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Anonymous
Posted Fri Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2006
Microsoft continually improves its SQL Server, and Brown shows how far it has come in the 2005 version. There has been a big push to make SQL Server 2005 industrial strength. So that now it can do 1 million transactions per minute, up from 20 000 per minute in 2000. A remarkable gain that suggests Microsoft is making a strong push into the bread and butter of DB2 and Oracle's customer bases. And, yes, the book comes out in 2006, while the Server is labelled 2005. But it's a very complex product [as the book makes clear], so some slippage was inevitable. Other features covered by Brown include the High Availability, for businesses that need 365/24/7 coverage, or at least as close to this as possible. A very interesting discussion takes place early in the text, where Brown suggests that more business logic needs to be embedded into the database layer, through such means as stored procedures, perhaps. In contradiction to the heavily promoted 3 tier arrangement, of database layer, application layer and presentation layer. Where the application layer holds the business logic. The idea is to separate the latter from depending on a particular choice of database. Brown disagrees. Saying that the performance gains often necessitate pushing the business logic into the database. Maybe. Keep in mind however that every database vendor is likely to say this. Since a major [intended] effect is to lock the customer into that database. With this caveat, Brown might ultimately be correct. For the greatest performance, you may well have to do as the text suggests. Though whether you choose SQL Server or an alternative database is another matter.
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More About This Textbook
Overview
Need to get your arms around Microsoft SQL Server 2005 fast, without getting buried in the details? Need to make fundamental decisions about deploying, using, or administering Microsoft’s latest enterprise database?
Need to understand what’s new in SQL Server 2005, and how it fits with your existing IT and business infrastructure? SQL Server 2005 Distilled delivers the answers you need–quickly, clearly, and objectively.
Former SQL Server team member Eric L. Brown offers realistic insight into every significant aspect of SQL Server 2005: its new features, architecture, administrative tools, security model, data management capabilities, development environment, and much more. Brown draws on his extensive experience consulting with enterprise users, outlining realistic usage scenarios that leverage SQL Server 2005’s strengths and minimize its limitations. Coverage includes
Editorial Reviews
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewMigrating to SQL Server 2005? You could read one of the many gigantic books out there -- and far be it from us to stop you. But what if you’re short on time? Maybe you just want to know what’s new, or what it’ll take to integrate it into existing infrastructure? For that, you want Eric Brown’s Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Distilled.
Brown, once a member of Microsoft’s SQL Server product team, knows the product inside out. He brings exceptional coherence to this book by organizing it around product architecture and real-world customer scenarios. You’ll quickly get your arms around SQL Server’s improvements in data access, availability, scalability, and security. Brown clarifies the implications of SQL Server 2005’s built-in .NET CLR and illuminates Microsoft’s new tools for everything from administration to analytics. There’s no faster way to capture the essence of “Yukon.” Bill Camarda, from the April 2006 Read Only
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Meet the Author
Eric Brown's professional computing work began in earnest in 1996 when he began work at Multiple Zones International as a product manager. While there, he realized the next big wave was the Internet, and raced to get a job at a dot-com. He worked for three dot-coms before ending up on the SQL Server Product Team at Microsoft. At one point in his early DB years, they cut the edge of SQL Server capabilities by owning a 500GB data warehouse running SQL Server 7 and 2000. In the three years he was on the team, he ran “Yukon” readiness. Brown has written a column for SQL Server Magazine, and has written extensively about SQL Server for MSDN Magazine and MSDN online library. Since leaving Microsoft officially, he has worked on this book and started an e-commerce hosting company. He is now working for Quilogy as a senior consultant on the Business Intelligence National Practice.
Read an Excerpt
This book does not cover the entirety of SQL Server 2005. It doesn't include any fancy sample applications or tons of code. This book is about features. It is about understanding what the major features of SQL Server 2005 are designed to do. I strove to include an architectural discussion, usage scenarios, and interesting information about using the technology. I offer some opinions about how I'd expect a customer to really use a technology, as opposed to the marketing approach to presenting the technology.
