Books for/about - microsoft sql server

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-431): Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2005 Implementation and Maintenance (Pro-Certification (Hardcover))

Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Solid Quality Learning Laura Sackerman

ISBN: 073562271X
List Price: $59.99
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 4
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Summary: Good book
Taking the test which this study guide is focus to is a very important step before give any content's feedback (i'm still preparing myself for the test) But i will give my 1st impression about the book anyway.

Pros:
Very well organized book. Chapters and content are divided in small chunks of information (lessons). For busy people (like me) or those which like to do self study at own pace this is a big aid.

I like the writing style also. Not boring, not too technical altought you should have a previous SQL 2000 background if you want to take full advantage of this book.

I did like chapter 11, the backup and restore processes. This is a must for every SQL admin. and it is well covered. The same for the Maintenance Plan and Job topics (Ch 14)

The 15% off in the test price is a good bonus. You should consider this if you're in a low budget.

Cons or critics:
The test engine is an added value but... i don't know ... after taking a few custom tests ... i am not pretty sure about their content's difficulty. I mean, IMO, questions seems too easy for me. I've took a lot of Microsoft tests before (i'm MCSA) and i've never seen easy questions like these in most of them. You must read a lot and think well before mark an answer and i don't feel that when i'm taking this book's test engine. Do not misunderstand what i'm saying, a free Test Engine is a nice bonus, i just want to give a non parcial review. I'm a customer too and we must rely in good study sources to avoid test failures.

Chapter 5: just a brief T-SQL review; use a Sybex SQL 2000 Design book for better preparation or buy the Ben Forta book instead (ISBN: 0672325675), you won't regret and it will help you a lot.

Chapter 12: hey! what happened with the pics here? ... too much words and just a few pics for this topic. Fragmentation concepts are easier to understand when you see how they works; here's when drawings and pics enter into action.

Final comment.
Currently, this is the only book for this test in the market. Sybex and the others are still in press, so there are not much choices either but overall, is a good election anyway; easy to read and very well organized. Find a good PC or laptop, VMWARE or Virtual PC and that's all you need for your study track (SQL 2005 evaluation version is included)

Need extra info? Try SQL 2005 Stanek pocket book ...

UPDATED 7/26/2006:
I already have the new Sybex book for this test. And 'till now, what i've read so far ... i've not found it better than Solid's book. Some Sybex chapters are just a re impression of their old 70-228 book. I keep you informed ...

Summary: 2-in-1 training kit
These 2 extras alone is worth more than the price of this book: First, there is the 15% discount on MCP exams. This translates to about $15. Then, there is the practice test software with 295 questions which is very similar to other commercial practice tests (cost at least $59). NOTE: I bought this book from other site because this book was already available there a week earlier than here at Amazon. The price of this book in Amazon is about $8 lower.

This is a hard bound book (I'm very impressed of the cover design). The papers are white and of high quality.

The contents are organized by exam objectives (there is also a card you can tear from the book that outlines the exam objectives and tells you what chapter and lesson you will find the objective discussed in the book). Every lesson has its summary and review questions. Reading some lessons and browsing through the pages of the book, I believe this is a comprehensive study guide for this exam and is, by itself, sufficient to prepare you to pass the exam.

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Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming (Pro-Developer)

Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Itzik Ben-gan Dejan Sarka Roger Wolter

ISBN: 0735621977
List Price: $44.99
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Summary: Serious SQL Programmers need this book
Firstly, this is not a book for beginners or those new to T-SQL, this is targetted more towards intermediate/advanced programmers. If you're new then look at T-SQL Querying.
The level of knowledge and detail that Itzik, Dejan and Roger have and portray in this book is awesome. Do you want to know how SQL Server 2005 internally stores date/time values and what the pitfalls are that you might run into when programming against date/time values (one of the most common problems facing SQL programmers), this book has the answer.
With chapters on Stores Procedures, Transactions, temporary tables, views, the service broker and more.
Each chapter has excellent advice and knowledge and filled with sample code (available online). The book is targetted specifically at SQL Server 2005 and the new ways it handles things, new functions and commands.
My only concern and a slight one at that is that with the amount of information the authors are trying to portray in 500 pages, sometimes the reading is heavy.
An invaluable book for SQL Server 2005 programmers.

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	Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Querying (Solid Quality Learning) Publisher: Microsoft Press Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan Lubor Kollar Dejan Sarka
ISBN: 0735623139 List Price: $44.99 Amazon Price: $28.34 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Best overview of SQL I was searching for a book that would fully cover both old and new (2005) features of T-SQL. This is the only one in the market that is actually doing so. But, more then that, the first chapter alone that explains how SQL works logically in human coherent language is worth the price of the whole book. And the other chapters are of same excelent quality. This is the best book about the subject in the market and I am sure to buy the sequel (about T-SQL programming.) ZA Summary: Far better than I anticipated - and I expected greatness! Having read Itzik Ben-Gan's articles in SQL Server Magazine for several years, I was expecting a well written and technically challenging book. All I can say now that I have been reading it is: "Wow!" It has really exceeded my expectations. I tire of the typical re-hash of the SQL Server Books Online that most authors are fond of doing lately, but this text digs far deeper and points out several items that can help any SQL Server professional build a more solid foundation in the art of T-SQL querying. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a more thorough understanding of how SQL Server 2005 handles query processing. Summary:

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A Developer's Guide to SQL Server 2005 (Microsoft .Net Development)

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Bob Beauchemin Dan Sullivan

ISBN: 0321382188
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Summary: Stuffed with goodies
You really need some time to go over this book. At times, the content in the book goes a little heavy but the information is very useful and every sentence in the book has useful information that you want to capture in your brain. So, read this book slowly and carefully to absorb most of it.

