DBA Wiz

An external table is an efficient alternative to reading and loading flat files in a database. It can also execute queries in a flat file and it gives an impression of working with an Oracle table. It is primarily used to move data into and out of a database. It is considered as a convenient way to use SQL*Loader and Data Pump functionality. The external table does not exist in the database and can be of any format, and an access driver must be provided for the format of an external table. The disadvantage of using an external table is that the DML commands cannot be executed in an external table. An exception to this rule is the table creation DML statement. Another disadvantage is that an index cannot be created on an external table.

A job table is a scheduler object that is used to keep information pertaining to all the active jobs within a database. The information in a job table includes the owner of the job, the database objects referenced by the job, and the next run date. The statistical information, such as the number of times the job has run and the number of times the job has failed, is also stored in the job table. The job table also contains the STATUS column that holds the current state of a particular job, i.e., RUNNING, SCHEDULED, or BROKEN. Note: The *_SCHEDULER_JOBS view is used to view information stored in a job table.

Table is a base database object to store the database’s data or information. It is the foundation of every Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). Each database consists of one or more tables having their unique names. Each table consists of columns and rows. The table columns describe the data types and the table rows contain the actual data for the columns.

Database Publishing Wizard uses the following modes to deploy an SQL database:
Script mode: In this mode, Wizard generates a single SQL script file that a user can run manually on the target server for recreating the database schema and contents.
Web service mode: In this mode, Wizard connects to a Web host environment service and copies the content of a source database into a target database directly.

The Content Manager role, a pre-defined role, includes tasks that are useful for a user who manages reports and Web content. It does not necessarily manage a SQL Server instance or Web server. A content manager manages report models and data source connections, deploys reports, and makes decisions about how reports are used. By default, all item-level tasks are selected for the Content Manager role definition. The Content Manager role is often used with the System Administrator role. These two roles together provide a complete set of tasks for users who require full access to all items on a report server. The Content Manager role does not provide access to site-level items or operations.

Remote processing mode is used for viewing reports that have been deployed to a report server. Moreover, reports running in remote mode can utilize the full functionality of the report server including all rendering and data extensions. The Remote processing mode has the following advantages:
It provides an optimized solution for running reports because the report is processed and rendered by the report server.
Because all processing is handled by the report server, a report request can be processed by a server that has multiple processors in a scale-up scenario or by multiple report servers in a scale-out deployment.

The Report Builder role is a predefined role, which includes tasks for loading reports in Report Builder as well as navigating and viewing the folder hierarchy. In order to create and modify reports in Report Builder, a user must also have a system role assignment. This system role assignment should include the “Execute report definitions” task that are required for processing reports locally in Report Builder.

The data collector is used to provide a historical report for each of the System Data collection sets. Following are the reports that can be used to obtain information for monitoring system capacity and troubleshooting system performance:
Disk Usage Summary: This report includes data about disk space usage for all the databases that are installed on the instance of SQL Server.
Query Statistics History: This report includes query execution statistics for the most expensive queries.
Server Activity History: This report includes resource consumption and server activity data for the server and for SQL Server.