Connect to the SQL Server Default and Named Instances

Connect to the SQL Server Default and Named Instances:

A system can run multiple SQL Server instances. Only one default instance whose name is "MSSQLSERVER" and more than one named instances whose name was given at the time of instance installation.

First, find out what are all the instances that you are running in your system. Go to start, all programs, open the installation folder of "Microsoft SQL Server 2012", go to Configuration Tools, click on "SQL Server Configuration Manager". Shows the same steps below.

The below window shows that all the SQL related services from all the SQL Server instances. You can see the services with name "SQL Server" which are highlighted, based on that name we can say that there are two SQL Server Instances in my system. So it shows that there are two instances, the "SQL Server (CS)" is the named instance and its name is CS. The other instance SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) is the default instance whose name is MSSQLSERVER. Always the default instance name is MSSQLSERVER.

The above image shows that I have two SQL Server instances (MSSQLSERVER (default) and CL (named) in my system.

Connect to the SQL Server Instance using SSMS:

1. Open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) as shown in below screenshots.

2. Enter the server name to connect to the SQL Server Instance.

If you want to connect to default instance, we can use the computer name as server name as shown in below image. Then click "Connect" button.

If you want to connect to a name instance, we can use the computer name\instance name as server name as shown in below image. Then click "Connect" button.

CHREDDY-PC  is my computer name.

CS is one of the SQL Server instance name.

Full  name of SQL Server is  CHREDDY-PC\CS to connect to the SQL Server named instance 'CS'. In the same way full name of SQL Server is CHREDDY-PC to connect to the SQL Server default instance.

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