Attaching AdventureWorks2012 database to a SQL Server Instance

Sample database files are great if you are interested in learning the basics of SQL Servers and SQL Querying.

After installing the SQL Server the first thing you may have to do is bring in some data. Microsoft has provided lots of samples and AdventureWorks is one such database of a hypothetical company and it is bigger than the Northwind database of a hypothetical company.

Here is a Swaytorial that helps you to bring in data to your server. Enjoy!

Attaching a database to SQL Server Instance—Jayaram KrishnaswamyDocs.com

Installing AdventureWorks Sample Databases

AdventureWorks  is one of the common sample databases used in Microsoft Database related programming or, in Visual Studio applications. What started off as a single database has grown into a big family and together with this, the installation procedure has undergone a lot of changes. The days of attaching and detaching sample database files are gone. The WinZip installer kicks off the installation.

Recently I wanted to work with PHP training kit which required a SQL Server 2008 Express with a AdventureWorks database. The download link on the Configuration Wizard-PHP on Windows Training kit took me to a dead end (Trust me this happens a lot with Microsoft documentation). Finally, I thought just that any AdventureWorks would do and downloaded the AdventureWorks2008R2_RTM.exe (82.3 MB ) from CodePlex site and installed it on the brand new SQL Express 2008 (SQLEXPRADV_x86.enu.exe). Although it did not provide the right (Which, I don't know what? As yet) AdventureWorks, I could see how the installation procedure has changed.

The installation took 35 minutes. It took 100% of the CPU and 76% of physical memory during installation and installed a bunch of AdventureWorks databases for all kinds of end users. Here are some screen shots of the installation.

Look at all the AdventureWorks databases in this image.