• Microsoft SQL (pronounced "sequel") Server was first released in 1989 as SQL Server 1.0. Since that initial release, there have been nine additional versions released by Microsoft. SQL Server has several built-in tools included with the latest release. There are, however, areas where the built-in tools can be improved upon. For this reason, there are many third-party tools available for use with SQL Server, from monitoring tools to tools that can fully and automatically document a SQL Server install.
  
  

Quest Spotlight

• Quest Spotlight is a powerful tool used to monitor the performance of a SQL Server. This tool allows the monitoring of SQL Server historical information as well. This will monitor scheduled jobs and notify the user of failures with a unique console view. One drawback to this tool is that job failures will result in the server being marked red until the job runs successfully. Job failures are typically not failures that will bring a server down or cause major problems with the server, so having it marked in red for a job failure is certainly not an advantage.
  
  

Tivoli Data Protector

• This application allows users to run full and transaction log backups of any, or all, databases on a SQL Server. Unfortunately, this application does not allow for differential backups. Additionally this application's installation is not intuitive, making it difficult to deploy and configure. It does, however, have a certain amount of ease of use when designating which databases to backup, as wildcards can be used. For instance, using "L*" will designate all databases beginning with the letter "L" to be backed up. A distinctive drawback to this tool is that it does not check the recovery mode of the SQL Server; therefore if a recovery mode is changed from FULL to SIMPLE, the backup log will fill with errors since the log file will not be backed up.
  
  

Embarcadero ER Studio

• Embarcadero ER Studio is an excellent tool for designing databases. This tool can be used with databases that contain up to 500 tables. It can also be used to take an existing database and write a script that will recreate the database by running the script on any SQL Server installation.
  
  

Redgate SQL Prompt

• SQL Prompt provides code support within SQL Server in a number of different ways. This is an unobtrusive tool that will suggest appropriate keywords as the user is writing code. It will also suggest table names, field names, views and other SQL Server objects while code is being written. When your mouse passes over database objects, SQL Prompt displays database documentation of that object. Additionally, SQL Prompt contains code snippets that can be used when coding, and users can add new snippets very easily.