There’s a ton of SQL Server books out there to help get you started on the road to becoming a database administrator. I’m going to start at the start of your career, and go forward.
| Category | Beginner Books |
Advanced Books |
Performance Tuner Books |
| Production Database Administration: Backups, restores, installing SQL, clustering, security. |
SQL 2008: SQL Server 2008 Administration in Action SQL 2005: |
SQL 2008: SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration |
SQL 2008: SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting (I coauthored this) SQL 2005: |
| T-SQL Development: Stored procedures, queries, views, triggers. |
SQL 2008: SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Fundamentals |
SQL 2008: Inside SQL 2008 T-SQL Querying SQL 2005: SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL: |
SQL 2008: SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled SQL 2005: |
My Favorite Non-SQL Server Books
These books aren’t specific to DBAs, but are things I’ve found really helpful in my career:
Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Do you get nervous at the thought of opening your email in-box because there’s so much piled up, and you don’t know where to begin? Do you struggle with to-do lists and project management software? Tired of struggling to keep your dayplanner up-to-date? Feel like you’re never going to catch up? Jealous of those folks on Twitter who keep shouting “Inbox Zero!”?
David Allen’s book Getting Things Done has been the answer for me and for a few of the folks I work with. It’s a simple, no-nonsense approach to managing daily tasks. Knowledge workers these days have an unending stream of incoming “stuff”, and the GTD philosophy is about rapidly handling as much as you can, as fast as you can, and feeling absolutely comfortable knowing that you can’t handle everything.
I showed my current manager into the GTD philosophy, and he caught on right away. He went from hundreds of emails in his in-box down to less than half a dozen in a couple of weeks. He responds faster to requests, and clearly feels confident in managing his day-to-day inflow of tasks.
You can buy the paperback on Amazon, and there’s also a Kindle version.
Time Management for Systems Administrators
Time Management for Systems Administrators by Thomas Limoncelli
If you’re not quite ready for the GTD strategy, check out this lighter version of the philosophy that’s tailored specifically for IT workers. It’s a much smaller book, and breaks down just what you need to know in order to get your work done faster. One of my former managers gave this out as a Christmas present a few years ago to all of his staff after I converted him to GTD.
You can buy the paperback on Amazon, and there’s also a Kindle version.
The Whuffie Factor
The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt
Whuffie is slang for social capital: your reputation, your credibility, your personal bankability. It’s not as simple as the number of followers you have on Twitter, because that doesn’t necessarily indicate your trustworthiness – there’s plenty of spammers who’ve mastered the art of the followback. It’s not as simple as the number of posts you’ve made on a forum somewhere, because that just indicates you’re really good at clicking the Submit button.
This concept isn’t just for marketing people – it matters to IT professionals. As we go through more and more layoffs, the concept of a lifelong career at the same company is nearly gone. You need to find out how to market yourself to find a job before it’s too late – and when you’ve been laid off, it’s already too late.
You can read my review of the Whuffie Factor, buy the paperback on Amazon, and there’s also a Kindle version.
hi,i wanted to know dba role and responsibility.and also wanted what is best for dba oracle or sql in currnt it field.
i wanted to make our carrier as dba.pls tell me how it is
better to make our carrier as a dba.and how we got fresher salary as a dba role.
Vinod – check out the articles in my Becoming a DBA section where I’ve written a lot about this.
thank you brent.
helo brent one more suggetion plz.
i heares that “70-431 sql sever 2005 maintanence and implemenation” by microsoft book also good for sql server dba starters. is it?
Sorry, but I can’t address anything I haven’t reviewed here. Your best bet is to check places like Amazon.com’s reviews.
Hi Brent,
one more suggestion for the [DBCC LOG]
How to see statement [Insert,Delete,Update]?
BR,
Samurai
You’ll need to buy a third-party product like Quest LiteSpeed for SQL Server that can read the transaction log and show what happened.
Brent, not sure if you would be able to answer this or not. Our company uses SQL Server 2005. Would “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration” apply to 2005 as well or would it be better to get the 2005 version of the book?
If you’re exclusively using 2005 and have no plans to go to 2008 in the next 12-18 months, then I’d get a book that focuses on 2005. The 2008 book does cover a lot of 2008-specific details.
I’ve just picked up “Getting Things Done” last week. I’ve been reading it, well, on my free time. Here is where I first heard of the GTD book. It is really life changing, although, I should say that I am only at the beginning chapters of the book. Brent’s description is quite accurate. Just grab the book!
Marlon – congrats! Glad you like it. It’s really empowering.
