BeginnerFree
Developer Workstation
A robust local environment for building and testing applications without feature limitations.
Recommended Edition
SQL Server Developer Edition
Version
2022
Best For
Local development with all features unlocked
Required Components
- SQL Server Database Engine
- SSMS
- LocalDB
Optional Add-ons
- SQL Server Profiler
- Visual Studio Code (with mssql extension)
Hardware / Cloud Recommendations
- 8GB+ RAM
- SSD Storage
- Modern Multi-core CPU
Licensing Notes
Free for development and testing. Cannot be used for production.
Backup Recommendation
Automated local backups via SQL Agent.
Monitoring Recommendation
SQL Server Profiler, Extended Events.
SQLDevDBA's Take
If you're a developer building applications against SQL Server, this is the setup. You get the full Enterprise-level feature set at zero cost. Just don't deploy it to production.
Startup Checklist
- Download SQL Server installer from Microsoft (microsoft.com/sql-server/downloads)
- Install the SQL Server Database Engine
- Create a DBAAdmin database to house admin and maintenance scripts
- Enable the Dedicated Admin Connection (DAC) via sp_configure
- Configure and validate automated backup jobs
Security Checklist
- Use Windows Authentication
- Limit surface area configuration
- Regularly apply Cumulative Updates
- Disable or deny the SA (System Administrator) login
- Configure Windows Firewall rules for SQL Server (TCP 1433)
Additional (Optional) Checklist
- Install dbatools PowerShell module (dbatools.io) for automation and migrations
- Install Brent Ozar's First Responder Kit (sp_Blitz, sp_BlitzFirst, sp_BlitzIndex)
- Install Adam Machanic's sp_WhoIsActive for real-time active session monitoring
- Install Erik Darling's performance scripts (sp_PressureDetector, sp_HumanEvents)
- Install Ola Hallengren's Maintenance Solution for backups, integrity checks, and index maintenance
Architecture Diagram
Available in the Pro tier. Visual diagrams for every setup.