Customer Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I work as a Sql Server developer and DBA. SqlServer is a large application but because of the provided GUI is deceptively simple to get started with. However if your applications ever go into real production, then you (or someone in your organization) better become more than a beginner DBA. This book reads so easily and packs all the key info to become _proficient_ at administering (not application design/development-that is a different skill set) SqlServer. Concepts are balanced perfectly with keystrokes into well organzied and lucid explanations. The result is information that is easy to remember, because it is presented logically and succinctly. I am _very_ hard to please when it comes to tech books, but I would give this one 6 stars if I could. Especially useful in the move from 7.0 to 2000 version.

I have read around 12 SQL books. If there is a highly rated SQL book, I probably read it. Along with "Microsoft SQL Server Performance Tuning and Optmization", this book is the best there is. This would be the book I will take with me if I had ended up in some isolated island with a SQL Server I had to manage. If you are some GUI button pushing SQL monkey, get this book fast and master its contents, only then you will become a real SQL DBA. One note, I also highly recommend "Inside SQL Server 2000" from Microsoft. But that book is not quite as comprehensive as this one.

I've spent quite a bit of time reading various SQL Server 2000 books at my local bookstore trying to evaluate which book I need. I'm a web application developer of content management systems, and custom web based tools and my primary systems are based on SQL2K. I wanted a book that covered as many of the topics that I needed information on, but at the same time went into enough detail to be useful. I mean you could get SQL 2000 High Availability which is like a 700 page book from Microsoft Press that talks nothing but high availability and nothing else. However I can't really justify spending on 4 or so books, and my job is not that of a DBA anyways.

I'm very pleased with SQL Server 2000 Unleashed. It gives enough detail that I as a developer can take advantage of advanced features of MSSQL, understand more how the internals of MSSQL work which allows me to optimize my queries... and since I'm a one man team and have to take care of my database server, it provides best practices on maintenance, backup, indexing strategies, etc... I was also interested in learning more about high availability, what the options are, so that I can propose a solution and the options to my manager. My I.T dept was telling me to use Log Shipping for various reasons, a DBA from a sister company was recommending Fail Over Clustering for various reasons... I was bouncing back and forth on what to do, but after reading up on the high availability section in this book my questions were answered.

Definitely an important read for those developing applications that use MSSQL for a DB, and an excellent reference for database administrators. Plus the wording isn't too dry.

Hope that helps in your decision making. BTW the Microsoft Press book SQL SERVER 2000 HIGH AVAILABILITY is also an excellent book if you're a DBA and have to implement H.A in a large high transaction critical environment...

I recently inherited an over-due SQL Server 2000 upgrade project, which, it turned out, needed some serious rearchitecting of its data movement strategy. After struggling to find the information I needed in Microsoft's documentation and on Microsoft's tech support web site, I followed a colleague's recommendation and bought this book. The sections on DTS and replication not only laid out the answers I needed in easy-to-understand terms, but also provided examples that I was able to use right away (and learn a lot from!) I credit this book with saving my project!

As somewhat of a newbie to Database Administration I have found this book to be extremely informative. The authors of this book have laid out the basic working structure of SQL Server 2000 in an easily understood way.

I worked for a year with SQL 7 and have been studying and working with SQL Server 2000 for a year in a test lab environment learning how to use it. I passed 70-228 largely due to what I learned from this book.

If you are looking for a how-to book that shows lots of screen shots and just exactly how to accomplish many of the GUI tasks associated with creating and maintaining SQL 2000 this book isn't for you, but if you want to understand how SQL Server 2000 works, well, this is an excellent book.

If you learn conceptually, this is an excellent book. The authors have explained many of the conceptual workings of SQL Server 2000 and then shown examples of the concepts they have explained. I learn by understanding the concepts and then doing the hands on, so for me the way the authors presented the material is easily understandable. For someone who learns first by doing, and then slowly builds his/her understanding of the conceptual workings of the product this would not be a very good book.

Someone else complained that there isn't a lot in this book about XML and the like, well, this book isn't about XML. XML is a separate subject, and this book would have been many hundreds of pages longer than it is now. No author, or authors, can cover every subject associated with a subject as large and as complex as SQL Server 2000. The book would be so large as to be be unusable.

I have found this book to be a great resource for development, administration, and performance tuning for SQL Server. I have been working with databases for almost 10 years and with SQL Server for over 5 years. I find myself frequently referring to this book and getting useful information. I would highly recommend it for both intermediate and advanced users.

A great resource book! The real life examples that are presented in this book and the detail instructions on how to build something with SQL Server 2000 are extremely easy to understand and useful. This book is already helping my employee's build a data replication environment and do some complex data transformations using DTS. Some great example code on the CDROM as well.

Well I needed a crash course in SQL server management and some T-SQL.I attacked this book head-on. The book is very comprehensive and i am very amazed. It really is a complete guide to the GUI on SQL server. If you want some hard core T-SQL guidance then get another book...in addition. Sams teach yourself t-sql in 21 days is great.
So i am on my way to 70-228 and this awesome book has great chapters on every single knowlege set neccesary to ace this exam.

Great book and easy to read! Author explain theory in basic terms and then, he give scripts or examples of how it should work or be written at TSQL level. Index's book it's almost perfect; for being a 1400 pages book it is not difficult to find any topic on it. You will find a lot of nice SQL 2000 tuning tips which add an extra value to the book itself. Could be used as a MCDBA prep. book and of course, in your job or if you're into Databases Admin. and Design business.

The SQL Administration part its my favorite. You will find how to use the GUI for create databases, tables and SQL administration tasks. This part covers almost all GUI and Enterprise Manager options, including backup methods and strategies.

Why not 5 stars?
SQL Internal part tends to be too much technical and difficult to read, IMO. It's Microsoft SQL 2000, i know, a very complex database engine, but more diagrams or explanations don't hurt on this part . If you're a newbie or have not much SQL fundamentals under your belt, you could get boring when you arrive to this. Cluster technology could be better and much more indepth also.

I purchased this book based on all of the 5 star ratings it received. How could so many reviewers be so wrong? It is a decent book that covers all of the SQL 2000 topics you would expect, but it lacks detail on those topics. I was also disappointed in the lack of "extras", like hidden features or tricks/tips. I find it neither helpful as a training guide or as a reference book.
Minasi's Mastering NT/2000 is deserving of 5 stars and is the book that I use to judge other IT books. SQL Unleashed, unfortunately, falls short of that mark.