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Surface Area Configuration

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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 selectively installs and starts key services and features. This helps reduce the attackable surface area of a system. In the default configuration of new installations, many features are not enabled. A system administrator can change these defaults at installation time and also selectively enable or disable features of a running instance of SQL Server 2005.

Upgrades

To help ensure an efficient upgrade, no services or features are turned off during the upgrade process, but all surface area configuration options can be applied after the upgrade is completed.

New Installations

When you install a new instance of SQL Server, the components you select are installed with default settings. These settings disable some features, services, and connection types. For more information about viewing and changing these settings, see SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.

For default feature settings, see Surface Area Configuration for Features. For default service and connectivity settings, see Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.

Configuring the SQL Server Surface Area

SQL Server provides several tools for configuring SQL Server features, connections, and services:

  • SQL Server Surface Area Configuration is a set of dialog boxes that you can use to enable and disable features, such as stored procedures, Windows services, Web services, and remote client connectivity. For information about this tool, see SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.
  • The sac command-line utility is the command-line equivalent of the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool. You can use this utility to export settings from one server and apply them to another. For more information, see sac Utility.
  • SQL Server Configuration Manager lets you to configure services and protocols. For more information, see SQL Server Configuration Manager.
  • sp_configure is a stored procedure that you can use to change SQL Server configuration settings. For more information about the settings, see Setting Server Configuration Options.

See Also

Other Resources

Security Considerations for SQL Server
sp_configure (Transact-SQL)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance