Glossary

 

Terms

Term	Definition
.NET Framework	An integral Windows component that supports building, deploying, and running the next generation of applications and Web services. It provides a highly productive, standards-based, multilanguage environment for integrating existing investments with next generation applications and services, as well as the agility to solve the challenges of deployment and operation of Internet-scale applications. The .NET Framework consists of three main parts: the common language runtime, a hierarchical set of unified class libraries, and a componentized version of ASP called ASP.NET. See also: ASP.NET, common language runtime, .NET Framework class library.
active statement	An SQL statement that has been run but whose result set has not yet been canceled or fully processed.
ActiveX Data Objects	Component Object Model objects that provide access to data sources. This API provides a layer between OLE DB and programming languages such as Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications, Active Server Pages, and Microsoft Internet Explorer Visual Basic Scripting.
ActiveX Data Objects (Multidimensional)	A high-level, language-independent set of object-based data access interfaces optimized for multidimensional data applications.
ActiveX Data Objects MultiDimensional.NET	A managed data provider used to communicate with multidimensional data sources.
ad hoc report	An .rdl report created with Report Builder that accesses report models.
add-in	A custom extension, written in any language that supports the Component Object Model (COM), that interacts with Analysis Manager and provides specific functionality.
ADO MD	See Other Term: ActiveX Data Objects (Multidimensional)
ADOMD.NET	See Other Term: ActiveX Data Objects MultiDimensional.NET
adornment	A control or status area that is attached to the edge of a pane or window, such as a toolbar or ruler.
aggregate function	A function that performs a calculation on a column in a set of rows and returns a single value.
aggregate query	A query (SQL statement) that summarizes information from multiple rows by including an aggregate function such as Sum or Avg.
aggregation	A table or structure that contains precalculated data for a cube.
aggregation design	In Analysis Services, the process of defining how an aggregation is created.
aggregation prefix	A string that is combined with a system-defined ID to create a unique name for a partition's aggregation table.
alert	A user-defined response to a SQL Server event.
alias	An alternative name for a table or column in expressions that is often used to shorten the name for subsequent reference in code, prevent possible ambiguous references, or provide a more descriptive name in the query output.
alignment	A condition that exists when an index is built on the same partition scheme as its corresponding table.
allocation unit	A set of pages that can be operated on as a whole.
AMO	See Other Term: Analysis Management Objects
Analysis Management Objects	The complete library of programmatically accessed objects that let and application manage a running instance of Analysis Services.
ancestor	A member in a superior level in a dimension hierarchy that is related through lineage to the current member within the dimension hierarchy.
annotational property	A property that is maintained by Metadata Services as string data that can be attached to any repository object that exposes the IAnnotationalProps interface.
anonymous subscription	A type of pull subscription for which detailed information about the subscription and the Subscriber is not stored.
API server cursor	A server cursor that is built to support the cursor functions of an API, such as ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, and DB-Library.
application	An individual solution for matching events with subscriptions, and then formatting and delivering the resulting notifications.
application database	The database that stores user and system data for one application.
application role	A SQL Server role created to support the security needs of an application.
argument	A value that provides information to an action, an event, a method, a property, a function, or a procedure.
article	A database object in a publication that is specified for replication.
assembly	A managed application module containing class metadata and managed code as an object in SQL Server, against which CLR functions, stored procedures, triggers, user-defined aggregates, and user-defined types can be created in SQL Server.
atomic	Description of an operation where all the transaction data modifications must be performed; if all data modifications are not performed, none are.
attribute	The building block of dimensions and their hierarchies that corresponds to a single column in a dimension table.
attribute relationship	The hierarchy associated with an attribute containing a single level based on the corresponding column in a dimension table.
authentication	The process of verifying the identity of a user, computer, process, or other entity by validating the credentials provided by the entity. Common forms of credentials are digital signatures, smart cards, biometric data, and a combination of user names and passwords.
authenticator	A data structure used by one party to prove that another party knows a secret key.
automatic failover	The process in which, in response to a node or resource failure, resources in a cluster switch ownership and start on another node in the server cluster. This term applies to a server cluster/failover cluster combination only.
axis	A set of tuples. Each tuple is a vector of members. A set of axes defines the coordinates of a multidimensional data set.
backup device	A tape or disk drive containing a backup medium.
backup set	A single backup within a media set. Each backup set is distributed among all the media families of the media set.
balanced hierarchy	A dimension hierarchy in which all leaf nodes are the same distance from the root node.
base backup	A collection of files, folders, and other data that have been backed up and stored in a file or on one or more tapes.
base object	A data backup of a database or files upon which a differential backup is fully or partially based. The base backup is the most recent full or file backup of the database or files.
base table	A table stored permanently in a database. Base tables are referenced by views, cursors, SQL statements, and stored procedures.
batch	1. A set of SQL statements submitted together and run as a group. 2. In Reporting Services, a collection of SOAP method calls within a single transaction.
bcp file	Files that store bulk copy data created by the bulk copy utility or by synchronization between a Publisher and its Subscribers.
binary large object	A piece of binary data that has an exceptionally large size, such as pictures or audio tracks that are stored as digital data, or any variable or table column that is large enough to hold such values.
binding	In Analysis Services, a defined relationship between an attribute or a measure and one or more underlying columns in a dimension or fact table.
bitmap filter	An in-memory structure that uses a compact representation of a set of values from a table in one part of the operator tree to filter rows from a table in another part. The filter improves the performance of parallel query plans by removing non-qualifying rows early. A bitmap filter can be applied after optimization or dynamically during optimization. When applied dynamically, it is called an optimized bitmap filter.
bitwise operation	An operation that manipulates a single bit, or tests whether a bit is on or off.
blocks	A series of Transact-SQL statements enclosed by BEGIN and END.
bookmark	A link in a report that jumps to another place within the report.
Boolean	An operation or expression that can be evaluated only as either true or false.
bootstrap	A program that installs or runs other programs.
breakpoint	1. A location in a program at which execution is halted so that a programmer can examine the program's status, the contents of variables, and so on. 2. A line of code in a Function or Sub procedure at which Microsoft Visual Basic automatically suspends execution.
browse mode	A function that lets you scan database rows and update their values one row at a time.
B-tree	A method of placing and locating files in a database that allows both random and sequential access to data.
buffer pool	A block of memory reserved for index and table data pages.
built-in functions	A group of predefined functions provided as part of the Transact-SQL and Multidimensional Expressions languages.
bulk-logged recovery model	A database recovery mode that minimally logs bulk operations, such as index creation and bulk imports, while fully logging other transactions.
business logic handler	A merge replication feature that allows you to run custom code during the synchronization process.
calculated column	A column in a table that displays the result of an expression instead of stored data.
calculated field	A field, defined in a query, that displays the result of an expression instead of stored data.
calculated member	A member of a dimension whose value is calculated at run time by using an expression.
calculation condition	A Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) logical expression that is used to determine whether a calculation formula will be applied against a cell in a calculation subcube.
calculation formula	A Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) expression used to supply a value for cells in a calculation subcube, subject to the application of a calculation condition.
calculation pass	A stage of calculation in a multidimensional cube in which applicable calculations are evaluated.
calculation subcube	The set of multidimensional cube cells that is used to create a calculated cells definition. The set of cells is defined by a combination of MDX set expressions.
candidate key	A column or set of columns that have a unique value for each row in a table.
cardinality	Defines the number of instances allowed and/or required of a child entity per parent entity.
cascading delete	An operation that deletes a row that contains a primary key value that is referenced by foreign key columns in existing rows in other tables.
cascading update	An operation that updates a primary key value that is referenced by foreign key columns in existing rows in other tables.
case	In data mining, a case is an abstract view of data characterized by attributes and relations to other cases.
case key	In data mining, the element of a case by which the case is referenced within a case set.
case set	In data mining, a set of cases.
cell	In a cube, the set of properties, including a value, specified by the intersection when one member is selected from each dimension.
cellset	In ADO MD, an object that contains a collection of cells selected from cubes or other cellsets by a multidimensional query.
certificate	A digital document that is commonly used for authentication and to help secure information on a network. A certificate binds a public key to an entity that holds the corresponding private key. Certificates are digitally signed by the certification authority that issues them, and they can be issued for a user, a computer, or a service.
change script	A text file that contains SQL statements for all changes made to a database, in the order in which they were made, during an editing session.
changing dimension	A dimension that has a flexible member structure, and is designed to support frequent changes to structure and data.
character encoding	A method or system of assigning numeric values to characters.
character set	The types of characters that SQL Server recognizes in the char, varchar, and text data types.
chart data region	A report item on a report layout that displays data in a graphical format.
checkpoint	An event in which the Database Engine writes dirty buffer pages to disk. Each checkpoint writes to disk all the pages that were dirty at the last checkpoint and still have not been written to disk.
checksum	A calculated value that is used to test data for the presence of errors that can occur when data is transmitted or when it is written to disk.
child	A member in the next lower level in a hierarchy that is directly related to the current member.
chronicle	A table that stores state information for a single application.
clause	In Transact-SQL, a subunit of an SQL statement. A clause begins with a keyword.
clickthrough report	A report that displays related report model data when you click data within a rendered Report Builder report.
client application	An application that retrieves data from a server and performs local analysis and presentation of data from relational or multidimensional databases.
client cursor	A cursor that is implemented on the client. The entire result set is first transferred to the client, and the client API software implements the cursor functionality from this cached result set.
client subscription	A subscription to a merge publication that uses the priority value of the Publisher for conflict detection and resolution.
CLR	See Other Term: common language runtime
CLR function	A function created against a SQL Server assembly whose implementation is defined in an assembly created in the .NET Framework common language runtime.
CLR stored procedure	A stored procedure created against a SQL Server assembly whose implementation is defined in an assembly created in the .NET Framework common language runtime.
CLR trigger	A trigger created against a SQL Server assembly whose implementation is defined in an assembly created in the .NET Framework common language runtime.
CLR user-defined type	A user-defined data type created against a SQL Server assembly whose implementation is defined in an assembly created in the .NET Framework common language runtime.
clustered index	An index in which the logical order of the key values determines the physical order of the corresponding rows in a table.
clustering	A data mining technique that analyzes data to group records together according to their location within the multidimensional attribute space.
coarse-grained lock	A lock that applies to a large amount of code or data.
code access security	A mechanism provided by the common language runtime whereby managed code is granted permissions by security policy and these permissions are enforced, helping to limit the operations that the code will be allowed to perform.
code page	For character and Unicode data, a definition of the bit patterns that represent specific letters, numbers, or symbols (such as 0x20 representing a blank space and 0x74 representing the character "t").
code point	The minimum bit combination that can represent a unit of encoded text for processing or exchange.
collation	A set of rules that determines how data is compared, ordered, and presented.
collection	An object that contains a set of other objects.
collocation	A condition that exists when partitioned tables and indexes are partitioned on equivalent partition functions.
column binding	The binding of an Analysis Services object to a column in a data source view.
column delimiter	A character which separates columns from each other in the CSV file being imported/exported.
column filter	A filter that restricts columns that are to be included as part of a snapshot, transactional, or merge publication.
column-level collation	Supporting multiple collations in a single instance.
column-level constraint	A constraint definition that is specified within a column definition when a table is created or altered.
command	In transactional replication, a command consists of one Transact-SQL data manipulation language (DML) statement or one data definition language (DDL) statement.
command relationship	Provides instructions to hardware based on natural-language questions or commands.
commit	An operation that saves all changes to databases, cubes, or dimensions made since the start of a transaction
commit transaction	The process of saving all the changes made by a transaction to the database.
common language runtime	The engine at the core of managed code execution. The runtime supplies managed code with services such as cross-language integration, code access security, object lifetime management, and debugging and profiling support.
common table expression	A certain type of expression commonly used in Transact-SQL.
complete database restore	A restore of a full database backup, the most recent differential database backup (if any), and the log backups (if any) taken since the full database backup.
