How to Find the Default File Location for Data Files and Log Files in SQL Server

Any time you create a database in SQL Server, two files are created. One is the data file, and the other is the transaction log file.

The location of these files will depend on whether or not you explicitly specify a location for these files when you create the database. If not, they will be created in the default location.

You can find the default location with the following code:

SELECT
  SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceDefaultDataPath') AS 'Data Files',
  SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceDefaultLogPath') AS 'Log Files'

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How to Insert Values into an IDENTITY Column in SQL Server

If you’ve ever tried to insert values into an identity column in SQL Server, you might’ve seen an error like this:

Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table ‘Artists’ when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF.

This is normal. An identity column is there for a reason. It automatically populates the column with an incrementing value for each row that’s inserted. Therefore there’s no need for you to insert a value into that column.

However, sometimes you do need to insert a value into an identity column. For example, you could be populating the database with data that needs to retain its own identity values. If this is the case, you’ll need to override the IDENTITY property. Here’s how.

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How to Restore a SQL Server Database on a Mac using SQL Operations Studio

UPDATE: SQL Operations Studio (SQLOPS) has since been renamed to Azure Data Studio. The steps in this article remain the same though. In any case, I’ve also rewritten these steps (and included the equivalent screenshots) specifically for Azure Data Studio . See How to Restore a SQL Server Database on a Mac using Azure Data Studio.

Restoring a database is a piece of cake with SQL Operations Studio. It’s a similar process to doing it with SQL Server Management Studio.  Simply click Restore and follow the prompts.

This restore process allows you to navigate through the computer’s file system to locate the .bak file. This .bak file contains a backup of the database you want to restore. So when SQL Server restores the database, it’s using the .bak file to do so.

However, if you’re running your SQL Server instance inside a Docker container (which of course, you would be if you’re running SQL Server on Mac or Linux), there’s something you need to be aware of if your backup file is located outside the Docker container.

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How to Install SQLOPS on a Mac

UPDATE: SQL Operations Studio (SQLOPS) has since been renamed to Azure Data Studio. The steps in this article remain the same though. In any case, I’ve also rewritten these steps (and included the equivalent screenshots) specifically for Azure Data Studio . See How to Install Azure Data Studio on a Mac.

SQL Operations Studio (also abbreviated to SQLOPS) is a free tool that you can use to manage SQL Server. It uses a graphical user interface (GUI) that helps you view the various databases and objects within a SQL Server instance. It can run on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it’s also designed to be used with Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse.

Here I explain how to install SQLOPS onto a Mac, then how to use it to connect to SQL Server.

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How to Install SQL Server on a Mac

Here I’ll show you how to get SQL Server up and running on your Mac in less than half an hour. And the best part is, you’ll have SQL Server running locally without needing any virtualization software.

Prior to SQL Server 2017, if you wanted to run SQL Server on your Mac, you first had to create a virtual machine (using VirtualBox, Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or Bootcamp), then install Windows onto that VM, then finally SQL Server. This is still a valid option depending on your requirements (here’s how to install SQL Server on a Mac with VirtualBox if you’d like to try that method).

Starting with SQL Server 2017, you can now install SQL Server directly on to a Linux machine. And because macOS is Unix based (and Linux is Unix based), you can run SQL Server for Linux on your Mac. The way to do this is to run SQL Server on Docker.

So let’s go ahead and install Docker. Then we’ll download and install SQL Server.

But first… if you’re using a Mac with the M1 chip, see How to Install SQL Server on an M1 Mac (ARM64).

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How to Create a Relationship in MySQL Workbench

To create a relationship in MySQL Workbench:

  1. Create a database model (either create a new model or reverse engineer an existing database)
  2. Viewing the database model, double click on the first table of the relationship
  3. The bottom pane will open with the table details. Click on the Foreign Keys tab
  4. In the left pane, select the foreign key field and referenced table
  5. In the middle pane, select the foreign column and referenced (primary key) column
  6. In the right pane, set any Update/Delete actions you’d like to occur when a primary key record is updated or deleted

The relationship is now established. Repeat steps 4 to 6 for any other foreign key columns in that table.

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How to Reverse Engineer a Database in MySQL Workbench

To reverse engineer a database in MySQL Workbench:

  1. Select Database > Reverse Engineer from the top menu of MySQL Workbench
  2. Set/review parameters for connecting to the DBMS then click Continue
  3. Enter password if required, then click OK
  4. The wizard will connect to the DBMS, fetch a list of databases, and check for any issues. Click Continue
  5. Select the database/s you would like to reverse engineer, then click Continue
  6. The wizard will retrieve all objects from the selected schema/s and check the results. Click Continue
  7. Select the database objects you’d like to have reverse engineered, then click Execute
  8. The wizard will now reverse engineer all selected objects and generate the EER diagram (behind the scenes). Click Continue
  9. A summary is displayed. Click Close

The EER diagram is now displayed on the screen.

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