Beginning, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Administration

Chapter 7. Configuring SQL Server Network Communication

SQL Server 2008 is a client-server application designed to efficiently exchange data and instructions over multiple network connections. Understanding the network connections and how they can be configured is a big part of a DBA's job. Microsoft has made your job easier by minimizing the number of network protocols that SQL Server 2008 supports to the most commonly implemented protocols, but at the same time, the job of the DBA is made more complex by the ability to configure multiple connection types with each protocol with the endpoint server object. This chapter discusses the different endpoints that can be configured, as well as the protocol configurations that the endpoints rely on. The chapter also takes a brief look at the client configurations that can be configured with SQL Server 2008.

SQL Server 2008 Network Protocols

SQL Server 2008 provides support for four protocols:

• Shared Memory

• TCP/IP

• Named Pipes

• Virtual Interface Adapter (VIA)

By default, the only network protocols enabled for most editions of SQL Server are TCP/IP and Shared Memory. The Developer and Enterprise Evaluation editions are configured with all protocols except Shared Memory disabled during installation, but the remaining protocols can be enabled if required. If a protocol is not enabled, SQL Server will not listen on an endpoint that is configured to use that protocol. This helps reduce the attack surface of SQL Server.

SQL Server Configuration Manager ...