Component Object Model (COM)	An object-based programming model designed to promote software interoperability; it allows two or more applications or components to easily cooperate with one another, even if they were written by different vendors, at different times, in different programming languages, or if they are running on different computers running different operating systems. OLE technology and ActiveX are both built on top of COM.
composite index	An index that uses more than one column in a table to index data.
composite key	A key composed of two or more columns.
computed column	A virtual column in a table whose value is computed at run time.
computed field	A value in a formatted notification that has been computed by using a Transact-SQL expression.
concatenation	The combining of two or more character strings or expressions into a single character string or expression, or to combine two or more binary strings or expressions into a single binary string or expression.
concurrency	A process that allows multiple users to access and change shared data at the same time. SQL Server uses locking to allow multiple users to access and change shared data at the same time without conflicting with each other.
conditional split	A restore of a full database backup, the most recent differential database backup (if any), and the log backups (if any) taken since the full database backup.
config file	See other term: configuration file
configuration	In reference to a single microcomputer, the sum of a system's internal and external components, including memory, disk drives, keyboard, video, and generally less critical add-on hardware, such as a mouse, modem, or printer.
configuration file	A file that contains machine-readable operating specifications for a piece of hardware or software, or that contains information about another file or about a specific user.
configurations	In Integration Services, a name/value pair that updates the value of package objects when the package is loaded.
connection	An interprocess communication (IPC) linkage established between a SQL Server application and an instance of SQL Server.
connection manager	In Integration Services, a logical representation of a run-time connection to a data source.
constant	A group of symbols that represent a specific data value.
constraint	A property assigned to a table column that prevents certain types of invalid data values from being placed in the column.
container	A control flow element that provides package structure.
content formatter	The part of the distributor that turns raw notification data into readable messages.
context switch	The changing of the identity against which permissions to execute statements or perform actions are checked.
continuation tape	A tape that is used after the initial tape in a media family fills, allowing continuation of a media family.
contract	A Service Broker object that defines the message types that can be exchanged within a given conversation.
control flow	The ordered workflow in an Integration Services package that performs tasks.
control-break report	A report that summarizes data in user-defined groups or breaks. A new group is triggered when different data is encountered.
control-of-flow language	Transact-SQL keywords that control the flow of execution of SQL statements and statement blocks in triggers, stored procedures, and batches.
conversation	In Service Broker, a long-running, asynchronous exchange of messages
conversation endpoint	The object which represents a party participating in the conversation.
conversation handle	An identifier which uniquely defines a conversation.
correlated subquery	A subquery that references a column in the outer statement.
CPU busy	A SQL Server statistic that reports the time, in milliseconds, that the central processing unit (CPU) spent on SQL Server work.
crawl	See other term: population
credential	Data used by a principal to establish the identity of the principal, such as a password or user name.
cross-database ownership chaining	When an object references other objects and the calling and the called objects are owned by the same user across different databases in a single instance of SQL Server.
cube	A set of data that is organized and summarized into a multidimensional structure defined by a set of dimensions and measures.
cube role	A collection of users and groups with the same access to a cube.
cursor	An entity that maps over a result set and establishes a position on a single row within the result set.
cursor degradation	See Other Term: implicit cursor conversion
cursor library	A part of the ODBC and DB-Library APIs that implements client cursors.
custom rollup	An aggregation calculation that is customized for a dimension level or member, and that overrides the aggregate functions of a cube's measures.
custom rule	In a role, a specification that limits the dimension members or cube cells that users in the role are permitted to access.
custom variable	An aggregation calculation that is customized for a dimension level or member and overrides the aggregate functions of a cube's measures.
data adapter	An object that exchanges data between a data store and a DataSet object.
data backup	Any backup that includes the full image of one or more data files.
data block	1. In text, ntext, and image data, a data block is the unit of data transferred at one time between an application and an instance of SQL Server. The term is also applied to the units of storage for these data types. 2. In tape backup files, data block is the unit of physical I/O.
data connection	A collection of information that is required to access a specific database. The collection includes a data source name and logon information.
Data Control Language	The subset of SQL statements used to control permissions on database objects.
data convergence	Data at the Publisher and the Subscriber that matches.
data definition	Specifying the attributes, properties, and objects in a database.
data definition language	The subset of SQL statements that define all attributes and properties of a database and its objects.
data dictionary	A set of system tables, stored in a catalog, that includes definitions of database structures and related information, such as permissions.
data explosion	The exponential growth in size of a multidimensional structure, such as a cube, due to the storage of aggregated data.
data flow	The ordered workflow in an Integration Services package that extracts, transforms, and loads data.
data flow engine	An engine that executes the data flow in a package.
data flow task	Encapsulates the data flow engine that moves data between sources and destinations, providing the facility to transform, clean, and modify data as it is moved.
data integrity	A state in which all the data values stored in the database are correct.
data manipulation language	The subset of SQL statements that is used to retrieve and manipulate data.
data mart	A subset of the contents of a data warehouse.
data member	A child member associated with a parent member in a parent-child hierarchy.
data mining	The process of analyzing data to identify patterns or relationships.
Data Mining Model Training	The process a data mining model uses to estimate model parameters by evaluating a set of known and predictable data.
data processing extension	A component in Reporting Services that is used to retrieve report data from an external data source.
data region	A report item that displays repeated rows of data from an underlying dataset in a table, matrix, list, or chart.
data scrubbing	Part of the process of building a data warehouse out of data coming from multiple online transaction processing (OLTP) systems.
data source	1. In ADO and OLE DB, the location of a source of data exposed by an OLE DB provider. 2. The source of data for an object such as a cube or dimension. It is also the specification of the information necessary to access source data. It sometimes refers to object of ClassType clsDataSource. 3. In Reporting Services, a specified data source type, connection string, and credentials, which can be saved separately to a report server and shared among report projects or embedded in a report definition (.rdl) file.
data source name	The name assigned to an ODBC data source.
data source view	A named selection of database objects that defines the schema referenced by OLAP and data mining objects in an Analysis Services databases.
data type	An attribute that specifies what type of information can be stored in a column, parameter, or variable.
data warehouse	A database specifically structured for query and analysis.
database	A collection of information, tables, and other objects organized and presented to serve a specific purpose, such as searching, sorting, and recombining data.
database backup	A backup of every data file in a database.
database catalog	The part of a database that contains the definition of all the objects in the database, as well as the definition of the database.
database diagram	A graphical representation of the objects in a database.
database file	One of the physical files that make up a database.
database language	The language used for accessing, querying, updating, and managing data in relational database systems.
database mirroring	The process of immediately reproducing every update to a read/write database (the principal database) onto a read-only mirror of that database (the mirror database) that resides on a separate instance of the Database Engine (the mirror server).
database mirroring partners	Two server instances that act as role-switching partners for a mirrored database.
database object	A database component in a database. Can also refer to the database itself.
database owner	The member of the database administrator role of a database.
database project	A collection of one or more data connections (a database and the information needed to access that database).
database role	A collection of users and groups with the same access to an Analysis Services database.
database schema	The names of tables, fields, data types, and primary and foreign keys of a database. Also known as the database structure.
database script	A collection of statements used to create database objects.
database snapshot	A read-only, static view of a database.
data-definition query	An SQL query that contains data definition language (DDL) statements.
data-driven subscription	A subscription in Reporting Services that uses a query to retrieve subscription data from an external data source at run time.
datareader	A stream of data that is returned by an ADO.NET query.
dataset	1. In OLE DB for OLAP, the set of multidimensional data that is the result of running a Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) SELECT statement. 2. In Reporting Services, a named specification that includes a data source definition, a query definition and optional parameter values, calculated fields, and filtering and collation information as part of a report definition (.rdl) file. An .rdl file can have multiple datasets.
DBCS	double-byte character set
dbo	See Other Term: database owner
DDL	See Other Term: data definition language
DDL trigger	A trigger that fires in response to data definition language (DDL) statements.
deadlock	A situation when two users, each having a lock on one piece of data, attempt to acquire a lock on the other's piece.
decision support	Systems designed to support the complex analytic analysis required to discover business trends.
decision tree	A treelike model of data produced by certain data mining methods.
default	1. A data value, option setting, collation, or name assigned automatically by the system if a user does not specify the value, setting, collation, or name. 2. An action taken automatically at certain events if a user has not specified the action to take.
default database	The database the user is connected to immediately after logging in to SQL Server.
default instance	The instance of SQL Server that uses the same name as the computer name on which it is installed.
default member	The dimension member used in a query when no member is specified for the dimension.
defection	The removal of a server from multiserver operations.
deferred transaction	A transaction that is not committed when the roll forward phase of recovery finishes, and that cannot be rolled back during database startup because the data required by rollback is offline
delimited identifier	An object in a database that requires the use of special characters (delimiters) because the object name does not comply with the formatting rules of regular identifiers.
delimiter	1. In Transact-SQL, characters that indicate the start and end of an object name, by using either double quotation marks ("") or brackets ([]). 2. In Integration Services and Reporting Services, characters that are used to separate records, fields, or strings.
delivery channel	A pipeline between a Distributor and a delivery service.
delivery channel type	The protocol for a delivery channel, such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) or File.
delivery extension	A component in Reporting Services that is used to distribute a report to specific devices or target locations.
delivery protocol	The set of communication rules used to route notification messages to external delivery systems.
denormalize	To introduce redundancy into a table to incorporate data from a related table.
density	1. In an index, the frequency of duplicate values. 2. In a data file, a percentage that indicates how full a data page is. 3. In Analysis Services, the percentage of cells that contain data in a multidimensional structure.
dependencies	Objects that depend on other objects in the same database.
derived column	A transformation that creates new column values by applying expressions to transformation input columns.
descendant	A member in a dimension hierarchy that is related to a member of a higher level within the same dimension.
destination	An Integration Services data flow component that writes the data from the data flow into a data source or creates an in-memory dataset.
destination adapter	A data flow component that loads data into a data store.
device name	A user-defined description of a particular device, used in conjunction with the Subscriber ID to identify a specific Subscriber device.
device type	A value from a developer-defined list that specifies the types of devices that a given application will support.
diacritic character	A character that is attached to or that overlays a preceding base character, such as a mark placed over, under, or through a Latin-based character to indicate a change in phonetic value compared to the unmarked state.
dialog	In Service Broker, a conversation that sends messages from one service to another service.
differential backup	A backup containing only changes made to the database since the preceding data backup on which the differential backup is based.
differential base	The most recent full backup of all the data in a database or in a subset of the files or filegroups of a database.
dimension	A structural attribute of a cube, which is an organized hierarchy of categories (levels) that describe data in the fact table.
dimension granularity	The lowest level available to a particular dimension in relation to a particular measure group
dimension table	A table in a data warehouse whose entries describe data in a fact table. Dimension tables contain the data from which dimensions are created.
direct connect	The state of being connected to a back-end database, so that any changes you make to a database diagram automatically update your database when you save the diagram or selected items in it.
direct response mode	The default mode in which SQL Server statistics are gathered separately from the SQL Server Statistics display.
dirty page	A buffer page that contains modifications that have not been written to disk.
dirty read	Reads that contain uncommitted data.
discretized column	A column that represents finite, counted data.
distribute	To move transactions or snapshots of data from the Publisher to Subscribers, where they are applied to the destination tables in the subscription databases.
distributed partitioned view	A view that joins horizontally partitioned data from a set of member tables that exist across more than one server. The data appears as if it is in one table.
distributed query	A single query that accesses data from multiple data sources.
distributed transaction	A transaction that spans multiple data sources.
distribution database	A database on the Distributor that stores metadata and history data for all types of replication and transactions for transactional replication.
distribution retention period	In transactional replication, the amount of time transactions are stored in the distribution database. Also referred to as the transaction retention period.
Distributor	A database instance that acts as a store for replication specific data associated with one or more Publishers.
DML	See Other Term: data manipulation language
DML trigger	A stored procedure that executes when data in a specified table is modified.
DMV	See Other Term: dynamic management view
document map	A navigation pane in a report arranged in a hierarchy of links to report sections and groups.
domain	1. In Windows security, a collection of computers grouped for viewing and administrative purposes that share a common security database. 2. In relational databases, the set of valid values allowed in a column.
domain integrity	The validity of entries for a specific column
double byte character set	A character encoding in which the code points can be either 1 or 2 bytes.
download-only article	An article in a merge publication that can be updated only at the Publisher or at a Subscriber that uses a server subscription.
drill down/drill up	To navigate through levels of data ranging from the most summarized (up) to the most detailed (down).
drill through	1. In Analysis Services, to retrieve the detailed data from which the data in a cube cell was summarized. 2. In Reporting Services, to open related reports by clicking hyperlinks in the main drillthrough report.
drilldown/drillup	A technique for navigating through levels of data ranging from the most summarized (up) to the most detailed (down).
drillthrough	1. In Analysis Services, a technique to retrieve the detailed data from which the data in a cube cell was summarized. 2. In Reporting Services, a way to open related reports by clicking hyperlinks in the main drillthrough report.
drillthrough report	A report with the 'enable drilldown' option selected. Drillthrough reports contain hyperlinks to related reports.
