Configuring SQL Server 2012 : Setting the Options (part 1) - Configuring the Server

Whether you choose to adjust the properties from SQL Server Management Studio's graphical tool or from code is completely up to you, but not every property is available from Management Studio using the graphical interface. Although the graphical interface has the advantages of being easy to use and walks you through easy-to-understand dialogs that prompt for the possible options in a pick and choose format, it lacks the repeatability of a T-SQL script run as a query.

1. Configuring the Server

The server-level configuration options control server-wide settings, such as how SQL Server interacts with hardware, how it multithreads within Windows, and whether triggers are permitted to fire other triggers. When configuring the server, keep in mind the goals of configuration: consistency and performance.

Graphically, many of the server options may be configured within the Server Properties page, which you can open by right-clicking a server in the console tree and choosing Properties from the Context menu. The General tab in Management Studio's SQL Server Properties dialog box (see Figure 1) reports the versions and environment of the server.

Figure 1 The General tab of Management Studio's Server Properties dialog.

The same information is available to code. For example, the version may be identified with the @@VERSION global variable:

select @@VERSION;

Result:

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 - 11.0.2100.60 (X64) 
    Feb 10 2012 19:39:15 
    Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation
    Developer Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 <X64> 
(Build 7601: Service Pack 1) (Hypervisor) (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)

The first line of the preceding result has the product version of SQL Server. In this example, the SQL Server product version is 11.0.2100.60. The last line of the result can be confusing. The last line reports the edition of SQL Server. In this example, it is SQL Server 2012 Developer Edition. However the service pack reported in the last line is the Windows service pack level and not SQL Server service pack level. In this example, it is SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2. That is one of the reasons why not to use the SELECT @@VERSION command. Instead you can use the SERVERPROPERTY system function to determine the information. The advantage of this method is that you can use the function as an expression within a SELECT statement. The following example uses the SERVERPROPERTY function to return the SQL Server product version, product level, and edition.

SELECT
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') AS ProductVersion,
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductLevel') AS ProductLevel,
SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') AS Edition;

Result:

ProductVersion   ProductLevel  Edition
--------------   ------------  --------
11.0.2100.60    RTM      Developer Edition (64-bit)

In the preceding result, the ProductVersion indicates the SQL Server product version number. The ProductLevel indicates the SQL Server product level. If a SQL Server service pack is installed, the product level also indicates the service pack level. For example, if you run the previous command against your SQL Server 2005 SP3 instance, the ProductLevel returns SP3. The Edition indicates the SQL Server edition.

Within code, many of the server properties are set by means of the sp_configure system stored procedure. When executed without any parameters, this procedure reports the current settings, as in the following code (with word-wrap adjusted to fit on the page):

EXEC sp_configure;

Result:

name            minimum   maximum   config_value run_value
--------------------------- ----------- ----------- ------------ 
allow updates        0      1      0      0
backup compression default 0      1      0      0
clr enabled         0      1      0      0
cross db ownership chaining 0      1      0      0
default language      0      9999    0      0
FILESTREAM access level   0      2      2      2
max text repl size (B)   -1     2147483647 65536    65536
nested triggers       0      1      1      1
remote access        0      1      1      1
remote admin connections  0      1      0      0
remote login timeout (s)  0      2147483647 20      20
remote proc trans      0      1      0      0
remote query timeout (s)  0      2147483647 600     600
server trigger recursion  0      1      1      1
show advanced options    0      1      0      0
user options        0      32767    0      0

EXEC sp_configure ‘remote login timeout’;

The extended stored procedure, xp_msver, reports additional server and environment properties:

EXEC xp_msver;

Result:

Index Name               Internal_Value Character_Value
1   ProductName           NULL      Microsoft SQL Server
2   ProductVersion          655360     11.0.2100.6
3   Language             1033      English (United States)
4   Platform             NULL      NT INTEL X64
5   Comments             NULL      SQL
6   CompanyName           NULL      Microsoft Corporation
7   FileDescription         NULL      SQL Server Windows NT
8   FileVersion           NULL      2011.0110.2100.060
                            ((SQL11_RTM).120210-1917)
9   InternalName           NULL      SQLSERVR
10   LegalCopyright          NULL      Microsoft Corp. All
                            rights reserved.
11   LegalTrademarks         NULL      Microsoft SQL Server is a
                            registered trademark of
                            Microsoft Corporation.
12   OriginalFilename         NULL      SQLSERVR.EXE
13   PrivateBuild           NULL      NULL
14   SpecialBuild           116588544   NULL
15   WindowsVersion          393281542   6.1 (7601)
16   ProcessorCount          1       1
17   ProcessorActiveMask       1       00000001
18   ProcessorType          586      PROCESSOR_INTEL_PENTIUM
19   PhysicalMemory          2046      2046 (2145845248)
20   Product ID            NULL      NULL