SQL Server Administration: Database Creation

Basics
This week we are going to learn about the files that make up
a database and we will also create our first database. The
topics for this article include:
- Database Files
- Database Filegroups
- Creating a Database

(I)

Database Files
Databases in SQL Server have an underlying data storage
structure made up of two or more system files. Each
database must have at least one data file, used for storing
database objects (tables, views, stored procedures, etc), and
one log file, used for storing transaction information. In
addition, each database must have its own files; you can't
share files between databases. (II)
Data files store objects and the data inside objects. The first
data file you create is known as the "Primary data file." If you
need to create additional data files for your database, they
must be created as "Secondary data files." (III)
Log files, on the other hand, are used to track changes in the
database and have only one file type. In the event of a
system failure, the log files can be used to repair the
database. We will look at how SQL Server tracks database
modifications when we start talking about transactions. (IV)
The following table summarizes the three file types.
File Type
Primary data
file

Description
Each database must
have one, and only one,
Primary data file. This file
type stores the system
tables, data, and also
keeps track of the other
files that makeup the
database. Primary data

Secondary
data files

Transaction log
files

files use the

extension .MDF
A database can have
one or more Secondary
data files, but none are
required. This file type
stores data and uses the
extension .NDF
Each database must
have one or more
Transaction log files.
This file type is used to
store Transaction
information and can be
used to recover the
database. Transaction
log files use the
extension .LDF

(V)
A simple database may have all its data stored in the
Primary data file and may only have one log file. On the
other hand, a more complex database may have the Primary
data file, three Secondary data files, and two log files. By
using multiple files a more complex database can spread its
load across as many physical disks as possible. (VI)
Now that we know about the files that makeup our database,
let's look at how our data is being stored inside the files.

When data is stored, it is placed in an 8 kilobyte contiguous

block of disk space known as a page. Once you remove the
overhead needed to manage the page, 8060 bytes are left
for storing data. This brings up an important note and
something to consider, rows can't span multiple pages.
Therefore the maximum size a row can be is 8060 bytes. (VII)
To manage the pages in a data file, pages are grouped into
"extents." Extents are made up of a grouping of 8 contiguous
data pages (64 kilobytes). Extents can then be broken into
two categories: mixed extents, which contain data from up to
eight objects in the database, or uniform extents, which
contain data from only one object in the database. When you
create a new object it is allocated space from a mixed extent.
Once a table has grown larger than eight data pages it is
from then on allocated uniform extents. By using mixed and
uniform extents, SQL Server can save disk space when an
object is very small. (VIII)

Database Filegroups

In order to manage data files they need to be placed into

"filegroups." By placing files into filegroups, we can control
how data is spread over multiple files and we can also direct
specific tables to specific files or sets of files. (IX)
When SQL Server allocates extents to tables, it does so by
the proportional amount of the free space in all files in a
filegroup. For example, let's say we had a filegroup that was
made up of one file that had 50 MB free and another file that
had 100 MB free. For every extent that was allocated from
the first file, two extents would be allocated from the second
file. Therefore the two data files would fill up at
approximately the same time. (X)
Filegroups also allow control over what files a table will be
stored in. For example, say we had 4 hard disks with 1
secondary data file on each disk. In our database let's say
we have two large tables that we need to perform frequent
join operations on. In order to get the best performance we
can setup two file groups each containing two of the four
data files. Next we can place each table in one of the
filegroups to give us maximum performance. Note that we
will see how to place tables and indexes in specific
filegroups when we start creating tables in an upcoming
article. (XI)

There are a few specific filegroups we need to know about

before we start creating our database. First, the Primary data
file is always created as part of the "Primary filegroup" and it
can't be removed from this group. The Primary filegroup
contains all the system objects (system objects are objects
that store information about the database) in the database.
The system objects stored in the Primary filegroup can't be
removed from this group. (XII)
When you create a new object it is automatically placed into
the "Default" filegroup unless you specify otherwise. The
Default filegroup can be set to any group you wish, but by
default, the Default filegroup is set to the Primary filegroup
(got that?). For example, if you created a new group called
"MainStore" and set it as the Default filegroup, any new
tables you create would automatically be placed into the
"MainStore" filegroup. (XIII)
We will come back to the concept of filegroups when we
start creating objects. Also, I will show you how to perform
tasks such as moving objects between file groups then. So,
if you don't have a total grasp on how filegroups fit in...don't
worry. In a later article we will also take a more in-depth look
at using files and filegroups to optimize database
performance. (XIV)

Creating a Database
Ok, enough with that stuff...let's create our first database!
Start by opening Enterprise manager and expand the tree
view until you see the "Databases" folder of your server.

Right Click the Databases folder and select "New

Database..."
In the Name textbox enter "FirstDB"

One thing to note on this screen is the ability to set the

collation for this database other than the server default. If
you don't remember what the collation is, go back and look
over my "Basic Installations" article. For this example we will
leave it as the server default.
Click the "Data Files" tab.

The top portion of the Data Files tab shows you all the data
files that make up this database. As you can see Enterprise
Manager has already added the Primary Data file for us. The
logical file name is FirstDB_Data and the physical file is
named FirstDB_Data.MDF located in the Data folder that
was specified when we installed SQL Server. The logical file
name is the name that SQL Server uses internally to
reference the file, whereas the physical file name is the
name of the operating system file.
In addition to the logical file name and physical
name/location, we also can set the Initial size for each file. If
you know you will be loading data into your database and
have a general idea of its size, you can set this value to
avoid automatic file growth (more on this in a second). The
last column allows the selection and creation of file groups.

The lower half of the Data Files tab allows you to set the
Automatic file growth for each file that makes up the
database. When a database has used all available space in
a data file, you can have SQL Server automatically expand
the file as needed. The File Growth option allows you to set
how much SQL Server will expand the data file. You can
select a fixed amount in megabytes or enter a percentage of
the current file size to grow the file by. You can also set a
maximum file size for the data file. Once a file reaches its
maximum size, no more automatic file growth will take
place.
As a general rule, it is best to have files expand as few times
as possible because expanding files causes a performance
hit to SQL Server.
Click the "Transaction Log" tab.

The options on the Transaction Log tab are very similar to

the Data Files tab with the only exception being the lacking
of a File Group option. Filegroups are only used for data files,
not log files. All other options on the Transaction Log tab are
the same as the Data Files tab.
Click OK to accept the defaults.

Our new database now appears in the Databases folder. If

you go exploring into the database we have just created you
will notice it looks a lot like the model database. This is
because all new databases we create are a copy of the
model database. All the system objects and other objects we
create in the model database are added automatically to all
the new databases we create.

Another way to create a database is by using the Create

Database Wizard. To start the Create Database Wizard, in
Enterprise Manager Select "Wizards" from the "Tools"
menu.

Then expand "Database", select "Create Database Wizard",

and click OK.

The wizard then walks you through the steps to create a

database.