Setting Up MSSQL

For the labs assignments in this course, we will be using Microsoft's SQL Server. You will thus need access to that system. There are several ways you can do that as I describe below.

Use the BLP-210 lab. The server is installed on all the machines in that lab. In order to get administrative access to the server I will need to log into the machine and grant it to you (by default only the installing user is made a server administrator).
Download and install SQL Server 2019, Developer Edition from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads. The Developer Edition is full featured and free. It is intended for use in development and test environments. There is also a version of MSSQL Server that runs on Linux (scroll down on the downloads page). I haven’t tried it, but I have had a student use it successfully in the past. I’ll be assuming you are using the Windows version, but if you’re a Linux person I invite you to try the Linux version.
It is possible to run SQL Server in Azure, Microsoft’s cloud environment. You could create an account for yourself there (start at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/). The downside is that it costs money. The first month is a free trial. After that you have to upgrade to a “Pay-as-you-go” account. A minimal SQL server instance in the cloud costs around $5.00/month (depending on usage). I created one myself and could potentially grant you access to it. In fact, that would allow us to explore multi-user security issues (which could be good). We won’t start with this, however.

You will also want Microsoft’s SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). You can download that (for free) here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-ver15. This tool, based on Visual Studio, allows you to create "database projects" that contain the scripts you need to set up a database as well as query it. The tool is nice (although somewhat complex). We will definitely be using it. Note that SSMS allows you to interact with multiple instances of SQL Server, including Azure instances.