Chapter 5. SQL Server 2005 Databases
In one of his comedy routines about being a parent, Bill Cosby commented on a very profound question that one of his kids asked. The question was, "Why is there air?" Cosby's answer was instantaneous: "To fill up basketballs." What other answer would be appropriate, if not "to fill up footballs"? I wish I had a glib and funny answer for the question "What is a SQL Server 2005 database?" But, like the question "Why is there air?," there is no real quick and easy answer. The database is at the heart of SQL Server 2005 and touches on every aspect of this very large and very powerful release of Microsoft's enterprise data-management platform.
Previous chapters discussed the SQL Server installation process and the internal structure of the files that make up a SQL Server 2005 database. This chapter delves into the databases created during installation, along with the parts and pieces of user-created databases.
System Databases
As mentioned in Chapter 1, when SQL Server 2005 is installed, five system databases are created to store system information and support database operations. Four of the system databases (Master, Model, MSDB, and TempDB) are visible during normal database operations, but the fifth (the Resource database, as described in Chapter 4) is not. Distribution databases can be created if the SQL Server instance is configured to be a Distributor for SQL Server Replication.
User Databases
User databases are those databases that are created by ...
Get Beginning SQL Server™ 2005 Administration now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
