Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

II.2.2. Changing Database Parameters

SQL Server offers several settings for the database administrator. Many of these parameters are system-wide; others are narrower in their scope and relate to a single database. It's this latter group of variables that we show you how to view and configure. To make things clearer, we've organized this section to match the property pages that hold all these settings.

Regardless of the individual setting you want to modify, you need to follow the same series of steps to make this happen:

1. Launch the SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server instance.

3. Expand the connection's entry in the Object Explorer view.

4. Expand the Databases folder.

5. Right-click the database that you want to change and choose Properties.

6. Select the appropriate properties page.

   You have a choice of eight properties pages. We describe each one in a moment.

7. Make your changes and then click OK.

Figure 2-1 shows you the General properties page.

We assume that you want to use the SQL Server Management Studio to make these changes; it's much easier that way. Comparatively, if you're more of a script or command-line person, you can use the SQLCMD utility instead.

Look at the parameters found on each of the properties pages. As shown in Figure 2-1, these properties can be grouped either alphabetically or in categorized order. To make things clearer, we follow the categorized approach.

NOTE

Because many of these properties fall under the umbrella of database maintenance, ...