Professional SQL Server™ 2005 Programming

2.2. The SQL Server Configuration Manager

Administrators who configure computers for database access are the main users of this tool, but it is still important for us to understand what this tool is about.

The SQL Server Configuration Manager is a new tool with SQL Server 2005 but is really an effort to combine some settings that were spread across multiple tools into one spot. The items managed in the Computer Manager fall into two areas:

• Service Management

• Network Configuration

2.2.1. Service Management

Let's cut to the chase — the services available for management here include:

• Integration Services — This powers the Integration Services.

• Analysis Services — This powers the Analysis Services engine.

• Full-Text Search — Again, just what it sounds like — powers the Full-Text Search Engine.

• Reporting Services — The underlying engine for Report Services.

• SQL Server Agent — The main engine behind anything in SQL Server that is scheduled. Utilizing this service, you can schedule jobs to run on a variety of different schedules. These jobs can have multiple tasks assigned to them and can even branch into doing different tasks depending on the outcome of some previous task. Examples of things run by the SQL Server Agent include backups as well as routine import and export tasks.

• SQL Server — The core database engine that works on data storage, queries, and system configuration for SQL Server.

• SQL Server Browser — Supports advertising your server so those browsing your local network can identify ...