Question

So I think I already know the answer to this question…

Running AdventureWorks2008 (latest version) on mssql server 2008. I am thinking that the rowguid column in a lot of the tables is to ensure that there is a primary key. I am probably dead wrong as the column appears to be a constraint.

Correct me if I am wrong and also please correct me with an answer I can learn from. Am just surveying this so far in SQL Management Studio…are there any queries that will back up how wrong I am? I am not a DBA so I am lost 🙂

Answer 1

In general the rowguid column is used in replication, if you start to use replication the rowguid column will be created. From Books On Line

Merge replication requires that each
published table have a ROWGUID column.
If a ROWGUID column does not exist in
the table before the Snapshot Agent
creates the initial snapshot files,
the agent must first add and populate
the ROWGUID column. To gain a
performance advantage when generating
and applying snapshots during merge
replication, create the ROWGUID column
on each table published during merge
replication. When creating the column,
specify:

The column title as ROWGUID.

The data type as UNIQUEIDENTIFIER.

The default as NEWID().

The ROWGUIDCOL property.

An index on the column. The ROWGUID
column is used frequently for relating
to merge tracking data during tracking
and synchronization of changes made at
the Publisher and at Subscribers.