ISBN:0735609985Amazon.com
To help you design Microsoft database servers that must achieve the best possible performance, Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 has the details you need. For one thing, author Kalen Delaney (who used Ron Soukup's fantastic first edition as a starting point) explains how SQL Server 2000 works at a level that will interest all database administrators. She packs in the sort of minutiae that can make a real difference in the performance of especially large or complex data-storage structures, explaining what goes on inside the database management system (DBMS) when it's presented with various commands, and using that information to back up her abundant advice on the right way to design, build, and operate databases under SQL Server 2000.
Delaney makes extensive use of DBCC PAGE dumps to show what's going on in the databases that demonstrate concepts (incidentally, that utility is documented, as well as the others in the DBCC toolbox). In a typical section, DBCC PAGE is used to show how index pages work. There's careful attention to database structure at the byte level too, with conceptual diagrams that explain how pointers work and how strings of strings of bytes combine to represent stored data. It's the sort of detail you need if you'll be writing software for SQL Server 2000, or need to extract maximum performance from the DBMS itself. --David Wall
Topics covered: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 internals, especially data structures and the behavior of queries. Table design is emphasized, especially indexing decisions. Transact-SQL programming, including the use of cursors, gets lots of attention. /p>
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
Decent Surface Overview
I've been scouring this book and found that the there is well written overview of SQL, much like a whitepaper. You'll learn about the types of backup/recovery or replication, but you won't learn the how.
Given the "Inside" in the title, I was hoping this was more in depth and perhaps presented the "HOW". I would recommend this for the sales force for SQL Server or general casual reading, but not for people that want to actually do stuff and need to learn that.
I did like the history of SQL Server section, which I think is invaluable being a history buff, but I thought that it was unnecessarily defensive about Microsoft's business practices. One has to assume that if we are using the product, we are not openly hostile at Microsoft.
Extremely useful and a pleasure to read.
What I love about this book is that it really shows you the full story of SQL Server, starting with a broad history of the product, and eventually delving down into the deep internals of the system.
I recently had to to deal with an old Sybase database, and found this book helpful, because Kalen's discussion of the internal storage and retrieval of data really applies across many database technologies. And of course, it has also proven invaluable for working with SQL Server too!
This book is directed to people who want to know what SQL Server can do and how to use it. No marketing hype here, just good solid material.
The only downside is the index, which for MS Press books, is in a too-large text, does not indent things well, and does not always group things in the most useful fashion. But this is not a fault of the author, and does not lessen the greateness of this book.