Datasheet

The SQL Server 2005
Express Environment
Although it’s the most junior member of the family, SQL Server 2005 Express
has more than enough capabilities and power to support the majority of
database-driven applications. You should be aware of these key features —
along with some limitations — as you build your solution:
Robust technology platform: SQL Server 2005 Express is built on the
same underlying technology platform as all the Microsoft SQL Server
products. This significantly increases this product’s effectiveness and
stability.
Interoperability and upgradeability: Because SQL Server 2005 Express
is built on the underlying SQL Server 2005 platform, you can easily
develop solutions that work with any SQL Server 2005 edition. In addi-
tion, you can straightforwardly migrate from this entry-level edition to a
more full-featured edition without changing your database design or
altering any application or stored procedure/trigger code.
Memory: With memory costs dropping significantly over time, many
administrators now stock their computers with large amounts of RAM.
However, regardless of how much memory you have, SQL Server 2005
Express doesn’t take advantage of any more than 1GB of RAM.
Automatic performance tuning: This is one feature that SQL Server
2005 Express shares with the other database editions. It lightens the
administrative load by automatically updating the database’s configura-
tion based on system activities and other profiling data.
However, no automation can free you from the performance implications
of an inefficient database or application construction: You are still
responsible for designing your database structure and software logic
with speed in mind.
Database size: This is probably the most significant limitation of SQL
Server 2005 Express, because any given database can’t be bigger than
4GB. Although this limitation won’t be a problem for many applications,
certain data-intensive solutions can test it. Of course, you are free to
have multiple databases that are each 4GB.
Full security capabilities: Here’s another area where this edition and the
more costly versions of SQL Server 2005 basically have no differences.
This means that you can take advantage of a broad band of security fea-
tures as you go about developing your solutions. These range from
authentication and auditing all the way through public key management
and encryption.
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Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express
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