If you're the kind of person who likes to read books, here are some that I think would expand your horizons. These links are Amazon affiliate links, so I make a few cents when you buy through 'em. It's your way of tipping me for the book recommendations, so thank you!
T-SQL Books:
You've been writing queries for at least a year or two, and you're curious about what's happening under the hood when SQL Server runs a query. You want to know what you can do to improve your queries, tune your indexes, and change SQL Server's configuration settings so that your results will return faster.
The book Learn T-SQL Querying is for curious people like you.
Last week, I shared a few pictures out of Ron Soukup's Inside SQL Server 6.5 book. You had a blast with that one, so I figured I'd share some more pictures from another, uh, let's call it "well-preserved" book about SQL Server. Make sure you see the subtitle of this book before you add it to your cart.
30 years ago, back in 1988, Microsoft, Ashton-Tate, and Sybase got together to start building SQL Server 1.0 for OS/2.
I wanted to take a trip down memory lane to celebrate, but I didn't wanna go back quite that far. I wanted to go back to what would probably be fairly recognizable - say, over 20 years ago: SQL Server 6.5 as of 1996.
tl;dr - I do not recommend this book.
I was so incredibly excited when it was originally announced. A book published by VMware Press, written by prominent VMware, SQL, and storage consultants? GREAT! So much has changed in those topics over the last few years, and it's high time we got official word on how to do a great job with this combination of technology. Everybody's doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well, so let's get the best practices on paper.
Here's what I've been reading lately on the SQL Server front. I'd like to thank all three authors and publishers for providing these books for review. Securing SQL Server by Denny Cherry Paperback - Kindle Denny's a jack of all trades, and a Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server to boot. I've had the pleasure…
You probably only buy a couple of SQL Servers per year. You probably just tell your sysadmins, "I need a 2-socket server with 32GB of memory," and then you just assume everything's okay. Scratch that. Let's be honest. It's just us here, you and me, so I can be frank. You don't trust those bozos. …
I usually hate architecture books. I can't stand 'em. Seems like every one I've ever read has been targeted at architecture astronauts - people who spend all their time talking theory, not practice. This book is different. Reading this book is like having drinks in the pub with a team of rock star consultants who've…
This week I'm focusing on books and the book business. Today I'll be covering the money thing for authors, and tomorrow I'll be reviewing a book I like for both the content and the business. Enjoy!
Now that I'm holding a physical copy of our book in my hand, the pain of the experience has started to fade, and I can write about it with an open mind.
This book paid for itself in less than ten minutes.I do consulting work on the side, and like many consultants, I'm never sure if I'm quoting the right billable rate. When I picked up this book several months ago, the first thing I did was turn to chapter 12, "Putting a Price on Your Head." …
My gauge of an amazing book is simple: if I've got a question, and I reach for the book BEFORE I search the web, then it's an amazing book. Several times in the last two weeks, I reached for this book first.
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
Here's my favorite SQL Server books for 2016-2014:
T-SQL Fundamentals - (updated for SQL 2016) - don't be fooled by this "fundamentals" title, because everybody who writes T-SQL queries needs this book. It's the manual we should have been given when we started, and everyone's going to learn something about concurrency, performance, and updates here.
