This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

If you need to deploy, manage, or secure Microsoft SQL Server 2008, this is the complete, fast-paced, task-based reference you’ve been searching for. Authored by a world-class expert on SQL Server in the enterprise, this book goes far beyond the basics, taking on the complex tasks that DBAs need to make the most of Microsoft’s flagship database platform. SQL Server MVP, Ross Mistry presents proven techniques for SQL Server 2008 installation, upgrades, backup/restore, data transfer, indexing, high availability, security, and much more. He draws on extensive testing in high-profile production environments to offer step-by-step solutions and powerful tips you won’t find anywhere else. Every chapter begins with a section identifying SQL Server 2008’s most significant new improvements, and concludes with a convenient summary of best practices. Each chapter also outlines the benefits of leveraging Windows Server 2008.

The book is available at any book store around the world. 

Understand how to:

•          Master DBA tips, tricks, and best practices proven in actual enterprise environments

•          Install, upgrade or transition to SQL Server 2008.

•          Harden and Secure an implementation.

•          Encrypt SQL Server from an end-to-end perspective.

•          Implement high availability–and leverage SQL Server 2008’s major improvements to failover clustering and database mirroring

•          Save time with SQL Server 2008’s new policy-based management tools

•          Performance tune and troubleshoot a SQL Server 2008 environment.

•          Optimize application performance and manage workloads with the powerful new Resource Governor

•          Implement Performance Studio, maintenance plans, Transparent Data Encryption and much more…

Bonus Content:

•          The book is based on Windows Server 2008

•          Step by step instructions of how to implement a failover cluster on Windows Server 2008

•          SQL Server PoweShell Administration Tasks

•          Consolidate and virtualize SQL Server with Hyper-V

•          Step by step instructions on how to install Hyper-V

•          Proactively Monitor SQL Server with Operations Manager

•          Install Windows Server 2008 certificates to encrypt SQL Server data

About the Author

Ross Mistry, SQL Server MVP, MCTS, MCDBA, MCSE, is a principal consultant and partner with Convergent Computing, a San Francisco Bay Area IT consulting firm. Mistry focuses on designing and implementing SQL Server, Windows Server, Active Directory, Exchange, and System Center solutions for global Fortune 500 organizations. His SQL Server specialties include high availability, migrations, security, consolidation and virtualization.   As a lead Microsoft architect, some of his clients include Yahoo!, Williams-Sonoma, McDonald’s, Ross Dress for Less, CIBC, Network Appliance and Gilead Sciences. He is the coauthor of Windows Server 2008 Unleashed and principal author of SQL Server 2005 Management and Administration. He is also a contributing writer on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Unleashed, Exchange Server 2007 Unleashed and SharePoint Server 2007 Unleashed.  Ross frequently speaks at international conferences around the world.  Most recently he has spoken at Microsoft user groups in the Silicon Valley, North American PASS, Europe PASS and Dev Connections.

Contributing Writers include:

Hilary Cotter — SQL Server MVP

John Welch — SQL Server MVP

Marco Shaw — PowerShell MVP

Maciej Pilecki — SQL Server MVP

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

An Incomplete Reference - 2009-06-01
Reviewer Rating:
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.

Favorite Book of My Shelf - A Great Concise Book for All DBAs - Review by Founder of SQLAuthority.com - 2009-05-05
Reviewer Rating:
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

Best 2008 SQL Server book - 2009-03-17
Reviewer Rating:
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!!!

Perfect for production DBAs and "accidental" DBAs - 2009-02-25
Reviewer Rating:
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.

A Rich All-In-One SQL Server Book - 2009-08-24
Reviewer Rating:
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.

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