In keeping with the Distilled series idea, I present not all the features, but the majority of the features that are new and significantly revised. Furthermore, I do not attempt to drill into every nook and cranny of the newest and greatest; instead, I describe them in a conceptual way. I process the features of SQL Server 2005 via a framework that includes an architectural discussion. By that I mean I focus on how the technology is designed. I also focus on customer scenarios. I tried to think in terms of the use-case scenario for the technology. In many cases, I try to offer a suggested "reality" usage based on customers' feedback about their experience with the product. The goal is to get you, the reader, up to speed on the "whats" and "hows" of SQL Server 2005. Chapter 6, "The Code Chapter," is the only chapter that includes any amount of code, and that code exercises the features in a simple manner, providing the nuts and bolts of the technique. I'll leave the creative and advanced techniques to the huge doorstop books that cover SQL Server 2005 in every detail.
How to Use This Book
If you're an IT professional who has to deal with databases on any level, this book is a great foundation for getting to know SQL Server 2005. Many books today are too intimidating; they start with an application and spend literally hundreds of pages exercising that code. Often they do this without so much as a breath about how the code fits into the bigger picture. This book is different in this way: You get to know many features without getting mucked up in deep details, and you see how the features fit together. I cover each topic individually, meaning that you could read any chapter on its own. You can keep the book as a reference. Or you might use this book as an "airplane read" that helps refresh your conceptual knowledge of SQL Server 2005. That's the goal of this book: You can read it as needed, without worrying about too much minutia or too many code samples.
Who Should Read This Book
This book is singular in that it's meant for technology decision makers, not hard-core developers or database administrators. (However, this would still be a good read for them, because it can be used to guide other learning about SQL Server 2005.) The technology decision maker will find the book invaluable, because you don't want to be caught at a cocktail party with your peers not knowing what the unified dimension model is.
How This Book Is Organized
Chapter 1, "Introduction to SQL Server 2005," is an overview of the entire product—especially the new features across the OLTP and OLAP sides of SQL Server 2005. I cover all the basics of what's new and, as such, what should work for everybody. Chapter 2, "What Everyone Should Know About Security," provides an overview of what has unfortunately become one of the most important issues in database technology. The security professional is the most obvious target for Chapter 2, but given the importance of security these days, everyone can benefit from reading it. The goal of Chapter 2 is to bring you up to speed on the essential security features. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on two particular audiences: the database administrator and the database developer. Chapter 3, "Enterprise Data Management," covers all the new aspects of database administration in SQL Server 2005. Chapter 4, "Features for Database Development," covers the features of SQL Server 2005 that are relevant to database application development. Chapter 5, "Overview of Business Intelligence," is about how Microsoft is both catching up and innovating in the reporting and analytics space. It is not an OLAP concept primer; I assume you know what dimensions and cubes are. If you don't, please see SQL Server Books Online. Chapter 6, "The Code Chapter," is all code. I decided to have a dedicated code chapter because I hate having to scan hundreds of pages to find the one line of code I'm looking for. This chapter isn't and can't be all-inclusive. I simply cover the basics and assume you'll read the other excellent Addison-Wesley books on SQL Server 2005. My goal is to show you how easy (as in the case of new security features) or how hard (as in the table partitioning capabilities) using SQL Server 2005 can be.
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Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
About the Author xvii
Chapter 1: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 1
Chapter 2: What Everyone Should Know About Security 41
Chapter 3: Enterprise Data Management 83
Chapter 4: Features for Database Development 145
Chapter 5: Overview of Business Intelligence 197
Chapter 6: The Code Chapter 245
Appendix A: SQL Server 2005 System Information 285
Appendix B: System Tables and View in SQL Server 2005 291
Appendix C: SQL Server Built-In Functions 295
Index 297