Managing multiple SQL Server instances from SQL Server Management Studio

Central Management Servers (CMS) is a built-in SQL Server feature that lets you manage multiple SQL Server instances from a single SSMS interface. The setup involves registering a hub server, adding managed instances, and optionally grouping them by environment. The key benefit is multi-server query execution: a single T-SQL query runs across all registered servers simultaneously, returning combined results with a server name column. Caveats include sequential (not parallel) execution, Windows Authentication working more smoothly than SQL logins, and read-only results in the multi-server grid.