SAC (Surface Area Configuration) is a new tool introduced in SQL Server 2005 to enable, disable, start, or stop the features, services, and remote connectivity of your SQL Server 2005 installations. You can use SQL Server Surface Area Configuration on local and remote servers. The two main operations are performed by SAC are as below
Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.
Use Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections to enable or disable Windows services and remote connectivity
Surface Area Configuration for Features.
Use Surface Area Configuration for Features to enable and disable features of the Database Engine, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services.
In SQL Server 2008 this tool has been moved under SSMS itself, you won’t be able to lauch this tool as a seperate applicaton or from start menu. Lets see how to open SAC in SQL Server 2008.
- Launch SSMS and connect to the server. (It can be local or remote server)
- Right click on the servername and selec facet as shown below
- In the window click on the drop down menu “Facet” and select “Surface Area Configuration” to view SAC.
Here in SQL 2008, SAC provides only feature configuration operation. To perform SQL services related tasks you need to go to SQL server Configuration Manager (SCM) only!
