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Learn SQL Server Administration in a Month of Lunches: Covers Microsoft SQL Server 2005-2014
Summary
Learn SQL Server Administration in a Month of Lunches is the perfect way to get started with SQL Server operations, including maintenance, backup and recovery, high availability, and performance monitoring. In about an hour a day over a month, you'll learn exactly what you can do, and what you shouldn't touch. Most importantly, you'll learn the day-to-day tasks and techniques you need to keep SQL Server humming along smoothly.
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
About the Book
Microsoft SQL Server is used by millions of businesses, ranging in size from Fortune 500s to small shops worldwide. Whether you're just getting started as a DBA, supporting a SQL Server-driven application, or you've been drafted by your office as the SQL Server admin, you do not need a thousand-page book to get up and running.
Learn SQL Server Administration in a Month of Lunches is the perfect way to get started with SQL Server. This concise, easy-to-read book skips academic introductions and teaches you day-to-day techniques for maintenance, backup and recovery, performance monitoring, and more. Each of the 21 short lessons gives you practical takeaways you'll use over and over.
What's Inside
About the Author
Don Jones is a Microsoft MVP, speaker, and trainer. He is the creator of the Month of Lunches series and author of over 50 books on PowerShell, IIS, Active Directory, SCCM, SQL Server, and more.
Table of Contents
Learn SQL Server Administration in a Month of Lunches is the perfect way to get started with SQL Server operations, including maintenance, backup and recovery, high availability, and performance monitoring. In about an hour a day over a month, you'll learn exactly what you can do, and what you shouldn't touch. Most importantly, you'll learn the day-to-day tasks and techniques you need to keep SQL Server humming along smoothly.
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
About the Book
Microsoft SQL Server is used by millions of businesses, ranging in size from Fortune 500s to small shops worldwide. Whether you're just getting started as a DBA, supporting a SQL Server-driven application, or you've been drafted by your office as the SQL Server admin, you do not need a thousand-page book to get up and running.
Learn SQL Server Administration in a Month of Lunches is the perfect way to get started with SQL Server. This concise, easy-to-read book skips academic introductions and teaches you day-to-day techniques for maintenance, backup and recovery, performance monitoring, and more. Each of the 21 short lessons gives you practical takeaways you'll use over and over.
What's Inside
About the Author
Don Jones is a Microsoft MVP, speaker, and trainer. He is the creator of the Month of Lunches series and author of over 50 books on PowerShell, IIS, Active Directory, SCCM, SQL Server, and more.
Table of Contents
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 28, 2014
8 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Don Jones
105Ìýbooks174ÌýfollowersDon Jones has written dozens and dozens of books and ebooks on information technology topics, and is perhaps most well-known in that space for his "Month of Lunches" series, published by Manning. Don's recently branched out into topics like business management, instructional design, and self-improvement/motivational, along with launching books in science fiction and fantasy. Don lives in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, is a huge fan of Disney Parks, and loves Figment best of all.
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 29, 2018
I think this is a good book for system administrators who don't know where to start with MS SQL administration. After reading it I better understand what I don't know and what i need to learn. Don as always gives some immediately useful and practical advise.
May 13, 2020
Helped me to deepen my understanding of the systems I work on. The bite-sized chapters made information easily digestible.
November 28, 2014
A few months ago I was asked to take over the administration of a SQL Server database. I've been administering Oracle databases for several years but I'm not a full time DBA and I've never managed a system on Windows. So although I'm not starting from scratch as a DBA I'm pretty close to it for SQL Server. After a bit of searching I chose this book as a starting point.
Aimed at the novice DBA the book presents you with a good mix of information and hands on labs which ensure you gain self belief as well as knowledge. The book is based around the "Month of Lunches" learning technique. Read a chapter a day - over lunch - and let the knowledge sink in over a whole month. You don't need to stick to this but I did and found it to be a good fit.
The author presents you with a great deal of knowledge in a relaxed and easy going style. I found myself looking forward to each lunch and thoroughly enjoyed getting hands on experience in the labs. Although you'll not become a SQL Server guru by reading this book you will gain a lot. You'll cover a broad range of topics such as Authentication and Authorization, backups, monitoring, optimization and more.
I managed to cover the majority of chapters, including the lab, within an hour. That said I did leave some of the later labs out when a second database instance was needed. But I do hope to get back to these at some point in the future because I see the value of hands on experience in these areas.
Pros: I very much enjoyed the labs and the hands on style of the book. A "learn by doing" approach suits me and gives me real belief in what I'm reading. I also appreciate that someone has taken the time to break down a very large subject into byte-sized chunks while making the learning experience fun.
Cons: The support material for some of the labs could have been a little better. If you only have an hour of learning time then typing lots of T-SQL can be a bit difficult.
All in all I really enjoyed both the book and the month of lunches format. If you are just starting with SQL Server this is a really good and enjoyable book and I would recommend buying it. However, if you are already actively using SQL Server this is probably not the book for you.
Note: When setting up the lab/test environment. In the version I have the author strongly suggests Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 - this is the platform that the book is aimed at. You may be a bit restricted if you can't match this but you are assured that most things will work across versions. I'm not sure if newer version of the book are different in this respect but you should check that you can set up the fitting lab environment otherwise you'll not get nearly as much as you could from this book.
Aimed at the novice DBA the book presents you with a good mix of information and hands on labs which ensure you gain self belief as well as knowledge. The book is based around the "Month of Lunches" learning technique. Read a chapter a day - over lunch - and let the knowledge sink in over a whole month. You don't need to stick to this but I did and found it to be a good fit.
The author presents you with a great deal of knowledge in a relaxed and easy going style. I found myself looking forward to each lunch and thoroughly enjoyed getting hands on experience in the labs. Although you'll not become a SQL Server guru by reading this book you will gain a lot. You'll cover a broad range of topics such as Authentication and Authorization, backups, monitoring, optimization and more.
I managed to cover the majority of chapters, including the lab, within an hour. That said I did leave some of the later labs out when a second database instance was needed. But I do hope to get back to these at some point in the future because I see the value of hands on experience in these areas.
Pros: I very much enjoyed the labs and the hands on style of the book. A "learn by doing" approach suits me and gives me real belief in what I'm reading. I also appreciate that someone has taken the time to break down a very large subject into byte-sized chunks while making the learning experience fun.
Cons: The support material for some of the labs could have been a little better. If you only have an hour of learning time then typing lots of T-SQL can be a bit difficult.
All in all I really enjoyed both the book and the month of lunches format. If you are just starting with SQL Server this is a really good and enjoyable book and I would recommend buying it. However, if you are already actively using SQL Server this is probably not the book for you.
Note: When setting up the lab/test environment. In the version I have the author strongly suggests Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 - this is the platform that the book is aimed at. You may be a bit restricted if you can't match this but you are assured that most things will work across versions. I'm not sure if newer version of the book are different in this respect but you should check that you can set up the fitting lab environment otherwise you'll not get nearly as much as you could from this book.
May 25, 2015
I had some experience with SQL server administration but found this book a good refresher after a year away from it. It is clearly organized with approachable explanations and tries to be version-agnostic. I didn't read it in a month of lunches, though, and the inconsistent chapter length didn't seem very conducive to it (and that is probably good so that topics can get the depth of treatment they deserve).
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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