What is Source_Database_ID in Sys.Databases?

- Interview Question of the Week #232

July 7, 2019
Pinal Dave
SQL Interview Questions and Answers
No Comments
Question: What is Source_Database_ID in Sys.Databases and why it is mostly NULL?

Answer: Indeed a very interesting question asked to me by attendees of SQL Server

Performance Tuning Practical Workshop � Recorded Classes.

What is Source_Database_ID in Sys.Databases?- Interview Question of the Week #232

Source_Database_ID-800x217

Let us understand the question in detail. Whenever the user was running the
following query, she was always noticing the column Source_Database_ID with only
NULL values. The name of the column is source database id but she was not able to
understand how the newly created database by the user can have a source and hence
the question was sent to me.

Solarwinds
Let us see the query first.

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SELECT name, source_database_id,
DB_NAME(source_database_id) SourceDatabase
FROM sys.databases
GO
In the above query, I have removed unnecessary columns and kept only relevant
columns. Now if you notice that the column is source database id only contains
NULL.

What is Source_Database_ID in Sys.Databases?- Interview Question of the Week #232

sysdatabase1

The column source database id will only have values when the database created is
snapshot based on another database. In simple words, if I create a new database
SQLAuthority_Snapshot based as a Snapshot of the SQLAuthority database, the column
source database id of the snapshot database will contain the id of the source
database.

Let us run the following query to understand our example.

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CREATE DATABASE SQLAuthority
GO
CREATE DATABASE SQLAuthority_Snapshot ON
( NAME = SQLAuthority, FILENAME =
'D:\Data\WideWorldImporters_Snapshot.ss' )
AS SNAPSHOT OF SQLAuthority;
GO
Now once you run the above statement, it will create two databases 1) SQLAuthority
and 2) SQLAuthority_Snashot which is based on the SQLAuthority database. Now run
our earlier script once again.

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SELECT name, source_database_id,
DB_NAME(source_database_id) SourceDatabase
FROM sys.databases
GO
What is Source_Database_ID in Sys.Databases?- Interview Question of the Week #232
sysdatabase2

In the resultset, you can clearly see that we have a new database which is snapshot
showing the course database id of its source database. I hope you find this blog
post interesting. Let me know if you have other similar questions, I would have
happy to answer them on this blog.

If you are interested, you can sign up for my SQL Server Performance Tuning
Practical Workshop. On the popular demand of everyone, I am going to make this
class available for everyone for Instant Learning. Here is the video recording of
the class, at your own comfort you can now watch it from office, home or on mobile
during your daily commute.