How to: Create a New Registered Server (SQL Server Management Studio)
Save the connection information for servers that you access frequently, by registering the server in the Registered Servers component of SQL Server Management Studio. A server can be registered before connecting, or when connecting from Object Explorer. There is a special menu option to register the server instances on the local computer.
To automatically register the local server instances
- In Registered Servers, right-click any node in the Registered Servers tree, and then click Update Local Server Registration.
To create a new registered server
If Registered Servers is not visible in SQL Server Management Studio, on the View menu, click Registered Servers.
On the Registered Servers toolbar, click Database Engine. Other server types are also available.
Right-click Microsoft SQL Servers, point to New, and then click Server Registration.
In the New Server Registration dialog box, click the General tab. In the Server name text box, type the name of the server you want to register. For a named instance, type the name in the format server_name[**\**instance_name].
Under Authentication, accept the default of Windows Authentication, or click SQL Server Authentication, and complete the User name and Password boxes. Select Remember password if you want SQL Server Management Studio to save the password (not recommended).
The Registered server name text box is automatically completed with the name from the Server name box. If you want, replace the default with a friendly name to help you remember which server is registered.
In the Registered server description box, optionally type additional information to help you identify the server.
Providing Connection Properties information is optional, and may not be available, depending on which server type you are registering. If you want to accept the default connection properties, click Save.
If you want to change the connection properties, click the Connection Properties tab. In the Connect to database box, type the name of the database to which you want to connect, or select Browse server to get a list of the available databases, and then click the database you want. If a default database has not been changed for your login account, the master database is the default database. This option may not be available, depending on which server type you are registering.
In the Network protocol list, select the protocol to use when connecting to the registered server. This option may not be available, depending on which server type you are registering.
In the Network packet size box, enter the packet size to use when connecting to the registered server. This option may not be available, depending on which server type you are registering.
In the Connection timeout box, enter the number of seconds to wait before an idle connection to the server times out. This option may not be available, depending on which server type you are registering.
In the Execution timeout box, enter the number of seconds to wait before an executing script times out. This option may not be available, depending on which server type you are registering.
To encrypt the connection, select the Encrypt connection check box.
Note
To confirm the connection settings before you save them, you can click the Test button.