Customer Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration

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

 

 

Production database administrators have to know at least a little about a lot of things:
* How to install or upgrade SQL Servers
* How to build clusters
* How to plan for disaster recovery and high availability
* How to do performance tuning
* How to secure and protect databases

The production role revolves around management, not creation. Sure, they do need to know T-SQL and be able to debug problem code, but the majority of their day is making the trains run on time - not designing the seats inside the train cars.

Windows administrators who are forced into the SQL Server DBA role need this same type of information. They get handed a database server to manage, often with a database from a third party vendor like Citrix or Blackberry. They have to manage the server, make sure it performs as needed, and back it up safely - but they'll never touch a line of T-SQL code that runs on the server.

Ross Mistry and Hilary Cotter's book Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration is a great companion for production DBAs and accidental DBAs. It covers this wide variety of topics in a good depth, and leaves topics like beginning T-SQL or how to write stored procedures out to other books.

Short Summary:
SQL SERVER 2008 is a trusted database platform that provides organizations a competitive edge by allowing them to obtain faster results and thus make improved business decisions. This book covers all the topics that can make Database Administrators efficient and successful.

Detail summary:

This information-rich book aims to enhance the experience of professionals working with SQL Server. It covers a wide array of topics and modules of the SQL Server 2008, for instance, database engine, Analysis Services, Integration Services, replication, Reporting Services, Notification Services, services broker, and full text search. The book provides elaborated guidance on management, administration, and monitoring. Besides, new features such as Policy-Based Management, Compressed Backup, and Fail-over Clustered are covered in depth. The book even has a few chapters dedicated to some of the newly introduced concepts including Powershell, Resource Governor, and Virtualization.

The latest version of SQL Server 2008 is a significant improvement on the previous version. People who have purchased the previous version know that it contains only 300 pages and does not provide comprehensive information. I had criticized the author Ross Mistry for the same. The author took my criticism positively and promised me that the next version of the book will be complete. I am extremely glad that the latest version lives up to my expectations! It is a complete book with over 850 pages and covers every topic related to SQL Server under the sun. So, there is no need to refer anything online. Not to forget that there is an online version this book available for free.

The latest edition of SQL Server 2008 includes some of the great features from the previous edition apart from the various new features to improve a DBA's life. The later chapters of the book focus on some interesting and practical information on improving your efficiency, the scale of your server, and performance. It contains some key new features that will help you manage multiple servers at one time using Policy-Based Management, scale your I/O load using compression, and collect valuable information about your environment using data collectors. This information will certainly make a huge positive difference in your experience of working with SQL Server.

This book assumes that the reader has no experience with installing SQL Server 2008, so it starts with explanation of the basic installation and setup methods and then provides further information. One thing I really appreciate about this book is that it focuses on day-to-day administration, best practices, and industry case scenarios, which is relevant for all SQL Server users. Another attractive fact about this book is that all the topics and examples are based on the new features and functionalities.

One of the most interesting chapters I found in this book is chapter 21 - Consolidating and Vitalizing SQL Server 2008 with Hyper-V. I have not seen any other author presenting this concept in such a simple way. I think the author has done great job in organizing the ideas in a coherent manner. I recommend this useful book to everyone; in particular those interested in learning SQL Server 2008 should start with this book.

Every chapter of the book ends with Best Practices related to that chapter. Let us go over few of them.

"All database users belong to the public database role by default. Avoid using the public database role when assigning permissions unless absolutely necessary."

"Make your key index as narrow as possible - preferably an integer column with nonclustered index on it. "

Rating: 5 Stars

In summary, this is a great concise book for all DBAs. They should definitely adorn their desk with this book for frequent reference, as I have done mine.

Pinal Dave
Founder - blog.SQLAuthority.com

As a SQL Server expert, I have had the opportunity to read all of the new SQL Server 2008 books released to date. I must say the book that stood out the most was SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration.

I felt that this book did a deep dive on many topics that other books just briefly introduced. Specific chapters which stood out were failover clustering as it included step-by-steps starting from Windows Server 2008 failover clustering. I haven't seen this in any resource, book or even on SQL Server 2008 Books Online. The upgrade and migration chapter was solid. You would learn when it is best to upgrade and when it is best to migrate to SQL Server 2008. In addition, it included the steps to actually conduct a successful migration.

