Interview Questions

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21.What is a Join in SQL Server?

- Join actually puts data from two or more tables into a single result set.


22.Can you explain the types of Joins that we can have with Sql Server?

- There are three types of joins: Inner Join, Outer Join, Cross Join.


23.When do you use SQL Profiler?

- SQL Profiler utility allows us to basically track connections to the SQL Server and also determine activities such as which SQL Scripts are running, failed jobs etc..


24.What is a Linked Server?

- Linked Servers is a concept in SQL Server by which we can add other SQL Server to a Group and query both the SQL Server dbs using T-SQL Statements.


25.Can you link only other SQL Servers or any database servers such as Oracle?

- We can link any server provided we have the OLE-DB provider from Microsoft to allow a link. For Oracle we have a OLE-DB provider for oracle that microsoft provides to add it as a linked server to the sql server group.


26.Which stored procedure will you be running to add a linked server?

- sp_addlinkedserver, sp_addlinkedsrvlogin

27.What are the OS services that the SQL Server installation adds?

- MS SQL SERVER SERVICE, SQL AGENT SERVICE, DTC (Distribution transac co-ordinator)


28.Can you explain the role of each service?

- SQL SERVER - is for running the databases SQL AGENT - is for automation such as Jobs, DB Maintanance, Backups DTC - Is for linking and connecting to other SQL Servers.


29.How do you troubleshoot SQL Server if its running very slow?

- First check the processor and memory usage to see that processor is not above 80% utilization and memory not above 40-45% utilization then check the disk utilization using Performance Monitor, Secondly, use SQL Profiler to check for the users and current SQL activities and jobs running which might be a problem. Third would be to run UPDATE_STATISTICS command to update the indexes.



30.Lets say due to N/W or Security issues client is not able to connect to server or vice versa. How do you troubleshoot?

- First I will look to ensure that port settings are proper on server and client Network utility for connections. ODBC is properly configured at client end for connection ——Makepipe & readpipe are utilities to check for connection. Makepipe is run on Server and readpipe on client to check for any connection issues.

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