DSN	See Other Term: data source name
DSN-less connection	A type of data connection that is created based on information in a data source name (DSN), but is stored as part of a project or application.
dump device	See backup device.
dynamic connection string	In Reporting Services, an expression that you build into the report, allowing the user to select which data source to use at run time. You must build the expression and data source selection list into the report when you create it.
dynamic cursor	A cursor that can reflect data modifications made to the underlying data while the cursor is open.
dynamic filter	See Other Term: parameterized row filter
dynamic locking	The process used by SQL Server to determine the most cost-effective locks to use at any one time.
dynamic management view	A set of built-in views that return server state information about values, objects, and settings in SQL Server.
dynamic recovery	The process that detects and/or attempts to correct software failure or loss of data integrity within a relational database management system (RDBMS).
dynamic snapshot	See Other Term: partitioned snapshot
dynamic SQL statement	In Embedded SQL for C, an SQL statement built and executed at run time.
effective policy	The set of enabled policies for a target.
encryption	A method for keeping sensitive information confidential by changing data into an unreadable form.
entity	In Reporting Services, an entity is a logical collection of model items, including source fields, roles, folders, and expressions, presented in familiar business terms.
entity integrity	A state in which every row of every table can be uniquely identified.
enumeration	A fixed set of integer values or string constants that may be used to specify the value of certain properties.
equijoin	A join in which the values in the columns being joined are compared for equality, and all columns are included in the results.
error log	1. In SQL Server, a text file that records system information. 2. In Integration Services, a record of errors, warnings or events, which can be stored by multiple log providers, including SQL Server Profiler, the Windows Event log, and SQL Server.
error state number	A number associated with SQL Server messages that helps Microsoft support engineers find the specific code location that issued the message.
escape character	A character used to indicate that another character in an expression is meant literally and not as an operator.
ETL	Extraction, transformation, and loading. The complex process of copying and cleaning data from heterogeneous sources.
event	Any significant occurrence in the system or an application that requires users to be notified or an entry to be added to a log.
event chronicle	A table that stores event state information.
event chronicle rule	One or more Transact-SQL statements that manage the data in the event chronicle.
event class	1. A single class defined by one EventClass node in an application definition file. 2. In SQL Trace, a collection of properties that define an event.
event collection stored procedures	System-generated stored procedures that an application can call to submit events to the event table in the application database.
event handler	1. A software routine that executes in response to an event. 2. In Integration Services, a control flow that runs in response to a run-time event.
event notification	A special kind of trigger that sends information about database events to a service broker.
event provider	A component that collects event data from one or more event sources and submits the events to the event tables in the application database.
event schema	An SQL-annotated XML Schema definition language (XSD) schema that maps event data to an event schema defined in the application definition file. Used by the EventLoader class.
event source	The point of origin of an event.
event table	A table in the application database that stores event data.
exclusive lock	A lock that prevents any other transaction from acquiring a lock on a resource until the original lock on the resource is released at the end of the transaction.
executable	In Integration Services, a package, Foreach Loop, For Loop, Sequence, or task.
execution tree	The path of data in the data flow of a SQL Server 2005 Integration Services package from sources through transformations to destinations.
explicit transaction	A group of SQL statements enclosed within transaction delimiters that define both the start and end of the transaction.
expression	1. In SQL, a combination of symbols and operators that evaluate to a single data value. 2. In Integration Services, a combination of literals, constants, functions, and operators that evaluate to a single data value.
expression host assembly	All expressions found within a report are that are compiled into an assembly. The expression host assembly is stored as a part of the compiled report.
extended property	User-defined text (descriptive or instructional including input masks and formatting rules) specific to a database or database object. The text is stored in the database as a property of the database or object.
extended stored procedure	A function in a dynamic link library (DLL) that is coded using the SQL Server Extended Stored Procedure API. The function can then be invoked from Transact-SQL using the same statements that are used to execute Transact-SQL stored procedures.
Extensible Stylesheet Language	An XML vocabulary that is used to transform XML data to another form, such as HTML, by means of a style sheet that defines presentation rules.
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations	Evolved from the early Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) standard. XSL specifies a language definition for XML data presentation and data transformations. Data presentation means displaying data in some format and/or medium, and concerns style. Data transformation refers to parsing an input XML document into a tree of nodes, and then converting the source tree into a result tree. Transformation concerns data exchange.
extent	The unit of space allocated to a SQL Server object, such as a table or index, whenever the object needs more space.
external delivery system	A system, such as Microsoft Exchange Server, that delivers formatted notifications to destination devices.
fact	A row in a fact table in a data warehouse. A fact contains values that define a data event such as a sales transaction.
fact dimension	A relationship between a dimension and a measure group in which the dimension main table is the same as the measure group table.
fact table	A central table in a data warehouse schema that contains numerical measures and keys relating facts to dimension tables.
failed transaction	A transaction that encountered an error and was not able to complete.
failover clustering	A network of two or more interconnected servers that redirects an overloaded or failed resource to maintain system availability.
fail-safe operator	A user who receives the alert if the designated operator cannot be reached.
federated database servers	A set of linked servers that shares the processing load of data by hosting partitions of a distributed partitioned view.
fetch	An operation that retrieves a row or block of rows from a cursor.
fiber mode	A situation where an instance of SQL Server allocates one Windows thread per SQL scheduler, and then allocates one fiber per worker thread, up to the value set in the max worker threads option.
field	1. An area in a window or record that stores a single data value. 2. In Report Builder, a field is an attribute of the entity that is a named unit of data that can be added to a report layout template.
field length	In bulk copy, the maximum number of characters needed to represent a data item in a bulk copy character format data file.
field terminator	In bulk copy, one or more characters marking the end of a field or row, separating one field or row in the data file from the next.
File connection manager	In Integration Services, a logical representation of a connection that enables a package to reference an existing file or folder, or to create a file or folder at run time.
file differential backup	A backup of one or more files containing only changes made to each file since its most recent file backup.
file DSN	File Data Source Names. File-based data sources shared among all users with the same drivers installed. These data sources are not dedicated to a user or local to a computer.
file mapping	The association of a file's contents with a portion of the virtual address space of a process.
file restore	An operation that restores one or more files of a database.
file rollover	An option that causes SQL Server to close the current file and create a new file when the maximum file size is reached.
file storage type	Defines the storage format used in the data file that transfers data from a bulk copy out operation to a bulk copy in operation.
filegroup	In SQL Server, a named collection of one or more data files that forms a single unit of data allocation or for administration of a database.
file-mapping object	An object that maintains the association of a file's contents with a portion of the virtual address space of a process.
fill factor	An attribute of an index that defines how full the SQL Server Database Engine should make each page of the index.
filter	1. A set of criteria that controls the set of records returned as a result set. 2. In Full-Text Search, given a specified file extension, filters extract text from a file stored in a varbinary(max) or image column.
filter expression	An expression used for filtering data in the Filter operator.
filtering	1. To restrict data based upon criteria set in the WHERE clause of an SQL statement.
fine-grained lock	A lock that applies to a small amount of code or data.
fixed database role	A predefined role that exists in each database. The scope of the role is limited to the database in which it is defined.
fixed server role	A predefined role that exists at the server level. The scope of the role is limited to the SQL Server instance in which it is defined.
flat file	A file consisting of records of a single record type, in which there is no embedded structure information governing relationships between records.
flattened interface	An interface created to combine members of multiple interfaces.
flattened rowset	A multidimensional data set presented as a two-dimensional rowset in which unique combinations of elements of multiple dimensions are combined on an axis.
folder hierarchy	A bounded namespace that uniquely identifies all reports, folders, shared data source items, and resources that are stored in and managed by a report server.
For Loop container	In Integration Services, a container that runs a control flow repeatedly by testing a condition.
forced service	In a database mirroring session, a failover initiated by the database owner upon the failure of the principal server that transfers service to the mirror database while it is in an unknown state.
Foreach Loop container	In Integration Services, a container that runs a control flow repeatedly by using an enumerator.
foreign key	The column or combination of columns whose values match the primary key (PK) or unique key in the same or another table. Also referred to as the referencing key.
foreign table	A table that contains a foreign key.
format file	A file containing meta information (such as data type and column size) that is used to interpret data when being read from or written to a data file.
forward-only cursor	A cursor that cannot be scrolled; rows can be read only in sequence from the first row to the last row.
fragmentation	A difference between the physical and logical ordering of index data that can occur when data modifications are made.
full backup	A backup of an entire database.
full differential backup	A backup of all files in the database, containing only changes made to the database since the most recent full backup.
full outer join	A type of outer join in which all rows in all joined tables are included, whether they are matched or not.
full recovery model	A database recovery mode that fully logs all transactions and retains all the log records until after they are backed up.
full-text catalog	Stores all of the full-text indexes for tables within a database.
full-text index	The portion of a full-text catalog that stores all of the full-text words and their locations for a given table.
full-text query	As a SELECT statement, a query that searches for words, phrases, or multiple forms of a word or phrase in the character-based columns (of char, varchar, text, ntext, nchar, or nvarchar data types). The SELECT statement returns those rows meeting the search criteria.
Full-Text Search	A search for one or more documents, records, or strings based on all of the actual text data rather than on an index containing a limited set of keywords
full-text service	The SQL Server component that performs the full-text querying.
full-width character	Characters of East Asian character sets whose glyph image extends across the entire character display cell. In legacy character sets, full-width characters are normally encoded in two or three bytes.
function	A piece of code that operates as a single logical unit. A function is called by name, accepts optional input parameters, and returns a status and optional output parameters.
Fuzzy Grouping	In Integration Services, a data cleaning methodology that examines values in a dataset and identifies groups of related data rows and the one data row that is the canonical representation of the group.
GAC	See Other Term: global assembly cache
garbage collection	The process of transitively tracing through all pointers to actively used objects to locate all objects that can be referenced, and then arranging to reuse any heap memory that was not found during this trace.
garbage collector	1. In the Microsoft .NET Framework, manages the allocation and release of memory for a .NET application. 2. Part of the operating system that performs garbage collection.
GC	See Other Term: garbage collector
ghost record	Row in the leaf level of an index that has been marked for deletion, but has not yet been deleted by the database engine.
ghost row	See Other Term: ghost record
global assembly cache	A machine-wide code cache that stores assemblies specifically installed to be shared by many applications on the computer.
global default	A default that is defined for a specific database and is shared by columns of different tables.
global rule	A rule that is defined for a specific database and is shared by columns of different tables.
global subscription	See Other Term: server subscription
grant	To apply permissions to a user account, which allows the account to perform an activity or work with data.
granularity	The degree of specificity of information that is contained in a data element.
granularity attribute	The single attribute is used to specify the level of granularity for a given dimension in relation to a given measure group.
grid	A view type that displays data in a table.
grouping	A set of data that is grouped together in a report.
guest	A special user account that is present in all SQL Server databases and cannot be removed from any database.
half-width character	Characters whose glyph image occupies half of the character display cell.
hard-coding	To put string or character literals in the main body of code, instead of in external resource files.
heterogeneous	Consisting of dissimilar elements or parts (AHD)
heterogeneous data	Data stored in multiple formats.
hierarchy	A logical tree structure that organizes the members of a dimension such that each member has one parent member and zero or more child members.
high availability	Status of a resource that remains operational and usable by clients most of the time with a very low percentage of failures that interrupt service.
HoBT	Abbreviation for "heap or B-tree, used to indicate the table structure when the index configuration could be either type. HoBT is often used when describing locks.
holdout data	In Analysis Services, a percentage of training data that is reserved for use in measuring the accuracy of the structure of the data mining model.
homogeneous data	Data that comes from multiple data sources that are all managed by the same software.
hop	In data communications, one segment of the path between routers on a geographically dispersed network. The distance between each of those routers is a communications hop.
horizontal partitioning	To segment a single table into multiple tables based on selected rows.
hot standby server	A standby server that can support rapid failover without a loss of data from committed transactions.
