Microsoft SQL database service
Related pages
The Microsoft SQL database service provides a central Microsoft SQL service, shared between its registered users.
It provides multi-user databases suitable for all purposes, most commonly medium to heavy use.
Overview
Eligibility
Available to:
- staff
- academic research users
- web account owners
The Microsoft SQL database service is available for staff and academic research users who need the extra processing resources of an enterprise system for large and resource intensive database applications.
It is provided using Microsoft SQL Server 2012, and has no specific storage limit.
Please note, for most people the MySQL database service is better suited to their needs.
How to request
Email the Library & IT Help Desk, giving a suggested name for your new database and a short summary of its purpose. We will then get back to you to discuss your needs.
Requests for a new Microsoft SQL database will take five business days to complete.
Help & troubleshooting
Library & IT Help Desk
If you're having problems using the Microsoft SQL database service, get in touch with the IT Support.
Our commitments
| Service status | Live and supported service. |
|---|---|
| Hours of service | 24/7 |
| Service support | For help and support with this service, contact the IT Support. |
| Hours of support | Help from the Library & IT Help Desk is available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. |
| Target availability |
General IT Services targets:
|
| Resilience |
This service runs on our high-availability virtual machine platform. In the event of a major incident it will automatically failover between data centres. Multiple servers ensure the service continues, even as the failover progresses. Filestores are replicated between data centres and should also fail over automatically. A backup is taken of all Microsoft SQL databases each day for disaster recovery purposes, enabling them to be restored to that point in time if the database were to become corrupted, or if a catastrophic event occurred to the file servers and/or data centres. |
| Our performance |
Our service standards have been produced in consultation with our customers, and monitor the quality, timeliness and access to facilities and services:
|
|
Complaints procedure |
If you wish to give us general feedback on this service, please see our Feedback page for ways to get in touch. If you wish to make a complaint, please see our complaints procedure. |
Your responsibilities
We expect you:
- to keep us informed about changes to your contact details
- to manage your use of Microsoft SQL databases allocated to you, eg sharing or securing them appropriately
- to contact us in good time if you foresee use of your database increasing significantly, either long-term or as spikes of heavy activity
- to let us know if you no longer need a database you have been allocated