Customer Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Unleashed

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

SQLAuthority.com Book Review :
Microsoft(R) SQL Server 2005 Unleashed (Paperback)
by Ray Rankins, Paul Bertucci, Chris Gallelli, Alex T. Silverstein

Short Review :
SQL Server 2005 Unleashed is focused on Database Administration and day-to-day administrative management aspects of SQL Server. All the chapters of this book are heavily based on Book On-line (BOL) and it continue discussing the topics, where BOL leaves off. This makes this book a good reference for those who are looking for additional information, tricks & tips, and behind the scene details. I recommend this book as a wonderful read and hands-on guide for quick reference for Database Administrators.

Detail Review :
Every database book is either for Database Administrators or Database Developers/Architecture. This book covers many details about Database Administration in depth, however there is enough information for Database Developer to satisfy their expectation. This book is more than just a syntax reference, as it continues the topic where Book On-line leaves off. This book provides a behind-the-scenes look into SQL Server, this is very important for experienced DBA. Many DBA does the same job everyday to maintain the SQL Server in optimal condition, there are many task which can be automated to save time and make Database Administration easier. The book covers various methods automatic the routine task of database backup, recovery, database maintenance tasks etc.

There are few new features introduced in SQL Server 2005. This book successfully covers almost all of them. I have been using SQL Server 2005 for almost two years and SQL Server for more than 5 years, I found this book interesting and informative.The chapter about SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) (replacement of SQL Server 2000 Query Analyzer, Enterprise Manager and Analysis Manager) is quite accurate for those who wants to learn from beginning and it is must read. This book provides very good introduction to SQL Server Business Intelligence (BI) features - Analysis Services, Integration Services, Reporting Services. Backup are most vital responsibility of DBA, which is in depth covered in this book. Managing maintenance plans, backup strategies, backup methods, snapshot backup (new 2005 feature), Mirrored database for backup are highly relevant to backup process.

Authors have done good job keeping each chapter independent. I find it always easy to read when I do not have to jump pages in book to refer the examples of other chapters. Each chapter contains lots of figures about topic which authors are discussing. Occasionally, I felt that I am reading the BOL documentation due to nature of few of the topics. As per my opinion, it is unavoidable to stay away from BOL when writing about SQL Server. Authors have done their best to avoid duplication of the code and have pointed few times to BOL to refer advanced syntax, while they continued discussing about additional information and tricks extending BOL.

Lots of figures and lots of syntax makes this book larger than few other an average book - 1752 pages and 5 lbs. Due to this reasons few additional chapters are included onaccompanied CD. Do not forget to go over the CD, as it contains few interesting chapters - Transact-SQL Programming Guidelines, Tips, and Tricks, and SQL Server Full-Text Search. The index of book includes the chapters on the CD as well. I wish that all the chapters in CD were in book, just to have everything at one place. Few chapters in this book are very simple and placed on CD instead of the important and informative chapters, which are on CD currently.

Authors have explained T-SQL concept along with tips which makes this book interesting read. Some of the tips may be well known but still must read to understand the T-SQL completely.

Example : CHECK constraints allow insertions and updates to the table to proceed when the CHECK constraint expression does not evaluate to FALSE. A NULL value is considered to be unknown an does not evaluate to FALSE.

Book's inclination towards database administration sometimes makes the T-SQL tips interesting to read.

Example : The REORGANIZE operation can generate a large number of transactions during its execution. Another reason for disabling a non-clustered index is to reduce the space requirements when rebuilding the index.

Chapters of this books can be read independent to each other. If you want to read it in order, I recommend following order to read them.
Part I Welcome to Microsoft SQL Server
Part III SQL Server Administration
Part II SQL Server Tools and Utilities
Part IV Database Administration
Part VI SQL Server Application Development
Part V SQL Server Performance and Optimization
Part VII SQL Server Business Intelligence Features
Bonus Chapters on the CD

Pros :
In depth coverage of most of the Database Administrative Tasks.
Good coverage of T-SQL.
Interesting approach towards Database Administrative tasks with T-SQL
Simple and precise introduction to Business Intelligence (BI)
Full coverage of backup technology
Bonus articles in CD
Safari books online enabled

Cons:
Lack of examples or quiz at the end of chapters (for those who like to check their knowledge after reading chapter)
Shallow summary at the end of chapter
Chapter organization (order they are listed in book) can be better. Articles in CD are good and should have been included in main book.
Heavy book with more than 1700 pages.

