We all know what the sqlservr.exe and its importance, but have you noticed the size difference of the .exe when comparing SQL Server 2008R2 to SQL Server 2012 onwards?

Let’s look at 2008R2, I navigate to the BINN folder i.e. Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn – it is around 61MB

Navigating to my 2012 instance via Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn it is 190KB.

I never really noticed the difference before, but I understand why.

From 2012 onwards the architecture changed, it has been broken up into multiple DLLs. I can see the extra DLL files within the BINN folder these being sqllang.dll and sqlmin.dll where each are roughly 30MB each.

While this post wont change your day to day job I was quite fascinated with the size difference. As a side point sqllang.dll it where Query Processing and execution facilities takes place and sqlmin.dll offers services such as checkpoint, lazywriter and lock monitor.