Customer Reviews

Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (IT-Administrator's Pocket Consultant)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a web/dba I use sql server, IIS and windows 2000 server extensively. Last year when I was just getting started I discovered this little gem and it was what set me on the right path. I found this book to be utterly indispensible. I actually have two copies that one I use at home when I work in my own projects and one I use at work.

Again in this book as with others in the series I have found single chapters that alone were worth the price of the book, and in a book filled with such chapters you cannot go wrong. The chapter I use the most is 2. In this chapter covers configuring and tuning the sql server database. The chapter starts by looking at guidelines you can use to choose server hardware covering memory, CPU, drives, and more then goes into tools, services and more that you can use to optimize the sql server. In addition to covering the graphical interface, the book covers command-line tools extensive and I found this to be invaluable.

Mr. Stanek includes a best practice tip on page 35 that caused a light bulb to go off in my head and helped me resolve a problem with our databases. This tip covers memory usage in various situations and how you can optimize the memory configuration. The chapter goes on and on like this giving out secrets that other admins didn't want to share with someone like me who was just getting started. In short I think the chapter gave me the equivalent of several years worht of in the field knowledge and since I didn't have years to prove myself this was incredibly helpful.

Hats off to author William Stanek for another fine Pocket Consultant. I have 5 of these books in my library now (Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Exchange 2000, SQL Server 7 and SQL Server 2000.) Since I picked up the first Pockete Consultant a yaer ago I haven't found a daily administration question that wasn't answered. You'll find that SQL Server 2000 Pocket Consultant is more of the same. The attention to detail and the focus on day to day administration tasks is fantastic!

Mr. Stanek always starts with an overview of the subject of discussion and then digs right in. I've found that this book (and the rest in the series) answer 100% of my questions quickly and meanwhile the 1,000 page luggables used by my colleagues just get them frustrasted. I've made quite a few converts in the office.

The nice thing about these books is the day to day focus. You get what you need to accomplish your task spelled out clearly and concisely in a style that I've found that only Mr. Stanek can deliver. It is refreshing. Now I'm not saying the books are pefrect. If you need to learn from scratch this isn't the answer. Look elsewhere. If you need to brush up and extend your skills to new stuff (like going from SQL 6.5 or SQL 7 to SQL 2000), is a good choice. If you need a book to help with day to day, is a good choice. If you need a book to put in your backpack and carry with you, is a good choice.

Last I want to say thank you to Mr. Stanek. Thank you, I'm looking forward to more. --JW

A lot of SQL Server books give you the same information included already in Books Online. SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant is an excellent complement for Books Online, TechNet and MSDN. It covers similar topics, but it digs in where necessary, provides best practices, tips to the internal operations, explaining how SQL Server actually works, with unique information only available in this book.

I always want to know how things work because it helps me to understand the behaviour of a system. In many cases if you don't know how things work it could drive you to some misunderstandings. Here is where SQL Server Pocket Consultant helps out and Stanek has excellent teaching skills.

The book is very compact and full of information. It's all in the details. Chapter 2 "Configuring and Tuning" is a real gem. It helped so much with server and database tuning. Chapter 5 "SQL Server Security" is excellent on the security details. Chapter 7 provides deep detail of DTS and BCP. The final part of the book is the best, in my opinion. It covers performance, maintenance and optimization.

The book's small size makes it easy to take with you where ever you go and its good enough that you'll want to. Overall excellent guide ot sql server.

Reading through the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant, I was was immediately impressed by the breadth of the information in the volume, despite its small size. Of course, to call it a pocket consultant, you would have to have large pockets (perhaps Microsoft pocket 2.0 -- bad joke).

The downside to this work, is that it is largely a rehash, in simpler terms, of the SQL books online. If you are a consultant, and own a laptop, you will probably get more mileage out of carrying it around. However, for those who have not gone completely e-book, this work occupies little space and has more than enough information for most admin tasks.

I also recommend this book for admins moving up to SQL Server 2000 from either 7.0 or 6.5, as it gives a concise overview of the adminstration of the new server.

While it does not cover every aspect of SQL Server 2000, it covers a large percentage of the material a heavy duty admin would need to know and near-100% (if not 100%) of the information for every day administration.

I would give this one 5 stars, and probably should for the intended audience, but I feel the fact that a great majority of the material is just more concise books online information, that the major appeal is the fact that it is on paper.

I knew nothing about SQL Server 2000 before picking this up. It took me from knowing nothing to knowing a lot. The author has an easy writing style which made it easier for me to learn this subject. I looked at a lot of SQL Server 2000 books and at least from my perspective, this is the one to own. Great information makes it well worth the money.

If you're anything like me, you may be considering this book as a study guide for 70-228. I recently took this exam and passed. This book is without doubt a text you can buy to prepare for the exam. Sure it doesn't cover everything in the exam, but it comes close.

