Category Archives: SQL Server Administration

Examples for naming SQL Server Instances

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This blog post is in response to a question / comment that to my blog posted earlier this week, if you haven’t read it, read it here Rules to follow while naming a SQL Server. I thought it would make sense when explained with examples instead of a short reply to that comment.

As with many things in IT, the simplest answer is “it depends”. So these examples that I am giving below are purely fictitious…

What to consider when naming the SQL Instance?

When naming a SQL Server Instance, I would consider the primary application that is going to use this SQL Server Instance, the location of the SQL Server and Environment the SQL Instance belongs to..

Let’s assume there is a Sales application and a SQL Server Instance in required for that application. The SQL Servers (QA, Dev and  Prod) are going to be deployed in New York, I would name the SQL Server Instances as SLSNYCQAS, SLSNYCDEV and SLSNYCPRD.

Another example where an organization named WhiteSun needs a SQL Instance for their Research & Development application, the SQL Instance names that I can think would be WSRNDSTG, WSRNDTRG, WSRNDTST, WSRNDDEV and WSRNDPRD. STG short code for Staging, TRG for Training, TST for Test etc.

There is no hard and fast rule that the Instance names should be ending with PRD, DEV and so on. These SQL Instance names mentioned above can be jumbled to make new names such as DEVSLSNYC or WSTSTRND as per the choice of the decision maker, be it a SQL Server DBA or a Project Manager..

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— Bru Medishetty

Rules to follow while naming a SQL Server Instance

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When planning to install SQL Server on a server, you need to plan ahead about the name of the SQL Server Instance. If you are installing a default instance then this is not necessary. There are certain rules you will have to follow when naming your SQL Instance and lets see what are some of the acceptable names and some non acceptable names for a SQL Server Instance.

Lets start with those names which are not accepted along with some examples….

Reserved Keywords in Microsoft SQL Server are not accepted. You cannot name a SQL Instance as DATABASE or ALTER or CREATE or SCHEMA (of course Capitals Letters does not matter). See the below pic when I try to name the SQL Instance as DATABASE..

First character should not be a numerical value (0-9), it can be an alphabet (a-z), underscore ‘_’, number sign ‘#’, or ampersand ‘&’. If you try naming a SQL Instance as ‘1SQLServer’, it would not allow you to name with that name. See pic below..

Space and special characters (such as @, ^, *, \ ) are not allowed. That is, if you try naming the instance as “SQL TEST 2”, it is not accepted.

Instance name should be 16 chars or less in length. This is pretty easy to understand, if you want to name the Instance too long, then you have to think again..

As long as they are less than 17 characters, some of the acceptable names can be..

  • SQLServer123
  • SQL_Server_123
  • SQL_Server#123
  • SQL$Server123
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— Bru Medishetty

How to attach a SQL Server database when ldf (Log) file is missing?

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In this blog post we shall learn how to attach a database when the Database Log file is missing. Attaching a database which has all both the data and log files intact, is quite straight forward, you show where the data and log files are residing on your machine and the database will be attached. But when the log file is missing there is a little change to that procedure..

For this example, I downloaded the sample database for SQL Server 2012 from the Microsoft official site for SQL Server sample databases. First lets us place the Primary Data file (.mdf) file in the Data directory of the SQL instance, so I copy the data file (pic below) and paste it in the Data Directory (it might be different on your Server).

The picture below is my Data directory. The reason for placing the mdf file in the data directory is simple, when you try to attach a database, the wizard by default opens the data directory of the SQL Instance. You might also have the mdf file elsewhere, but in the wizard you will have to browse to that location..

Open the SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the SQL Instance, in the Object Explorer, right click the Databases node and select Attach from the popup menu.

Attach databases wizard is displayed as shown below. Click on Add button..

Then the below screen appears where we have to choose the mdf file of the database that we are planning to attach. As mentioned earlier, this locate database files dialog by defaults shows the Data directory of the Instance. If your mdf file is in a different location, you need to expand the folder tree to locate the file. Once the file is located, select the file and click OK button.

The wizard will then display the details of the database being attached, and note that the wizard is expecting a Log file (.ldf) in the log directory of the SQL Instance. Since it did not find any file in that directory the Message is displayed as Not Found. In the bottom portion of the window, select the row that displays the info about the log file. Click Remove button in the bottom right of the window.

After you removed the row, the window should look like the one shown in the pic below. Now click OK to attach and create the database.

Once the database is attached, right click the database and choose Properties and you click the Files page on the left side. You should see the database file of the database that was attached. See that the Log file is created with default database settings.

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— Bru Medishetty