Page Anatomy – Part 2

I am going continue my series of articles describing how information is stored and organized in a Microsoft SQL Server database. Today, I am going to talk about the Database Boot Page. All of the information is a gleamed from SQL Server 2008 Internals book by Kalen Delaney. If it is not on your bookshelf, I suggest you go out and by a copy. The online MCM training videos from Paul Randal are also an excellent resource. A single page (8K) is the smallest unit in which SQL Server allocates…

Page Anatomy – Part 1

I am going start a series of articles describing how information is stored and organized in a Microsoft SQL Server database. Today, I am going to talk about the File Header Page. Every database is defined by at least two file types. The first file type is one primary (*.mdf) data file with zero or more optional secondary (*.ndf) data files. The second file type are log (*.ldf) files. We will be looking at the primary data file during these talks. All of the information is a gleamed from SQL…

Basic Training – Data Types – Part 4

I am continuing my series of talks on fundamental topics like data types. I am proud to be a United States Army Reservist (USAR) Veteran. Just like boot camp I went to so long ago, I am going nick name the series BASIC TRAINING. The most basic unit of any database is a TABLE which consists of COLUMNS. A vital decision during the initial database design is to choose the data types that will capture the information you want in the least amount of space. Today, I am exploring unicode…

Basic Training – Data Types – Part 3

I am continuing my series of talks on fundamental topics like data types. I am proud to be a United States Army Reservist (USAR) Veteran. Just like boot camp I went to so long ago, I am going nick name the series BASIC TRAINING. The most basic unit of any database is a TABLE which consists of COLUMNS. A vital decision during the initial database design is to choose the data types that will capture the information you want in the least amount of space. Today, I am exploring character…