Microsoft released the first version of the software application MS SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) tool back with the SQL Server 2005 version. By then the base product SQL Server had grown so much in terms of features offered that there was a need for a tool that can help administer, set up, configure and, in general manage functions available to users. From June 2015, this tool was made free-standing and SSMS application started following a release history of its own. SQL Management Studio is essentially a collection of tools. It has graphical tools as well as script editors that work with the components or objects of the main product. This MS SQL Server Management Studio tools lets the database administrators and developers work with administering, configuring and managing these objects. For this purpose the SSMS includes an object explorer. Much in the fashion of the “windows explorer”, this object explorer lets you locate an object and act upon it. The SQL Server Management Studio received a complete makeover with the application being rewritten in Windows presentation foundation (much like the VB 2010). The user interaction with the studio components became much more consistent, simple and standardized.
Azure SQL Database also can be managed with the MS SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Tools available are useful whether you need to deploy data bases or data warehouses and other data-tier components in the end user application you are attempting to develop. Monitoring or upgrading of these components also is facilitated in the regular of the cloud version of the SQL Server product. It is possible to download and test the current version of the SSMS directly from Microsoft official website. A comprehensive set of tools in SQL Server Management Studio help you not only manage the database engine per se, but lets you manage the integration services, analysis services functions and the reporting service.
Besides the object explorer described earlier, the SSMS contains other components that helps manage all the database instances you may have running in an application. It is comparatively simple to set up common tasks. These may be functions like setting up keyboard short-cuts, viewing page properties, etc. How to connect to different instances of the database from the MS SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) are described. Methods to connect to analysis services from the studio are available too. The template explorer and the solutions explorer help build applications quicker and with lower error rates. A set of tool included as part of the SSMS will make the visual design of the user applications. Script editors were mentioned earlier. These tools in SSMS help building of queries and scripts interactively. Debugging these script snippets before you run and actual query based on them is also made simple. The latest release of the SQL Server Management Studio supports server versions from 2005 to the latest 2016 releases that include the support for the Azure cloud database. OS support supported by the latest SQL Server Management Studio includes Windows 10. Windows 2008 R2 and server 2012 both in 64 bit versions are supported. Support also continues for W7, SP1 as well as W8.
