Microsoft SQL Server - Lesson 01: Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Page 1 of 15

Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server Setup 
Introduction 
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To follow our lessons, you must have access to a computer in which Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is
installed. To start, you must have a computer that runs an appropriate operating system. If you
are just learning, you can use a computer that runs Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft
Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7 (Professional or Ultimate), Microsoft Windows Server 2003, or
Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

For our lessons, we will work from Microsoft Windows 7 (Professional and Ultimate) and
a server. To get the server together:

 We purchased a Dell PowerEdge T105 (from the www.dell.com web site) with an
AMD Athlon (tm) Dual Core Processor 4450B 2.30 GHz with 4.00 GB memory and 2
hard drives of 160GB each (it had cost us roughly $320)
 We ordered a trial copy of Windows Small Business Server 2008 from Microsoft
(free)
 We installed the server operating system
(http://www.functionx.com/networking/sbs2008.htm)
 In the next lesson, we will see how to install Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Before installing Microsoft SQL Server 2008, make sure you have installed all service packs on
your operating system.

Introduction to Security 
One of the main concerns of a database is security, and this is central to Microsoft SQL Server. To
install and use Microsoft SQL Server, you must use a computer account that must be
authenticated to the computer. To start, you must create an appropriate user account. This
depends of the operating system of the computer you will use.

Creating a User Account in Microsoft Windows XP 

a. Start Control Panel

b. Click User Accounts:

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c. Click Create New User:

d. Type the name for the new account:

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e. Click Next.
Make sure the Computer Administrator radio button is selected

f. Click Create Account

g. To assign a password to an account, in the User Account, click the account you created
h. Click Create A Password

i. In the Type A New Password text box, type Password1 and press Tab
j. Type Password1 to confirm and type anything in the last text box:

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k. Click Create Password

Creating a User Account in Microsoft Windows 7 

a. Start Control Panel

b. Click User Accounts

c. Click User Accounts again

d. Click Manage Accounts

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e. Click Advanced
f. Click Advanced again
g. In the left frame, right-click Users and click New User...:

h. Enter the user name, the full name, an optional description, and a password twice:

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Creating an Account in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008 

a. Log in to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 3008 with an account that can create accounts
b. To create an account in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008, on the taskbar, click Start ->
Administrative Tools -> Active Directory Users and Computers.
If you receive a message box, click Continue
c. In the left frame, expand the node of the domain if necessary.
Right-click Users, position the mouse on New, and click User

d. Enter the first name, the optional initial (you can skip it), the last name, and the user name
(the domain name will be different from yours)

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e. Click Next
f. Type the password and press Tab
g. Type the password again and accept the options in the check boxes

h. Click Next (in the summary, the domain name will be different from yours)

i. Read the summary in the last page of the wizard and click Finish

Practical Learning: Creating Accounts 

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1. Depending of your operating system, create the following accounts that we will use in our
lessons:

Microsoft Windows Server  User (Logon) Name Windows XP-7

Password 
First Name Initials Last Name Full Name
Patricia H Katts pkatts Patricia H Katts Password1
Orlando Perez operez Orlando Perez Password1
Gertrude D Monay gmonay Gertrude Danielle Monay Password1
Raymond Kouma rkouma Ramond A Kouma Password1

2. After creating the accounts, Click Close

3. Click Start -> Switch User

4. One after the other, log in as each of the above user accounts and provide the password as
Password1
5. When asked to provide the new password, type one you like, or use P@ssword1
6. Re-log in to the computer or server using the Administrator account

Security Principals 
A security principal is a person or an object that needs access to a database. The security principal
can be considered as one entity or as a group of entities:

This means that a security principal can be considered as a lone entity or as member of a group.
For example, a person who accesses a database can be considered an entity. A group of people
who perform the same job and have been give the same accecss(s) to a database (or to an object
of a database) is considered a collection.

Creating a Group in Microsoft Windows 7: 

a. Start Control Panel

b. Click User Accounts

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c. Click User Accounts again

d. Click Manage Accounts

e. Click Advanced
f. Click Advanced again
g. In the left frame, right-click Groups and click New Group...

h. Enter the desired name of the group and an optional description

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i. You can click Create

j. When creating a group or after creating it, to make it useful, you should (must) add one or
more users to it. If you have created a group and had closed the dialog box already, open it
using the previous steps.
To add a user, click Add...
k. This would open a dialog box. First check the location. If it is not displaying the right
computer, click Locations... In the Locations dialog box, if you will access the database locally,
select the name of the computer and click OK.
In the bottom text box, type the (complete) username of the person you want to add

l. Click Check Names

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m. Once the name has been resolved, click OK.

You can either add one name at a time or add the other names one after another

Creating a Group in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 - 2008: 

a. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers

b. Right-click Users -> New -> Group

c. Type the desired name for the group and check the options of the radio buttons

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d. After providing and checking the options, click OK

e. In order to use a group, you should add at least one user to it. To do this, locate the group
and double-click it or right-click the group and click Properties
f. When the dialog box opens, click the Members tab
g. Click Add
h. In the bottom text box, enter the (complete) user name of the account
i. Click Check Names
j. When the name has been resolved, click OK

You can control the type of access that a security principal can exercise on a machine or a
database, based on a level of accecss. There are three levels: Windows, server, and database:

Based on the functionality of a security principal, it can be considered as belonging to a collection.

To help the operating system identify them, each security principal uses a unique number called a
security identifier (SID).

Practical Learning: Creating a Group 
1. Depending of your operating system, create a group named Clerks
2. Set the Description to Applications Testers
3. Add the operez and the rkouma accounts to it

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4. Click Create or OK

Creating an Administrator Account 
To actually install Microsoft SQL Server 2008, you must use a user account that has the ability to
install an application. If you are using Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or 7, you should use the
Administrator account or create a new account that has administrative rights. The account must
also use/have a password.

During the installation of Microsoft SQL Server, you must log in, using a username and
a password. If you are working in Microsoft Windows XP->7, after the installation, if you
want, you can remove the password on the account, but you will not be able to connect
to Microsoft SQL Server again. If you want to connect to the server, you will have to use
a password again.
Creating an Administrator in Microsoft Windows 7 

a. To start, display the [Local Users and Groups (Local)] window

b. In the left frame, click Groups
c. In the right frame, either double-click Administrators or right-click it and click Properties
d. Click Add...
e. Check the contents of the Location. If you are working locally, click Locations. If a dialog box
comes up, click Cancel. Select the name of the computer
In the bottom text box, type the (complete) user name of the person

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f. Click Check Names

g. When the name has been resolved, click OK

Creating an Administrator in Microsoft Windows Server 2003-2008 

a. To start, display the Active Directory Users and Computers window

b. You have various options:
I. To add an account to the built-in Administrators group:
i. In the left frame, click BuiltIn
ii. In the right frame, either double-click Administrators or right-click it and click
Properties
II. To add an account to another group, such as the Domain Admins:
i. In the left frame, click Users
ii. In the right-click frame, either double-click Domain Admins
c. Click the Members tab
d. Click Add...
e. In the bottom text box, type the (complete) user name of the person

f. Click Check Names

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g. When the name has been resolved, click OK

Practical Learning: Creating an Administrator 
1. Depending of your operating system, access the properties of the built-in Administrators
account
2. Add the pkatts and the gmonay accounts to it

3. Click OK

Home Copyright © 2008-2011 FunctionX Next

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