Great chapters on replication and DTS. Very few screen shots. Packs in a lot of material in 450 pages. Absolutely useful for admining.

Here's my exam study sheet... Hope it helps you like it helped me.

Exam objectives not covered:

Installation
Upgrades
IIS virtual directories for XML

Exam objectives covered:

Create a linked server.
Configure SQL Mail and SQLAgentMail.
Configure network libraries.

Configure database options for performance. Considerations include capacity, network connectivity, physical drive configurations, and storage locations.
Attach and detach databases.
Create and alter databases.
Add filegroups.
Configure filegroup usage.
Expand and shrink a database.
Set database options by using the ALTER DATABASE or CREATE DATABASE statements.
Size and place the transaction log.

Managing, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting SQL Server 2000 Databases
Optimize database performance. Considerations include indexing, locking, and recompiling.
Optimize data storage.
Optimize files and filegroups.
Manage database fragmentation.

Modify the database schema.
Perform disaster recovery operations.
Perform backups.
Recover the system state and restore data.
Configure, maintain, and troubleshoot log shipping.

Perform integrity checks.

Troubleshoot transactions and locking
Extracting and Transforming Data with SQL Server 2000
Import and export data.
Develop and manage DTS packages.
Manage linked servers.
Manage OLE DB Providers.
Configure security mapping.

Convert data types.
Configure, maintain, and troubleshoot replication services.
Managing and Monitoring SQL Server 2000 Security
Configure mixed security modes or Windows Authentication.
Create and manage log ons.
Create and manage database users.
Create and manage security roles.
Add and remove users from roles.
Create roles to manage database security.

Enforce and manage security
Set permissions in a database.
Manage security auditing.
Managing, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting SQL Server 2000
Create, manage, and troubleshoot SQL Server Agent jobs.
Configure alerts and operators by using SQL Server Agent.
Optimize hardware resource usage.
Monitor hardware resource usage by using System Monitor.
Resolve system bottlenecks by using System Monitor.

Optimize and troubleshoot SQL Server system activity.
Monitor SQL Server system activity by using traces.
Monitor SQL Server system activity by using System Monitor.

This book makes a good administrative tool, particularly for people for whom SQL admin is one of many responsibilities and who therefore can't spend the time for in-depth training. One main flaw in this book is that it pretty much ignores the design aspect of setting up a new database and/or server. For example, the book lacks any information on best practices for the physical layout (files, drives, RAID, etc) or security. It assumes someone (a consultant?) knew what they were doing and set up the server and databases. Personally, I see this as part of the administrator's role. Another major shortfall of this book is that it excludes clustering completely, and as databases are more and more critical to companies, clustering is gaining in popularity.

This book is designed as a reference book and it does a decent job as that. The layout, contents, and index make finding what you need very easy. If, however, you want a book to read cover-to-cover in order to learn SQL administration, this is not it.

This is a pretty good reference to keep nearby. It has great tips scattered throughout, and it doesn't waste words by orienting the user.

A great index is important to reference books. This book, however, has a mediocre index. The index weighs in at a little bit less than 19 pages. I would have preferred to see many more words indexed, and all T-SQL keywords/reserved words.

As an *Administrator's* reference, this book does not provide much assistance with SQL, except for administrative tasks via T-SQL (in addition to EM-GUI equivalents). That is not a weakness (it *is* focused on administration), but it should be made clear to potential buyers.

I'd prefer to rate this a with less than four stars -- it's not a solid 4-star book, but better than three.

This book does not cover any advanced topics. For example, it will not teach you how to program DTS or how to spot performance problems due to bad indexing. It does, however, provide a very rock solid instruction on how to perform 95% of SQL administrative tasks. Cynically speaking, this book will teach you how to become a very successful button pushing SQL monkey. If you want to become something better, than I strongly suggest you buy and master "SQL 2000 Unleashed" and "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning".

Overall this is a concise good overview of a complex product. It covers all the basics and in general the author did a good job of writing in plain language. Instead of typical Microsoft mumbo jumbo. I do find fault with the chapter on Security. The author refers to the built in "Guest" user account as a login. Which confuses the issue. I think he was confused about MSSQL's security schema as I am. (The security schema can be thought of in 3 layers: logins, users/serverroles/dbroles, and the actual object& statement permissions.) One last note, last time I checked Microsoft's Technet has a free online copy of this book. The book is still worth the full price I paid for it.

A must have for administrators and developers. I own several books on SQL Server but none have been as good as this one at saving me time and effort. The book is clearly written, not overly technical, and extremely informative. I really like the tips, notes and real world sections. Use this book to help you with day to day issues, almost like having an experienced consultant at your desk!