Author: Peter Carter
Publisher: Apress
Pages: 940
ISBN: 978-1484250884
Print: 1484250885
Kindle: B07ZC1XC9Z
Audience: SQL Server DBAs
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Kay Ewbank

Administering SQL Server can seem like a dark art; this book aims to make it more transparent.

The roles of developer and administrator are usually (and fortunately) well separated, but many database developers have at some point had to wrestle with administering a database server. This is an updated edition of a well-regarded title, and it could be useful if you're in the position of trying to keep (or make) SQL Server work.

 

Part I of this book looks at installation and configuration of SQL Server, starting with planning the deployment and working through GUI installation, server core installation, how to install on a heterogeneous operating system, and configuring the instance.

 

If you've not had to set up a system like SQL Server, devoting 160 pages to getting something up and running might seem like overkill, but the task warrants that much coverage. There's good info on making SQL Server play nicely with Windows (something you'd hope would be straightforward but can be problematic), and there are handy PowerShell scripts to get you going.

Part II moves on to database administration, with chapters on database configuration, table optimization, indexes and statistics, and database consistency. There's good coverage of memory-optimized features including filegroup and tables. The chapter on consistency includes the use of DBCC checker and how to carry out consistency checks on very large databases where it can be hard to find time to run DBCC.

Part III looks at security, resilience and scaling workloads, with chapters on the SQL Server security model, encryption, and backups and restores. This section also has chapters on high availability and disaster recovery concepts, implementing always on availability groups, log shipping, and scaling workloads.

The final part of the book addresses performance and maintenance, starting with SQL Server metadata (including its use for capacity planning). There's a good chapter on locking and blocking that looks at deadlock and transactions, including in-memory OLTP transactions. This is followed by a chapter on extended events and event sessions. A new chapter on query store is followed by a look at distributed replay. Chapters on automating maintenance routines, policy-based management and the resource governor end the book.

This is a thick book at over 900 pages, and goes further than most developers will hopefully have to. However, it's thorough, and explains the concepts well. The author gives plenty of examples, tips, and scripts to help you achieve your aims. If you have to administer an instance of SQL Server, it's a useful addition to your bookshelf.

Related Reviews

Pro SQL Server Administration - a detailed review by Ian Stirk of the SQL Server 2014 edition.

• For more recommendations of books on SQL Server see Pick Of The Shelf - SQL Server in our Programmer's Bookshelf section.

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