Beginning SQL Server 2008 for Developers … Book Review

Beginning SQL Server 2008 for Developers

    In the process of migrating our Reporting Services report server from running on an older 2000 SQL server to SQL Server 2008, I purchased “Beginning SQL Server 2008 for Developers” to help me setup a development server for testing and migrating over the old reports. I must admit that I found this book very useful for someone who is not a DBA and does not have a lot of experience installing and setting up SQL server instances.

    The book is easy to read and understand, and has a lot of good examples and screenshots. As mentioned in the introduction, this book is for developers that are starting out with SQL server 2008, and for those who are looking to become database administrators. This book is by no means a complete reference to SQL server and all of it’s components, nor should it be.

    It covers the installation of SQL server pretty well, and . it covers a lot of aspects such as Management Studio, Database Design, Server Security, Building Indexes, Backup/Recovery and so on. I like the fact that the tasks and examples are first done using the GUI (like building a database or an index), and then you get to see how to do the same thing in code. I am sure a lot of DBAs and developers would prefer the quick and easy way of the GUI examples, but as someone who likes to know how things work behind the scenes, I love to see the code in action as well.

    It also gives a good introduction to T-SQL, Views, Indexes, Stored Procedures, Triggers and Reporting Services, but that’s just it, an introduction. The book’s intention is not to go into too much detail of each section covered, but to give you a good start. For someone who is beginning to program Stored Procedures, Triggers and T-SQL, this is a great introduction.

    I find this book a lot more useful to a DBA rather than a developer. It’s a good introduction to SQL Server 2008 and that’s how it should be looked at.

    Please feel free to share your thoughts if you have read this book as well.

Posted in: Beginning SQL Server 2008 for Developers … Book Review