Create Your Own Administration Tool for MSDE

What is MSDE

According to the Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide MSDE (Microsoft Data Engine)
is a new technology that provides local data storage compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. You
can think of MSDE as a client/server database engine alternative to the file-server Microsoft Jet
database engine. MSDE runs under Windows NT 4.0 or later and Windows 95 or later. It is designed and
optimized for use on smaller computer systems, such as a single-user computer or small-workgroup server.
MSDE doesn’t limit the number of users who can connect to its database, but is optimized for five users.

Because MSDE is based on the same database engine as SQL Server, most Microsoft Access projects or
client/server applications can run unchanged on either version. However, unlike SQL Server 7.0, MSDE
has a 2-gigabyte database size limit, supports up to 2 processors for Symmetrical Multiprocessing (SMP),
and in a replicated database environment cannot be a replication publisher for transactional replication
(although it can act as a replication subscriber for both transactional and merge replication, and as a
replication publisher for merge replication).

For the developer, this means that you can now create applications that leverage the power of SQL Server
while providing your users with a robust, royalty free database. All of the familiar features of SQL
Server are available in MSDE: tables, views, stored procedures, rules, constraints, triggers and even
the security SQL Server model.