Summary: integrate Web Services with SQL Server
There is a heck of a lot stuffed between the covers of this book. It shows improvements on many fronts to SQL Server. Quite possibly, any given reader won't need every new feature, or even most. But Microsoft clearly hopes that the broad sweep will have broad appeal to developers.

On one front, there is integration with Web Services. So that in SQLCLR, you can invoke a Web Service. To this ends, the text has a quick explanation of Web Services Description Language, and how various utilities are offered, to make stubs or proxies. It may be worth noting that a proxy can be implemented as synchronous or asynchronous. Why is this significant? Some of you might have written client-server code using Sun's Remote Procedure Calls. By default, these used to be synchronous. Which led to very brittle code. A client could hang, waiting for a tardy server to respond. In SQL Server, you might want to consider favouring asynchronous methods, which can give more robust, loosely-coupled systems.

There is an extensive discussion of how the entire rubric of Web Services can be deeply integrated with the SQL Server. Impressive. Though some readers might wonder if this seems to be a 2 tier implementation, rather than the common 3 tiers often promulgated in this business. Well, a 2 tier system can be more responsive and scale better than a 3 tier. With the drawback that since your business logic is embedded in the database, you are tied to that database. But if you are already a SQL Server house, and have no plans to migrate, then this should not be a problem.

Of course, the book talks about much else. But it was the Web Services that caught my eye.

Summary: A must have
This is THE book on SQL Server 2005 development.

I first got to know the authors through the beta of this book, "A First Look at SQL Server for Developers" - which quickly became the De facto standard. This is the RTM version of that book.

If you purchased all the books on this topic, some would be on your bookshelf, and one would be on your desk. This is the one which would be on your desk. The authors are experts, and the book is very well written. It is simply the best book on the topic that exists. Much like Michael Kay's XSLT book.

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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services 2005

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Brian Larson

ISBN: 0072262397
List Price: $49.99
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Summary: Great Detailed Tutorial For Those New To Reporting Services
Many reviewers of this book have given it high marks because it is a terrific tutorial and that introduces most of the crucial techniques for writing great reports. I would agree as I have reporting experience with MS-Access and Crystal and this book helped me get up to speed quickly. If you like learning in a step-by-step fashion right out of a book - this is the book!

The bad reviews came from people that were looking for more of a reference type book. While this book is not a bad reference it does fall short as a reference book. For example, one reviewer brought up that the ability to shade alternating detail rows of a report does not appear to be easy to find in this book. I would agree with that. I was unable to go into the index and find a quick solution in this book.

If you want a better reference book try the WROX book, Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. That book is not as good as this book from a step-by-step standpoint but it is a better reference when you need a quick solutions. For example, page 272 has code on how to shade alternating rows - they call it Greenbar Reports. It was not easy to find in this book either. How many people would look up "Greenbar Reports" in the reference? I was looking into "shading alternative rows". I just happened to stumble upon it.

I bought both books together. Of course there is lots of overlap but between the two that is all you will need to become a pro at Reporting Services.

Reporting Services could use a COOKBOOK-style text like they have for Access and other programming languages. Those types of books have served me well over the years. Until then this book and the WROX book should do the trick!

Summary: Outstanding Reporting Services training book
Some reviewers are complaining that this is not a reference and that the style of this book is almost entirely to step you through one report project after another, building various kinds of reports step by step. Well this is indeed no reference, but a learning book instead! This book is perfectly learning you how to use Reporting Services. I worked through the whole book and I only had to deal with an error in chapter 8 (report TransportMonitor) and a small print error in the examples (wrong year value) which intuitively could be solved easily (often may errors in other learning guides!).

Great work and very clear explanations.

The major disadvantage: nothing about Report Data Models and the Report Builder (only something about it in Appendix D)

Summary: Well Done
Good info. Authors writing style is very good. Packed with lots of goodies. Recommend for both newbies and advanced readers.