HTML	See Other Term: Hypertext Markup Language
HTML Viewer	A UI component consisting of a report toolbar and other navigation elements used to work with a report.
hybrid OLAP	A storage mode that uses a combination of multidimensional data structures and relational database tables to store multidimensional data.
Hypertext Markup Language	A text markup language used to create documents for the Web. HTML defines the structure and layout of a web document by using a variety of tags and attributes
IAM	See Other Term: Index Allocation Map
identifier	The name of an object in a database.
identifying field	A field or group of fields that identify an entity as a unique object.
identity column	A column in a table that has been assigned the identity property.
identity property	A property that generates values that uniquely identify each row in a table.
ideograph	A column in a table that has been assigned the identity property.
ideographic character	A character in an Asian writing system that represents a concept or an idea, but not a particular word or pronunciation.
idle time	A SQL Server Agent condition that defines how much CPU usage by the SQL Server Database Engine constitutes an idle state.
IEC	One of two international standards bodies responsible for developing international data communications standards. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) works closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to define standards of computing. They jointly published the ISO/IEC SQL-92 standard for SQL.
Immediate Updating	An option available with snapshot replication and transactional replication that allows data modifications to be made to replicated data at the Subscriber. The data modifications are then immediately propagated to the Publisher using two-phase commit protocol (2PC).
immediate updating subscriptions	A subscription to a transactional publication for which the user is able to make data modifications at the Subscriber. The data modifications are then immediately propagated to the Publisher using the two-phase commit protocol (2PC).
implicit cursor conversion	The return of a different type of cursor than the user had declared.
implicit transaction	A connection option in which each SQL statement executed by the connection is considered a separate transaction.
implied permission	Permission to perform an activity specific to a role.
Included column index	A nonclustered index containing both key and nonkey columns.
incremental update	The set of operations that either adds new members to an existing cube or dimension, or adds new data to a partition.
index	In a relational database, a database object that provides fast access to data in the rows of a table, based on key values.
Index Allocation Map	A page that maps the extents in a 4-GB part of a database file that is used by an allocation unit.
index DDL operation	A nonclustered index containing both key and nonkey columns.
index ORing	To look up rows of a single table by using several indexes, followed by producing the result (by combining the partial results).
index page	A database page containing index rows.
indexed view	A view that has a unique clustered index applied on it to improve the performance of some types of queries.
inference attack	A type of security threat in which a malicious user is able to derive the value of data without actually accessing it, for example by monitoring the response time to a query.
information model	An object-oriented schema that defines metadata constructs used to specify the structure and behavior of an application, process, component, or software artifact.
initial snapshot	Files that include schema and data, constraints, extended properties, indexes, triggers, and system tables that are necessary for replication.
initial synchronization	The first synchronization for a subscription, during which system tables and other objects that are required by replication, and the schema and data for each article, are copied to the Subscriber.
initial tape	In a media set using tape backup devices, the first tape in a media family.
inner join	An operation that retrieves rows from multiple source tables by comparing the values from columns shared between the source tables. An inner join excludes rows from a source table that have no matching rows in the other source tables.
input member	A member whose value is loaded directly from the data source instead of being calculated from other data.
input set	The set of data provided to a Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) value expression upon which the expression operates.
input source	Any table, view, or schema diagram used as an information source for a query.
insensitive cursor	A cursor that does not reflect data modification made to the underlying data by other users while the cursor is open.
instance	A copy of SQL Server running on a computer.
integer	A data type category that includes the bigint, int, smallint, and tinyint data types.
integrity constraint	A property defined on a table that prevents data modifications that would create invalid data.
intent lock	A lock that is placed on one level of a resource hierarchy to protect shared or exclusive locks on lower-level resources.
interactive structured query language	An interactive command prompt utility provided with SQL Server that lets users run Transact-SQL statements or batches from a server or workstation and view the results that are returned.
interface	A defined set of properties, methods, and collections that form a logical grouping of behaviors and data.
interface implication	If an interface implies another interface, then any class that implements the first interface must also implement the second interface. Interface implication is used in an information model to get some of the effects of multiple inheritance.
internal identifier	A more compact form of an object identifier in a repository.
International Electrotechnical Commission	One of two international standards bodies responsible for developing international data communications standards. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) works closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to define standards of computing. They jointly published the ISO/IEC SQL-92 standard for SQL.
International Organization for Standardization	One of two international standards bodies responsible for developing international data communications standards. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) works closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to define standards of computing. They jointly published the ISO/IEC SQL-92 standard for SQL.
Internet Protocol security	Rules that computers follow to provide private and secure communication over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, through the use of cryptographic security services.
Internet-enabled	A publication setting that enables replication to Internet Subscribers.
interprocess communication	A mechanism through which operating system processes and threads exchange data and messages.
IPsec	See Other Term: Internet Protocol security
ISO	One of two international standards bodies responsible for developing international data communications standards. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) works closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to define standards of computing. They jointly published the ISO/IEC SQL-92 standard for SQL.
isolation level	The property of a transaction that controls the degree to which data is isolated for use by one process, and is guarded against interference from other processes. Setting the isolation level defines the default locking behavior for all SELECT statements in your SQL Server session.
item-level role assignment	A security policy that applies to an item in the report server folder namespace.
item-level role definition	a security template that defines a role used to control access to or interaction with an item in the report server folder namespace.
job	A specified series of operations, called steps, performed sequentially by SQL Server Agent.
join	To combine the contents of two or more tables and produce a result set that incorporates rows and columns from each table.
join column	A column referenced in a join condition.
join condition	A comparison clause that specifies how tables are related by their join columns.
join filter	A filter used in merge replication that extends the row filter of one table to a related table.
join operator	A comparison operator in a join condition that determines how the two sides of the condition are evaluated and which rows are returned.
join path	A series of joins indicating how two tables are related.
junction table	A table that establishes a relationship between other tables.
kernel	1. In SQL Server, a subset of the storage engine that is referenced in some error messages. 2. In Windows, the core of the operating system that performs basic operations.
key	A column or group of columns that uniquely identifies a row (primary key), defines the relationship between two tables (foreign key), or is used to build an index.
key attribute	The attribute of a dimension that links the non-key attributes in the dimension to related measures.
key column	1. In an Analysis Services dimension, an attribute property that uniquely identifies the attribute members. 2. In an Analysis Services mining model, a data mining column that uniquely identifies each case in a case table.
key performance indicator	A quantifiable, standardized metric that reflects a critical business variable (for instance, market share), measured over time.
key range lock	A lock that is used to lock ranges between records in a table to prevent phantom additions to, or deletions from, a set of records. Ensures serializable transactions.
keyset-driven cursor	A cursor that shows the effects of updates made to its member rows by other users while the cursor is open, but does not show the effects of inserts or deletes.
keyword	A reserved word in SQL Server that performs a specific function, such as to define, manipulate, or access database objects.
KPI	See Other Term: key performance indicator
latch	A short-timed lock of an object
latency	The amount of time that elapses when a data change is completed at one server and when that change appears at another server.
LCID	A number that identifies a Windows-based locale.
lead byte	The first byte of a 2-byte code point in a double-byte code page.
leaf	In a tree structure, an element that has no subordinate elements.
leaf level	The bottom level of a clustered or nonclustered index.
leaf member	A dimension member without descendants.
left outer join	A type of outer join in which all rows from the left-most table in the JOIN clause are included.
level	The name of a set of members in a dimension hierarchy such that all members of the set are at the same distance from the root of the hierarchy.
library	In Analysis Services, a folder that contains shared objects, such as shared dimensions, that can be used by multiple objects within a database.
lift chart	In Analysis Services, a chart that compares the accuracy of the predictions of each data mining model in the comparison set.
linguistic casing	Functionality provided by the Win32 API for Unicode simple case mapping of Turkic and other locales.
linked dimension	In Analysis Services, a reference in a cube to a dimension in a different cube.
linked measure group	In Analysis Services, a reference in a cube to a measure group in a different cube
linked report	A report that references an existing report definition by using a different set of parameter values or properties.
linked server	A definition of an OLE DB data source used by SQL Server distributed queries. The linked server definition specifies the OLE DB provider required to access the data, and includes enough addressing information for the OLE DB provider to connect to the data. Any rowsets exposed by the OLE DB data source can then be referenced as tables, called linked tables, in SQL Server distributed queries.
linked table	An OLE DB rowset exposed by an OLE DB data source that has been defined as a linked server for use in SQL Server distributed queries.
linking table	A table that has associations with two other tables, and is used indirectly as an association between those two tables.
list data region	A report item on a report layout that displays data in a list format.
local cube	A cube created and stored with the extension .cub on a local computer using PivotTable Service.
local Distributor	A server that is configured as both a Publisher and a Distributor for SQL Server Replication.
local group	A group in Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 containing user accounts and global groups from the domain group in which they are created and any trusted domain.
local login identification	The identification (ID) a user must use to log in to a local server.
local partitioned view	A view that joins horizontally partitioned data from a set of member tables across a single server, making the data appear as if from one table.
local server	1. In SQL Server connections, an instance of SQL Server running on the same computer as the application. 2. In a Transact-SQL statement, when resolving references to database objects, the instance of SQL Server executing the statement. 3. In SQL Server distributed queries, the instance of SQL Server executing the distributed query. The local server then accesses any linked servers referenced in the query.
local subscription	See Other Term: client subscription
local variable	A user-defined variable that has an assigned value.
locale	The Windows operating system attribute that defines certain behaviors related to language.
locale identifier	A number that identifies a Windows-based locale.
localization	A view that joins horizontally partitioned data from a set of member tables across a single server, making the data appear as if from one table.
lock	A restriction on access to a resource in a multiuser environment.
lock escalation	The process of converting many fine-grain locks into fewer coarse-grain locks.
log backup	A backup of transaction logs that includes all log records that were not backed up in previous log backups.
log chain	A continuous sequence of transaction logs for a database.
log file	A file or set of files that contain records of the modifications made in a database.
log provider	A provider that logs package information at run time.
Log Reader Agent	In Replication, the executable that monitors the transaction of each database configured for transactional replication, and copies the transactions marked for replication from the transaction into the distribution database.
log sequence number	A unique number assigned to each entry in a transaction log.
log shipping	The process of copying, at regular intervals, log backup from a read-write database (the primary database) to one or more remote server instances (secondary servers).
log shipping configuration	A configuration of servers that includes one primary server, one or more secondary servers (each with a secondary database), and a monitor server.
log shipping job	A job that performs one of the following log shipping operations: backing up the transaction log of the primary database at the primary server (the backup job), copying the transaction log file to a secondary server (the copy job), or restoring the log backup to the secondary database on a secondary server (the restore job). The backup job resides on the primary server. The copy and restore jobs reside on each of the secondary servers.
logical name	A name used by SQL Server to identify a file.
logical operators	The operators AND, OR, and NOT. Used to connect search conditions in WHERE clauses.
logical record	A merge replication feature that allows you to define a relationship between related rows in different tables so that the rows are processed as a unit.
login security mode	A security mode that determines the manner in which an instance of SQL Server validates a login request.
lookup table	In Integration Services, a reference table for comparing, matching, or extracting data.
LSN	A unique number assigned to each entry in a transaction log.
machine DSN	Stores connection information for a database in the system registry.
managed code	1. Code that runs within the common language runtime (CLR). Also referred to as safe code.
manual failover	In a database mirroring session, a failover initiated by the database owner, while the principal server is still running, that transfers service from the principal database to the mirror database while they are in a synchronized state.
many-to-many dimension	A relationship between a dimension and a measure group in which a single fact may be associated with many dimension members and a single dimension member may be associated with a many facts.
many-to-many relationship	A relationship between two tables in which rows in each table have multiple matching rows in the related table.
many-to-one relationship	A relationship between two tables in which one row in one table can relate to many rows in another table.
master database	The system database that records all the system-level information for an instance of SQL Server.
master file	The file installed with earlier versions of SQL Server used to store the master, model, and tempdb system databases and transaction logs and the pubs sample database and transaction log.
master server	A server that distributes jobs and receives events from multiple servers.
matrix data region	A report item on a report layout that displays data in a variable columnar format.
