Customer Reviews

The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook

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2 star:		(1)
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What I really like about this book is that it is cheap compared to its competitors. The author does not waste paper with wordy sentences that is only meant to take up space to create a 1500+ book to justify a price.

The author explains three things in depth and better than any books I have ever read (and I have read lot of SQL books): Index optimization, query optimization, and locking.

These three topics are usually for advanced SQL developers who must performance tune a complex database. This book is not for the beginners. Having said this, if you want to be a serious database developer, this book will put you ahead of your competition. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be or is a database developer.

I have been amazed about how much information is in this book. The writing is clear and concise. The long section that details query tuning was an education in itself.

I finished the book with a clear understanding of the types of queries and how SQL Server uses them.

This book is sitting on my desk now. If you want the information on how to optimize your queries, or the database, this is my recommendation.

There is much overlap with the inside sql server 2000 book from microsoft but that book is more a detailed survey with a intuitive technical foucus while this book is a more pratical focus. These two books work together to form the ultimate 'book'. This book covers everything in detail and has many practical expamples, but the examples are not page fillers. It actulaly has many less pages than inside sql server.

This book contains very clear introductions on how SQL server 2000 works, what are the important design considerations for creating a database, and has tutorials on the various tuning tools. As an introduction on SQL Server workings, it is very good. However, it is also very light on how to actually monitor and tune a real system. The tuning checklist is generic and many of the items are only applicable to designers, not someone who administers databases that may have been in existance for years. If you read the entire book, you can pick out handy items, but it does not give tuning examples, does not tell when to get concerned over particular parameters, nor go into which parameters (from the many supplied by the performance monitor) are really the important ones. As such, I did not find it much help in my daily activities as a DBA. I found "SQL Server 2000 for Experienced DBAs" by Brian Knight to be much more helpful.

I read this book online at ACM (by books 24x7) and was impressed with the clarity of Ken England's writing style. Finding a good reference on how SQL Server treats clustered and nonclustered indexes is no easy task, since most of the time a clustered index is described recursively (e.g. a clustered index is an an index that clusters data) and a nonclustered index is also defined based on not being clustered. That's useless. Ken makes it very clear what these differences are in terms of the data structures used, and more importanly helps you understand the ramifications. Reading this book has given me a black belt understanding of the Query Optimizer and Indexes. In fact, my first project after reading this book resulted taking a long running 8 hour query written by someone else and turning it into a 5 minute query. Needless to say I am purchasing a physical copy. Thanks Ken!

I would say this this is one of my favorite SQL Server books and I have alot. If you want plain english internals, query optimization, information on locking and the things to think about when you are designing a new system or improving an old one, then Ken England has the book for you. I agree with another reader that this book reads like Ken is in the room talking to you. What is my favorite part...the part on the default data cache which if you are a Sybase DBA or a guy from way back this is something that they teach you right away and you would configure yourself along with the stored procedure cache. In SQL 2000 they are integrated and have been for a while but Ken does a real nice job of explaining them so that you can understand the need for memory how things come in and out of memory etc. I also like how he gets you to ask yourself the same questions that he asks himself, " Is this going to cause a locking problem in the future." I would say that If you want a book that is down and dirty to the point for every DBA to learn about and understand sql server and how to optimize it, look no further all of the essentials that you wished that you had known years ago are here. While there are other good authors out there like, Kalen Delaney, Rob Vieira, Mike Otey, Ken Henderson, etc.. This book is in the catagory of.. You need to have it and know everything in it. Any DBA worth their weight would own this book.

If you want to really understand SQL Server, and get a better insight on database technology in general, this is the book to read. Ken England covers everything from SQL Server's internal workings (how it accesses tables & indexes) to query and index optimization. This is the kind of thing they don't teach you in college. Real-world, useful examples and techniques abound in this book. For instance, England goes over a few undocumented DBCC commands and includes an extended section on using the query execution plan to fine-tune indexes and queries. Also covered is the use of lock hints (as well as the underlying technology), hardware considerations, and a lot more.

That said, I would recommend this book to anyone who deals with SQL Server on ANY level, from DBA's to web developers. Pair this book with The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL by Ken Henderson and you've got a great start on real database development.

...This covers what some of the other tuning books covers - but every book shows you something the others don't. This book showed me quite a few undocumented commands and tips I didn't get from other books.

I think what I liked best about it was the writing style. It doesn't read like a technical manual or textbook... it reads more like Ken England is talking to you personally. He explains concepts and techniques in a way that even I could understand. I highly recommend this book.

I have been working with SQL for several years and always felt a bit weak in my understanding of best practices. I have only absorbed a few chapters so far on index structure and execution plans but already I feel like I have fast tracked into the clever peoples class. The layout is excellent and the language unambigous.

I have been a DBA for a bunch of small sites for many years. Recently I committed to a job w/ a large, online OLTP retailer and needed to fine tune my knowledge of the SQL Server engine.

I was shocked at just how flawed/lacking my knowledge was after reading this book.

Let me first state this sucker isn't for people looking to get by using the Enterprise Manger GUI. This book dissects the inner most workings of the db engine and it's under lying theory. Their is a lot of TSQL. I found myself limited to reading only a small number of pages at a time and then needing a break. The book is that intense and I have a Masters of Science degree as well as MCDBA and MCITP certifications.

Probably my favorite feature of the book is its small size, under 400 pages from tip to tail. I'd suggest this book to anyone wanting an understanding of what they are actually doing in SQL Server when they issue commands from EM. This book should be a requirement for any DBA or DB Designer in my opinion.