Hi Brent,Just accidentaly got your Website while Googling.I want to shift my carrer to Sql server DBA.Currently working with Dell technical support.I thing you can be a Good Guide.What is the first step to enter the Field?
Hi, Vishal. I’ve got a lot of posts and info about it. Click Becoming a DBA at the top of this page and you’ll be able to read it. Thanks!
hi brent,
i have some questions.
1.if i have to give MCTS exams on sql server 2008
can i practice by installing evaluation version of 2008
2.
i m also keen to learn reporting and integration services.
can i learn these services with help of evaluation version 2008.
Hi. The answer to both is yes. Hope that helps!
Hi Brent:
1. I am brand spanking new to the IT field, I would like to know which book is the best for someone who knows nothing about SQL?
2. I would like to become either a DBA or SQl admin one day, what should i do to accomplish this goal?
3. I have been using SQL 2008 for dummies as my first “training book”, what book do you suggest for me to read once I finish THE DUMMIES?
4. I plan to take 70-433 as my first microsoft certification, I know it might not help me to land a job as a DBA, but I would like it to be on my resume. Is there any other books or online videos that would help me prepare for the test?
5. which book should i get first for the junior level? SQL 2008 admin in action or SQL 2008 fundametal?
Thank you very much for your help
Nick
Hi, Nick! Here’s some thoughts:
1. It depends on what you want to accomplish. Since you mentioned you would like to become a DBA or SQL admin, I’d go with the books in the “Production DBA” section.
Look at both books and see which one you like best.
2. Get a job in a shop with SQL Servers and an existing senior DBA that you can get mentoring from.
3. The books in the Production DBA section.
4. I haven’t taken that test, so I don’t have good answers for you there.
5. I can see that you like asking the same question in many different ways.
Brent:
thank you very much for your help.
Nick
I want to recommend a book for beginners.
As a beginner for SQL Server Database administration, I found this book very helpful.
The book title is ‘Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Step by Step’. The author is ‘Mike Hotek’. I downloaded a trial version of SQL Server 2008 from MSDN website and practiced following the book. You can use the pracitce files from the CD that comes with the book and copy and paste and run and understand the book.
Hi Brent
I am working as a DBA on mysql platform. But want ot shift to SQL Server. I am also doing Oracle dba certification. pls suggest me the books related to sql dba trak as well as developer trak so that I can learn writing SP’s in sql server.
Thanks
I did, dude – they’re at the top of this page.
Thanks Brent for the sql 2008 book recommendations.
I’ve started reading the “SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Distilled” – I really like the detail it goes into on troubleshooting query plans and how to understand the various activities shown within a query plan – I guess it is really understanding how the optimizer works.
Many Thanks for specifying these pick of the best books for SQL 2008.
Hi Brent,
I’m just wondering if you could recommend something for the following:
I was investigating an SP which had an execution time of 250.000 ms (over 4 minutes). After I’ve investigated the first, say, 100 lines of it, I discovered that the SP contains more than 6000 lines, including calling other SPs. At that point I gave up because I had no knowledge of the database design (over 400 tables).
How would you begin investigate such an SP? Or what source (book, blog) would you recomment to solve such problems?
I have to tell that I did not have the time (say, several days, at least) to dive deep into the problem.
Thanks in advance,
Hi, Ervin. This work is called performance tuning, and there’s a lot of training involved with it. When I’m tuning, I first find out exactly which part of the code is taking the longest to run, and then find out how to make it run faster. Sounds easy, right? But as you’ve discovered, it can get overwhelming if you don’t have the right tools. If you don’t have experience with tuning, you can click on the Books link at the top of my site, and I’ve listed several books to help get you started.
Some people choose to buy software rather than learn how to do this work. If you’re interested in taking that shortcut to get started faster, Quest Foglight Performance Analysis for SQL Server will point you to the exact SQL statements that are running the slowest and show you what they’re waiting on. You still do need tuning knowledge in order to make those statements faster, though.
This is usually when people bring in an experienced performance tuning consultant to quickly narrow down the slowest statements and explain how to make them faster. I do a lot of this work on my weekends.
Hi Brent,
thanks for the reply, I’m surprised…
I still have some experience in performance tuning, however, I was shocked when I discovered that the SP is more that 6k lines long. I do not have extra tools: I was investigating the SP itself and I used Profiler (loaded the result in a table), and the first thing I was looking after was the Duration column.
I have experience with analyzing execution plans (however, I am sure I could be better in this).
What makes the whole thing difficult is, for example, when I find a table scan, I say, hey, this is bad, get rid ot it! But later I find out that the table has 10 rows, fits on a single page, so table scan does not matter. This it the situation when I say that the first step is that I have to KNOW the data (and the data model) before doing anything. Creating an index for such a table is an overkill (or, at least, completely unnecessary).