MBCS	A mixed-width character set, in which some characters consist of more than 1 byte. An MBCS is used in languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, where the 256 possible values of a single-byte character set are not sufficient to represent all possible characters.
MDAC	See Other Term: Microsoft Data Access Components
MDX	See Other Term: Multidimensional Expressions (MDX)
measure	In a cube, a set of values that are usually numeric and are based on a column in the fact table of the cube. Measures are the central values that are aggregated and analyzed.
measure group	All the measures in a cube that derive from a single fact table in a data source view.
media header	A label that provides information about the backup media.
media set	An ordered collection of backup media written to by one or more backup operations using a constant number of backup devices.
member	An item in a dimension representing one or more occurrences of data.
member delegation	A modeling concept that describes how interface members are mapped from one interface to another.
member property	Information about an attribute member, for example the gender of a customer member or the color of a product member.
memo	A type of column that contains long strings, typically more than 255 characters.
merge replication	A type of replication that allows sites to make autonomous changes to replicated data, and at a later time, merge changes and resolve conflicts when necessary.
Message Queuing	An asynchronous messaging framework distributed with Windows Server.
message type	Specifies the name of the message and the type of validation Service Broker performs on incoming messages of that type.
metadata	Information about the properties of data, such as the type of data in a column (numeric, text, and so on) or the length of a column. It can also be information about the structure of data or information that specifies the design of objects such as cubes or dimensions.
method	A function that performs an action by using a COM object, as in SQL-DMO, OLE DB, and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO).
Microsoft Data Access Components	Consists of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), the Remote Data Service (RDS), Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), ODBC drivers for Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access and other desktop databases, as well as Oracle databases.
Mining Model	An object that contains the definition of a data mining process and the results of the training activity.
mining structure	A data mining object that defines the data domain from which the mining models are built.
mirror database	In a database mirroring session, the copy of the database that is typically fully synchronized with the principal database.
mirror server	In a database mirroring configuration, the server instance on which the mirror database resides.
mirrored media set	A media set that contains two to four identical copies (mirrors) of each media family.
mirroring	The process that helps protect against the loss of data caused by disk failure by maintaining a fully redundant copy of data on a separate disk.
Mixed Mode	See Other Term: login security mode
model database	A database installed with SQL Server that provides the template for new user databases.
model dependency	A relationship between two or more models in which one model is dependent on the information of another model.
module	A group of objects in a project. You can move objects between modules in a project, thus organizing those objects for a dispersed development environment.
modulo	An arithmetic operator that provides the integer remainder after a division involving two integers.
monitor server	In a log shipping configuration, a server instance on which every log shipping job in the configuration records its history and status.
multibase differential	A differential backup that includes files that were last backed up in distinct base backups.
multibyte character set	A character encoding in which the code points can be 1, 2, or more bytes.
multicast delivery	A method for delivering notifications that formats a notification once and sends the resulting message to multiple subscribers.
Multidimensional Expressions (MDX)	A syntax used for defining multidimensional objects and querying and manipulating multidimensional data.
multidimensional OLAP	A storage mode that uses a proprietary multidimensional structure to store a partition's facts and aggregations or a dimension.
multidimensional structure	A database paradigm that treats data as cubes that contain dimensions and measures in cells.
multiple inheritance	A modeling term that describes how an interface receives the characteristics of more than one parent interface.
multiple instances	Multiple copies of SQL Server running on the same computer.
multiserver administration	The process of automating administration across multiple instances of SQL Server.
multithreaded server application	An application that creates multiple threads within a single process to service multiple user requests at the same time.
multiuser	The ability of a computer to support many users operating at the same time, while providing the computer system's full range of capabilities to each user.
named instance	An installation of SQL Server that is given a name to differentiate it from other named instances and from the default instance on the same computer.
named pipe	An interprocess communication (IPC) mechanism that SQL Server uses to provide communication between clients and servers.
named set	A set of dimension members or a set expression that is created for reuse, for example, in Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) queries.
naming relationship	A naming convention that identifies the destination objects of that relationship by name.
native format	Bulk copy data files in which the data is stored using the same internal data structures SQL Server uses to store data in SQL Server databases.
natural hierarchy	A hierarchy in which at every level there is a one-to-many relationship between members in that level and members in the next lower level.
nested query	A SELECT statement that contains one or more subqueries, or another term for subquery.
nested table	A data mining model configuration in which a column of a table contains a table.
Net-Library	A SQL Server communications component that isolates the SQL Server client software and the Database Engine from the network APIs.
nickname	When used with merge replication system tables, a name for another Subscriber that is known to already have a specified generation of updated data.
niladic functions	Functions that do not have any input parameters.
noise word	A word that does not participate in a full-text query search, such as "a", "and", and "the".
nonclustered index	An index in which the logical order of the index key values is different than the physical order of the corresponding rows in a table.
Nonkey index column	A column in a nonclustered index that does not participate as a key column. Instead, the column is stored in the leaf-level of the index and is used in conjunction with the key columns to cover one or more queries.
nonleaf	In a tree structure, an element that has one or more subordinate elements. In Analysis Services, a dimension member that has one or more descendants. In SQL Server indexes, an intermediate index node that points to other intermediate nodes or leaf nodes.
nonleaf member	A member with one or more descendants.
nonnullable parameter	A parameter which cannot take a NULL value.
nonrepeatable read	An inconsistency that occurs when a transaction reads the same row more than once, and a separate transaction modifies that row between reads.
Non-scalable EM	A Microsoft Clustering algorithm method that uses a probabilistic method to determine the probability that a data point exists in a cluster.
Non-scalable K-means	A Microsoft Clustering algorithm method that uses a distance measure to assign a data point to its closest cluster.
non-uniform memory access	A multiprocessor architecture that divides a system into nodes.
normalization rules	A set of database design rules that minimizes data redundancy and results in a database in which the Database Engine and application software can easily enforce integrity.
NULL	An entry that has no explicitly assigned value.
null key	A null value that is encountered in a key column.
nullability	The attribute of a column, parameter, or variable that specifies whether it allows null data values.
nullable property	A property which controls if a field can have a NULL value.
NUMA	See Other Term: non-uniform memory access
numeric expression	Any expression that evaluates to a number.
object	In databases, one of the components of a database.
object dependencies	References to other objects when the behavior of the first object can be affected by changes in the object it references.
object identifier	1. A unique name given to an object. 2. In Metadata Services, a unique identifier constructed from a globally unique identifier (GUID) and an internal identifier.
object variable	A variable that contains a reference to an object.
ODBC data source	1. The location of a set of data that can be accessed using an ODBC driver. 2. A stored definition that contains all of the connection information an ODBC application requires to connect to the data source.
ODBC driver	A dynamic-link library (DLL) that an ODBC-enabled application, such as Excel, can use to access an ODBC data source.
OLAP	See Other Term: online analytical processing
OLE Automation controller	A programming environment that can drive Automation objects.
OLE Automation objects	A Component Object Model (COM) object that provides Automation-compatible interfaces.
OLE Automation server	An application that exposes programmable automation objects to other applications, which are referred to as automation clients.
OLE DB	A COM-based API for accessing data. OLE DB supports accessing data stored in any format for which an OLE DB provider is available.
OLE DB for OLAP	Formerly, the separate specification that addressed OLAP extensions to OLE DB. Beginning with OLE DB 2.0, OLAP extensions are incorporated into the OLE DB specification.
one-to-many relationship	In relational databases, a relationship between two tables in which a single row in the first table can be related to one or more rows in the second table, but a row in the second table can be related only to one row in the first table.
one-to-one relationship	In relational database, a relationship between two tables in which a single row in the first table can be related only to one row in the second table, and a row in the second table can be related only to one row in the first table.
online analytical processing	A technology that uses multidimensional structures to provide rapid access to data for analysis.
online restore	A restore in which one or more secondary filegroups, files belonging to secondary filegroups, or pages are restored while the database remains online.
online transaction processing	A data processing system designed to record all of the business transactions of an organization as they occur. An OLTP system is characterized by many concurrent users actively adding and modifying data.
Open Data Services	The layer of the SQL Server Database Engine that transfers client requests to the appropriate functions in the Database Engine.
Open Database Connectivity	A data access API that supports access to any data source for which an ODBC driver is available.
operator	A sign or symbol that specifies the type of calculation to perform within an expression. There are mathematical, comparison, logical, and reference operators.
optimized bitmap filter	A bitmap filter that is applied dynamically during query optimization.
ordered set	A set of members returned in a specific order.
origin object	An object in a repository that is the origin in a directional relationship.
outer join	A join that includes all the rows from the joined tables that have met the search conditions, even rows from one table for which there is no matching row in the other join table.
overfitting	The characteristic of some data mining algorithms that assigns importance to random variations in data by viewing them as important patterns.
ownership chain	A situation where permissions that are set on one object enable managing access to multiple objects.
package	A collection of control flow and data flow elements that runs as a unit.
packet	A bundle of data that is organized in a group for transmission.
padding	1. A string, typically added when the last plaintext block is short. 2. The space allotted in a cell to create or maintain a specific size.
page	In a virtual storage system, a fixed-length block of contiguous virtual addresses copied as a unit from memory to disk and back during paging operations.
page restore	An operation that restores one or more data pages, and is used to repair isolated damaged pages.
page split	The process of moving half the rows or entries in a full data or index page to a new page to make room for a new row or index entry.
PAL	See Other Term: publication access list
parameterization	In Transact-SQL queries, the act of using parameters or parameter markers instead of constant values.
parameterized report	A published report that accepts input values through parameters.
parameterized row filter	A row filter available with merge replication that allows you to restrict the data replicated to a Subscriber based on a system function or user-defined function.
parent	A member in the next higher level in a hierarchy that is directly related to the current member.
partial backup	A backup of all the data in the primary filegroup, every read/write filegroup, and any optionally specified read-only files.
partial database restore	A restore of only a part of a database that consists of its primary filegroup and possibly one or more secondary filegroups.
partial differential backup	A partial backup that is differential relative to a single, previous partial backup (the base backup).
particle	A very small piece or part; an indivisible object.
partition	1. In replication, a subset of rows from a published table, created with a static row filter or a parameterized row filter. 2. In Analysis Services, one of the storage containers for data and aggregations of a cube. Every cube contains one or more partitions. For a cube with multiple partitions, each partition can be stored separately in a different physical location. Each partition can be based on a different data source. Partitions are not visible to users; the cube appears to be a single object. 3. In the Database Engine, a unit of a partitioned table or index.
partition function	A function that defines how the rows of a partitioned table or index are spread across a set of partitions based on the values of certain columns, called partitioning columns.
partition scheme	A database object that maps the partitions of a partition function to a set of filegroups.
partitioned index	An index built on a partition scheme, and whose data is horizontally divided into units which may be spread across more than one filegroup in a database.
partitioned snapshot	In merge replication, a snapshot that includes only the data from a single partition.
partitioned table	A table built on a partition scheme, and whose data is horizontally divided into units which may be spread across more than one filegroup in a database.
partitioning	The process of replacing a table with multiple smaller tables.
partitioning column	The column of a table or index that a partition function uses to partition a table or index.
partner	In database mirroring, refers to the principal server or the mirror server.
pass order	The order of evaluation (from highest to lowest calculation pass number) and calculation (from lowest to highest calculation pass number) for calculated members, custom members, custom rollup formulas, and calculated cells in a multidimensional cube.
pass-through query	A query passed uninterpreted to an external server for evaluation.
pass-through statement	A SELECT statement that is passed directly to the source database without modification or delay.
password policy	A collection of policy settings that define the password requirements for a Group Policy object (GPO).
path	A data flow element that connects the output of one data flow component to the input of another data flow component.
peer database	The database at the peer that will serve as both a publication database and subscription database.
peer-to-peer replication	A type of transactional replication. The relationships between nodes in a peer-to-peer replication topology are peer relationships rather than hierarchical ones, with each node containing identical schema and data.
permission	A rule associated with an object to regulate which users can gain access to the object and in what manner.
persisted computed column	A computed column of a table that is physically stored, and whose values are updated when any other columns that are part of its computation change.
persistence	The saving of an object definition so it will be available after the current session ends.
perspective	A user-defined subset of a cube.
