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Error and Usage Report Settings (SQL Server Express)

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Use the Error Reporting page of the Microsoft SQL Server Installation Wizard to disable error reporting functionality for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express). Error reporting is enabled by default for SQL Server Express.

Option

Option Description

Error reporting

By default, the error reporting check box is selected. You can disable error reporting by clearing the check box.

If you keep this feature enabled, SQL Server is configured to send a report to Microsoft automatically if a fatal error occurs in the SQL Server Database Engine. Microsoft uses error reports to improve SQL Server functionality and treats all information as confidential.

Information about errors is sent over an encrypted channel to Microsoft, where it is stored with limited access. Alternatively, this information can be sent to your own Corporate Error Reporting server. See this Microsoft Web site for more information about how to set up a Corporate Error Reporting server. Error reports contain the following information:

  • The condition of SQL Server when the problem occurred.
  • The operating system version and computer hardware information.
  • Your Digital Product ID, which identifies your license.
  • The network IP address of the computer.
  • Information from memory or files of the process that caused the error.

Microsoft does not intentionally collect your files, name, address, e-mail address, or any other form of personal information. However, the error report can contain customer-specific information from the memory or files of the process that caused the error. Although this information can potentially be used to determine your identity, Microsoft does not use this information for that purpose. For the Microsoft error reporting data collection policy, see this Microsoft Web site.

If you enable error reporting and a fatal error occurs, you might see a response from Microsoft in the Windows event log that points to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article for a particular error.

To disable error reporting after Setup completes, click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server 2005, click Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Error and Usage Reporting.

Feature Usage

By default, the feature usage check box is selected. You can disable feature usage by clearing the check box. If you enable Feature Usage reporting, SQL Server will be configured to periodically send a report to Microsoft. Reports will include information about your hardware configuration and how you use SQL Server Express software and services. Microsoft will use feature usage data to improve SQL Server.

Information is collected once per day for all enabled SQL Server instances. The time of collection defaults to midnight to minimize the load on the server. If you want to change the time of collection, you can manually edit the registry key that controls the collection time. Each SQL Server instance has its own registry key; the following example is for the first SQL Server instance installed on the server (MSSQL.1):

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\CPE\TimeofReporting

The value of this registry key contains the time for the collection as the number of minutes from 00:00 (midnight) to run. For example, a value of 60 would run the collection at 1:00 a.m., a value of 1200 would run the collection at 8:00 p.m., and so on.

To disable error reporting after Setup completes, click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server 2005, click Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Error and Usage Reporting.