1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

Azure Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL): A tool in Microsoft .NET Framework that allows application developers to authenticate users either to the cloud or to a deployed on-premises Active Directory and to then obtain tokens for secure access to API calls.

big-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the most significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

bulk insert: A method for efficiently populating the rows of a table from the client to the server.

common language runtime user-defined type (CLR UDT): A data type that is created and defined by the user on a database server that supports SQL by using a Microsoft .NET Framework common language runtime assembly.

data classification: An information protection framework that includes sensitivity information about the data that is being returned from a query. The sensitivity information includes labels and information types and their identifiers.

data stream: A stream of data that corresponds to specific Tabular Data Stream (TDS) semantics. A single data stream can represent an entire TDS message or only a specific, well-defined portion of a TDS message. A TDS data stream can span multiple network data packets.

Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC): A Windows service that coordinates transactions across multiple resource managers, including databases. For more information, see [MSDN-DTC].

enclave: A protected region of memory that is used only on the server side. This region is within the address space of SQL Server, and it acts as a trusted execution environment. Only code that runs within the enclave can access data within that enclave. Neither the data nor the code inside the enclave can be viewed from the outside, even with a debugger.

enclave computations: Locally enabled cryptographic operations and other operations in Transact-SQL queries on encrypted columns that are performed inside an enclave.

federated authentication: An authentication mechanism that allows a security token service (STS) in one trust domain to delegate user authentication to an identity provider in another trust domain, while generating a security token for the user, when there is a trust relationship between the two domains.

Global Transactions: A feature that allows users to execute transactions across multiple databases that are hosted in a shared service, such as Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

interface: A group of related function prototypes in a specific order, analogous to a C++ virtual interface. Multiple objects, of different object classes, can implement the same interface. A derived interface can be created by adding methods after the end of an existing interface. In the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), all interfaces initially derive from IUnknown.

little-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the least significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

Microsoft/Windows Data Access Components (MDAC/WDAC): With Microsoft/Windows Data Access Components (MDAC/WDAC), developers can connect to and use data from a wide variety of relational and nonrelational data sources. You can connect to many different data sources using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), or OLE DB. You can do this through providers and drivers that are built and shipped by Microsoft, or that are developed by various third parties. For more information, see [MSDN-MDAC].

Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS): A feature in Microsoft SQL Server that allows applications to have more than one pending request per connection. For more information, see [MSDN-MARS].

nullable column: A database table column that is allowed to contain no value for a given row.

out-of-band: A type of event that happens outside of the standard sequence of events. For example, an out-of-band signal or message can be sent during an unexpected time and will not cause any protocol parsing issues.

query notification: A feature in SQL Server that allows the client to register for notification on changes to a given query result. For more information, see [MSDN-QUERYNOTE].

remote procedure call (RPC): A communication protocol used primarily between client and server. The term has three definitions that are often used interchangeably: a runtime environment providing for communication facilities between computers (the RPC runtime); a set of request-and-response message exchanges between computers (the RPC exchange); and the single message from an RPC exchange (the RPC message).  For more information, see [C706].

result set: A list of records that results from running a stored procedure or query, or applying a filter. The structure and content of the data in a result set varies according to the implementation.

Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI): An API that allows connected applications to call one of several security providers to establish authenticated connections and to exchange data securely over those connections. It is equivalent to Generic Security Services (GSS)-API, and the two are on-the-wire compatible.

Session Multiplex Protocol (SMP): A multiplexing protocol that enables multiple logical client connections to share a single transport connection to a server. Used by Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS). For more information, see [MC-SMP].

Simple and Protected GSS-API Negotiation Mechanism (SPNEGO): An authentication mechanism that allows Generic Security Services (GSS) peers to determine whether their credentials support a common set of GSS-API security mechanisms, to negotiate different options within a given security mechanism or different options from several security mechanisms, to select a service, and to establish a security context among themselves using that service. SPNEGO is specified in [RFC4178].

SQL batch: A set of SQL statements.

SQL Server Native Client (SNAC): SNAC contains the SQL Server ODBC driver and the SQL Server OLE DB provider in one native dynamic link library (DLL) supporting applications using native-code APIs (ODBC, OLE DB, and ADO) to Microsoft SQL Server. For more information, see [MSDN-SNAC].

SQL Server User Authentication (SQLAUTH): An authentication mechanism that is used to support user accounts on a database server that supports SQL. The username and password of the user account are transmitted as part of the login message that the client sends to the server.

SQL statement: A character string expression in a language that the server understands.

stored procedure: A precompiled collection of SQL statements and, optionally, control-of-flow statements that are stored under a name and processed as a unit. They are stored in a SQL database and can be run with one call from an application. Stored procedures return an integer return code and can additionally return one or more result sets. Also referred to as sproc.

table response: A collection of data, all formatted in a specific manner, that is sent by the server to the client for the purpose of communicating the result of a client request. The server returns the result in a table response format for many types of client requests such as LOGIN7, SQL, and remote procedure call (RPC) requests.

TDS session: A successfully established communication over a period of time between a client and a server on which the Tabular Data Stream (TDS) protocol is used for message exchange.

transaction manager: The party that is responsible for managing and distributing the outcome of atomic transactions. A transaction manager is either a root transaction manager or a subordinate transaction manager for a specified transaction.

Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).

Virtual Interface Architecture (VIA): A high-speed interconnect that requires special hardware and drivers that are provided by third parties.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.