Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Internals

SQL Server Metadata

SQL Server maintains a set of tables that store information about all the objects, data types, constraints, configuration options, and resources available to SQL Server. In SQL Server 2008, these tables are called the system base tables. Some of the system base tables exist only in the master database and contain system-wide information, and others exist in every database (including master) and contain information about the objects and resources belonging to that particular database. Beginning with SQL Server 2005, the system base tables are not always visible by default, in master or any other database. You won’t see them when you expand the tables node in the Object Explorer in SQL Server Management Studio, and unless you ...