A database management system (or DBMS) is important, core functionality in most enterprises. They are used to store operational data and provide the data layer for in-house and customer-facing applications. MySQL or, especially, Microsoft SQL Server are deep, complex topics and details of their secure, professional use could fill several courses. Our goal in this note is to administer the installation of the DBMS and configure a simple database -- you have to start somewhere.

The acronym SQL is short for structured query language, a standard language for administering databases, managing security, and performing CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations on data. We'll apply SQL in this note but becoming adept at SQL is not the intent of this note.