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View or Change Server Properties (SQL Server)

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This topic describes how to view or change the properties of an instance of SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio, Transact-SQL, or SQL Server Configuration Manager.

In This Topic

Before You Begin

Limitations and Restrictions

  • When using sp_configure, you must run either RECONFIGURE or RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE after setting a configuration option. The RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE statement is usually reserved for configuration options that should be used with extreme caution. However, RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE works for all configuration options, and you can use it in place of RECONFIGURE.

    Note

    RECONFIGURE executes within a transaction. If any of the reconfigure operations fail, none of the reconfigure operations will take effect.

  • Some property pages present information obtained via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). To display those pages, WMI must be installed on the computer running SQL Server Management Studio.

Security

Permissions

For more information, see Server-Level Roles.

Execute permissions on sp_configure with no parameters or with only the first parameter are granted to all users by default. To execute sp_configure with both parameters to change a configuration option or to run the RECONFIGURE statement, a user must be granted the ALTER SETTINGS server-level permission. The ALTER SETTINGS permission is implicitly held by the sysadmin and serveradmin fixed server roles.

Using SQL Server Management Studio

To view or change server properties

  1. In Object Explorer, right-click a server, and then click Properties.

  2. In the Server Properties dialog box, click a page to view or change server information about that page. Some properties are read-only.

Using Transact-SQL

To view server properties by using the SERVERPROPERTY built-in function

  1. Connect to the Database Engine.

  2. From the Standard bar, click New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and click Execute. This example uses the SERVERPROPERTY built-in function in a SELECT statement to return information about the current server. This scenario is useful when there are multiple instances of SQL Server installed on a Windows-based server, and the client must open another connection to the same instance that is used by the current connection.

    SELECT CONVERT( sysname, SERVERPROPERTY('servername'));  
GO

To view server properties by using the sys.servers catalog view

  1. Connect to the Database Engine.

  2. From the Standard bar, click New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and click Execute. This example queries the sys.servers catalog view to return the name (name) and ID (server_id) of the current server, and the name of the OLE DB provider (provider) for connecting to a linked server.

    USE AdventureWorks2012;   
GO  
SELECT name, server_id, provider  
FROM sys.servers ;   
GO

To view server properties by using the sys.configurations catalog view

  1. Connect to the Database Engine.

  2. From the Standard bar, click New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and click Execute. This example queries the sys.configurations catalog view to return information about each server configuration option on the current server. The example returns the name (name) and description (description) of the option and whether the option is an advanced option (is_advanced).

    USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO  
SELECT name, description, is_advanced  
FROM sys.configurations ;
GO

To change a server property by using sp_configure

  1. Connect to the Database Engine.

  2. From the Standard bar, click New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and click Execute. This example shows how to use sp_configure to change a server property. The example changes the value of the fill factor option to 100. The server must be restarted before the change can take effect.

Use AdventureWorks2012;  
GO  
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;  
GO  
RECONFIGURE;  
GO  
sp_configure 'fill factor', 100;  
GO  
RECONFIGURE;  
GO

For more information, see Server Configuration Options (SQL Server).

Using SQL Server Configuration Manager

Some server properties can be viewed or changed by using SQL Server Configuration Manager. For example, you can view the version and edition of the instance of SQL Server, or change the location where error log files are stored. These properties can also be viewed by querying the Server-Related Dynamic Management Views and Functions.

To view or change server properties

  1. On the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2014, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Configuration Manager.

  2. In SQL Server Configuration Manager, click SQL Server Services.

  3. In the details pane, right-click SQL Server (<instancename>), and then click Properties.

  4. In the SQL Server (<instancename>) Properties dialog box, change the server properties on the Service tab or the Advanced tab, and then click OK.

Follow Up: After you change server properties

For some properties, the server might have to be restarted before the change can take effect.

See Also

Server Configuration Options (SQL Server)
SET Statements (Transact-SQL)
SERVERPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)
sp_configure (Transact-SQL)
RECONFIGURE (Transact-SQL)
SELECT (Transact-SQL)
Configure WMI to Show Server Status in SQL Server Tools
SQL Server Configuration Manager
Configuration Functions (Transact-SQL)
Server-Related Dynamic Management Views and Functions (Transact-SQL)