sp_helpserver (Transact-SQL)

Article
12/03/2008

Reports information about a particular remote or replication server, or about all servers of both types. Provides the server name, the network name of the server, the replication status of the server, the identification number of the server, and the collation name. Also provides time-out values for connecting to, or queries against, linked servers.

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

sp_helpserver [ [ @server = ] 'server' ] 
  [ , [ @optname = ] 'option' ] 
  [ , [ @show_topology = ] 'show_topology' ]

Arguments

[ @server = ] 'server'
Is the server about which information is reported. When server is not specified, reports about all servers in master.sys.servers. server is sysname, with a default of NULL.

[ @optname = ] 'option'
Is the option describing the server. option is varchar(35), with a default of NULL, and must be one of these values.

Value	Description
collation compatible	Affects the Distributed Query execution against linked servers. If this option is set to true, SQL Server 2005 assumes that all characters in the linked server are compatible with the local server, with regard to character set and collation sequence (or sort order).
data access	Enables and disables a linked server for distributed query access.
dist	Distributor.
dpub	Remote Publisher to this Distributor.
lazy schema validation	Skips schema checking of remote tables at the beginning of the query.
pub	Publisher.
rpc	Enables RPC from the specified server.
rpc out	Enables RPC to the specified server.
sub	Subscriber.
system	Identified for informational purposes only. Not supported. Future compatibility is not guaranteed.
use remote collation	Uses the collation of a remote column instead of that of the local server.

[ @show_topology = ] 'show_topology'
Is the relationship of the specified server to other servers. show_topology is varchar(1), with a default of NULL. If show_topology is not equal to t or is NULL, sp_helpserver returns columns listed in the Result Sets section. If show_topology is equal to t, in addition to the columns listed in the Result Sets, sp_helpserver also returns topx and topy information.

Return Code Values

0 (success) or 1 (failure).

Result Sets

Column name	Data type	Description
name	sysname	Server name.
network_name	sysname	Network name of the server.
status	varchar(70)	Server status.
id	char(4)	Identification number of the server.
collation_name	sysname	Collation of the server.
connect_timeout	int	Time-out value for connecting to linked server.
query_timeout	int	Time-out value for queries against linked server.

Remarks

A server can have more than one status.

Permissions

No permissions are checked.

Examples

A. Displaying information about all servers

The following example displays information about all servers by using sp_helpserver with no parameters.

USE master;
GO
EXEC sp_helpserver

B. Displaying information about a specific server

The following example displays all information about the SEATTLE2 server.

USE master;
GO
EXEC sp_helpserver 'SEATTLE2'

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