Beginning Access™ 2007 VBA

10.2. Setting Up SQL Server

Now that you are aware that you can use Access Projects to work with SQL Server databases, I will take a moment to cover the different versions of SQL Server and explain how to install SQL Server. You must install one of the versions of SQL Server in order to perform the examples used throughout this chapter.

10.2.1. SQL Server Versions

As you are probably aware by now, Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system for storing, analyzing, and reporting data. Currently, seven versions of Microsoft SQL Server are available with SQL Server 2005. Each is briefly described here:

• SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition – This is the most comprehensive version of SQL Server 2005 and supports all the SQL Server 2005 features. This version is most appropriate for large organizations that are required to manage immense amounts of data quickly and efficiently.

• SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition – This version of SQL Server 2005 supports many of the available features, but it doesn't support the features that enable management of immense amounts of data quickly and efficiently. This version is primarily for small or medium-sized organizations that do not have the complex database requirements of a large organization. SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition is still an extremely powerful version of SQL Server and supports Analysis Services (with a few exceptions), Replication, Full-Text Search, Integration Services (Basic Transforms only), the Common Language ...