Database Management

SQL Server Management Studio delivers a portfolio of tools through a single console for centrally managing SQL Server instances and applications.

Manage database tasks from a single console

• Manage all SQL Server instances and services.

• Control relational databases and SQL Server Compact databases.

• Supervise Integration Services, Reporting Services, and Analysis Services.

• Administer data services more easily throughout the organization.

• Reduce training requirements.

Gain multi-instance management

• Rely on SQL Server Utility Control Point to manage SQL Server instances and DACs across the enterprise.

• Accelerate deployments, moves, and upgrades by using DACs.

• Reveal usage and policy violations through dashboard viewpoints.

• Identify consolidation opportunities.

• Maximize investments.

• Maintain healthy systems.

Take advantage of end-to-end service monitoring

• Use SQL Server Management Pack with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager.

• Benefit from broader system administration, scalable across the enterprise.

• Enhance visibility into line-of-business applications with end-to-end service management.

• Simplify troubleshooting and planning with rich reports and a customizable reporting environment.

Organizations can reduce routine tasks for administrators, who should be able to focus on higher-value activities, such as ensuring compliance.

Employ Policy-Based Management

• Define companywide configuration policies.

• Apply policies to servers, databases, tables, and other targets.

• Enforce policies proactively, on a scheduled basis, immediately following changes, and explicitly in real time.

• Eliminate the need to manually ensure compliance.

• Scale management of servers.

Take advantage of Windows PowerShell

• Benefit from a powerful scripting shell.

• Support more complex logic than Transact-SQL scripts.

• Build robust administrative scripts.

• Streamline server administration.

• Simplify application deployment.

• Manage across multiple servers and across multiple Microsoft products.

Ensure security and apply best practices

• Define policies that enable and disable server functionality.

• Identify policies that ensure a minimal attack surface.

• Check configuration and database settings.

• Warn about and prevent security loopholes.

Automate administration and deployment

• Quickly navigate paths and locate objects on servers.

• Use SQL Server cmdlets to perform actions such as running scripts that contain Transact-SQL or XQuery statements.

Schedule tasks and workflows

• Schedule tasks with the distributed job scheduling and alert management capabilities in SQL Server Agent.

• Create maintenance plans for one or more databases with the Maintenance Plan Wizard or the design surface.

With SQL Server 2008 R2, database administrators can accelerate impact analysis and identify issues before they become problems.

Benefit from the Performance Data Collector

• Keep track of resource diagnostics.

• Get diagnostics from performance counters, distributed management views, SQL Trace, and other sources.

• Make baseline and historical comparisons.

• Use built-in reports that cover server activity, disk usage, and query activities.

Take advantage of SQL Server Profiler

• Capture server events in real time.

• Correlate traces with performance counters.

• Analyze events and diagnose issues.

Employ the Database Engine Tuning Advisor

• Streamline server tuning.

• Create an optimal set of indexes, indexed views, and partitions.

• Select the databases to tune and generate indexing and partitioning recommendations.