Obtaining a unique database identifier for SQL Server 2005 and later

Question

Is there a way to obtain a unique database identifier (such as a GUID) from a SQL 2005 database?

I found this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/micr

Answer 1

Whatever means SMO uses to get the database guid, you should be able to do the same. If you have problems figuring out what is SMO doing, you can use profiler to monitor what t executes and figure it out.

In this case probably SMO reads the database_guid value from sys.database_recovery_status:

Used to relate all the database files of a database together. All files must have this GUID in their header page for the database to start as expected. Only one database should ever have this GUID, but duplicates can be created by copying and attaching databases. RESTORE always generates a new GUID when you restore a database that does not yet exist.

Answer 2

For others who are looking for a query to return the GUID of a database:

SELECT d.name, drs.database_guid, d.group_database_id 
FROM sys.databases d 
JOIN sys.database_recovery_status drs
ON d.database_id = drs.database_id

It returns the database name, database GUID and GUID of this database in availability group. If database is not in AG, the last value returns null. This works in SQL Server 2016.

Answer 3

Indeed, I used profiler to find that the database_guid is indeed coming from sys.database_recovery_status, here is the code I captured:

    exec sp_executesql N'SELECT
    ISNULL((case dmi.mirroring_redo_queue_type when N''UNLIMITED'' then 0 else dmi.mirroring_redo_queue end),0) AS [MirroringRedoQueueMaxSize],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_connection_timeout,0) AS [MirroringTimeout],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_partner_name,'''') AS [MirroringPartner],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_partner_instance,'''') AS [MirroringPartnerInstance],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_role,0) AS [MirroringRole],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_safety_level + 1, 0) AS [MirroringSafetyLevel],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_state + 1, 0) AS [MirroringStatus],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_witness_name,'''') AS [MirroringWitness],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_witness_state + 1, 0) AS [MirroringWitnessStatus],

    CAST(case when dmi.mirroring_partner_name is null then 0 else 1 end AS bit) AS [IsMirroringEnabled],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_guid,''00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000000000'') AS [MirroringID],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_role_sequence,0) AS [MirroringRoleSequence],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_safety_sequence,0) AS [MirroringSafetySequence],
    ISNULL(dmi.mirroring_failover_lsn,0) AS [MirroringFailoverLogSequenceNumber],
    dtb.is_ansi_null_default_on AS [AnsiNullDefault],
    dtb.is_ansi_nulls_on AS [AnsiNullsEnabled],
    dtb.is_ansi_padding_on AS [AnsiPaddingEnabled],
    dtb.is_ansi_warnings_on AS [AnsiWarningsEnabled],
    dtb.is_arithabort_on AS [ArithmeticAbortEnabled],
    dtb.is_auto_shrink_on AS [AutoShrink],
    dtb.is_cursor_close_on_commit_on AS [CloseCursorsOnCommitEnabled],
    dtb.is_concat_null_yields_null_on AS [ConcatenateNullYieldsNull],
    dtb.is_numeric_roundabort_on AS [NumericRoundAbortEnabled],
    dtb.is_quoted_identifier_on AS [QuotedIdentifiersEnabled],
    dtb.is_read_only AS [ReadOnly],
    dtb.is_recursive_triggers_on AS [RecursiveTriggersEnabled],
    dtb.is_local_cursor_default AS [LocalCursorsDefault],
    dtb.page_verify_option AS [PageVerify],
    dtb.recovery_model AS [RecoveryModel],
    dtb.user_access AS [UserAccess],
    dtb.is_db_chaining_on AS [DatabaseOwnershipChaining],
    dtb.is_auto_update_stats_async_on AS [AutoUpdateStatisticsAsync],
    dtb.is_date_correlation_on AS [DateCorrelationOptimization],
    dtb.is_trustworthy_on AS [Trustworthy],
    dtb.name AS [Name],
    dtb.database_id AS [ID],
    dtb.create_date AS [CreateDate],
    dtb.is_auto_create_stats_on AS [AutoCreateStatisticsEnabled],
    dtb.is_auto_update_stats_on AS [AutoUpdateStatisticsEnabled],
    dtb.is_parameterization_forced AS [IsParameterizationForced],
    dtb.is_read_committed_snapshot_on AS [IsReadCommittedSnapshotOn],
    dtb.is_auto_close_on AS [AutoClose],
    dtb.is_broker_enabled AS [BrokerEnabled],
    CAST(isnull(dtb.source_database_id, 0) AS bit) AS [IsDatabaseSnapshot],
    ISNULL(DB_NAME(dtb.source_database_id), N'''') AS [DatabaseSnapshotBaseName],
    dtb.is_fulltext_enabled AS [IsFullTextEnabled],
    dtb.service_broker_guid AS [ServiceBrokerGuid],
    dtb.snapshot_isolation_state AS [SnapshotIsolationState],
    (dtb.is_published*1+dtb.is_subscribed*2+dtb.is_merge_published*4) AS [ReplicationOptions],
    ISNULL(suser_sname(dtb.owner_sid),'''') AS [Owner],
    ISNULL(dtb.log_reuse_wait,0) AS [LogReuseWaitStatus],
    drs.recovery_fork_guid AS [RecoveryForkGuid],
    drs.database_guid AS [DatabaseGuid],
    CAST((case when drs.last_log_backup_lsn is not null then 1 else 0 end) AS bit) AS [HasFullBackup],
    CAST(case when dtb.name in (''master'',''model'',''msdb'',''tempdb'') then 1 else dtb.is_distributor end AS bit) AS [IsSystemObject],
    CAST(case when ctb.database_id is null then 0 else 1  end AS bit) AS [ChangeTrackingEnabled],
    CAST(ISNULL(ctb.is_auto_cleanup_on,0) AS bit) AS [ChangeTrackingAutoCleanUp],
    ISNULL(ctb.retention_period,0) AS [ChangeTrackingRetentionPeriod],
    CAST(ISNULL(ctb.retention_period_units,0) AS tinyint) AS [ChangeTrackingRetentionPeriodUnits],
    dtb.containment AS [ContainmentType],
    dtb.default_language_lcid AS [DefaultLanguageLcid],
    dtb.default_language_name AS [DefaultLanguageName],
    dtb.default_fulltext_language_lcid AS [DefaultFullTextLanguageLcid],
    ISNULL(dtb.default_fulltext_language_name,N'''') AS [DefaultFullTextLanguageName],
    CAST(dtb.is_nested_triggers_on AS bit) AS [NestedTriggersEnabled],
    CAST(dtb.is_transform_noise_words_on AS bit) AS [TransformNoiseWords],
    dtb.two_digit_year_cutoff AS [TwoDigitYearCutoff],
    dtb.target_recovery_time_in_seconds AS [TargetRecoveryTime],

