of SQL Server Architecture
• SQL Server Services and Configuration Options
Lesson 1: Introduction to the SQL Server
Platform

• SQL Server Components

• SQL Server Instances
• SQL Server Editions
• SQL Server Versions
• Demonstration: Identify the Edition and Version of
a Running SQL Server Instance
SQL Server Components

• Not just a database engine

• Relational and business intelligence components

SQL Server Components

Database Engine Analysis Services
Integration Services Reporting Services
Master Data Services Data Quality Services
StreamInsight Full-Text Search
Replication PowerPivot
Power View Polybase
Machine Learning Services
(R and Python)
SQL Server Instances

• Many SQL Server components are instance-

aware

• Instances enable isolation of:

• Administration and security configuration
• Performance and SLAs
• Versions and collations

• Two types of instance:

• Default instance
• Named instance
SQL Server Editions

• Principal Editions
• Enterprise
• Business Intelligence
• Standard

• Specialized Editions
• Web

• Breadth Editions
• Developer
• Express

• Cloud Editions
• Microsoft Azure SQL Database
SQL Server Versions
Release Name Version Number Release Year
1.0 1.0 1989
1.1 1.1 1991
4.2 4.2 1992
4.21 4.21 1994
6.0 6.0 1995
6.5 6.5 1996
7.0 7.0 1998
2000 8.0 2000
2005 9.0 2005
2008 10.0 2009
2008 R2 10.5 2010
2012 11.0 2013
2014 12.0 2014
2016 13.0 2016
2017 14.0 2017
Demonstration: Identify the Edition and Version
of a Running SQL Server Instance

In this demonstration, you will see:

• Five methods to identify the edition and version
of a running SQL Server instance
Lesson 2: Overview of SQL Server Architecture

• SQL Server Architecture

• CPU Usage by SQL Server
• Parallelism
• Virtual Address Spaces
• Overview of SQL Server Memory Management
• Physical I/O and Logical I/O
• Demonstration: CPU and Memory Configurations
in SSMS
SQL Server Architecture

• Query execution layer

• Parses and optimizes the
Query Execution queries, and manages the
caching and execution of query
execution plans
• Storage engine layer
• Manages buffer pages, I/O to
the physical files, locking, and
transactions
Storage Engine
• SQLOS layer
• Provides an abstraction layer
over common OS functions,
providing task and memory
SQLOS management
CPU Usage by SQL Server

• Windows uses preemptive scheduling of threads

• One scheduler for every logical CPU created in
SQL OS:
• Manages the threads retrieved from Windows and assigns tasks to
threads
• Minimizes context switches through cooperative scheduling
• CPU availability can be configured without
restart:
• Schedulers can be enabled or disabled
• CPU affinity mask can be set
• Tasks waiting on a resource are moved to a
waiting list:
• Wait type and time are recorded
• Details are useful for monitoring and troubleshooting
Parallelism

• Parallelism refers to multiple processors cooperating to

execute a single query at the same time
• SQL Server can decide to distribute queries to more than
one task
• Tasks can run in parallel
• Overall execution is faster
• Synchronization overhead is incurred
• Parallelism is only considered for expensive plans
• Max degree of parallelism defines how many CPUs can
be used for execution of a parallel query
• Can be overridden using the MAXDOP query hint
• Cost threshold for parallelism defines minimal cost for
considering parallel plans
Virtual Address Spaces

• Virtual Address Space is the memory that can be

allocated to applications such as SQL Server
• 32-bit systems no longer supported (VAS was 3GB max on 32-bit)
• 8 TB for 64-bit systems
• SQL Server performance strongly depends on memory,
hence now 64-bit only
• Itanium processors are no longer supported
Overview of SQL Server Memory Management

• Buffer pool is the main memory object of SQL

Server:
• Holds data cache
• Provides memory for other SQL Server components
• Is divided into 8 KB pages

• SQL OS automatically allocates as much memory

as is needed:
• Has a mechanism to prevent memory shortage on the
system
• Can be configured using min and max server memory
options
Physical I/O and Logical I/O

I/O Type Description

Physical I/O occurs when the requested

page is not available in buffer cache and
must be read from the data file into the
Physical I/O
data cache before the requested page
can be supplied or when a changed
page is written to the data file

Logical I/O occurs when the requested

Logical I/O
page is available in the data cache
Demonstration: CPU and Memory
Configurations in SSMS

In this demonstration, you will see:

• How to review and configure SQL Server CPU
and memory by using SSMS
Lesson 3: SQL Server Services and Configuration
Options

• SQL Server Services

• Managing Service Accounts
• Configuring Network Protocols
SQL Server Services

• A SQL Server instance is made up of a number of

Windows services
• Only the services required to support the
installed SQL Server features will be present
• Many services are installed once per SQL Server
instance
• If a service is linked to an instance, the instance name
will appear in brackets after the service name—SQL
Server (MSSQLSERVER)
• Use SQL Server Configuration Manager to
configure services
Managing Service Accounts

• Assign service accounts during installation

• After installation, configure SQL Server services by
using the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool
• Choose an appropriate account type:
• Domain user account
• Local user account
• Local service account
• Local system account
• Network service account
• Managed service account
• Virtual service account
Configuring Network Protocols

• Three network protocols are supported:

• TCP/IP
• Named pipes
• Shared Memory

• Network protocols can be defined for both server

and client components
• Server settings and client settings are configured
independently

• You can use aliases to allow a single server

instance to respond to multiple names
Module Review and Takeaways

• Review Question(s)