If you are looking for a powerful and reliable data management system that can handle various types of data, support multiple languages and platforms, and offer security, performance, and scalability, then you might want to consider Microsoft SQL Server. In this article, we will explain what Microsoft SQL Server is, why you should download Microsoft SQL Server 2017, and how to download and install it on your device.
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that allows you to store, manipulate, and analyze data using structured query language (SQL). SQL is a standard language for accessing and managing data in relational databases. With SQL Server, you can create databases, tables, views, stored procedures, functions, triggers, indexes, and other objects that store and organize your data. You can also perform various operations on your data, such as inserting, updating, deleting, querying, joining, aggregating, filtering, sorting, grouping, and more. You can also use SQL Server to create reports, dashboards, business intelligence (BI) solutions, and data-driven applications.
One of the advantages of SQL Server is that it is a platform that gives you choices of development languages, data types, on-premises or cloud deployment, and operating systems. You can use different programming languages to interact with SQL Server, such as C#, Java, Python, R, PHP, Ruby, and more. You can also use various data types to store your data in SQL Server, such as relational, non-relational (JSON, XML), spatial (geography, geometry), temporal (date/time), hierarchical (graph), binary (image), and more. You can also run SQL Server on different operating systems, such as Windows, Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), Ubuntu), or Docker containers.
Another benefit of SQL Server is that it is a solution that offers security, performance, and scalability for your data needs. You can use various features and tools to protect your data from unauthorized access, corruption, or loss, such as encryption, auditing, backup, restore, and recovery. You can also use various features and tools to optimize your data performance, such as indexing, partitioning, compression, caching, and in-memory technologies. You can also use various features and tools to scale your data capacity, availability, and distribution, such as replication, clustering, sharding, and load balancing.
SQL Server 2017 is the latest version of Microsoft's flagship database product, and it comes with many new features and enhancements that make it a compelling choice for data professionals. Here are some of the reasons why you should download SQL Server 2017:
SQL Server 2017 introduces graph database capabilities for modeling many-to-many relationships that are common in social networks, recommendation engines, fraud detection, and more. You can create node and edge tables to store entities and relationships, and use the MATCH keyword to query them using graph pattern matching. You can also combine graph and relational data in the same query, and use existing SQL Server features like indexing, security, and backup with graph data. See Graph processing with SQL Server 2017.
SQL Server 2017 integrates Python, one of the most popular languages for data analysis and machine learning, with the SQL Server database engine. You can run Python scripts and code from within SQL Server, or use Python to access and analyze data stored in SQL Server. You can also leverage the Microsoft Machine Learning Services library, which provides various algorithms and modules for data transformation, statistical modeling, and machine learning. See Machine Learning Services (Python and R) in SQL Server.
SQL Server 2017 is the first version of SQL Server that can run on Linux and Docker containers, in addition to Windows. This gives you more flexibility and choice in terms of deployment platforms, as well as the ability to leverage the existing skills, tools, and processes of the Linux and Docker ecosystems. You can run SQL Server 2017 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), Ubuntu, or Docker Engine on Linux or Windows. See SQL Server on Linux and Run SQL Server container images with Docker.
SQL Server 2017 introduces a new generation of query processing improvements that will adapt optimization strategies to your application workload's runtime conditions. These improvements are part of the intelligent query processing feature family, and they include batch mode adaptive joins, batch mode memory grant feedback, and interleaved execution for multi-statement table valued functions. These features aim to improve the performance of your queries by dynamically adjusting execution plans based on the actual data and resources available. See Intelligent query processing in SQL databases.
SQL Server 2017 provides a new feature called automatic database tuning that monitors your database performance continuously and automatically applies corrective actions to fix performance problems caused by query plan changes or index degradation. You can enable automatic database tuning at the database level, and it will handle plan regression correction and index tuning for you. You can also review the tuning actions taken by automatic database tuning and manually accept or reject them. See Automatic tuning.
SQL Server 2017 comes in different editions and versions, each with its own features, capabilities, and pricing. You should choose the edition and version that best suits your needs and budget. Here are the main editions and versions of SQL Server 2017:
The Enterprise edition is the most comprehensive and advanced edition of SQL Server 2017, designed for mission-critical applications and large-scale data warehousing. It offers the highest level of performance, availability, security, and scalability, as well as all the features of SQL Server 2017. However, it is also the most expensive edition, and it is licensed per core. See SQL Server 2017 Enterprise edition.