              case
              when dtb.collation_name is null then 0x200
              else 0
              end |
              case
              when 1 = dtb.is_in_standby then 0x40
              else 0
              end |
              case dtb.state
              when 1 then 0x2
              when 2 then 0x8
              when 3 then 0x4
              when 4 then 0x10
              when 5 then 0x100
              when 6 then 0x20
              else 1
              end
             AS [Status],
    CAST(( case LOWER(convert( nvarchar(128), DATABASEPROPERTYEX(dtb.name, ''Updateability''))) when ''read_write'' then 1 else 0 end) AS bit) AS [IsUpdateable],
    CAST(dtb.is_encrypted AS bit) AS [EncryptionEnabled],
    CAST(dtb.is_honor_broker_priority_on AS bit) AS [HonorBrokerPriority],
    CAST(has_dbaccess(dtb.name) AS bit) AS [IsAccessible],
    ISNULL(fsopt.directory_name , N'''') AS [FilestreamDirectoryName],
    ISNULL(fsopt.non_transacted_access , 0) AS [FilestreamNonTransactedAccess],
    dtb.name AS [DatabaseName2],
    dtb.containment AS [ContainmentType2]
    FROM
    master.sys.databases AS dtb
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.database_mirroring AS dmi ON dmi.database_id = dtb.database_id
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.database_recovery_status AS drs ON drs.database_id = dtb.database_id
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.change_tracking_databases AS ctb ON ctb.database_id = dtb.database_id 
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.database_filestream_options AS fsopt ON fsopt.database_id = dtb.database_id
    WHERE
    (dtb.name=@_msparam_0)',N'@_msparam_0 nvarchar(4000)',@_msparam_0=N'testdb3'

Search "sys.database_recovery_status as drs"

Answer 4

I don't know which GUID SMO returns, but you could use

select service_broker_guid from sys.databases

which is != Guid.Empty for all databases except master and model.

I found that not all databases have a NOT NULL sys.database_recovery_status.database_guid, as was suggested by Remus.

Tests done on SQL2008