Using Registered Servers in Managment Studio

Registered servers and groups are an easy and useful way to organize and manage your SQL connections. Did you know you can set a default database for a connection without changing the login properties? Or color code connections? Or share your entire server list (with or without passwords) easily with a colleague? We'll show you how, and then you can give it a try yourself. Note: demo done using SQL 2008 R2.

Andy Warren is a software trainer focusing on SQL Server, a member of the PASS Board of Directors, and a principal in this site - SQLShare.com.

Alexander on 10/18/2010

very useful

Phil Wang on 10/18/2010

useful tips

Jack Pines on 10/18/2010

Thanks for the refresher. I'd forgotten about the setting for default database.

Peter Voutov on 10/18/2010

You could demo the ability to right-click Move a registered server from one group to another and mention that you can create a register server directly in the root "Local Server Groups"

Rob Wingate on 10/18/2010

I never noticed the colorize before -- I knew TOAD for Oracle did that, but I had never seen it in SQL Server. Thanks!

FD928096BE on 10/18/2010

Excellent

Mohamed Irshad on 10/18/2010

cool. enjoyed watching it.

Michelle Poolet on 10/18/2010

Fun stuff!

kalapala baburao on 10/18/2010

ok

thierry on 10/19/2010

worth noting that if you export the reg servers unchecking the 'do not save pwds...' option the passwords are encrypted in the xml file (probably - haven't checked) using your windows account. If you send it to your colleague who's got his own credentials on his laptop the file will not import. You will get a strange error message

A Alagu Ganesh on 10/19/2010

Good

Robert Lewis on 10/19/2010

Thank you for taking the time to record that and share it. I use registered servers all the time, but I didn't know about the default database or the color codings - true timesavers and helps. Additionally, I always suspected I could export my registered servers, but I never got around to investigating how and you just showed me how in seconds. Thanks a ton!

rf2008 on 10/19/2010

I thought it was a very neat way to set things up for study.

Martin Miller on 10/21/2010

Great tip on color coding the query window status bar. I often have several query window tabs open and am constantly switching back and forth between environments and have been burned before accidentally executing a query in Prod that was meant for a different environment. Thanks Andy.

Trent on 10/22/2010

Very informative.

Mike on 10/27/2010

Very Useful tip, it will be a time saver.

Shashi Kumar Singh on 10/29/2010

Good to know about the new things.

Carlos on 11/15/2010

Thanks Andy! What a time saver this is going to be for me! Great videos!!!

Kevin on 1/17/2011

Very useful. Thanks.

Edward on 2/2/2011

excellent video.

Zohorul Islam on 11/16/2011

Good job