Beginning Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Programming

Chapter 2. Tools of the Trade

Now that we know something about the many types of objects that exist in SQL Server, we probably should get to know something about how to find these objects, and how to monitor your system in general.

In this chapter, we will look into the tools that serve SQL Server's base engine (the relational database engine—tools for managing the add-on services in the chapters where we cover each of those services). Some of them offer only a small number of highly specialized tasks; others do many different things. Most of them have been around in SQL Server in one form or another for a long time.

The tools we will look at in this chapter will be:

• SQL Server Books Online

• SQL Server Configuration Manager

• SQL Server Management Studio

• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), including the Import/Export Wizard

• Database Engine Tuning Advisor

• Reporting Services Configuration Manager

• Bulk Copy Program (bcp)

• Profiler

• sqlcmd

• PowerShell

Books Online

Is Books Online a tool? I think so. Let's face it. It doesn't matter how many times you read this or any other book on SQL Server; you're not going to remember everything you'll ever need to know about SQL Server. SQL Server is one of my mainstay products, and I still can't remember it all. Books Online is simply one of the most important tools you're going to find in SQL Server.

My general philosophy about books or any other reference materials related to programming is that I can't have enough of them. I first began programming in 1980 or ...