SQL Server® 2008 Administration: Real World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond

Chapter Essentials

SQL Server Databases SQL Server supports system and user databases. The system databases are master, MSDB, model, and tempdb. The two most important system databases are master and MSDB.

Database Storage Databases are stored in files that are assigned to filegroups. Multiple files in a single filegroup are used to enhance performance through data striping. The striping provided through the use of multiple files is not as efficient as hardware-based RAID 0 or RAID 5 striping. Multiple filegroups are used to give the DBA control over "what goes where." In addition to the data storage files, the transactions are stored in transaction log files for recoverability. The transaction logs can be used to recover from a server outage ...