Using Registered Servers in Managment Studio By Andy Warren

Today's featured video on SQLshare / Jumpstart TV is Using Registered Servers in Managment Studio  By Andy Warren .  Until I saw this video I didnot know about the Registered servers view in sql server 2005 even though I have been using the Management studio for the past 3 years. 

Here are my learnings of today.

• Ctrl+Alt+G is the shortcut for getting in to the registered servers pane.  Alternatively click on the -- View menu -- Registered servers
• From the registered servers pane you create a server group by right clicking on the database engine and creating a new server group.
• Once a group is created you can also create a registered server instance by right clicking on the server group and creating a new server registration
• You can rename the server from the Register server name
• By double clicking on the registered server instance you will be taken to the object explorer which I am familiar with.
• Most important thing is the settings that you have on your local machine are not reflected on the server and also it is not going to change anything about the server, it is not going to change how we connect to it or how our users see it.
• Setting custom colour is a very useful new feature (available only in sql server 2008) discussed by Andy in this video.  This can be used to differentiate the test servers with the production servers.
• You can export registered server inforamtion to a file by right clicking on the server instance and choosing export.  This feature is very useful when you are moving machines.
• The option "Do not include user names and passwords in the export file" is also very useful if you are giving the export file to a new DBA or another user.

Thanks to Andy Warren for helping me learn all this within 4 min. 50 secs.   If you are interested in viewing this video please click here