Configuring SQL Server

Network Communication
INTRODUCTION
SQL Server 2008 is a client-server application designed to
efficiently exchange data and instructions over one or more
network connections.
Understanding the network connections and how they can
be configured is a big part of the database administrators
job.
Client software enables client computers to connect to an
instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on a network.
A "client" is a front-end application that uses the services
provided by a server such as the SQL Server Database
Engine. The computer that hosts this application is referred
to as the client computer.

SQL Server 2008 Network Protocols
SQL Server 2008 Communication with clients:
Being Enterprise Data platform , it also provides ways of accessing data.
Possesses the ability to communicate over different protocols.
To connect to SQL Server Database Engine, must have a network protocol enabled.
Can service requests on several protocols at the same time.
Clients connect to SQL Server with a single protocol.
If the client program does not know which protocol SQL Server is listening on, configure the
client to sequentially try multiple protocols.
Use SQL Server Configuration Manager to enable, disable, and configure network protocols.
By default, SQL Server will accept network connections via TCP/IP.
The local Shared Memory protocol is also enabled by default to enable local connections
without having to incur the overhead of a network protocol.
In addition to the TCP/IP, Named Pipes, and Shared Memory protocols, the Virtual Interface
Adapter(VIA) protocol is available.

SQL Server 2008 provides support for four
protocols:
Shared Memory
TCP/IP
Named Pipes
Virtual Interface Adapter (VIA)
By default, the only network protocols enabled for
most editions of SQL Server are TCP/IP and
Shared Memory.
The SQL Server Configuration Manager is used
to configure server protocols.
With this tool, each supported protocol can be
enabled, disabled, and configured as required.

Opening the SQL Server Configuration Manager displays a
node for configuring SQL Server services, SQL Server
network protocols, and SQL Native Client protocols.
To configure the Server protocols, expand the SQL Server
2008 Network Configuration node and select the instance
to be configured.
The right-hand pane shows all four of the supported
protocols and their status.
To display the configurable properties of any of the
protocols, double-click the protocol, or right-click the
protocol and select Properties to launch the corresponding
Properties window.
SHARED MEMORY
Shared memory is the simplest protocol to use and has
no configurable settings.
Because clients using the shared memory protocol can
only connect to a SQL Server instance running on the
same computer, it is not useful for most database activity.
Use the shared memory protocol for troubleshooting
when you suspect the other protocols are configured
incorrectly.
It has only one configurable property: Enabled.
The Enabled property can be set to Yes or No, resulting in
a status of Enabled or Disabled.

TCP/IP
The TCP/IP protocol is the primary and preferred protocol
for most SQL Server installations.
TCP/IP is a common protocol widely used over the
Internet.
It communicates across interconnected networks of
computers that have diverse hardware architectures and
various operating systems.
TCP/IP includes standards for routing network traffic and
offers advanced security features. It is the most popular
protocol that is used in business today.
It is configured on two separate tabs on the TCP/IP
Properties window: the Protocol tab and the IP Addresses
tab,

The Protocol tab has the following four configurable
properties:
EnabledThis works the same as the other protocols.
Keep AliveThis specifies how many milliseconds
SQL Server waits to verify an idle connection is still
valid by sending a KEEPALIVE packet. The default is
30,000 milliseconds.
Listen AllThis specifies whether SQL Server will
listen on all IP addresses configured on the server.
(IPALL)
No DelayThis option specifies whether the TCP
protocol queues small packets to send out larger
packets. This queuing is typically undesirable in
transaction-based systems, and so it should be left in its
default configuration of No.


NAMED PIPES:
Named Pipes is a protocol developed for local area networks.
A part of memory is used by one process to pass information to another process, so that the
output of one is the input of the other.
The second process can be local (on the same computer as the first) or remote (on a
networked computer).
Named Pipes uses Inter-Process Communication (IPC) channels for efficient inter-server
communication, as well as local area network (LAN) communication.
The Named Pipes protocol has some enhancements in SQL Server 2008 including support
for encrypted traffic provides easy access to Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) within a single
security domain, and so is advantageous to these applications.
Named Pipes has two configurable properties: Enabled and Pipe Name. The Enabled
property works the same as the Shared Memory protocol.

Named Pipes vs. TCP/IP Sockets
In a fast local area network (LAN) environment, Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Sockets and Named Pipes clients are
comparable with regard to performance. However, the performance difference
between the TCP/IP Sockets and Named Pipes clients becomes apparent with
slower networks, such as across wide area networks (WANs) or dial-up
networks. This is because of the different ways the interprocess communication
(IPC) mechanisms communicate between peers.
For named pipes, network communications are typically more interactive. A
peer does not send data until another peer asks for it using a read command. A
network read typically involves a series of peek named pipes messages before it
starts to read the data. These can be very costly in a slow network and cause
excessive network traffic, which in turn affects other network clients.
It is also important to clarify if you are talking about local pipes or network pipes. If the
server application is running locally on the computer that is running an instance of SQL
Server, the local Named Pipes protocol is an option. Local named pipes runs in kernel
mode and is very fast.
For TCP/IP Sockets, data transmissions are more streamlined and have less overhead.
Data transmissions can also take advantage of TCP/IP Sockets performance enhancement
mechanisms such as windowing, delayed acknowledgements, and so on. This can be very
helpful in a slow network. Depending on the type of applications, such performance
differences can be significant.
TCP/IP Sockets also support a backlog queue. This can provide a limited smoothing
effect compared to named pipes that could lead to pipe-busy errors when you are trying
to connect to SQL Server.
Generally, TCP/IP is preferred in a slow LAN, WAN, or dial-up network, whereas named
pipes can be a better choice when network speed is not the issue, as it offers more
functionality, ease of use, and configuration options.