Posted by arlene

I don’t know about you guys, but when this part happens, it gets kind of exciting. Why? Well, this signifies that we are on our way to developing our first ever, real-life application in SQL Server 2000. Now doesn’t that just light your fire? Ahh well, we aren’t all excited by the same things, and I guess the world would be a bit of a boring place to be if we were. Anyway let’s get on with it!

To start the connection process to SQL Server 2000, click the plus sign next to the Microsoft SQL Servers icon at the top of the tree-view control. This is located just under the Console Root folder.

This will expand the tree-view control to contain a new item called SQL Server Group. If you do not see this icon, right-click the SQL Servers icon and select the New SQL Server Group command from the list.

Fill in the SQL Server Group name that you want to appear here. I’ve called my group SQL Server Group, but you can name yours something different.

Setting up a SQL Server group enables us to specify that either a single instance of SQL Server 2000 or a cluster of SQL Server 2000 instances can belong to the group. This is especially useful when you have multiple servers (or instances) running different versions of SQL Server. You can have a SQL Server 2000 group and a SQL Server 7.0 group. This allows you to group together similar applications.

After you have created the group in which your instance is going to reside, you must create an actual connection to the instance of SQL Server 2000 that you have installed. There are two ways of doing this (aren’t there always?). I will show you the manual connection way first (my preferred way) and then the wizard approach.

Right-click the SQL Server Group and select New SQL Server Registration.

This will more than likely launch a Register SQL Server Wizard screen. However, if the wizard screen does not appear, proceed to step 3.

To continue with the manual connection, click the From Now On, I Want to Perform This Task Without Using a Wizard box, and then click Next. If you want to use the wizard to make your connection to SQL Server 2000, do not check the box and click the Next button. For more instructions, go to the “Using a Wizard to Connect to SQL Server 2000″ section later in this appendix.

This screen enables you to manually set up the connection information needed for your client computer to talk to SQL Server 2000.

The first option box enables you to type in or select from the list your SQL Server installation name. If it does not appear in the list, just type the name in the box. This is in the format Servername \InstanceName.

Next you need to supply the credentials you will use to connect to SQL Server 2000. Enter the username sa and the password that you assigned sa during the installation. Leave this blank if you did not assign sa a password.

If you select the Always Prompt for Login Name and Password option, SQL Server 2000 will pop up a login dialog for you whenever you try to connect. This will prevent others who use your machine from getting into your SQL Server 2000 instance, unless they know your username and password.

If your machine is secure do not select this option.

Now you need to assign your connection a SQL Server group to belong to. Select the group name that you created earlier. If you do not see your group name, click the ellipsis (…) button and retype the group name. Make sure if you do this that you select it to be a top-level group (this means it sits at the top of the tree-view control rather than under another group name). This action will re-create the group for you.

The last three option boxes have to do with the way SQL Server 2000 looks and behaves when you connect.

Display SQL Server State In Console—This enables you to turn service polling on or off.

Show System Databases and System Objects—SQL Server uses some system objects (tempDB, Master, and so on) similar to Windows. This option enables you to see these objects in the tree-view control.

Automatically Start SQL Server When Connecting—This option specifies that if SQL Server 2000 is not running (the service has stopped), the service will be automatically restarted when you connect.

I suggest that you leave all three of these options selected unless you have a specific reason for changing any of them.

When you click OK, Enterprise Manager will try to establish a connection to SQL Server 2000. When it has succeeded (this can take a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes depending on your machine), you are ready to start browsing around SQL Server 2000.

Finally, click the little plus icon next to the ServerName\InstanceName icon. This will expand the tree-view control, and you will be able to see all the databases and other associated objects. See Figure B.30 for how the screen should look.

That’s it, you’re finished! The next section describes how to connect using the wizard provided by SQL Server 2000, but you just successfully did all the connection information you need. Well done, and congratulations!

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