Database Software

The only supported database for SharePoint is Microsoft SQL Server. SharePoint databases must be installed on 64-bit SQL servers, and they can be successfully installed on the following types of SQL servers:

• SQL Server 2005 x64 SP3, Standard or Enterprise

• SQL Server 2008 x64 SP1, Standard or Enterprise

• SQL Server 2008 R2 x64, Standard or Enterprise

It is highly recommended to consider SQL Server 2008 R2 for the SharePoint database role because it provides for the most robust, capable, and secure platform for SharePoint. In addition, it includes features that are useful for SharePoint, such as PowerPivot and Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), which enables the SharePoint databases to be stored in encrypted format. SharePoint is unaware of the encryption, and application functionality is not affected because SQL handles the encryption. Note that SQL TDE is only available with the Enterprise edition of SQL server, however.

This type of functionality can be highly useful in scenarios in which, for compliance reasons, the data must be stored in encrypted format. For this reason and others, SQL Server 2008 R2 for SharePoint is highly recommended.

With so many new features to discuss and so little space, this section focuses on a number of different components that, together, make up the entire new SQL Server 2008 R2 product. This discussion introduces SQL’s many components and purpose. The components consist of the following:

• Database engine— The database engine component is the heart of SQL Server. It is responsible for storing data, databases, stored procedures, security, and many more functions, such as full-text search, replication, and high availability.

• Analysis services— Analysis Services delivers online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining functionality for business intelligence applications. Analysis Services allows organizations to aggregate data from multiple heterogeneous environments, transform this data into meaningful information that can then be analyzed and leveraged to gain a competitive advantage in the industry.

• Integration services— Provides businesses the opportunity to integrate and transform data. Businesses can extract data from different locations, transform data that may include merging data together, and move data to different locations, such as relational databases, data warehouses, and data marts. Integration services is the official SQL server extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool.

• Reporting services— Includes tools such as Report Manager and Report Server. This component is built on standard IIS and .NET technology and enables businesses to design report solutions, extract report data from different areas, customize reports in different formats, manage security, and distribute reports.

• Notification services— Consists of a notification engine and client components meant for developing and deploying applications that generate and send notifications to subscribers. Notifications are generated when they are either prompted by an event or triggered by a predefined or fixed schedule. Notifications can be sent to email addresses or mobile devices.