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	Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2005 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (Pro-Administrator's Pocket Consultant) Publisher: Microsoft Press Authors: William R. Stanek
ISBN: 0735621071 List Price: $29.99 Amazon Price: $19.79 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: THE ONE SQL SERVER BOOK EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE I picked up Stanek's SQL Server 2005 Administrator's Pocket Consultant and Windows Server 2003 Inside Out at the same time, and have found them both to be excellent. If there's one SQL Server book every developer, programmer and administrator should have, it's this one--I haven't found a better one and I've read half a dozen so far. Stanek has a gift for getting to the point, explaining the most complex concepts in ways that are easy to understand. He seems to pack a 1,000 pages of info into 550 pages. SQL Server 2005 Administrator's Pocket Consultant has a strong focus on security, configuration, optimization, and troubleshooting. Throughout the book, there's excellent coverage of T-SQL and I prefer the way T-SQL is covered in context in this book to the way it's covered in the separate T-SQL book I bought (and no longer use). Beyond core database administration, which this book covers better than any other book, it also covers full-text search, indexes, integration services (creating packages), linked servers, distributed transactions, replication, publications, etc. The maintenance chapters are some of the strongest with complete coverage of profiling, monitoring, optimizing, backup, recovery, log shipping, database mirroring, automation, etc. Thank you Mr. Stanek for an excellent book. Summary: THE definite SQL Server 2005 admin ref Ever since I picked up Stanek's Windows 2000 admin pocket consultant, I've relied on his books and they've never let me down. When I needed to learn about SQL Server 2005, I checked to see if there was a pocket consultant and I'm thankful there was. This book has been a constant resource in getting up and running with sql server. As usuall Stanek packs in more detail than other books twice as big, making this a powerful and to the point resource. All 549 pages are top notch! Summary: Which version is it? I'd feel more comfortable about buying this book if the sample pages actually referred to SQL Server 2005 instead of SQL Server 2000. Some of the reviews are dated 2004. So which product does this book cover? Summary:

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Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Brian Larson

ISBN: 0072260904
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Summary: Save a tree
OK -- it's not terrible, but it reminds me of many books that start with "this is a field, this is a record, this is a table." It started fine - I learned the difference between star and snowflake schema, the benefits of a data mart, and the key feature of SQL 2005 Analysis Services that addresses the latency between OLTP and OLAP (it's a feature called Universal Data Model (UDM). All cool. The trouble begins in the subsequent chapters with the cutesy MaximumMinimum company and the painstaking, step-by-step "now you do it" approach. Which means you can only make use of the info if you're sitting in front of a computer. Not my cuppa.

Summary: Good Textbook
I have enjoyed reading this book but the teaching approach was off for me. As a consultant, i need to move quickly through materials. That means i need to be able to load supporting materials quickly from download. Neither the means of getting at the download nor the actual download was QA'd. Instructions for download are scattered throughout the book or missing. Also important installation instruction was overlooked. This is odd because every *manual* step for building each db/dim/measure is presented in detail (note, i did NOT QA all the steps:-). Example: pg 116-126 >> 10 pages of instruction to build the DM. Most readers of this book do not need to know how to build a db. I went to the download & used it to build the DM -- i figured it would be there and it was BUT i did not find a pointer in the book for the DM download. That's the tip of the iceberg, it gets worse from there. It is not likely that someone besides the author has tried to use the download. The server name is blarsonxp2bmlsql2005 -- remember that as u try to use the download. Don't get me wrong, Larson KNOWS his stuff, no question. I'm getting plenty from the book. There are just thoughtless omissions and oversights in the download -- another example, the MaxMinSalesDM_Log is over 8G, pretty big for a sample. JMHO

Summary: A must-have for all dealing with SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence
With this book, Mr. Larson executes a task not easy to do-he covers a lot of ground in a few steps. He covers all major topics of BI related to SQL Server 2005 and has sample exercises (Learn By Doing) that reinforce the knowledge. What is great about the exercises is that he uses a fictional company in one real scenario, unlike many authors.

As someone not very familiar with Data Mining/Warehousing, I found his explanations to be at my level of understanding. He also ties each aspect he discusses in with the other subjects as you go along, making the whole concept of Business Intelligence clear.

I look forward to reading more of Mr. Larson's publications.

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Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit (With CD-ROM)

Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation

ISBN: 0735612668
List Price: $69.99
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 3
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Summary: Somewhat useful
The information in this book is useful only to those who are clueless of SQL. Most of the insights are rudimentary and its "best practices" are common sense to most experienced SQL DBAs. If you are an experienced SQL DBA, I would recommend this book for only two reasons:

1)You want to obtain some stored procedures as a DBA utility. If you are already a good T-SQL programmer, this will bring you limited value.

2)You want to have a good understanding of SQL Clustering and Log shipping. The book does better job than most in describing both SQL clustering and Log shipping. But the explanation is very general and more architectural than explaining how to implement and manage one.

Summary: Good book
I used this book to prepare myself for the MCP Exam and I passed.
This book countains exellent examples and It is good for people who learns by modyfing examples.

I recommend this book specially for DBA who worked with the SQL 7 and want to focuss on new features of SQL 2K.

Summary: Great coverage of SQL Server Data Warehousing topics
I bought this book after searching for a good practical and design guide to the new data warehousing tools in SQL Server 2000. While not perfect none of the other tomes that I own on SQL Server do justice to this topic which is very hot in database circles these days.

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