 What is the basic difference between clustered and a non-clustered index?

- The
difference is that, Clustered index is unique for any given table and we can have only one
clustered index on a table. The leaf level of a clustered index is the actual data and the data is
resorted in case of clustered index. Whereas in case of non-clustered index the leaf level is
actually a pointer to the data in rows so we can have as many non-clustered indexes as we can
on the db.
 What are cursors? - Well cursors help us to do an operation on a set of data that we
retreive by commands such as Select columns from table. For example : If we have duplicate
records in a table we can remove it by declaring a cursor which would check the records
during retreival one by one and remove rows which have duplicate values.

 When do we use the UPDATE_STATISTICS command? - This command is basically

 Which TCP/IP port does SQL Server run on? - SQL Server runs on port 1433 but we can
also change it for better security.
 From where can you change the default port? - From the Network Utility TCP/IP
properties –> Port number.both on client and the server.
 Can you tell me the difference between DELETE & TRUNCATE commands? - Delete
command removes the rows from a table based on the condition that we provide with a
WHERE clause. Truncate will actually remove all the rows from a table and there will be no
data in the table after we run the truncate command.

 Can we use Truncate command on a table which is referenced by FOREIGN KEY? - No.
We cannot use Truncate command on a table with Foreign Key because of referential
integrity.

 What is the use of DBCC commands? - DBCC stands for database consistency checker.
We use these commands to check the consistency of the databases, i.e., maintenance,
validation task and status checks.
 Can you give me some DBCC command options?(Database consistency check) - DBCC
CHECKDB - Ensures that tables in the db and the indexes are correctly linked.and DBCC
CHECKALLOC - To check that all pages in a db are correctly allocated. DBCC SQLPERF -
It gives report on current usage of transaction log in percentage. DBCC
CHECKFILEGROUP - Checks all tables file group for any damage.

 What command do we use to rename a db? - sp_renamedb ‘oldname’ , ‘newname’

 Well sometimes sp_reanmedb may not work you know because if some one is using the
db it will not accept this command so what do you think you can do in such cases? - In such
cases we can first bring to db to single user using sp_dboptions and then we can rename that
db and then we can rerun the sp_dboptions command to remove the single user mode.

 What is the difference between a HAVING CLAUSE and a WHERE CLAUSE? - Having
Clause is basically used only with the GROUP BY function in a query. WHERE Clause is
applied to each row before they are part of the GROUP BY function in a query.

 What do you mean by COLLATION? - Collation is basically the sort order. There are
three types of sort order Dictionary case sensitive, Dictonary - case insensitive and Binary.
 What is a Join in SQL Server? - Join actually puts data from two or more tables into a
single result set.

 Can you explain the types of Joins that we can have with Sql Server? - There are three
types of joins: Inner Join, Outer Join, Cross Join

 When do you use SQL Profiler? - SQL Profiler utility allows us to basically track
connections to the SQL Server and also determine activities such as which SQL Scripts are
running, failed jobs etc..

 What is a Linked Server? - Linked Servers is a concept in SQL Server by which we can
add other SQL Server to a Group and query both the SQL Server dbs using T-SQL
Statements.

 Can you link only other SQL Servers or any database servers such as Oracle? - We can
link any server provided we have the OLE-DB provider from Microsoft to allow a link. For
Oracle we have a OLE-DB provider for oracle that microsoft provides to add it as a linked
server to the sql server group.

 Which stored procedure will you be running to add a linked server? - sp_addlinkedserver,
sp_addlinkedsrvlogin

 What are the OS services that the SQL Server installation adds? - MS SQL SERVER
SERVICE, SQL AGENT SERVICE, DTC (Distribution transac co-ordinator)

 Can you explain the role of each service? - SQL SERVER - is for running the databases
SQL AGENT - is for automation such as Jobs, DB Maintanance, Backups DTC - Is for
linking and connecting to other SQL Servers

 How do you troubleshoot SQL Server if its running very slow? - First check the processor
and memory usage to see that processor is not above 80% utilization and memory not above
40-45% utilization then check the disk utilization using Performance Monitor, Secondly, use
SQL Profiler to check for the users and current SQL activities and jobs running which might
be a problem. Third would be to run UPDATE_STATISTICS command to update the
indexes

 Lets say due to N/W or Security issues client is not able to connect to server or vice versa.
How do you troubleshoot? - First I will look to ensure that port settings are proper on server
and client Network utility for connections. ODBC is properly configured at client end for
connection ——Makepipe & readpipe are utilities to check for connection. Makepipe is run
on Server and readpipe on client to check for any connection issues.

 What are the authentication modes in SQL Server? - Windows mode and mixed mode
(SQL & Windows).

 Where do you think the users names and passwords will be stored in sql server? - They
get stored in master db in the sysxlogins table.

 What is log shipping? Can we do logshipping with SQL Server 7.0 - Logshipping is a
new feature of SQL Server 2000. We should have two SQL Server - Enterprise Editions.
From Enterprise Manager we can configure the logshipping. In logshipping the transactional
log file from one server is automatically updated into the backup database on the other server.
If one server fails, the other server will have the same db and we can use this as the DR
(disaster recovery) plan.
 Let us say the SQL Server crashed and you are rebuilding the databases including the
master database what procedure to you follow? - For restoring the master db we have to stop
the SQL Server first and then from command line we can type SQLSERVER –m
which will basically bring it into the maintenance mode after which we can restore the master
db.

 Let us say master db itself has no backup. Now you have to rebuild the db so what kind of
action do you take? - (I am not sure- but I think we have a command to do it).

 What is BCP? When do we use it? - BulkCopy is a tool used to copy huge amount of data
from tables and views. But it won’t copy the structures of the same.

 What should we do to copy the tables, schema and views from one SQL Server to
another? - We have to write some DTS packages for it.

 What is normalization? - Well a relational database is basically composed of tables that

 What is a Stored Procedure? - Its nothing but a set of T-SQL statements combined to
perform a single task of several tasks. Its basically like a Macro so when you invoke the
Stored procedure, you actually run a set of statements.

 Can you give an example of Stored Procedure? - sp_helpdb , sp_who2, sp_renamedb are
a set of system defined stored procedures. We can also have user defined stored procedures
which can be called in similar way.

 What is a trigger? - Triggers are basically used to implement business rules. Triggers is
also similar to stored procedures. The difference is that it can be activated when data is added
or edited or deleted from a table in a database.

 What is a view? - If we have several tables in a db and we want to view only specific
columns from specific tables we can go for views. It would also suffice the needs of security
some times allowing specfic users to see only specific columns based on the permission that
we can configure on the view. Views also reduce the effort that is required for writing queries
to access specific columns every time.

 What is an Index? - When queries are run against a db, an index on that db basically helps
in the way the data is sorted to process the query for faster and data retrievals are much faster
when we have an index.

 What are the types of indexes available with SQL Server? - There are basically two types
of indexes that we use with the SQL Server. Clustered and the Non-Clustered.