phantom	The insertion of a new row or the deletion of an existing row in a range of rows that were previously read by another task, where that task has not yet committed its transaction.
physical design structure	The overall structure of a database, including all components of the database.
physical name	The path where a file or mirrored file is located.
physical reads	Requests for database pages that cause SQL Server to transfer the requested pages from disk to the SQL Server buffer pool.
piecemeal restore	A composite restore process in which a database is restored in stages, where each stage corresponds to a restore sequence.
pivot	1. To rotate rows to columns, and columns to rows, in a crosstabular data browser. 2. To choose dimensions from the set of available dimensions in a multidimensional data structure for display in the rows and columns of a crosstabular structure.
pivot currency	The currency against which exchange rates are entered in the rate measure group.
plaintext	Data in its unencrypted or decrypted form.
plan forcing	The act of using the USE PLAN query hint to force the SQL Server query optimizer to use a specified query plan for a query.
plan guide	A SQL Server module that attaches query hints to queries in deployed applications, without directly modifying the query.
point-in-time recovery	The process of recovering only the transactions within a log backup that were committed before a specific point in time, instead of recovering the whole backup.
polling query	A polling query is typically a singleton query that returns a value Analysis Services can use to determine if changes have been made to a table or other relational object.
population	In full-text search, the process of creating and maintaining a full-text index.
position	The current location of processing in a cursor.
positioned update	An update, insert, or delete operation performed on a row at the current position of the cursor.
precedence constraint	A control flow element that connects tasks and containers into a sequenced workflow.
precision	The maximum total number of decimal digits that can be stored, both to the left and right of the decimal point.
precomputed partition	A performance optimization that can be used with filtered merge publications.
predictable column	A data mining column that the algorithm will build a model around based on values of the input columns.
prediction	A data mining technique that analyzes existing data and uses the results to predict values of attributes for new records or missing attributes in existing records.
prefix characters	A set of 1 to 4 bytes that prefix each data field in a native-format bulk-copy data file.
prefix length	The number of prefix characters preceding each noncharacter field in a bcp native format data file.
prefix search	Full-text query searching for those columns where the specified character-based text, word, or phrase, is the prefix.
primary database	In a log shipping, a read-write database whose transaction log is backed up at regular intervals for restoring onto one or more secondary databases.
primary dimension table	In a snowflake schema in a data warehouse, a dimension table that is directly related to and usually joined to the fact table.
primary key	A column or set of columns that uniquely identify all the rows in a table.
primary server	In a log shipping configuration, the server instance where the primary database resides.
primary table	The "one" side of two related tables in a one-to-many relationship.
principal	An entity (such as a login, user, group, or role) that can be granted access to a securable resource.
principal database	In a log shipping configuration, the server instance where the primary database resides.
principal server	In database mirroring, the partner whose database is currently the principal database.
proactive caching	A system that manages data obsolescence in a cube by which objects in MOLAP storage are automatically updated and processed in cache while queries are redirected to ROLAP storage.
procedure cache	The part of the SQL Server memory pool that is used to store execution plans for Transact-SQL batches, stored procedures, and triggers.
process	1. In a cube, to populate a cube with data and aggregations. 2. In a data mining model, to populate a data mining model with data mining content.
producer	Collects events in a specific event category and sends the data to a SQL Server Profiler queue.
profit chart	In Analysis Services, a chart that displays the theoretical increase in profit that is associated with using each model.
properties page	A dialog box that displays information about an object in the interface.
property	A named attribute of a control, field, or database object that you set to define one of the object's characteristics, such as size, color, or screen location; or an aspect of its behavior, such as whether it is hidden.
property mapping	A mapping between a variable and a property of a package element.
property page	A tabbed dialog box where you can identify the characteristics of tables, relationships, indexes, constraints, and keys.
protection level	In Integration Services, determines the protection method, the password or user key, and the scope of package protection.
protocol	A standard set of formats and procedures that enable computers to exchange information.
provider	1. An OLE DB provider. 2. An in-process dynamic link library (DLL) that provides access to a database.
provision	To install, to supply, to grant, or to provide.
proximity search	Full-text query searching for those occurrences where the specified words are close to one another.
proxy account	An account that is used to provide additional permissions for certain actions to users which do not have these permissions but have to execute these actions.
publication	A collection of one or more articles from one database.
publication access list	The primary mechanism for securing the Publisher. It contains a list of logins, accounts, and groups that are granted access to the publication.
publication database	A database on the Publisher from which data and database objects are marked for replication and propagated to Subscribers.
publication retention period	In merge replication, the amount of time a subscription can remain unsynchronized.
published data	Data at the Publisher that has been replicated.
Publisher	A server that makes data available for replication to other servers, detects changed data and maintains information about all publications at the site.
publishing server	A server running an instance of Analysis Services that stores the source cube for one or more linked cubes.
publishing table	The table at the Publisher in which data has been marked for replication and is part of a publication.
pull subscription	A subscription created and administered at the Subscriber. The Distribution Agent or Merge Agent for the subscription runs at the Subscriber.
pure log backup	A backup containing only the transaction log covering an interval without any bulk changes.
push subscription	A subscription created and administered at the Publisher.
query governor	A configuration option that can be used to prevent system resources from being consumed by long-running queries.
query optimizer	The SQL Server Database Engine component responsible for generating efficient execution plans for SQL statements.
question template	A structure that describes a set of questions that can be asked using a particular relationship or set of relationships.
queue	A SQL Server Profiler queue that provides a temporary holding location for server events to be captured.
quorum	In a database mirroring session for which a witness server instance is set, a relationship established only when at least two of the server instances in the session are connected to each other. Quorum is required to make the database available.
ragged hierarchy	See Other Term: unbalanced hierarchy
range partitioning	A way of partitioning a table or index by specifying partitions to hold rows with ranges of values from a single partitioning column.
range query	A query that specifies a range of values as part of the search criteria, such as all rows from 10 through 100.
rank	For full-text and SQL Server Books Online searches, a value indicating how closely rows or topics match the specified search criteria. For Metadata Services and Analysis Services, a value indicating the relative positions of elements such as dimension members, hierarchy levels, or tuples in a set.
ranking function	A function that returns ranking information about each row in the window (partition) of a result set depending on the row's position within the window.
raw file	In Integration Services, a native format for fast reading and writing of data to files.
RDA	A service that provides a simple way for a smart device application to access (pull) and send (push) data to and from a remote SQL Server database table and a local SQL Server Mobile Edition database table.
RDBMS	See Other Term: relational database management system
RDL	See Other Term: Report Definition Language
record	A group of related fields (columns) of information treated as a unit. A record is more commonly called a row in a relational database.
recordset	The ActiveX Database Objects (ADO) object that is used to contain a result set. It also exhibits cursor behavior depending on the recordset properties set by an application.
recover	To put back into a stable condition.
recovery	A phase of database startup that brings the database into a transaction-consistent state.
recovery branch	A range of LSNs that share the same recovery branch GUID.
recovery fork point	The point (LSN,GUID) at which a new recovery branch is started, every time a RESTORE WITH RECOVERY is performed.
recovery interval	The maximum amount of time that the Database Engine should require to recover a database.
recovery model	A database property that controls the basic behavior of backup and restore operations for a database.
recovery path	The sequence of data and log backups that have brought a database to a particular point in time (known as a recovery point).
recovery point	The point in the log chain at which rolling forward stops during a recovery.
rectangle	A report item that can be used as a container for multiple report items or as a graphical element on a report.
recursive hierarchy	A hierarchy of data in which all parent-child relationships are represented in the data.
redo phase	The phase during recovery that applies (rolls forward) logged changes to a database to bring the data forward in time.
reference dimension	A relationship between a dimension and a measure group in which the dimension is coupled to the measure group through another dimension. This behaves like a snowflake dimension, except that attributes are not shared between the two dimensions.
reference table	The source table to use in fuzzy lookups.
referenced key	A primary key or unique key referenced by a foreign key.
referential integrity	A state in which all foreign key values in a database are valid. For a foreign key to be valid, it must contain either the value NULL, or an existing key value from the primary or unique key columns referenced by the foreign key.
reflexive relationship	A relationship from a column or combination of columns in a table to other columns in that same table.
refresh data	The series of operations that clears data from a cube, loads the cube with new data from the data warehouse, and calculates aggregations.
region	A collection of 128 leaf level pages in logical order in a single file. Used to identify areas of a file that are fragmented.
relational database	A database or database management system that stores information in tables as rows and columns of data, and conducts searches by using the data in specified columns of one table to find additional data in another table.
relational database management system	A system that organizes data into related rows and columns.
relational OLAP	A storage mode that uses tables in a relational database to store multidimensional structures.
relationship	1. A link between tables that references the primary key in one table to a foreign key in another table. The relationship line is represented in a database diagram by a solid line if referential integrity between the tables is enforced, or a dashed line if referential integrity is not enforced for INSERT and UPDATE transactions. The endpoints of a relationship line show a primary key symbol to denote a primary key-to-foreign key relationship, or they show an infinity symbol to denote the foreign key side of a one-to-many relationship. 2. In Metadata Services, a relationship is an association between a pair of objects, where one object is an origin and the other object is a destination. The association repeats for each subsequent pair of objects, so that the destination of one relationship becomes the origin in the next relationship. In this way, all objects in an information model are associated through a chain of relationships that extend from one object to the next throughout the information model.
relationship object	An object representing a pair of objects that assume a role in relation to each other.
relationship type	A definition of a relationship between two interfaces, as defined in an information model.
relative date	A range of dates that is specified by using comparison operators and return data for a range of dates.
remote data	Data stored in an OLE DB data source that is separate from the current instance of SQL Server.
remote data access	A service that provides a simple way for a smart device application to access (pull) and send (push) data to and from a remote SQL Server database table and a local SQL Server Mobile Edition database table.
remote Distributor	A server configured as a Distributor that is separate from the server configured as the Publisher.
remote login identification	The login identification assigned to a user for accessing remote procedures on a remote server.
remote partition	A partition whose data is stored on a server running an instance of Analysis Services, other than the one used to store the metadata of the partition.
remote service binding	A Service Broker object that specifies the local security credentials for a remote service.
remote stored procedure	A stored procedure located on one instance of SQL Server that is executed by a statement on another instance of SQL Server.
remote table	A table stored in an OLE DB data source that is separate from the current instance of SQL Server.
rendered report	A fully processed report that contains both data and layout information, in a format suitable for viewing.
rendering extension	A component in Reporting Services that is used to process the output format of a report.
rendering extension(s)	A plug-in that renders reports to a specific format.
rendering object model	Report object model used by rendering extensions.
replay	In SQL Server Profiler, the ability to open a saved trace and play it again.
replicated data	Data at the Subscriber that has been received from a Publisher.
replication	The process of copying updated data from a data store or file system on a source computer to a matching data store or file system on one or more destination computers to synchronize the data.
replication topology	Defines the relationship between servers and copies of data and clarifies the logic that determines how data flows between servers.
report definition	The blueprint for a report before the report is processed or rendered. A report definition contains information about the query and layout for the report.
Report Definition Language	A set of instructions that describe layout and query information for a report.
report execution snapshot	A report snapshot that is cached.
report history	A collection of report snapshots that are created and saved over time.
report history snapshot	A report snapshot that appears in report history.
report intermediate format	A static report history that contains data captured at a specific point in time.
report item	Any object, such as a text box, graphical element, or data region, that exists on a report layout.
report layout	1. In Report Designer, the placement of fields, text, and graphics within a report. 2. In Report Builder, the placement of fields and entities within a report, plus applied formatting styles.
report layout template	A pre-designed table, matrix, or chart report template in Report Builder.
report link	A URL to a hyperlinked report.
report model	A metadata description of business data used for creating ad hoc reports in Report Builder.
report processing extension	A component in Reporting Services that is used to extend the report processing logic.
report rendering	The action of combining the report layout with the data from the data source for the purpose of viewing the report.
report server	A location on the network where Report Builder is launched from and a report is saved, managed, and published.
report server administrator	A user with elevated privileges who can access all settings and content of a report server.
report server database	A database that provides internal storage for a report server.
report server execution account	The account under which the Report Server Web service and Report Server Windows service run.
report server folder namespace	A hierarchy that contains predefined and user-defined folders. The namespace uniquely identifies reports and other items that are stored in a report server. It provides an addressing scheme for specifying reports in a URL.
