Managed code is compiled and then deployed in units called an assembly. An assembly is packaged as a DLL or executable (.exe) file. While an executable file can run on its own, a DLL must be hosted in an existing application. Managed DLL assemblies can be loaded into and hosted by Microsoft SQL Server. SQL Server requires you to register the assembly in a SQL Server database using the CREATE ASSEMBLY statement, before it can be loaded in the process and used. Assemblies can also be updated from a more recent version using the ALTER ASSEMBLY statement, or removed from SQL Server using the DROP ASSEMBLY statement.
Assembly information is stored in the sys.assembly_files table in the database where the assembly has been installed. The sys.assembly_files table contains the following columns.
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Column
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Description
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assembly_id
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The identifier defined for the assembly. This number is assigned to all objects relating to the same assembly.
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name
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The name of the object.
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file_id
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A number identifying each object, with the first object associated with a given assembly_id being given the value of 1. If multiple objects are associated with the same assembly_id, then each subsequent file_id value is incremented by 1.
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content
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The hexadecimal representation of the assembly or file.
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In This Section
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Creating an Assembly
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Discusses creating SAFE, EXTERNAL_ACCESS, and UNSAFE CLR assemblies in SQL Server.
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Altering an Assembly
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Describes updating CLR assemblies in SQL Server.
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Dropping an Assembly
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Discusses dropping CLR assemblies from SQL Server.
See Also