Beginning SQL Server™ 2005 Administration

Chapter 7. Configuring SQL Server Network Communication

SQL Server 2005 is a client-server application designed to efficiently exchange data and instructions over one or more network connections. Understanding the network connections and how they can be configured is a big part of the database administrator's job. SQL Server 2005 has made part of the DBA's job easier by reducing the number of protocols that can be used to connect to SQL Server, 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 new 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 2005.

SQL Server 2005 Network Protocols

SQL Server 2005 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 utilize that protocol.

The SQL Server Configuration Manager is used to configure server protocols. ...