The Standard edition is a more affordable and less feature-rich edition of SQL Server 2017, designed for basic data management and business intelligence. It offers core database capabilities, basic high availability features, basic security features, and basic reporting and analytics features. It is suitable for small to medium-sized applications and data marts. It is licensed per core or per server plus CAL (client access license). See SQL Server 2017 Standard edition.
The Developer edition is a free edition of SQL Server 2017, designed for developers who want to build and test applications that use SQL Server. It offers the same features as the Enterprise edition, but it is not licensed for production use. It is ideal for development and testing environments, as well as learning and training purposes. See SQL Server 2017 Developer edition.
The Express edition is a free edition of SQL Server 2017, designed for lightweight data management and reporting. It offers basic database capabilities, basic security features, and basic reporting features. It is suitable for small applications and local data storage. It has some limitations in terms of database size (10 GB maximum), memory usage (1 GB maximum), and CPU usage (1 socket or 4 cores maximum). See SQL Server 2017 Express edition.
If you want to download SQL Server 2017 from the official Microsoft website, you can follow these steps:
Go to the Microsoft SQL Server Downloads page and select the edition of SQL Server 2017 that you want to download. You can choose from Enterprise, Standard, Developer, or Express editions. You can also choose the language of SQL Server 2017 that you prefer. You can choose from English, Chinese (Simplified or Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, or Spanish.
After you select the edition and language of SQL Server 2017, you will be directed to a page where you can download the installation file or the ISO image file of SQL Server 2017. The installation file is a self-extracting executable file that will launch the setup wizard when you run it. The ISO image file is a disk image file that contains all the files needed to install SQL Server 2017. You can either burn it to a DVD or mount it to a virtual drive using a tool like Virtual CloneDrive. The installation file is smaller in size than the ISO image file, but it requires an internet connection during installation. The ISO image file is larger in size than the installation file, but it does not require an internet connection during installation.
If you downloaded the installation file, you can run it by double-clicking on it or right-clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator. If you downloaded the ISO image file, you can either insert the DVD that you burned or mount the ISO image file to a virtual drive using a tool like Virtual CloneDrive. Then you can run the setup.exe file from the DVD or the virtual drive by double-clicking on it or right-clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator.
After you run the setup wizard or mount the ISO image file, you can proceed to install SQL Server 2017 on your device. The steps to install SQL Server 2017 may vary depending on the operating system and the components and features that you choose to install. Here are some general steps to install SQL Server 2017 on Windows, Linux, or Docker containers:
The setup wizard or the command line will guide you through the installation process of SQL Server 2017. You will need to accept the license terms, specify the installation location, and provide the administrator password. You will also need to select the installation type, which can be one of the following:
If you choose the Custom installation type, you will be able to select which components and features of SQL Server 2017 you want to install. You can choose from the following components and features:
If you choose to install any of the components that require configuration, such as Database Engine Services, Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Integration Services, Machine Learning Services (In-Database), Data Quality Services, Master Data Services, or PolyBase Query Service for External Data, you will need to configure the server settings and options for each component. You will need to specify things like:
After you configure the server settings and options for each component, you can proceed to complete the installation process of SQL Server 2017. You can monitor the progress and status of the installation on the screen or the command line. You can also view the summary and details of the installation in the log files that are created in the %programfiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\150\Setup Bootstrap\Log folder. You can verify that SQL Server 2017 is installed successfully by connecting to it using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), a graphical tool that allows you to manage and administer SQL Server instances and databases. See Install SQL Server 2017 on Windows.
In this article, we have explained what Microsoft SQL Server is, why you should download Microsoft SQL Server 2017, and how to download and install it on your device. We hope that this article has helped you to understand the basics of SQL Server 2017 and how to get started with it. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Here are some frequently asked questions about Microsoft SQL Server 2017:
A: The cost of SQL Server 2017 depends on the edition, version, licensing model, and number of cores or users that you need. You can find the pricing details of SQL Server 2017 on the Microsoft SQL Server Pricing page.
A: You can upgrade from an older version of SQL Server to SQL Server 2017 by using one of the following methods:
A: You can learn more about SQL Server 2017 by visiting the following resources:
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