Report Server service	A Windows service that contains all the processing and management capabilities of a report server.
Report Server Web service	A Web service that hosts, processes, and delivers reports.
report snapshot	A static report that contains data captured at a specific point in time.
report-specific schedule	Schedule defined inline with a report.
ReportViewer controls	A Web server control and Windows Form control that provides embedded report processing in ASP.NET and Windows Forms applications.
repository	A database containing information models that, in conjunction with the executable software, manage the database.
repository engine	Object-oriented software that provides management support for and customer access to a repository database.
repository object	A COM object that represents a data construct stored in a repository type library.
Repository SQL schema	A set of standard tables used by the repository engine to manage all repository objects, relationships, and collections.
Repository Type Information Model	A core object model that represents repository type definitions for Metadata Services.
republish	When a Subscriber publishes to another Subscriber data that it has received from a Publisher.
republisher	A Subscriber that publishes data that it has received from a Publisher.
resolution strategy	A set of criteria that the repository engine evaluates sequentially when selecting an object, where multiple versions exist and version information is unspecified in the calling program.
resource	Any item in a report server database that is not a report, folder, or shared data source item.
restore	A multi-phase process that copies all the data and log pages from a specified backup to a specified database, and then rolls forward all the transactions that are logged in the backup.
restore sequence	A sequence of one or more restore commands that, typically, initializes the contents of the database, files, or pages that are being restored (the data-copy phase); rolls forward logged transactions (the redo phase); and rolls back uncommitted transactions (the undo phase).
result set	The set of rows returned from a SELECT statement.
reusable bookmark	A bookmark that can be consumed from a rowset for a given table and used on a different rowset of the same table to position on a corresponding row.
revoke	To remove a previously granted or denied permission from a user account, role, or group in the current database.
RID	See Other Term: row identifier
right outer join	A type of outer join in which all rows in the table on the right in the JOIN clause are included.
role	1. A SQL Server security account that is a collection of other security accounts that can be treated as a single unit when managing permissions. A role can contain SQL Server logins, other roles, and Windows logins or groups. 2. In Analysis Services, a role uses Windows security accounts to limit scope of access and permissions when users access databases, cubes, dimensions, and data mining models. 3. In a database mirroring session, the principal server and mirror server perform complementary principal and mirror roles. Optionally, the role of witness is performed by a third server instance.
role assignment	1. Definition of user access rights to an item. 2. In Reporting Services, a security policy that determines whether a user or group can access a specific item and perform an operation.
role definition	1. A collection of tasks performed by a user (i.e., browser, administrator). 2. In Reporting Services, a named collection of tasks that defines the operations a user can perform on a report server.
role switching	In a database mirroring session, the taking over of the principal role by the mirror.
role-playing dimension	A single database dimension joined to the fact table on a different foreign keys to produce multiple cube dimensions.
roll back	To reverse changes.
roll forward	To apply logged changes to the data in a roll forward set to bring the data forward in time.
roll forward set	The set of all data that is restored by a restore sequence.
rollover file	The file rollover option causes SQL Server to close the current file and create a new file when the maximum file size is reached.
route	A Service Broker object that specifies the network address for a remote service.
row	In an SQL table, a single occurrence of the object modeled by the table.
row aggregate function	A function that generates summary values, which appear as additional rows in the query results.
row filter	In replication, a filter that allows you to restrict the data replicated to a Subscriber based on a WHERE clause.
row identifier	1. A column or set of columns used to distinguish any single row from every other row in the table. 2. In a heap, a pointer to the row.
row lock	A lock on a single row in a table.
row versioning	1. With cursors, the process in which the timestamp column of a row is used to determine whether data has been modified after being read into a cursor. If the data row does not have a timestamp column, row versioning is not used. 2. With transaction isolation, when a row versioning-based isolation level is enabled, the process in which the Database Engine maintains versions of data rows affected by data manipulation language (DML) execution. By choosing the appropriate isolation level, applications use row versions to query and retrieve a transactionally consistent snapshot of the data as it existed at the start of the transaction or query without acquiring locks on the data.
row-overflow data	Data of type varchar, nvarchar, varbinary, or sql_variant that is stored off the main data page of a table or index because the combined widths of these columns exceeds the limit of 8,060 bytes per row.
rowset	A set of rows in which each row has columns of data.
RTIM	A core object model that represents repository type definitions for Metadata Services.
rule	1. A database object that is bound to columns or alias data types, and specifies which data values are acceptable in a column. CHECK constraints provide the same functionality and are preferred because they are in the SQL-92 standard. 2. In Analysis Services, a rule specifies restrictions such as Unrestricted, Fully Restricted, or Custom for security read and read/write role permissions.
rule firing	The process of executing one of the application rules (event chronicle rules, subscription event rules, and subscription scheduled rules) defined in the application definition file.
rules	Indicates what values are valid to be stored in a table. This is referred to as domain integrity.
safe code	Code that runs within the common language runtime (CLR). Also referred to as managed code.
savepoint	A marker that allows an application to roll back part of a transaction if a minor error is encountered.
SBCS	A character encoding in which each character is represented by 1 byte.
scalar	A single-value field, as opposed to an aggregate.
scalar aggregate	An aggregate function, such as MIN(), MAX(), or AVG(), that is specified in a SELECT statement column list that contains only aggregate functions.
scale bar	The line on a linear gauge on which tick marks are drawn -- analogous to an axis on a chart.
scheduled backup	An automatic backup performed by SQL Server Agent when defined and scheduled as a job.
schema	In the SQL-92 standard, a collection of database objects that are owned by a single user and form a single namespace. A namespace is a set of objects that cannot have duplicate names.
schema rowset	A specially defined rowset that returns metadata about objects or functionality on an instance of SQL Server or Analysis Services.
schema snapshot	A snapshot that includes schema for published tables and objects required by replication (triggers, metadata tables, and so on), but not user data.
scope	An extent to which a variable can be referenced in a DTS package.
script	A collection of Transact-SQL statements used to perform an operation.
scroll	The ability to move around a cursor in directions other than forward-only.
search condition	In a WHERE or HAVING clause, predicates that specify the conditions that the source rows must meet to be included in the SQL statement.
secondary database	In log shipping, a read-only database that was created by restoring a full backup of the primary database (without recovery) on a separate server instance (the secondary server).
secondary server	In a log shipping configuration, the server instance where the secondary database resides.
securable	Entities that can be secured with permissions.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)	A proposed open standard for establishing a secure communications channel to prevent the interception of critical information, such as credit card numbers. Primarily, it enables secure electronic financial transactions on the World Wide Web, although it is designed to work on other Internet services as well.
security extension	A component in Reporting Services that authenticates a user or group to a report server.
security principal	In Windows-based computers, an account (such as a user, security group, device, or computer) that can be granted or denied access to resources.
segmentation	A data mining technique that analyzes data to discover mutually exclusive collections of records that share similar attributes sets.
select list	The SELECT statement clause that defines the columns of the result set returned by the statement.
self-join	A join in which records from a table are combined with other records from the same table when there are matching values in the joined fields.
Semantic Model Definition Language	A set of instructions that describe layout and query information for reports created in Report Builder.
semiadditive measure	A measure that can be summed along one or more, but not all, dimensions in a cube.
sensitive cursor	A cursor that can reflect data modifications made to underlying data by other users while the cursor is open.
Sequence container	Defines a control flow that is a subset of the package control flow
sequenced collection	A collection of destination objects of a sequenced relationship object.
sequenced relationship	A relationship in a repository that specifies explicit positions for each destination object within the collection of destination objects.
serializable	The highest transaction isolation level. Serializable transactions lock all rows they read or modify to ensure the transaction is completely isolated from other tasks.
server aggregate	An aggregate value that is calculated on the data source server and included in a result set by the data provider.
server collation	The collation for an instance of SQL Server.
server cursor	A cursor implemented on the server.
server name	A name that uniquely identifies a server computer on a network.
server subscription	A subscription to a merge publication with an assigned priority value used for conflict detection and resolution.
service	A Service Broker object that defines a name for a specific task or set of tasks, and the contracts that other services can use to accomplish that task.
service principal name	The name by which a client uniquely identifies an instance of a service.
service program	A program that uses Service Broker functionality. A service program may be a Transact-SQL stored procedure, a SQLCLR stored procedure, or an external program.
session	In database mirroring, the interactions that occur during mirroring among the principal server, mirror server, and witness server (if present).
Setup initialization file	A text file, using the Windows .ini file format, that stores configuration information allowing SQL Server to be installed without a user having to be present to respond to prompts from the Setup program.
severity level	A number that indicates the relative significance of an error that is generated by the SQL Server Database Engine.
shadow copy	In Reporting Services, refers to a static report instance: data and layout, as it exists at a specific point in time.
shared data source item	Data source connection information that is encapsulated in an item.
shared dimension	A dimension created within a database that can be used by any cube in the database.
shared lock	A lock created by nonupdate (read) operations.
shared schedule	Schedule information that can be referenced by multiple items
showplan	A report showing the execution plan for an SQL statement.
sibling	A member in a dimension hierarchy that is a child of the same parent as a specified member.
simple recovery model	A database recovery mode that minimally logs all transactions sufficiently to ensure database consistency after a system crash or after restoring a data backup.
single-byte character set	A character encoding in which each character is represented by 1 byte.
single-user mode	A state in which only one user can access a resource.
slice	A subset of the data in a cube, specified by limiting one or more dimensions by members of the dimension.
smart tag	A smart tag exposes key configurations directly on the design surface to enhance overall design-time productivity in Visual Studio 2005.
SMDL	See Other Term: Semantic Model Definition Language
snapshot	See Other Term: report snapshot
snapshot isolation level	A transaction isolation level in which each read operation performed by a transaction returns all data as it existed at the start of the transaction.
snapshot replication	Snapshot replication distributes data exactly as it appears at a specific moment in time and does not monitor for updates to the data.
snapshot share	A share available for the storage of snapshot files. Snapshot files contain the schema and data for published tables.
snowflake schema	An extension of a star schema such that one or more dimensions are defined by multiple tables.
solve order	The order of evaluation (from highest to lowest solve order) and calculation (from lowest to highest solve order) for calculated members, custom members, custom rollup formulas, and calculated cells in a single calculation pass of a multidimensional cube.
sort order	The set of rules in a collation that define how characters are evaluated in comparison operations, and the sequence in which they are sorted.
source	An Integration Services data flow component that extracts data from a data store, such as files and databases.
source adapter	A data flow component that extracts data from a data store.
source and target	A browsing technique in which a source object is used to retrieve its target object or objects through their relationship.
source control	A way of storing and managing different versions of source code files and other files used in software development projects. Also known as configuration management and revision control.
source cube	The cube on which a linked cube is based.
source database	1. In data warehousing, the database from which data is extracted for use in the data warehouse. 2. A database on the Publisher from which data and database objects are marked for replication as part of a publication that is propagated to Subscribers.
source object	The single object to which all objects in a particular collection are connected by way of relationships that are all of the same relationship type.
source partition	An Analysis Services partition that is merged into another and is deleted automatically at the end of the merger process.
sparse file	A file that is handled in a way that requires much less disk space than would otherwise be needed.
sparsity	The relative percentage of a multidimensional structure's cells that do not contain data.
SQL	A language used to insert, retrieve, modify, and delete data in a relational database, designed specifically for database queries.
SQL collation	A set of SQL Server collations whose characteristics match those of commonly-used code page and sort order combinations from earlier versions of SQL Server.
SQL expression	Any combination of operators, constants, literal values, functions, and names of tables and fields that evaluates to a single value.
SQL query	An SQL statement, such as SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or CREATE TABLE.
SQL Server Authentication	The mechanism to validate an attept to connect to an instance of SQL Server by specifying a SQL Server login ID and password.
SQL Server Event Forwarding Server	A central instance of SQL Server that manages SQL Server Agent events forwarded to it by other instances.
SQL Server login	An account stored in SQL Server that allows users to connect to SQL Server.