Rating : 4 and 1/2 stars

In Summary, Every DBA should have this book on their book-shelf.

Pinal Dave
Principal Database Administrator
(http://www.SQLAuthority.com)

I have owned the previous two versions of this book, for SQL 7 and for SQL 2000. I waited almost two years (seems like it..) for these folks to finally get the SQL 2005 edition out, and it's as good as the others. Randomly opening the book, I could not only start on any page, but I learned something immediately. The writing is incredibly clear and straightforward without being simple, and while large portions of this edition are probably redundant with previous editions, no other book on SQL Server spends more time open on my desk than "Unleashed". One of my favorite technical books, period.

This book covers most aspects of SQL 2005. Some topics are only covered at a perfunctory level (Business Intelligence, SSIS, T-SQL etc). But many of the topics, especially archtectural ones, are covered with high level of expertise.

If you need to buy one book that covers most aspects of SQL 2005 then this should be the one. It is better and more comprehensive than "SQL 2000 Unleashed", which was also an excellent book.

Here are the topics the book covers especially well:
1)SQL 2005 Install and upgrade
2)Replication
3)Data Mirroring and other high availability solutions.
4)Index and Statistics.
5)Locking and Deadlocks.

There are better books out there for each of individual the topics of SQL 2005. But there are no book I know of which covers them as comprehensively at a high level as this book.

As a dotNet Developer, I am often called upon to write my own database code or maintain existing db code. I am also called upon to diagnose performance problems or set security. Sometimes on lightly staffed projects, I am a defacto DBA.

I have always strived to have a comprehensive understanding of the technologies I use. However, my level of understanding of SQL Server was more limited then my understanding of the other technologies I use.

I purchased this book based on existing Amazon recommendations. In particular, I was interested in the Performance and Security sections, as well as what is new. It did not disappoint. The depth on items like Indexes was exactly what I was looking for. The discussion of new items was enough to get we to a working level.

So it definitely fulfilled my needs and expectations.

However, the book seems aimed at DBAs. Given the number of topics covered in the book, I suspect it could not be comprehensive enough to take an intermediate DBA to the Advanced stage.

But for someone like me, who is often called upon to be an 'acting' DBA it serves as an excellent reference; in addition to providing a tutorial on the topics mentioned above.

I read many books on SQL Server, and I would say this book is the best, by far. It is the most comprehensive book on SQL server 2005 for a DBA. It is also well written. The authors provide the most essential information in a logical sequence. It is a long read, but it is not filled with useless technical jargon like some other large technical books. The information contained in it is quite useful. The authors said they tried to edit it down where they could without sacrificing clarity.

Although you do not need to be an expert to read it, you should have some experience relevant to RDMS to get the most out of this book.

After reading Microsoft's books about their own products, this book is a knight in shining armor. It dives into the nitty-gritty details and actual gives useful information, instead of regurgitating sparse on-line documentation.

This is the best and most comperehensive book for beginners and advanced programmers alike.

I changed to this book half way into Sql Server 2005 for dummies and find language and examples used really easy to understand as if we are learning this in a class room.

So if you want to graduate from a simpleton to a SQL Server 2005 expert this is the best book recommended.A+ marks.

Of all the texts for the DBA, MS SQL Server 2005 Unleashed is the one; I know, I've got a shelf-full. Assuming a cursory overview, I was put off at first by the encyclopedic breadth of this monumental book, but I have found its coverage exquisitely thorough, often including details I've not seen elsewhere. (One example: SQL 05 waits until a newly allocated database page is referenced to zero it out. Wow!) This is an evolutionary effort which, like the software, has been enhanced and perfected over the years. The presentation is coherent, and unlike many collaborative works, consistent; I find myself reading (and learning) about areas where I feel completely comfortable. The book is well organized and the chapters are essentially independent, which allows you to focus on the task at hand. And the authors' style is conversational but to the point; it is neither insulting nor unnecessarily obscure. Highly recommended!

Even for a beginner like me. This is a great book as a reference or if you learn by experimenting and need a book to look up things here and there. I'm not an expert with SQL Server but it really seems like this book is a must have if you're dealing with SQL Server setup, management, etc..

I used this almost every day now for the past couple months. I used it as a reference with developing in SQL SEVER 2005. It answers about 80% of my questions. Must books answer a little more then half - so I give this five stars.
If you write a lot of code in SQL, I highly recommended this book.