Banana Banana@Republic wrote in news:4B87420C.2070209@Republic:
Now, I didn't answer your question about files... That was
deliberate as I wanted to emphasize that with SQL Server (and any
other server-based RDBMS) you don't really deal with files. You
deal with the daemon and the daemon manages the files.
One of the issues here is that unlike Jet/ACE, you can't just copy
the files to a laptop and use them on the laptop disconnected from
your LAN. You have to have an instance of SQL Server running on the
laptop, so that any PC where you have SQL Server as local data store
is going to be running SQL Server, and this is a potential security
risk. Now, in the case where you're not storing any data on the
disconnected machines and just using the app when connected to the
network (LAN or VPN over Internet), you don't need SQL Server
running locally in order to connect to a SQL Server.
But if you're contemplating allowing disconnected use, you'll need
the SQL Server running on the laptops and you'll probably need to
implement SQL Server replication in order to keep the laptop
databases synchronized with the central one. Replication is not a
minor issue, and if you can avoid it, you really should.
But yes, there are files, and in SQL
Server, it's .mdf and .ldf which may be stored in a certain
folder, depending on how you installed SQL Server. But the only
time you actually worry about the file is when you are dealing
with backup & restore tasks and even then that is not strictly
necessary.
In general, backing up the live SQL Server files is not going to
give you a reliable backup. It's just like backing up an MDB/ACCDB
that is open by a user -- you may or may not get a valid file out of
it (it's probably even less likely with the SQL Server files, I
would think). SQL Server has a backup agent to take care of backups
for you, but one of the disadvantages of SQL Server Express 2008 is
that the backup agent is not included! Some backup software is able
to talk directly to the SQL Server and get a backup file, but if
that is dependent on the agent, it won't work with SQL Server
Express.
--
David W. Fenton
http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com
http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/