There was a point when I needed to work more directly with SQL Server Management Objects, and they quickly proved useful for administrative tooling.

SMO is especially handy for things like backup utilities, scripted maintenance, bulk updates, and working with database objects such as stored procedures, views, and triggers.

If you want to get started with SQL Server 2005 SMO, the assemblies you usually need are:

  • Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo.dll
  • Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo.dll
  • Microsoft.SqlServer.SmoEnum.dll

If SQL Server 2005 was installed using the default layout, you can usually find them here:

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C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\SDK\Assemblies

If you do not have the full installation available, the SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack was another place to look for the required components.

Useful links from the original post:

After that, the easiest next step is to create a small console application and start experimenting with the SMO APIs directly.