Rod Colledge’s book SQL Server 2008 Administration in Action is a great asset for most SQL Server DBA’s; it covers a variety of issues in a simple-to-understand format. Let me preface this post by saying that while I am a DBA, I’ve been doing mostly development work for the last few years. However, armed with this book, I felt like I could easily dive back into administrative duties.
The book is broken up into three sections, each with several supporting chapters: Planning and Installation, Configuration, and Operations. Each chapter does a relatively deep dive into issues by starting with basic definitions, moving quickly through options and concepts, and then finally wrapping up with a bulleted list of best-practice considerations. If I had but one suggestion to make for the publishers, it would be that they consider consolidating all of the checklists into one document. What is probably the most amazing fact to me is that the book is very short (compared to some other administrative guides); it’s only 440 pages, including the index. It’s just well-written, straight to the point, and focuses on just the important stuff.
I also like the Appendices at the end, especially the Top 25 WORST practices, and the basic schedule in Appendix B. Although it’s probable that most DBA’s will have much more complicated schedules than described herein, it’s a useful template (especially for those “accidental DBA’s”). Overall, I really liked this book; I think it will be very helpful for me in the future (especially as I begin to study for the 2008 certification exams).
Here's an interview with the author:
Also, you can download a few sample chapters:
Sample chapter 4 Installing and upgrading SQL Server 2008
Sample chapter 10 Backup and recovery
Stu