Ross Mistry and Hilary Cotter did a great job on covering new topics such as Policy Based Management, Resource Governor, Data Collector and much more. The book also included information on how to configure Operations Manager and the SQL Server 2008 Management Pack. I was very impressed with the technical knowledge the well known SQL Server MVPs put together on this title. 5 Stars!!!

Every chapter I read in this book raises more questions. This book is vague and incomplete in every respect. Not at the same level of excellence as SQL Server 2005 Unleashed or even the books online included with SQL 2008. This book leaves out a lot of important details for administrators planning a SQL 2008 deployment. The differences between Standard and Enterprise editions are outlined in a short, vague paragraph in the introductory chapter. From there on out the book refers to the Enterprise feature set without ever indicating that a given feature is only available in Enterprise. Policy Based Management? There is an embarrassment of a chapter which says click here then there to create a policy but not even a single word is said about the actual real world configuration options available via Policy Based Management. It's like explaining Moby Dick by telling you how to turn the pages of the book and never mentioning the whale. Surface Area Tool no longer exists and they don't explain how to perform equivalent the configuration using the new Policy tools. I was hoping for a resource to help me feel more confident about SQL 2008 but this isn't it.

SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration lives up to its name. Ross Mistry and the other authors have created a book that is very focused on helping you manage and administer your 2008 instance of SQL Server. There is not fuss or time spent on T-SQL data manipulation statements. Instead the authors, which include well-known names in the industry such as Hilary Cotter and John Welch, spend their efforts on the tasks needed by those that have to administer databases.

The book covers a lot of topics, starting with installing SQL Server and going through to advanced topics on monitoring and troubleshooting using the new Resource Governor and Systems Center Operations Manager. There are even a couple of bonus chapters in the book relating to using PowerShell with SQL Server 2008 and using Hyper-V as a means of server consolodation.

The writing is very clear and the explanations go from the basic to the advanced smoothly. You can use this book as a learning tool to pick up on technologies and methods you might not have such as Failover Clustering or the new Policy Based Management. I liked the graphics and the samples. I wasn't crazy about some of the long syntax listings. That's what the Microsoft documentation is for. However, there were only a few of those.

The book is very precise, technically. It's well broken up so you can attack it a piece at a time or turn to it as a reference as needed. I'd recommend picking up a copy and keeping it handy.

I was very impressed with Mistry's latest title. The chapters which really stood out for me were; failover clustering, virtualizing SQL Server with Hyper-V and upgrading to SQL Server 2008.

The bonus content was also great as the book provided step-by-steps on how to configure a Windows Cluster with Windows Server 2008, how to configure Operations Manager so that you can monitor your SQL Server infrastructure and how to actually install and configure Hyper-V.

Even included multiple instance failover configurations which I haven't see anywhere else. Each chapter also had bestpractices and tips.

Great buy, in-depth knowledge on new SQL Server 2008 features and administrative tasks is provided!!!

Brandon

I have had the opportunity to read through many of the technical books Ross Mistry has had a hand in publishing. Similar to the previous books, this book is no exception. This book is full of detail, day-to-day experiences (instead of made up Microsoft examples), and down to earth information that can be saved for years to come. SQL is no easy application to work with, but after reading this book, you'll feel like you've worked with SQL for years. I highly recommend the book if you are working with SQL 2008 currently or will be in the near future.

This book is one of the best. It covers all grounds. Just what a DBA need. This is not a beginner's book. Prior knowlege with DBA work would certainly help.

I strongly recommend it.

I think this book is one of the better all-in-one SQL Server 2008 books in the market right now. It's covering almost all administration areas with sufficient content. It's as deep as a 820 page book can get. If you are a senior DBA, this book should be accompanied by other books on specific ares like clustering, internals etc. I found "Best Practices" sections, at the end of each chapter, useful. The bonus HyperV chapter could be thicker, though.

Nothing great to write about this book - the language used does not keep you interested.
Many times, I felt that some more info is needed to get my db issue resolved.