SQL statement	An SQL or Transact-SQL command, such as SELECT or DELETE, that performs some action on data.
standby file	In a restore operation, a file used during the undo phase to hold a "copy-on-write" pre-image of pages that are to be modified.
standby server	A server instance containing a copy of a database that can be brought online if the source copy of the database becomes unavailable.
star join	A join between a fact table (typically a large fact table) and at least two dimension tables.
star query	A star query joins a fact table and a number of dimension tables.
star schema	A relational database structure in which data is maintained in a single fact table at the center of the schema with additional dimension data stored in dimension tables.
static connection string	In Reporting Services, a set of values that the report always uses to connect to the same data source each time the report runs.
static cursor	A cursor that shows the result set exactly as it was at the time the cursor was opened.
static row filter	A filter available for all types of replication that allows you to restrict the data replicated to a Subscriber based on a WHERE clause.
stemmer	In Full-Text Search, for a given language, a stemmer generates inflectional forms of a particular word based on the rules of that language.
stolen page	A page in Buffer Cache taken for other server requests
stored procedure	A precompiled collection of Transact-SQL statements that are stored under a name and processed as a unit.
string	A set of contiguous bytes that contain a single character-based or binary data value.
string functions	Functions that perform operations on character or binary strings.
striped media set	A media set that uses multiple devices, among which each backup is distributed.
Structured Query Language	A language used to insert, retrieve, modify, and delete data in a relational database, designed specifically for database queries.
subreport	A report contained within another report.
Subscriber	A database instance that receives replicated data.
subscribing server	A server running an instance of Analysis Services that stores a linked cube.
subscription	A request for a copy of a publication to be delivered to a Subscriber.
subscription database	A database at the Subscriber that receives data and database objects published by a Publisher.
subscription event rule	A rule that processes information for event-driven subscriptions.
subscription expiration period	See Other Term: publication retention period
subscription scheduled rule	One or more Transact-SQL statements that process information for scheduled subscriptions.
subset	A selection of tables and the relationship lines between them that is part of a larger database diagram.
surface area	The number of ways in which a piece of software can be attacked.
symmetric key	A single key that is used with symmetric encryption algorithms for both encryption and decryption.
synchronization	1. In replication, the process of data and schema changes being propagated between the Publisher and Subscribers after the initial snapshot has been applied at the Subscriber. 2. In database mirroring, when a mirroring session starts or resumes, the process in which log records of the principal database that have accumulated on the principal server are sent to the mirror server, which writes these log records to disk as quickly as possible to catch up with the principal server.
synchronization manager	A tool used to ensure that a file or directory on a client computer contains the same data as a matching file or directory on a server.
system databases	A set of five databases present in all instances of SQL Server that are used to store system information.
system functions	A set of built-in functions that perform operations on and return the information about values, objects, and settings in SQL Server.
system role assignment	Role assignment that applies to the site as a whole.
system role definition	Role definition that conveys site-wide authority.
system stored procedures	A set of SQL Server-supplied stored procedures that can be used for actions such as retrieving information from the system catalog or performing administration tasks.
system tables	Built-in tables that form the system catalog for SQL Server.
system variable	A value that is used internally by Integration Services to store information about the running package and its objects.
table	1. A two-dimensional object, which consists of rows and columns, that stores data about an entity modeled in a relational database. 2. A data region on a report layout that displays data in a columnar format.
table data region	A report item on a report layout that displays data in a columnar format.
table lock	A lock on a table including all data and indexes.
table scan	A data retrieval operation where the Database Engine must read all the pages in a table to find the rows that qualify for a query.
table-level constraint	A constraint that allows various forms of data integrity to be defined on one column (column-level constraint) or several columns (table-level constraints) when the table is defined or altered.
tablix	A Reporting Services RDL data region that contains rows and columns resembling a table or matrix, possibly sharing characteristics of both.
tabular data stream	The SQL Server internal client/server data transfer protocol.
tail-log backup	A log backup taken from a possibly damaged database to capture the log that has not yet been backed up.
tape backup	A SQL Server backup operation that writes to any tape device supported by the operating system.
target partition	An Analysis Services partition into which another is merged, and which contains the data of both partitions after the merger.
target server	A server that receives jobs from a master server; in multiserver administrations, a server that connects to and receives jobs from a master server.
task	A collection of permissions that constitute a task (manage reports, manage folders, etc)
TDS	See Other Term: tabular data stream
temporary stored procedure	A procedure placed in the temporary database, tempdb, and erased at the end of the session.
temporary table	A table placed in the temporary database, tempdb, and erased at the end of the session.
thread	An operating system component that lets the logic of multiuser applications be performed as several separate, asynchronous execution paths.
time dimension	1. A dimension that breaks time down into levels such as Year, Quarter, Month, and Day. 2. In Analysis Services, a special type of dimension created from a date/time column.
token	In Full-Text Search, a word or a character string identified by the word breaker.
tokenization	In text mining or Full-Text Search, the process of identifying meaningful units within strings, either at word boundaries, morphemes, or stems, so that related tokens can be grouped.
trace file	A file used by SQL Server Profiler to record monitored events.
tracer token	A performance monitoring tool available for transactional replication. A token (a small amount of data) is sent through the replication system to measure the amount of time it takes for transactions to reach the Distributor and Subscribers.
trail byte	The second byte of a 2-byte code point in a double-byte code page.
training data set	A set of known and predictable data used to train a data mining model.
trait	An attribute that describes an entity.
transaction	A group of database operations combined into a logical unit of work that is either wholly committed or rolled back.
transaction processing	Data processing used to efficiently record business activities, called transactions, that are of interest to an organization (for example, sales, orders, or money transfers).
transaction retention period	See Other Term: distribution retention period
transaction rollback	Rollback of a user-specified transaction to the last savepoint inside a transaction or to the beginning of a transaction.
transactional replication	A type of replication that typically starts with a snapshot of the publication database objects and data.
Transact-SQL	The language containing the commands used to administer instances of SQL Server, create and manage all objects in an instance of SQL Server, and to insert, retrieve, modify and delete all data in SQL Server tables. Transact-SQL is an extension of the language defined in the SQL standards published by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Transact-SQL cursor	A server cursor defined by using the Transact-SQL DECLARE CURSOR syntax.
transformation	1. In data warehousing, the process of changing data extracted from source data systems into arrangements and formats consistent with the schema of the data warehouse. 2. In Integration Services, a data flow component that aggregates, merges, distributes, and modifies column data and rowsets.
transformation error output	Information about a transformation error.
transformation input	Data that is contained in a column, which is used during a join or lookup process, to modify or aggregate data in the table to which it is joined.
transformation output	Data that is returned as the result of a transformation procedure.
trigger	A stored procedure that executes in response to a data manipulation language (DML) or data definition language (DDL) event.
trusted connection	A Windows network connection that can be opened only by users who have been authenticated by the network.
tuple	Uniquely identifies a cell, based on a combination of attribute members from every attribute hierarchy in the cube.
two-phase commit	A process that ensures transactions that apply to more than one server are completed on all servers or on none.
unbalanced hierarchy	A hierarchy in which one or more levels do not contain members in one or more branches of the hierarchy.
uncommitable transaction	A transaction that remains open and cannot be committed.
underlying table	A table referenced by a view, cursor, or stored procedure.
undo phase	The phase during database recovery that reverses (rolls back) changes made by any transactions that were uncommitted when the redo phase of recovery completed.
unenforced relationship	A link between tables that references the primary key in one table to a foreign key in another table, and which does not check the referential integrity during INSERT and UPDATE transactions.
Unicode	Unicode defines a set of letters, numbers, and symbols that SQL Server recognizes in the nchar, nvarchar, and ntext data types.
Unicode collation	A set of rules that acts as a sort order for Unicode data.
Unicode format	Data stored in a bulk copy data file using Unicode characters.
unique index	An index in which no two rows are permitted to have the same index value, thus prohibiting duplicate index or key values.
uniqueifier	A hidden 4-byte column that the SQL Server Database Engine automatically adds to a row to make the index key for that row unique. The uniqueifier is added to a row only when the clustered index on the table is not created with the UNIQUE property and the values in the index key for that row do not provide uniqueness.
unknown member	A member of a dimension for which no key is found during processing of a cube that contains the dimension.
unmanaged code	Code that does not run inside the CLR.
unpivot	In Integration Services, the process of creating a more normalized dataset by expanding data columns in a single record into multiple records.
unsafe code	Code that does not run inside the CLR.Also referred to as unmanaged code.
update lock	A lock placed on resources (such as row, page, table) that can be updated.
update statistics	A process that recalculates information about the distribution of key values in specified indexes.
user instance	An instance of SQL Server Express that is generated by the parent instance on behalf of a user.
user-defined aggregate (function)	An aggregate function that is created by referencing a SQL Server assembly.
user-defined aggregate function	An aggregate function created against a SQL Server assembly whose implementation is defined in an assembly created in the .NET Framework common language runtime.
user-defined function	1. In SQL Server, a Transact-SQL function defined by a user. 2. In Analysis Services, a function defined in a Microsoft ActiveX library created using a Component Object Model (COM) automation language such as Visual Basic or Visual C++.
validation (semantic)	The process of confirming that the elements of an XML file are logically valid.
validation (syntactic)	The process of confirming that an XML file conforms to its schema.
value expression	An expression in Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) that returns a value. Value expressions can operate on sets, tuples, members, levels, numbers, or strings.
variable	1. In Integration Services, stores values that can be used in scripts, expressions, and property expressions to set column values and the properties of package objects. 2. Defined entities that are assigned values. A local variable is defined with a DECLARE@localvariable statement and assigned an initial value within the statement batch where it is declared with either a SELECT or SET@localvariable statement.
variable interval	An option on a Reporting Services chart that can be specified to automatically calculate the optimal number of labels that can be placed on an axis, based on the chart width or height.
vertical filtering	Filtering columns from a table. When used as part of replication, the table article created contains only selected columns from the publishing table.
vertical partitioning	To segment a single table into multiple tables based on selected columns.
very large database	A database that has become large enough to be a management challenge.
view generation	A repository engine feature that is used to create relational views based on classes, interfaces, and relationships in an information model.
virtual log file	Non-physical files that are derived from one physical log file by the SQL Server Database Engine.
visual total	A displayed, aggregated cell value for a dimension member that is consistent with the displayed cell values for its displayed children.
VLDB	See Other Term: very large database
warm standby server	A standby server that contains a copy of a database that is asynchronously updated, and that can be brought online fairly quickly.
Web service	In Reporting Services, a service that uses Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) over HTTP and acts as a communications interface between client programs and the report server.
Web synchronization	In merge replication, a feature that lets you replicate data by using the HTTPS protocol.
Windows collation	A set of rules that determines how SQL Server sorts character data. A collation is specified by name in the Windows Control Panel and in SQL Server 2000 during Setup.
Windows Data Access Components (Windows DAC)	A set of data access technologies that are included in the Microsoft Windows operating system starting with Windows Vista. These are recent versions of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) technologies, such as ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC), and OLE DB.
Windows Management Instrumentation	An interface that provides information about objects in a managed environment.
witness server	In database mirroring, the server instance that monitors the status of the principal and mirror servers and that, by default, can initiate automatic failover if the principal server fails.
WMI	See Other Term: Windows Management Instrumentation
WMI Query Language	A subset of ANSI SQL with semantic changes adapted to Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).
word breaker	In Full-Text Search, for a given language, a word breaker tokenizes text based on the lexical rules of the language.
word generation	The process of determining other forms of the word(s) specified in a search.
word-breaking	In text mining or Full-Text Search, the process of separating strings at word boundaries.
WQL	See Other Term: WMI Query Language
write back	To update a cube cell value, member, or member property value.
write enable	To change a cube or dimension so that users in cube roles with read/write access to the cube or dimension can change its data.
write-ahead log	A transaction logging method in which the log is always written prior to the data.
writeback	In SQL Server, the update of a cube cell value, member, or member property value.
Xcopy	A deployment feature, supported only by SQL Server Express, that allows an application and a database file (.mdf) to be copied to another computer, or to a different location on the same computer, without additional configuration.
XML for Analysis	A specification that describes an open standard that supports data access to data sources that reside on the World Wide Web.
XMLA	See Other Term: XML for Analysis
XSL	See Other Term: Extensible Stylesheet Language
XSLT	See Other Term: Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations
zombie	A message that was not processed by an orchestration. It is not in the Suspended queue or anywhere else where it will be retried.