Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Unleashed [Paperback]

Microsoft keeps adding new functionality to SQL server so the latest version, SQL 2008 R2, has become vastly complex. So much so that Microsoft has divided up their DBA certifications into three specializations: core DBA and developer and BI. Correspondingly, technical books on SQL 2008 tend to be divided up along the same lines. Thus I would have thought it would be impossible to cover the whole in a single book. But this book attempts to do just that. And it does a pretty good job, in my opinion. Of course it cannot go into great depth on any one subject, but it goes into enough depth to be useful to a practicing DBA in any of the three categories.

They manage it by making the book huge. So huge that, apparently, it can't all be printed in a single book. So when you buy the book, you get a book that is around 1700 pages (1550 pages of text and about 100 pages of index and 50 of front material) and in the back of the book is a CD that contains another 800 or so pages in PDF files. To put it in other words, the first 41 chapters are printed in the book, but chapters 42-56 are in digital format in the companion CD. So technically all of the chapters are in the book but only some of them are printed in the book.

I have found that with many technical books, after you get the book, you have to hunt around on the internet for sample databases, code listings, sample files, etc., as if they hadn't finished developing the code till after the book was published. And in my experience this hunt too often ends, at the cost of too much of my time, with limited success or complete failure. It was a pleasant surprise to find that all of the code and samples referenced in this book are on the companion CD included in the back of the book. And the code is very handily organized by chapter and by specific listing. I didn't check all the code, but I looked up and tried numerous chunks of code that was of special interest to me and I didn't encounter a single example of code referenced in the book that was not on the CD and in identical format.

Turning to the content of the book, it covers the basics - editions of SQL, installation, backup and restore, table structure, indexes, etc. In the CD is a section (chapters 42-50) for SQL developers that seems to hit all the important new stuff in SQL 2008. And there is also an impressive section of 3 chapters on the CD for BI including not only SSAS, but also SSIS and SSRS.

But I focused more on the relatively new technology, especially the stuff I am interested in. I couldn't think of a single topic that was not covered, at least to some extent. I found the following were discussed in enough depth to be useful to me: transparent data encryption, table compression, auditing, resource governor, service broker, table partitioning, and the use of various DMVs. I examined and tested the code in all of these areas and found only one query that didn't work - Listing 24.22, which is supposed to return details on partitioned tables. I did not test it on their sample database, but on one of my own development databases that is partitioned. It required the change of only one variable, and I have considerable experience with partitioning, but couldn't get it to work. I must admit I didn't spend a lot of time trying to debug the query though.

I found only one example of poor editing, and that was a case of repetition of the same several paragraphs of text on p. 29-30 and again on 42-43.

In conclusion, I recommend this book as a useful resource for any type of SQL DBA to have on hand. It not only has useful discussions of almost every topic in the SQL 2008 R2 world, but it has a lot of useful code.

To be honest, I have never seen such a poor QA process for a book. The chapter I was most interested in has numerous errors in it. Let me explain...

This book comes with a CD containing another ~800 pages of supplemental chapters. Chapter 52, in PDF format on the CD, contains info on SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). However, the CD's Chapter 52 code samples aren't for PDF Chapter 52--they're under the Chapter 46 folder. The "Chapter46_AllCodeExamples.sql" file has the correct code... For the first exercise in the chapter, if you paste the right code into the export query window & click "Parse" (like it says to do in the book), you'll get an error that says "Incorrect syntax near '`'." Unless you're already a SQL guru that knows the authors accidentally used the Unicode "open single quote" character as opposed to the standard ASCII apostrophe, you'll be lost. Once you fix that problem and click "Parse" again, you'll get the following 3 errors...
------------
Invalid column name 'CustomerType'.
Invalid column name 'CustomerType'.
Invalid column name 'customerid'. (Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0)
------------
Apparently, the code in both the PDF and the code samples files include columns that aren't in Microsoft's "AdventureWorks2008" database. With further research, the book has multiple typos indicating to use the "AdventureWorks2008" database--the code should use be run against the "AdventureWorks" database.

Also, be forewarned that later in that chapter, if you choose to use the supplied .DTSX package to do the exercises in Visual Studio, the book doesn't include information on how to change the package's SQL Server name from the default "DBARCH-LT2\SQL08DE01" to your server name/instance. But unless you resolve the problems listed in the previous paragraph, it won't matter anyway since the destination table won't exist for the package...

Unfortunately, it looks like it's not simply a matter of Chapters 46 and 52 being swapped... It looks like the authors reorganized the PDF chapters, but didn't inform those responsible for the code samples...

Needless to say, I'm disappointed in the QA process. Checking on InformIT's site, there is no mention of errata or links to updated files...

I purchased the Kindle edition and am pleased to report that it does contain all 56 chapters, so no need to download "part 2" of the book as a pdf. The graphics are in colour and in all cases the text in screen-dumps is readable (if fuzzy). The index uses a notation like "CD:2331" when referring to pages that are on the pdf included with the print edition. Thankfully these links take you to the correct location in the Kindle book.

The content is wide ranging but don't expect miracles in what is now a huge platform. For example Master Data Services gets only a short overview. Overall the book is very good value.

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