Free SQL Server DBA Training Videos

It’s tough for us SQL Server DBAs to get training.

Developers can get mentored by a more senior developer because it’s rare to have just one developer at a company: odds are, there’s a more senior person just down the hallway or in the next cube over.  Junior developers can ask ‘em questions, learn by reading their code, or watch ‘em work.

DBAs, on the other hand, fly solo. There’s often only one of us in the entire company, so we can’t get mentored by a more senior person.  We’re stuck with reading books, going to user groups once a month, and maybe getting one training course approved for the budget.

There’s a solution – well, actually, there’s a bunch!

SQL Server Training Video Archives

Kevin Kline and I did a full day of training videos covering SQL Server performance tuning and troubleshooting using the DMVs.  The topics included:

• How to manage your indexes with DMVs
• How to find out what’s going on inside the server better than SP_WHO2
• How to play doctor with the DMVs

You can watch the archives here.  Under each session header, there’s a link to watch the webcast.

SQL Server DBA Tutorial Podcasts

Podcasts are regularly-produced video shows that you can download over the internet.  Here’s my favorite SQL Server ones:

• SQLServerPedia Podcasts – twice a week, I record a short (3-10 minute) presentation or demo about a SQL Server topic focusing on technical training.
  • iTunes feeds: Video – Audio-Only
  • Zune feeds: Video – Audio-Only
  • Plain feeds: RSS – Video – Audio-Only
• The Voice of the DBA – Steve Jones talks about industry issues and topics that are personally interesting to DBAs.  These generally aren’t howto videos – they’re more like a topical talk show from a fellow DBA who does the same work you do.
  • iTunes feed: Video
  • Zune feed: Video
  • Plain feed: RSS -Watch in Your Browser
• SSWUG SelectViews – by far and away the most professionally polished SQL Server podcasts.  Stephen Wynkoop interviews industry personalities and talks shop.  The only downside is that you can’t subscribe to the video feeds and download them to your iPod/iPhone/Zune automatically – the only way to watch the video is through your web browser.
  • iTunes feeds: Audio-Only
  • Zune feeds: Audio-Only
  • Plain feeds: Watch in your Browser – Audio-Only

There’s a few others like SQL Down Under and The Midnight DBA, but they don’t come out as regularly – months go by without new episodes, so it’s not as easy to recommend those for regular training.  You can peruse the old episodes though.

Free Online SQL Server Training Events

Conferences and vendors offer free webcasts, plus they put their webcast archives online for later viewing.  Here’s the ones I’ve been checking out lately:

• SSWUG’s SQL Server 2008 Community Launch – a free series of videos including Donald Farmer talking about SSAS cubes and Ted Malone talking about Data Dude.
• Mix 2009 Video Archives – Microsoft’s Mix conference is all about producing online experiences.  As a DBA, I work with web people, and I find this kind of thing exciting.
• JumpStartTV – purely technical start-to-finish tutorial videos that explain how to accomplish a task in SQL Server.  If you like these videos, you might also like SQLServerVideos.com, but I’m not wild about that particular site – it doesn’t quite have the polish of the other options.
• PASS Summit On Demand – requires PASS membership, but that’s free now.  I’ve had hit-or-miss results with these – some of the links don’t seem to work, and some of them are screencast-only.

If you know about more free SQL Server training video resources around the web that are frequently updated, I’d love to hear about ‘em.

More SQL Server Database Training in Book Form

I’ve also compiled my reviews of the best SQL Server training books for every focus level – junior DBAs, developers, people trying to become senior SQL Server database administrators, you name it.