What I wish to find out is a methodology: how do you start such a work, what do you have to care of, etc. If you could recommend a book for such situations, that would be good (very good).
Also, for the following problem: we have a very powerful dedicated server with SQL Server 2005 installed on it. The box has four six-core processors, each running at 3GHz. A dedicated storage is attached to it with 8 independent disks – log files are on separated spindles, etc. Physical RAM is 16 GB.
Approximately 2000 users are connected to this SQL server with a client application. The only database is about 40GB in size.
Users often complain that the system (the client program, which they actually interact with) is very slow. What I could find out is that the SQL server is waiting (the processor cores are almost sleeping, no heavy disk and network activity, free RAM is adequate).
I wish I had more experience to resolve such problems. Can you recommend something (some books) for troubleshooting tasks like this?
Thanks in advance,
Ervin
Ervin – it sounds like you need help with performance tuning. In the table at the top of this page, there’s a column for people who need to do performance tuning. If you’re going to be modifying the T-SQL code, then use the books in the row marked “T-SQL Development” in the “Performance Tuning” column. If you won’t be modifying the code, use the books in the “Production DBA” row in the “Performance Tuning” column. Those will help get you started. Hope that helps!
Muchas gracias.
What is a good book to learn the SQL statements and then get more into intermediate and advanced part of the statements? I would like it to be in one book instead of buying an intermediate and advanced book .Thanks.
Your career is worth the price of two books, isn’t it?
You can’t go from 2 years experience to 7-8 years experience with the same book. It just doesn’t work that way. Sorry!
Hi, Brent
I’m a Super begginer for SQL and wishing to become a DBA.I was looking for your “Becoming a DBA tab at the top of my site” but I can’t find it… where can I find it?
Thank you.
Hi, Michele. My site has changed since – first, click SQL Server Articles. Thanks!
I found it… how stupid I am…
sorry to bother you…
Hi Brent
I have started IT career as a trainee DBA at Public sector. in Totla I have got 18 months experience as a DBA . than I moved to do PhD. now i got 3.5 years gap in between. what do you think my experience still count as a DBA. I am going to be junior or intermediate dba?
Dr Patel – I’m not aware of an “intermediate DBA” term. Usually it’s only junior or senior, and you’d fall into the junior category. Your experience should still be applicable though. Good luck with your job search, and take care!
hi ,
iam kalpana,in chennai,india.i have decided to become an sql server dba.just i have started reading .can u help me out with how can i start and continue.what books i should start up with for sql server 2008.
Hi, Kalpana. Look up – there’s a list of book recommendations in this very web page.
Hi Kalpana,
Can i know with which company you are working in? HOV?
Kalpana,
I’d recommend you to install SQL Server 2008 Enterprise 6 month trial version and buy ‘SQL Server 2008 Step by Step by Hotek’. It is easy to follow and you will learn a lot. I was a beginner and the book helped me to understand SQL Server.
have you come across some issues with the the book
Jking – sorry, I haven’t used that book. For learning SQL effectively, just scroll up – the books I recommend are above.
Sir,
I really enjoy you website & your daily informational emails, Thank you!!
I have been a SQLDBA for about 1 year. Have gone through a couple SQL Study guides but kept falling asleep!! Finally found a book that taught me “SQL” it is called “Head First SQL” by Lynn Beighley. It taught me quite a bit about SQL statements, commands. But most of all it was easy to read and it taught the concepts. Of the 2 books you recommend (SQL 2008:
SQL Server 2008 Administration in Action and SQL 2008:
SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration), which one teaches the concepts in an easy kinda way?
Thank you so much!!
Jim
Jim – thanks, glad you like the site! Both of those teach the concepts in good ways. I’m very happy with anything I’ve recommended here. Your best bet is to check out the sample chapters on Amazon and see which one you like more.
Hello Brent,
My company has decided that even though Im a SQL DBA, I need to get Security+ certified. So…I know this is a long shot because you and your team are SQL DBA’s but I have confidence in your advice…do you know of any good Security+ study guides for the latest exam (SYO-301)?
Thank you,
Jim
Hi, Jim. Sorry, no, we haven’t been involved with that at all.
Hey Brent,
I knew it was a long shot!!
Thanks anyway!!
Have a great day,
Jim
hey brent, i am new to sql and have been using the mike hotek book sql server 2008 step by step, there seem to be some errors in here. as a newbie, how do i get around it or how can i learn sql effectively. i have read your blogs and hope to take the Exam 70-432 early next year
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