New to SQL

[PolySicOne]

Hey

A little bit about me, I'm sort of new to the IT/IS world, I've been at my current position for about a year now. My system is a Honeywell Experion GUI consisting of redundant servers (Dell 2950 with server 2003) and 15 operator nodes which are Dell T5400 with XP. I have some other Dell servers that have functions other than operator display support. The system does have your standard firewall, DMZ, with redundant Ethernet or what HW calls Fault Tolerant Ethernet. I’ve been in Process Controls for about 15 years but my geek leanings landed me this job, and for the most part I’m doing pretty well without any training.
One thing that has me curious is SQL, all of our servers have it running and I’ve kind of poked around a little with it but I would like to know a lot more, without reading a Tolkien novel. SQL seems to be invisible meaning it just does what it’s supposed to do without any problems. But I am having some data problems and I just want to remove SQL as probable cause.
So if you could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[ousoonerjoe]

Why do you have SQL on all servers? Do they all have active databases on them? Seems to me, there's some consolidation that could happen there that would in turn, free up some server resources.

"...and did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? NO!"
"Don't stop him. He's roll'n.

 

[jrbarnett]

SQL is a generic term used for Standard Query Language. It is used by data based applications to manipulate data (retrive - known as SELECT, change existing - known as UPDATE, add new data known as INSERT and delete data known as DELETE).

Microsoft SQL Server is an implementation of a relational database engine that uses SQL commands to handle data access requirements. Typically an application will connect to the SQL database at startup and leave a connection open until it closes. However, this isn't always the case.

There is an ANSI Standard for SQL, and it covers most of the common standard syntax, which will work across major database engines (including SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, Ingres etc). However, each engine has its own enhancements to the standard syntax, to take advantage of specific features (eg authentication through active directory domain membership on SQL Server).

In order to take full advantage of SQL Server (or other relational database engine) you also need to be familiar with database design techniques, known as normalisation. This is a set of rules that is used for determining optimal table design for a given data structure.

John

 

[TysonLPrice]

That's a tall order. There are many facets to it such as maintaining the product itself (as a DBA for example) to using it to interface with applications (maintaining data and reporting off it).

Just from using it as a reporting tool I think this is a greate start. You can use the databases rigth there at the site:

http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

Take a look at "SQL Demo" Try-It_Yorself. You can paste the SQL staements into the text area and use their "datbases".

 

[PolySicOne]

Thanks for the info and the link, with this and what I learned over the weekend has me going in the right direction.


Thanks again.