IX.B.9. Where Is AdventureWorks?
AdventureWorks2008 is the primary sample database used with SQL Server 2008; you'll see quite a bit of documentation within Books Online on AdventureWorks. AdventureWorks was included with SQL Server 2005 but the version for SQL Server 2008 must be downloaded.
The different variations of AdventureWorks2008 are
SQL2008.AdventureWorks_OLTP_DB_v2008: The primary OLTP sample database for the company Adventure Works Cycles.
SQL2008.AdventureWorks_LT_DB_v2008: A scaled-down version of the Adventure Works Cycles database.
SQL2008.AdventureWorks_DW_BI_v2008: The Adventure Works Cycles Data Warehouse and the Analysis Services database project.
Each of the variations of the AdventureWorks2008 database has three hardware platform versions. The x86 platform is for x86-based 32-bit systems, the x64 platform is for x86-based 64-bit platforms, and the ia64 platform is for Intel Itanium 64-bit systems. Download the version that matches your hardware.
You can download the AdventureWorks2008 databases from Microsoft's open source project hosting Web site, CodePlex. In addition to the sample databases, you can find a lot of different code samples and tutorials. Point your browser to the following URL to get current versions of the databases and samples:
http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples
For detailed steps on how to install the AdventureWorks2008 OLTP database, check out Book III, Chapter 5.
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